The Last Day: My goal was to skip south 260 miles, about a 4-hour ride, to a region near Clear Lake and north of Napa around Middletown to shoot some photography for my latest article I have been working on. The goal was to get to my target region at first light. That meant being up early and on the Hayabusa in the cold mountain air and to reach Middletown plus maximize my daylight hours for photos, I was on the bike at 4am, plugged in the electric vest and made it to Middletown before 8am.
For what seems like several months, I've been writing an article about Hopland Grade, better known as Highway 175 which runs from Middletown, up and over Cobb Mountain to Clear Lake, then pivots west and bumps over the Mayacamas Mountain Range. This twisty section is known as Hopland Grade, and it’s a favorite with tour groups. But I needed more photos for my article about Highway 175. When I write an article about a stretch of road, I usually have several hundred photos spanning 20 years, but I wanted more. And, during my research, I also had learned of a park outside Middleton that had been converted to a nature preserve art park, as in art installation stuff. It just sounded interesting, I had no idea it was there, and I’ve ridden right past it for years.
Now, I’m not an artist, don’t create art, and know nothing about art, but I can appreciate it & respect that it represents or symbolizes something to the person that created it. My lil sister is a professional artist, as in, she makes a living at being an artist. She’s super talented and has amazing stuff.
Most of her paintings of her two little kids.
You can check out her paintings & drawings at
www.MaysMayhew.com.
In September 2015, the fast-moving Valley Fire started near the mountain town of Cobb. Middletown, where I’m at, is 8 miles to the south and was in the direct path of the wildfire. The Valley Fire moved out of the mountains and into the valleys between the ridgelines, eventually burning 76,000 acres, spanning nearly 120 square miles. The wildfire moved into the edges of the town, and it subsequently destroyed nearly half the town, burning over 2000 structures and took four lives. It also burned into the Middletown Trailside Nature Preserve – my destination.
The local townspeople, built the preserve, installed a bunch of art installations and celebrated their accomplishment. Then the Valley Fire burned across this flat valley & destroyed or damaged every art piece installed in the park. In addition, half of the sixty affiliated artists and members at the time lost their homes or studios in the wildfire. After the wildfire, art installations were remade and rebuilt by local artists. Local elementary school students even took part in rebuilding the art installations as Middletown sought to heal itself in the aftermath of the Valley Fire. The park was reopened in 2019, and I found myself completely alone wandering through the Nature Preserve and taking in the art installations.
www.pashnit.com
