East Bay Dinner

"Exploring the Big Sur Coast"

Thursday, April 27, no-host cocktails/social hour - 6 pm, dinner - 7:00, program - 8:00, Berkeley Yacht Club on the Berkeley Marina, one block north of the west end of University Avenue (ample free parking is available in the Marina parking lots).

There's no shame in touring Big Sur from behind the steering wheel of your car. But you've got to pull over and get out, or you'll never know the Big South Coast's wildest, most beautiful, side: fog-shrouded redwood groves, jagged marble peaks, waterfalls, thermal pools, and more than 200 miles of trails in the Ventana Wilderness area.

Join Analise Elliot, author of Hiking and Backpacking Big Sur (Wilderness Press, 2005), for the inside scoop on where to put your boots on the ground in Big Sur's backcountry. Tour with her visually and visit 90 miles of exquisite coastline along Highway One from Carmel to San Simeon. Analise will lead you along her favorite backpacking and day-hiking excursions - to jagged rocky promontories, ancient redwood forests, and nature's own day spas - thermal pools steaming along the trail. Her stunning slides and her vast store of knowledge of the region's natural and cultural history will make you want to explore the endless hiking and backpacking possibilities on the rugged coastline and the isolated backcountry trails of Big Sur with its Ventana and Silver Peak Wildernesses.

Analise holds a forestry degree from the University of California at Berkeley. She is an avid hiker, backpacker, surfer, bird-watcher, and angler, and has pursued an outdoor lifestyle both professionally and personally. She works as a naturalist, environmental educator, and outdoor-education program director on the California coast and in the Sierra Nevada.

The author will have copies of her book available for sale at the dinner.

Cost of dinner and program is $22, including tax and tip. For a reservation, send your check, payable to "Sierra Club", with your name, your telephone number, and the names of your guests, to:

Evelyn Randolph
938 Galvin Drive
El Cerrito, CA 94530
(510)526-2494.

Specify clearly which month's dinner you want. Attendance is limited to the first 115 reservations received. Reserve early, as these programs do fill up. Reservation deadline is April 17. There is no admittance for program only.