Charter Bus Trips

Avoid stress, help reduce traffic, save resources (especially oil), and enjoy refreshments and scenery en route to some of your favorite parks and wild places. Come along on a Charter Bus Trip.

Charter Bus Trips have been a part of the Bay Chapter's activities program for many years. In the '60s and early '70s, Dick Monges, Red Dodge, Bob Boelen, and Tom Slattery among others introduced us to many of the then little-known places in the Bay Area and beyond where we could explore hiking possibilities, local history, and unusual landscapes.

In the '70s Bill Katz starting helping on these trips and introduced a regular schedule of frequent outings, for many years every two weeks on the average. He also started the practice of providing morning refreshments on the bus, allowing for an early start without having to stop for coffee, allowing more time for the day's destination. After more than 20 years of dedicated effort, in 1993 Bill turned the leadership over to Audrey Earl, who had helped out on trips and dealt with the finances.

In 2001 Audrey was ready for a break, and more time for travel, and so she recruited Myra Forsythe as her successor, although Audrey still helps out on the finances and serves as co-leader and as emergency and moral back-up.

Times and tastes change, but comfort, convenience, and environmental concerns have not. Join us on our trips. We're now down to three summer trips a year (all on Saturdays), but would happily add more to meet future demand.

Every year we take trips to Monterey/Asilomar and to Point Lobos. (This year's Point Lobos trip is on July 31.) These trips allow time for an early dinner in Monterey before reboarding the bus at about 5 pm. On all trips we try to be back in San Francisco by 8. This year our third and final trip will be on Oct. 2 to Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park, just north of Placerville. See the Yodeler calendar for details on both these trips.

We prefer to avoid the rain, but we go rain or shine and have been amazingly lucky to have sun at our destination 98% of the time. We rarely must change destination due to unforeseen conditions. We usually start at 8 am and have two pick-up points in San Francisco - downtown at Bill Graham Civic Center Auditorium and at Stonestown Shopping Center near San Francisco State. On some southbound and all North Coast trips we try to schedule a downtown San Rafael pick-up. On north- or east-bound trips we try to schedule a Berkeley pick-up outside Spengers Fish Grotto.

We always aim to have nature, hiking, education, and relaxation as important parts of our destination. So please join us in this environmentally sound way to enjoy nature. For more information, contact Myra Forsythe at (415) 613-8318.