Rodeo Beach Captain's Report ~ ExGld
Hello Explorers!
Thanks to everyone of you who joined us on Sunday at Rodeo Beach. It was so lovely spending the afternoon inspecting rocks and discovering what it is we love about them. If you didn’t attend and want to know what you missed, our Captain’s Report is below.
Regarding upcoming adventures, our next expedition is the River Rafting Campout and registration is at capacity, so I’m sorry if you’re missing out this time. Following that event we’re planning a kid focused adventure to Fairyland on September 14th, and plans are underway for the rest of the year including graveyard symbol identification, a dancing badge, and an appreciation for one of our celestial neighbors. More on all of these soon.
Rodeo Beach Captain’s Report
Following last month’s expedition to the various peaks of San Francisco, this month’s adventure was intended to be much more laid back. Captaining these kinds of events is sometimes hard for me, as many can attest that I have difficulty fully relaxing. Luckily my absolute love of rocks and the plethora of fascinating specimens kept my eyes searching and my brain wondering.
When we arrived at the beach though, our communications channel indicated there were numerous explorers running late. Unfortunately, after our trip through the tunnel we had minimal cell service so there was no way to get messages out (or retrieve any new messages). Looking at the explorers who had arrived, I sussed out a new plan. I would stay behind while the other explorers would establish a sandy base of operations, a beachhead if you will.
Understanding their task ahead, they slipped, skid, spun, and strolled across the bridge while I remained behind. Little by little the rest of the explorers arrived. I probably would have been out there for most of the morning if Denorae hadn’t sauntered over to check in on me. We had critical mass, it was time to discover the rocks of Rodeo Beach.
Our field guide for this experience was laid out plainly. We were to scour the beach, find a rock (or rocks), then figure out what drew us to them. As Rodeo Beach is a pocket beach, it meant that most of the sand would be reflective of the local geology. Since it was part of the Franciscan Complex, it also meant that the colors found on the beach were exquisite. Red, yellow, orange, green, stripes, polka dot, and iridescent were just the start. Each of the specimens found were shaped differently and had textural qualities for us to discover.
Personally, I was fascinated with the radiolarian chert. Thinking about all the micro creatures that existed, then died, and then compressed to form these rocks was awe inspiring. Our field guide included some illustrations of these creatures, which further aided my fascination. Some of the explorers were able to find beautiful polka dot rocks, which are igneous rocks with gas bubbles that had filled with minerals. A lucky few even found the fire-y orange carnelians.
One specimen that was difficult to find in the sand was serpentinite (our state rock!), so we took a short ramble on to the rocky deposits abutting the beach. I was certain we’d find some there. It’s safe to say that the rocks here were as beautiful as those we were finding on the beach, but we were having some difficulty finding a good sample of serpentinite. Luck was with us though, as we found a beautiful example exposed along the rocks. As we felt the waxy texture and demonstrated how it’s so crumbly, it became clearer as to why there were few examples of it in the sand.
Back at our base camp we shared in our findings, and enjoyed the weather in the company of good friends new and old. We also got to celebrate Belle Cunningham’s birthday with delicious doughnut-y treats. The day meandered on and slowly our group of explorers disbanded. Fear not though dear readers, as we left our samples on the beach for you to find in the future. We all hope you can find yourself here too, with an eye towards the Franciscan Complex geology.
A recent thread on our Slack Banter channel has shown a general interest towards public infrastructure, in this case a tour of the Posey Tubes. Let this be a reminder to y’all that if any of you (or someone you know) have connections or are able to help coordinate tours of our local public infrastructure, let me know! So many of us in the Explorers Guild are excited about seeing and appreciating these place and we’d love to make a plan around them.
I’ll also leave you all with the beautiful illustration for our upcoming River Rafter’s Badge. Great work as usual Byz!
