YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. – A beloved and storied family camp where memories have been made by generations of San Franciscans, including one who later became a Supreme Court justice, is celebrating a milestone 100th anniversary.

San Francisco’s Camp Mather is located just outside the gates of Yosemite National Park in Tuolumne County. 

The city first came to the area during the construction of the O’Shaughnessy Dam which til today along with Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System supplies drinking water to San Francisco. The site was built as a sawmill.

“When the O’Shaughnessy Dam was completed, many of the facilities were no longer needed,” the city’s recreation and parks department wrote on its website, adding, “In the mid 1920’s, the City of San Francisco designated the property for use as a family recreation area.”

Over the past 100 years, the site, nestled among towering pine trees, has served as a getaway for the city’s residents seeking to get off the grid for a respite away from city life and be immersed in nature. 

“Camp Mather offers city residents a unique weeklong outdoor experience, with activities including horseback riding, swimming, hiking, arts and crafts, a ropes course, tennis, archery, campfire talent shows and more,” the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department said. 

Generations of families have spent summer days at Camp Mather, which has also served as a launchpad for scenic trips to surrounding iconic locations, including Yosemite Valley and the Tuolumne Meadows.   

File of Camp Mather attendees around the camp fire.  (San Francisco Recreation and Parks )

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The rich history of Camp Mather dates back even before the pioneers settled in California, as the land was home to a group of Miwok Indians. 

The city’s rec and park department said, today there are still reminders and evidence of the Miwok’s presence as artifacts once belonging to the indigenous people were occasionally discovered in the area.

Mather has stood the test of time and the wrath of nature, surviving wildfire threats including the massive Rim Fire back in 2013.

Among the list of notable figures that have come through was retired Supreme Court Justice and San Francisco native Stephen Breyer who worked at Mather as a teenager, according to park officials.

On the Friends of Camp Mather website, he’s quoted as speaking about his experience at Camp Mather, describing it as a communal environment where “Anyone could go.” 

Breyer went on to say, “You had a mix of the families of firemen, policemen, and doctors and lawyers. They all felt an obligation to be part of the community and to contribute to the community.”

Parks officials said today, the site carried that same spirit. The camp hosts inclusive “special weeks” like those designated for families with kids with disabilities, as well as those designed for seniors and a special program for “justice-involved youth,” parks spokesperson Tamara Aparton shared with KTVU.

Due to the intense popularity of Camp Mather, the city has set up a lottery which opens in December. Both residents and non-residents can sign up, but the lottery does prioritize resident requests first.

Low-income San Francisco residents may be eligible for a discounted rate.

Either cabin or tent site rentals are offered during the weekly reservation schedule, which started June 2 this season. The final week of camp goes from August 11 to 17.

For residents, lodging fees run from as low as $322 a week for a six-person tent site to $1,367 for a six-person cabin.

Tradition runs deep at Camp Mather with folks returning year after year to create more memories.

“Our oldest employee (in his mid-90s) works there leading nature hikes, and also worked there as a high school kid,” Aparton shared.

A scroll through the Camp Mather Facebook page shows scenic photso posted by visitors over the years, conjuring up images of childhood summers spent in the warm outdoors.

One Camp Mather attendee posted about his and his family’s activity-filled stay earlier this month. 

“Arts and crafts, ropes course, archery, nature walks, talent show, definitely old timey camp vibes,” Matt Gripp said. “If you got little ones and live in SF try to get into the lottery.”

This story was reported from Oakland, Calif. 

San Francisco Camp Mather near Yosemite National Park celebrates 100 years of tradition.  (San Francisco Recreation and Parks )

Beach closures were in effect after an estimated 7,600 gallons of sewage were released into Morro Bay Harbor on Sunday, San Luis Obispo County officials said.

San Luis Obispo County’s Public Health Department said a broken sewage main at The Inn at Morro Bay, located at 60 State Park Road in Morro Bay, caused sewage to flow into a storm drain and out to the harbor.

Officials said in a statement Monday that the release had been mitigated.

There was no public beach access at the site of the sewage release, and advisory signs were posted at beaches to the north and south of the sewage release.

Public health officials advised the public to avoid ocean water 50 yards to the north and south of the sewage release.

Officials said, “Contact with ocean water while swimming or surfing may increase the risk for certain types of illnesses such as rashes, fever, chills, ear infections, vomiting, and diarrhea.”

Environmental Health Services personnel were expected to collect ocean water samples north and south of the sewage release Monday to analyze bacterial levels.

Officials said the beach closure would remain in place until bacterial levels are below state standards for safe water recreation.

A Californian man who embarked on a three-hour hike has been found after being stranded for 10 days in the mountains, surviving mostly off water.

Lukas McClish, 34, covered in dirt, reunited with his family late last week afer his ordeal in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

McClish told KGO that he set out on a hike on June 11 from his hometown of Boulder Creek in what he thought would be a short outing that Tuesday on his way to work; however, the further he got into the hike he became lost after he did not recognize several guiding landmarks that had been burned down in wildfires.

McClish, a hiker and experienced backpacker who does landscaping in forests that have been destroyed by wildfires, told The New York Times that he was intending to go and look at a granite outcropping in a nearby woods, but ended up becoming lost in the area that was devastated by the CZU Lightning Complex fire in 2020.

“That’s one thing that I didn’t take into consideration — when the fire comes through like that and decimates it, it turns into the desert, and you’re unable to find your bearings,” he told the outlet.

On June 16, McClish was supposed to attend a Father’s Day dinner with his family, but after becoming a no-show, he was declared missing that day once they had alerted authorities.

Four days later, McClish was found after multiple reports came into local agencies that they could hear the sound of someone yelling for help in the Big Basin Redwoods State Park.

“Just help, help. I’m over here. Or is anybody out there? I want a burrito and a taco bowl, that’s what I thought about every day when after the first five days, when I started to kind of realize that I might be in over my head,” McClish told KSBW.

Around 3pm in the afternoon, several witnesses reported hearing someone yelling for help in Foreman Creek off Big Basin Highway, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office wrote in a social media post.

The deputies from the sheriff’s office, State Parks, Cal Fire and Boulder Creek Fire Department all responded to the area, where they eventually found McClish, who had been missing for around 10 days at that point.

The agencies used drones to find McClish’s exact location, and State Park rangers were shortly on scene with the missing man, with fire crews behind them to bring him to safety.

Fortunately, the hiker had no major injuries and was able to reunite with his family, the sheriff’s office wrote.

The hiker told KGO that he was overwhelmed by the amount of personnel that joined in his rescue.

“It was just really humbling and I don’t know, it was an awesome experience,” McClish said.

“I left with just a pair of pants, and my pair of hiking shoes, and a hat. I had a flashlight, and a pair of folding scissors, like a Leatherman tool. And that was about it,” McClish added.

While he was lost in the Big Basin State Parks area, McClish told the outlet he managed to survive by drinking lots of water.

“I just make sure I drank a gallon of water every day, but then after, getting close to the end of it, my body needed food and some kind of sustenance,” McClish said.

He told KSBW that on the days he was out in the wilderness, he just kept hiking, going up and down canyons, and even encountered a mountain lion while trying to find his way out.

“I felt comfortable the whole time I was out there; I wasn’t worried,” McClish, who has backpacked through other regions in the US, told the outlet. “I had a mountain lion that was following me, and it was cool. It kept its distance. I think it was just somebody watching over me.”

McClish, who likes to “embrace the wilderness,” used the opportunity to test his survival skills while he was lost; however, the hiker ended up losing around 30 pounds in 10 days, the New York Times reported.

Now he has been rescued, he told KGO that he thinks he has done “enough hiking for probably the whole rest of the year.”