Starting  at 8:30 AM on Friday, September 4, 2024 twelve RAMs and guests hiked the Felsman Loop in the Ferrini Open Space just west of San Luis Obispo.  The weather was perfect (as predicted) with a cool window between two unseasonably warm periods.  We did the hike in just under two hours with a distance of 2.4 miles and an elevation change of 570 feet.

​

We opted to hike in a counterclockwise (CCW) direction for two reasons.  The first was that it placed the greatest change in elevation first when we were the freshest and the temperature was cooler.  The second reason (bear with me on this) has to do with the Coriolis effect.  The effect is what causes water to rotate counterclockwise (CCW) when going down a drain in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise (CW) in the Southern Hemisphere.  It also affects the weather and ocean currents.  The Hiking Group realized that by hiking CCW the effect would effectively give us a "tailwind" as we hiked the loop.  Admittedly, the effect would be small and hard to notice, but then so is the effect of Einstein's theory of relativity on the spin of gyroscopes passing directly over the poles of the earth (inside joke).

​

Thanks to Barbara for the pictures.  Remember you can zoom in on them using mobile devices by touching and spreading your fingers apart.  The next hike will be Valencia Peak in Montana de Oro on 10-18-24.  It will be a two-part option hike of 1.5 and 4.5 miles with a maximum elevation change of 1270 feet on the long version.

​​