When John Francis and his family moved from Point Reyes Station to Cape May, New Jersey, last November, he assured us we hadn’t heard the last of him. And we haven’t. Yesterday he called from Cape May to say hi and fill me in on his latest adventure.

Most long-time residents of West Marin know John’s story. For 22 years beginning in 1971, John refused to ride in motorized vehicles (largely as a reaction to a humongous oil spill at the Golden Gate).

For the first 17 of those years, he also maintained a vow of silence. His not talking caused him to listen more and kept him out of arguments over his not riding in motorized vehicles, he would later explain.

During those years, John walked across the United States. Along the way, he earned a master’s degree in Environmental Studies at the University of Montana and a doctorate in Land Resources, with a specialty in oil spills, at the University of Wisconsin. (National Geographic last week put online John’s observations regarding the current oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.)

On Earth Day in 1990, John, who was in Washington, DC, at the time, started talking again, and soon afterward called me to break the news. Because I had never heard him speak before, I needed a bit of convincing before I believed it really was John on the phone.

John subsequently walked across the Amazon and down the west coast of South America to the tip of Argentina. He also walked around Antarctica a bit and north through Patagonia.

At the moment, John’s long-distance walking is again receiving public attention, this time in Australia. He’s been repeatedly interviewed by Australian television and is now frequently recognized there. Here’s what happened.

Last November, the Australian government financed a documentary, The Art of Walking: The Great Ocean Walk, which promotes a new trail along a scenic stretch of coast in Australia’s southern state of Victoria.

Katarina Witt, John Francis, and (with a spotting telescope) Shayne Neal, who owns Great Ocean Ecolodge.

To demonstrate different approaches to long-distance walking, three notable people each walked a section of the 65-mile-long, sometimes steep trail. John, who took the first section, provides a look at slow, contemplative walking.

At the beginning of his walk, John started a journal of his observations and drawings.

At the end of his section of trail, John handed the journal off to the next walker, Katarina Witt, who is better known as a figure skater.

For her, the walk was more like a sports event, and at the end of each day, she relaxed like the major athlete she is, with a massage, fine food, and wine.

Unlike John, Katarina said she does not like walking alone although that was not a problem on this hike. All the walkers were accompanied by guides and photographers.

Katarina, who was born in East Germany in December 1965, is best known as a figure skater who won gold medals in the 1984 and 1988 Olympics. She is seen here in 1982 on the eve of her first European Championship.

She also won World Championships in 1984, 1985, 1987, and 1988, and six consecutive European Championships from 1983 to 1988.

Katarina went on to become an Emmy-winning performer (for Carmen on Ice, 1989) and a nude model for the December 1998 issue of Playboy.

The issue is one of only two that has sold out during the 56-year history of the magazine. The other is the first issue, which had Marilyn Monroe for its centerfold.

Katarina, in turn, handed off John’s journal to Michael Milton of Australia. Michael, who lost a leg to bone cancer at the age of nine, is a celebrity is his own right.

In the 2002 Winter Paralympics, Michael won every skiing event, and in 2006, he became the fastest speed skie, disabled or not, from Australia, reaching 132.76 mph during competition in France.

Michael said he took part in the walk to show that his disability does not hold him back from physically excelling.

A koala along the Great Ocean Walk. “The scenery is stunning,” John told me. “You can feel very much like you’re in California because of the eucalyptus trees.”

John noted that when he was on the trail, “I had four or five cameras following me around. Sometimes I had my own camera harness.”

You can see John’s part of The Art of Walking: The Great Ocean Walk by clicking here. The section featuring Katarina Witt can be found here. And the section featuring Michael Milton can be found here.

Because few of us in Point Reyes Station have home delivery, the post office has long been the most popular meeting spot in town. On Monday, it was the scene of one of those happy little moments that make small towns great places.

As it happens, postal worker Erin Clark, who was helping out in Point Reyes Station for a day, is a volunteer with a wildlife-rescue group, Rancho Raccoon, headed by Megan Isadore of Forest Knolls.

About a week earlier, Rancho Raccoon received four newly born raccoons that were orphaned when a building was torn down in Oakland. Erin took over raising the newborns when they were less than a week old.

Like any mother, Erin has to periodically check on her young ones, so on Monday she brought them with her when she went to work. There was no risk of the baby raccoons getting into trouble at the post office where they spent the day sleeping in a back room. At 11 days old, their eyes had not yet opened nor were their ears fully developed.

Erin is the only mother the raccoons know, so whenever she picks one up, the baby tries to suckle on her fingers.

Equally picturesque but less cuddly were 15 western pond turtles I counted Monday on two logs in a pond off Cypress Road. The small pond at Anastacio and Sue Gonzalez’s home attracts a variety of wildlife, and on warm days, these turtles emerge to sun themselves.

California’s Department of Fish and Game has designated the western pond turtle a “species of special concern.” Because some pond turtles, especially fertile females, migrate, motor vehicles periodically kill a few. Pesticide runoff, loss of habitat, and introduced predators are also reducing their numbers. Around West Marin, a major threat is from non-native bullfrogs, which eat hatchling and juvenile turtles.

Western pond turtles can be found from the Canadian border to Baja California although in the state of Washington, they almost became extinct around 1990 because of an unidentified of disease. However, they are now making a recovery there thanks to government programs.

As I started down my front steps Monday en route to the post office, I startled a young buck that was lying down, chewing its cud. The deer jumped up and started to quickly walk away, but I began talking to it in a low voice, and it stopped to look at me.

When I stayed put and kept whispering soothingly, the buck relaxed and started scratching fleas. Before long it was grazing. Not wanting to disturb the deer, I had to wait about 10 minutes until it wandered off and I could get to my car and drive into town.

Italian thistles on my hill

On Sunday I completed a two-week assault on the thistles in my field. I even removed thistles on the edge of three neighbors’ fields since one neighbor’s thistle problem quickly becomes the neighborhood’s thistle problem.

As first described in this blog April 28, a fortnight spent pulling up and cutting down thistles was exhausting and sometimes painful. Several fingers sustained battle wounds, but I expect to fully recover. As of now, I’m storing enough thistles in plastic bags to keep my green-waste container full for another month of pickups.

Eliminating thistles is, of course, a bit like eliminating spiderwebs. Every time the light changes, you spot one you previously missed. All the same, I sort of felt a sense of satisfaction Sunday evening for having persevered in this unpleasant task for two weeks.

The cable guy, Jim Townsend of Horizon Cable

I would have felt even better were it not for one screwup. My cabin is connected to one of the oldest sections of the Horizon Cable system in Point Reyes Station. It’s so old that much of the cable was originally strung along this hill’s barbed-wire fences.

Ever since buying the old system, Horizon Cable has been upgrading it. However, at one corner of my fence, a short length of cable in relatively thin conduit still dangles beside the barbed wire. On Sunday while using loppers to cut down the largest thistles, I reached into a clump and instead cut the cable.

Immediately I alerted Horizon Cable, for although I didn’t much mind not having television, not having access to the Internet was a real drag. I felt cut off from friends and family in faraway places. I couldn’t get my nightly fix of al Jazeera.

Thankfully on Monday morning, Horizon technician Jim Townsend showed up and managed to get me back online despite having to dig up some old-style fittings for my old-style section of the system. I don’t mind being on an antiquated section with part of my cable running along a barbed-wire fence. To me it symbolizes the enduring rusticity of Point Reyes Station.

A Mustang convertible ran off Highway 1 near its intersection with the Point Reyes-Petaluma Road about 8 p.m. Saturday, caving in the front end of the car. It’s an all-too-familiar accident at this location.

After overshooting a curve in the highway, the Mustang dropped into a roadside ditch and hit a speed-limit sign and a utility pole, causing driver’s side airbag to deploy. Apparently no one was seriously hurt. Residents living nearby said they saw people walking away from the scene, heading toward downtown Point Reyes Station.

When firefighters and the Highway Patrol showed up, whoever had been in the wreck was long gone.

For years, numerous northbound cars and motorcycles going too fast up Highway 1 have run off the roadway at the first curve north of downtown. Terry Sawyer, who lives nearby, told me, “This is a once a week or once every two weeks thing.” Indeed, this blog on March 15 reported on a very similar crash, which also knocked down the speed-limit sign.

The crashes “most of the time stop the car,” Sawyer said, but some vehicles manage to get back on the highway and drive off even when they’ve been damaged. One damaged Corvette made it all the way to Nicks Cove, leaving pieces of shredded tire all along the way, both Sawyer and a firefighter said.

So far no one has been killed in crashes on the curve, but a number of speeding motorcyclists have been injured when they ended up in the ditch.

Although the speed limit is only 25 mph on this stretch of highway through a residential area, Sawyer said he often has trouble pulling out of his own driveway safely. I don’t know what the solution is, but Caltrans clearly needs to do something to slow traffic heading north out of downtown.

A small but enthusiastic crowd showed up at Toby’s Feed Barn Saturday evening for a 29th annual benefit dance that will help pay for 50 handicapped children to go on a camping trip. The trip will include rafting on Rogue River in southern Oregon.

Playing for the event was West Marin’s acclaimed band Radio Fantastique featuring Giovanni De Morenti as lead singer. The virtuoso group has played nationwide, and I’m amazed it’s still available for local gigs. As for dancing, at least when I was there, most of those who took the dance floor were small children.

Organizing the event was Joyce Goldfield of Inverness Park, who for 20 years headed Halleck Creek Riding Club, which takes disabled children and adults on horseback rides in Nicasio. She stepped down as the nonprofit’s coordinator in 1997 at the age of 60.

Soup and an abundance of baked goods fed Saturday evening’s crowd, with enough delicacies left over to have saved the Donner Party.

Paul Reffell, the longtime POSSLQ of Marshall artist-activist Donna Sheehan, threw a surprise 80th birthday party for her Thursday evening at Toby’s Feed Barn. Scores of her friends and relatives, along with a few politicos, showed up. Everyone told her she looked great.

The oft-repeated comment prompted Donna to tell the crowd, “There are three stages of life: youth, middle age, and ‘you look great,’ which those of us over 70 hear a lot of on main street.” And as a matter of fact, she added, “I’ve never been happier.”

The receiving line was so lengthy that Donna took it sitting down. Most of the guests brought food or drinks for a potluck table.

“It’s hell being born on April Fool’s Day,” Donna said, noting that she and Paul “just came from the St. Stupid’s Day parade in San Francisco.”

Providing entertainment, Ingrid Noyes of Marshall sang and accompanied herself on the accordion. Singer Tim Weed accompanied himself on the guitar.

Donna meanwhile reminded guests that Paul, her paramour, is 20 years her junior.

In short, he’s not old enough yet to have people automatically telling him he looks great.

Margie Boyle (left), an old friend from Lakeville, invited Donna to dance, and before long much of the party was dancing too.

Photo copyright Art Rogers 2002

During a chilly rain on Nov. 12, 2002, Donna gained worldwide attention when she assembled 50 “unreasonable women” at Point Reyes Station’s Love Field. Lying naked on the wet grass, the women spelled out PEACE with their bodies while Point Reyes Station photographer Art Rogers recorded the event.

Donna at the time explained she got the idea from a similar protest in Nigeria earlier in the year. Women fighting corporate exploitation stood nude in a vigil that lasted several days outside of Nigeria’s parliament, she noted. “[The Nigerian women] shamed the men and won their cause,” she said.

As can be seen in photos on Donna’s “Baring Witness” website, the Point Reyes Station demonstration almost immediately inspired many similar demonstrations throughout the United States as well as overseas.

I owned The Point Reyes Light at that time and asked my former wife Ana Carolina to cover the Love Field demonstration for the paper. Donna, who must be the Pied Piper of West Marin, convinced Ana Carolina to join in despite my ex-wife’s conservative Guatemalan background. Here’s the story Ana Carolina wrote about the event. As for Art’s photo, as soon as it appeared in The Light, the wire services picked it up and sent it out worldwide.

I was first aware of Donna’s skill at political organizing, roughly 30 years ago when she became upset with Caltrans plans to spray weeds along Highway 1 rather than cut them. Forming a group called MOW, Donna organized protests and to my surprise managed to stop the spraying.

(MOW, which is short for Mow Our Weeds, is the only acronym I know where one of the words the initials stand for is the acronym itself.)

More recently, Donna and Paul again garnered widespread attention with a book titled Redefining Seduction, which says women should take the lead in courtship.

A sportscar went out of control on the Point Reyes-Petaluma Road immediately east of Highway 1 about 2:30 p.m. today, sailed off the roadway, and landed on its wheels 25 feet down an embankment.

The white Porsche GT-3, which landed facing back toward the road, was airborne for roughly 50 feet, as evidenced by bare spots where bark had been knocked off limbs high above the ground.

From skid marks on the pavement, it appears the driver lost control in rounding the first curve east of Point Reyes Station. He then over-corrected and ended up in the oncoming lane before spinning back across the road and off the embankment.

The driver, who declined to give me his name or hometown, was not injured in the wreck. (Monday morning update: the CHP has now identified the driver as Joshua Moore, 38, of San Rafael.)

Traveling with the Porsche when the wreck occurred was a red Ferrari, but its driver told me he didn’t know what caused the mishap. (The CHP on Monday said the accident was caused by an “unsafe turning movement” but that Moore had not been cited.)

The property on which the Porsche landed is used by Tomales Bay Oyster Company, and its workers managed to turn the car around by sliding it on the muddy ground.

The driver was able to start his car only to have its wheels spin in the mud. The oyster workers then pushed the car to open ground, from which it could be towed.

A highway patrolman checks the car while the driver stashes its broken spoiler behind the seats.

Because the driver declined to identify himself (and because it took three days to get the information from authorities), all I initially knew about him is what’s on his license plate frame: “Member 11-99 Foundation.”

The name “11-99” is taken from a radio-code message that means: “Officer needs assistance. Send location to all units.” The foundation, according to its charter, “provides emergency, death, and scholarship benefits to California Highway Patrol family members.”

To aid the families of retired officers and those killed in the line of duty, the foundation raises its money from individual donors, volunteers, and grant-making institutions.

However, the “member” license-plate frames have occasionally come under fire as potentially having a corrupting effect. Critics in past years claimed that people who liked to drive fast made large donations in order to get the frames, a membership certificate, and a special wallet with a 11-99 Foundation badge to show any CHP officer who pulled them over.

The 11-99 Foundation directors voted to phase out the frames last year and to more aggressively prevent people from selling them online. The directors also instructed staff to “develop a program to address the status of all ‘Member’ license-plate frames currently in circulation.”

The foundation on its website says it needs to maintain control over the frames because “we don’t want the 11-99 Foundation to continue to suffer because some misguided individual tried to take advantage of the license-plate frames, hoping they would inappropriately influence a law enforcement officer.”

A Valentine’s Fair Saturday at Toby’s Feed Barn was the latest fundraiser hereabouts to help survivors of the catastrophic earthquake that hit Haiti a month ago.

The small-scale fundraiser, which coincided with a “mini” farmers’ market, brought in several hundred dollars. Joyce Goldfield (at right) of Inverness Park sold more than $200 worth of anatomically correct gingerbread men and women.

Linda Petersen, ad manager for The West Marin Citizen, organized the fundraiser and sold $58 worth of Valentine’s cards made by second grade students at West Marin School.

In June, Linda was severely injured in a traffic accident, which killed her popular Havanese dog Sebastian. Four months ago, another fundraiser was held at Toby’s to help pay her medical bills, and last month she found a new Havanese, Eli (pictured), at the Marin Humane Society.

Other contributors to Saturday’s fundraiser were Moonflowers Bodycare (soaps and lotions), Sandra Wikholm, who sells baked goods at Wedgewood Bakery, Gaia Tea, Marin Roots Farm, Flower Power, rancher Liz Daniels, KT’s Kitchen catering, Zuma, and the Giammona brothers, Morgan and Ryan, (eggs).

Their mother Connie Giammona brought an orphan calf for a petting zoo while Kathy Simmons, wife of West Marin Citizen publisher Joel Hack, brought rabbits to be petted. The singing duo Todd Pickering & Blue performed, as did flamenco guitarist Carl Nagin.

Myriam and Mark Pasternak of Devil’s Gulch Ranch in Nicasio were in Haiti during the earthquake and told about their experiences. Myriam had previously founded a nonprofit, DG Educational Services, which teaches Haitians how to raise and breed rabbits for food. Part of the proceeds will go to the project, and part will go to Partners in Health run by Dr. Paul Farmer.

Sponsoring Saturday’s fundraiser were Toby’s Feed Barn and The West Marin Citizen.

Whenever Nicasio Reservoir overflows at the end of a dry spell, I typically climb the cliff above the spillway to shoot a photo. It’s a difficult climb on unstable rock with only scattered Scotch broom for handholds much of the way. Today I did it for the fourth time and as usual got scratched up, but the view from a ledge high above the spillway made it all worthwhile.

Nicasio Reservoir officially overflowed at 11:30 a.m. Sunday, Libby Pischel, spokeswoman for Marin Municipal Water District, told me this afternoon. However, another 24 hours went by before the spill became substantial, nearby resident Chuck Gompertz of Nicasio later told me.

The reservoir is owned by MMWD, which serves the San Geronimo Valley and most of East Marin south of Novato. Pischel said six of MMWD’s seven reservoirs, Alpine, Bon Tempe, Lagunitas, Nicasio, Phoenix, and Soulajule, are now overflowing.

Kent Reservoir, the largest, is more than half full, she added. (By my calculations, it’s more than 56 percent full, which matters to three West Marin towns outside the water district, as I’ll explain in a moment.)

As of Sunday, MMWD’s total storage was at 82 percent of capacity compared with 54 percent at this time last year and and 79 percent in an average year.

Another 1.54 inches of rain fell on Point Reyes Station Monday, Weather Underground reported, and by noon Tuesday, 0.26 inches more had fallen.

In dry weather, Point Reyes Station, Olema, and Inverness Park depend almost entirely on releases from Kent Reservoir for their water. The releases flow down Papermill/Lagunitas Creek past Point Reyes Station, where North Marin Water District uses creekside wells to withdraw water for the three towns.

North Marin is based in Novato, and it compensates MMWD for a portion of the releases by providing MMWD with water from Novato’s primary source, Lake Sonoma in Sonoma County. On Tuesday morning, Lake Sonoma reached capacity for the first time in four years.

Before: Canada geese take flight from a dry cove on the east side of Nicasio Reservoir last November.

After: The same cove sans geese as it looked today.

With weathermen now saying there’s a chance of rain on Friday, Saturday, and Monday, MMWD’s Pischel today was looking forward to Kent Reservoir’s rising even closer to capacity, which is 32,895 acre-feet (10.7 billion gallons).

The oldest reservoir in MMWD’s system is Lagunitas built in 1872. It now provides only o.4 percent of the total capacity. Phoenix Reservoir was built in 1905 (now 0.5 percent of total capacity); Alpine in 1918 (11.2 percent); Bon Tempe in 1948 (5.1 percent); Kent in 1953 (41.3 percent); Nicasio in 1960 (28.2 percent); and Soulajule in 1979 (13.3 percent).

In other weather-related news, The Marin Independent Journal reported a rock slide just south of Stinson Beach closed Highway 1 in both directions for three hours this morning.

The start of an expected two weeks of storms is wreaking a bit of havoc in West Marin. In Point Reyes Station, a total of 6.76 inches fell Sunday through Wednesday. On Tuesday and Wednesday, Highway 1 experienced light-to-moderate flooding (above) in several spots just south of town.

Flooding was worse on numerous other sections of roadway in East and West Marin. On Wednesday, Tomasini Creek flooded Mesa Road, just north of the erstwhile Red Barn in Point Reyes Station. Walker Creek flooded Highway, south of Tomales. The highway was also flooded near Point Reyes Vineyards north of Point Reyes Station.

That left residents of Marshall, who were caught between two flooded sections of Highway 1, unable to drive very far north or south for a day.

Out of fear that school buses could be blocked by flooding, Shoreline School District on Tuesday canceled classes at Tomales High but, oddly, not at nearby Tomales Elementary. On Wednesday, Shoreline canceled classes at all its schools except Tomales High. Bolinas-Stinson School District also canceled classes on Wednesday.

Around 7 a.m. Tuesday, a tree fell across Lucas Valley Road in Nicasio, blocking both lanes and bringing down powerlines. Countywide, the storm blacked out more than 1,000 homes and businesses during the day. More blackouts occurred Wednesday, and 500 homes and businesses were still without power at the end of the day.

Early Monday morning, a mudslide in the Sausalito area blocked two lanes of the Highway 101 freeway for a couple of hours. On Tuesday morning, another slide briefly closed one lane of Highway 1 south of Stinson Beach.

Ranchers and water districts here greatly need the rain, which was well below normal last fall. “In both rainfall and storage, we are now 90 percent of normal for this time of year,” Paul Helliker, general manager of Marin Municipal Water District, told The Marin Independent Journal today. “It’s good news.”

The National Weather Service had predicted today would be the height of the storm, and at day’s end, Weather Underground reported that more than 3 inches of rain had fallen in Point Reyes Station. The Independent Journal meanwhile reported that part of Nicasio had received 3 inches of ice and hail.

Atop coastal peaks, gusts reached 70 mph. On the Beaufort Scale, that’s just 3 mph short of hurricane force.

A near miss: Around 2 p.m. today I drove downtown to pick up my mail, and when I returned to my cabin half an hour later, I found a 35-foot-high pine had fallen where I park my car. No doubt high winds and saturated soil were to blame.

From the looks of things, my car wouldn’t have been totally crushed by the falling tree, but it would have been damaged. For once I was glad I wasn’t there when the news happened.

Because they count rats and mice among their numbers, rodents often get a bad rap from humans. Yet rodents are part of a food chain that supports many of West Marin’s most colorful carnivores. With that thought in mind, here’s a gallery of rodents found around my cabin.

A brush rabbit, also known as a cottontail, near my woodshed. Along with mice (I’ve trapped a few but will spare you postmortem photos) rabbits have more predators than any other rodent-like creatures on this hill. (Scientifically speaking, rabbits are lagomorphs rather than rodents.)

They’re a main ingredient in fox diets. Hawks and owls eat them. So do bobcats and snakes, coyotes and cougars. Unfortunately for this hill’s rabbits, foxes and coyotes are becoming more common while a cougar has been seen more than once recently along nearby Tomasini Canyon Road.

Gophers, the bane of West Marin gardeners, in fact sustain a variety of predators. Having just caught a gopher outside my window, this bobcat, with the rodent in its jaws, trots off to dine. Also preying on gophers are creatures ranging from housecats, hawks and mountain lions to foxes and badgers.

A Sonoma chipmunk out my kitchen door. Also providing food for many of West Marin’s carnivores are chipmunks. Despite predation by bobcats, badgers, foxes, hawks and owls, chipmunks are rated a species of “least concern” on the Endangered Species List.

A roof rat eating birdseed on my deck. Roof rats can do damage, especially to dishwashers ,when they get into a house. They’re prey for hawks and owls but less vulnerable to predators on the ground because the rats like to travel along branches, utility lines, and fence tops.

Roof rats originated in tropical Asia but spread through the Near East during the days of ancient Rome. They reached Europe by the 6th Century, and in the late 1340s, their fleas carried the bubonic plague that killed off half the population in some areas. Roof rats arrived in North America with the first ships to visit the New World.

A Western gray squirrel out my upstairs window. From what I can see, the main cause of gray squirrel mortality in West Marin is the motor vehicle. Their primary predators are red-tailed hawks, great horned owls, foxes, coyotes, dogs and cats.

So there you have it. Despite what the pest-control people say, having a few rodents around your house or rabbits around your garden makes for a healthy ecosystem. But guard your dishwasher.