Bike Trail, safety, Water

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson commits to finding ‘safe ground’ site

Mayor Kevin Johnson on Tuesday pledged his commitment for creating a sanctioned “safe ground” for as many as 100 homeless campers in Sacramento, calling it a final piece of the area’s mosaic of programs to shelter needy people.

“I believe we have waited too long” to create a place where homeless people can legally sleep outside with basic services and access to programs that can help them become more stable, he said at his weekly news conference. “We’ve studied this for three years. This is not that complicated.”

Currently, about 100 campers have pitched tents on the south side of the American River near 10th Street, and the City Council was scheduled to take up the controversial matter for the first time Tuesday night.

Johnson urged some of the campers to join the “nomadic shelter” program, in which homeless men and women sleep in rotating houses of worship on cold winter nights.

Wells Fargo salvaged that program this week by contributing $75,000 to keep it running through March.

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safety

Foresthill Bridge BASE leap caught by Placer sheriff’s copter

A BASE jumper was arrested late Wednesday after an after-dark parachute leap off the Foresthill Bridge near Auburn was spotted by the Placer County Sheriff’s helicopter.

Aaron Joseph McGovern was preparing to sail off the 730-foot-high span into the American River canyon, when the sheriff’s Falcon 30 crew spotted him as they passed the bridge on the lookout just before 8 p.m. for a suicidal woman reportedly somewhere on the deck.

Sheriff’s spokeswoman Dena Erwin said Thursday that the crew trained the chopper’s high-powered search beam on McGovern’s jump and followed it down to a landing spot on a trail below.

McGovern, a 39-year-old Olympic Valley resident, reportedly attempted to run down the trail in a futile attempt to dodge the spotlight. He ran about a third of a mile along the trail to the Old Auburn-Foresthill Road, where he at first attempted to get into his vehicle, she said.

But McGovern then reversed course, ran up the trail again and was observed stashing his parachute gear in the bushes, Erwin said.

McGovern eventually hunkered down in another bushy area and refused to come out over the next 15 minutes as the Falcon 30 crew made amplified requests for him to surrender, she said.

The incident ended when McGovern emerged and was taken into custody on misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest and taking part in an illegal recreational activity in a state park.

More at auburnjournal.com >>>

Bike Trail, safety

Tent City returns

Only a handful of tents are visible from Highway 160 this Monday evening. The air is dry and the sky cloudless as the sun dips above the camp sites. A small group of men on bikes with gruff dogs on leashes congregates at the entrance to the American River Bike Trail. Others head west along the trail.

A quarter-mile up, there it is: five, six, seven, eight—dozens more tents, zigzagging along the base of the river levy for what seems to be at least three city blocks.

“There were more,” says a man seated in a chair. His name is Brother Eli, who oversees a drug-and-alcohol free area of this new Tent City. Eli says that there were at least 50 more tents here last week—before city police showed up and told everyone to move out.

Officers handed out notices last Thursday afternoon: “It is unlawful to camp in the city,” it read. “This location is scheduled for immediate clean-up. … Any items not removed will be considered abandoned and removed accordingly.”

Campers say a few police visited on Sunday night, but kept their distance. Eli claims to have seen police along the west side of the camp, near North 10th Street and the bike trail, as recently as Monday afternoon.

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Bike Trail, safety, Water

Drilling begins on American River Parkway levees

A contractor hired by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is drilling into levees along the American River Parkway through January to collect soil samples.

Visitors to the parkway are advised to watch out for the equipment and give the crew working room.

This week, the truck-mounted drilling rigs and an equipment staging area are located along the river’s south bank, at Paradise Beach west of J Street in Sacramento. The work will continue eastward to Watt Avenue, on both sides of the river, through January.

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Bike Trail

Updated guide out for American River Parkway

The American River Natural History Association has released a new edition of “Biking and Hiking the American River Parkway,” a mile-by-mile guide to the Jedediah Smith Memorial Bicycle Trail from Discovery Park to Beal’s Point, Folsom Lake.

The 140-page volume by Robin Donnelly, explores the natural and cultural history of the trail and includes more than a dozen maps showing access points, restrooms, parking areas, picnic tables, drinking fountains and side trips.

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Events, Fish, Salmon, Water, Wildlife

Outbound Escapes: A fly fishing talk; a salmon watching spot

Fish fanciers take note: The salmon ladder at the Nimbus Fish Hatchery opened Nov. 1, signaling the official start of the spawning season on the Sacramento River.

Nimbus is one of three state-run hatcheries in the Central Valley that will take approximately 38 million eggs from salmon over the next two months in order to produce 24 million Chinook salmon for release next spring.

Nimbus has a viewing area where visitors may watch the spawning process and a playground where kids and adults may enjoy replicas of giant salmon.

The center, located at 2001 Nimbus Road, Suite F, Gold River, is open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekends every day except Christmas. Raceways (fish-rearing ponds) are open from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily. Opening time may vary during spawning season.

For more information, go to www.dfg.ca.gov/fish/Hatcheries/Nimbus.

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Bike Trail, Events, safety, Water

Bike trail closed near Watt Avenue

A project to repair levee erosion along the American River has closed a portion of the bike and walking path in the parkway near Watt Avenue.

The repairs, overseen by the U.S. Army Corps of engineers, are part of the previously authorized Sacramento River Bank Protection Project, which addresses levee erosion on the Sacramento River and its tributaries.

The latest phase involves placing large rock, called rip-rap, along the waterline of the south bank of the American River at two locations between Watt Avenue and Larchmont Park. A section of public path atop the levee about three-quarters of a mile long will be closed until the expected completion of the work on Nov. 30. Foot and bike traffic are being detoured through the neighborhood south of the levee.

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Bike Trail, Events, safety, Water, Wildlife

Parkway volunteers clean up trash at abandoned homeless camps

Volunteers for the American River Parkway Foundation are cleaning up trash left at abandoned homeless encampments along the parkway this morning.

About 150 volunteers hit the parkway shortly before 10 a.m., leaving from the Northgate parking lot of the recreation area.

“We want people to come enjoy the parkway,” said Dianna Poggetto, executive director of the foundation.

That’s hard to do when there’s a lot of trash, so the volunteers go out periodically to clean up what’s left behind by campers along the river.

More at SacBee.com >>