Camp Meeker Beat by Tom Austin - July 2018
“The summer looks out from her brazen tower, through the flashing bars of July” – Francis Thompson
Francis Thompson was an English poet and mystic, but for a fleeting moment I imagine he penned those words while looking up at the
Well and good, you might say, but how do I have fun in Camp Meeker? First of all, I’m a little sad you have to ask that question. We go to Camp year round! Wallet making! Canoe races! Water balloon fights! Okay, okay, so we’re no longer THAT kind of camp. However, you can still hang out at lovely Camp Meeker beach, as well as saunter along the local roads and trails. If you want a wilder time, you can head on over to Sonoma Canopy Tours (sonomacanopytours.com) for some zip line excitement! They have added some longer, higher, and faster zips since I last soared through the trees with them. If you haven’t done it yet...GO!
All right, that takes care of a couple of July weekends. What to do with the others? You could take the young-uns down to Duncans Mills forCivil War Games. That will be on July 14 and 15, with battles at 1 and 4 pm on Saturday and 11 am and 2 pm on Sunday. After the battle, take your kids through the camps – the living historians are more than happy to answer questions and talk about any detail of Civil War life.
Okay, maybe your sense of fun involves a bit of hard work and protecting the environment. I know there are many such folks in Camp Meeker. For you, I would suggest connecting with LandPaths and becoming a steward for the Bohemia Ecological Preserve, which is just down Bohemian Highway a piece from Camp Meeker. You can go to their Facebook page (Bohemia Ecological Preserve—LandPaths) or check out the website at: landpaths.org/propertyexplorer/bohemia-ecological-preserve.aspx. There you will find links to various events and activities that will take place on this gorgeous and ecologically important piece of land. One such event is the Bat Potluck on July 7th. This will begin at 4:30 with a late afternoon/twilight hike that will segue into a potluck dinner where you will watch the bats come out! Yes, I said bats. I know that bats have a fear factor, but if you can get over that…it sounds fun, doesn’t it? Camping out is even an option. Check out that website. You will also see other opportunities – to have a Stewardship Workday (July 20), to help them combat the yellow thistle (July 24). Yes, these will involve some sweat equity. However, consider the term equity: it means you will feel a sense of ownership if you have put some work into the land. If you have been around Camp Meeker since the 90’s, you will remember that this land was once slated to be a County Park. It didn’t work out that way—a private landowner bought the land for a higher price than the county could afford. The good news is that said private landowner put a few million dollars into improving the land, which had been used hard and put away wet by decades of loggers, miners, quarryers, illicit marijuana growers, and off-road enthusiasts. The landowner cleaned up that mess, planted some vegetation in the more damaged areas, and obtained conservation easements on the land, protecting it from future development. In 2012, 554 of the 860 acres formed the Bohemia Ecological Preserve and turned over to LandPaths to administer. It’s not a public park paid for by public funds; if you want to go on the land you need to contact LandPaths and register, or offer to help out, to become a Steward, or all of the above. Go on; you know you want to!
