The race they had to call a hike

Good morning and happy Sunday, Mill Valley. If you were at Sweetwater on Tuesday, thank you for being part of something we'll be talking about for a while. If you missed it, we'll catch you up below.

This is the first edition of Mill Valley Briefing. Starting today, we'll be in your inbox every Sunday morning with original reporting on the civic life of this town. These free weekly editions are for stepping back, looking ahead, and the occasional piece of history worth revisiting. Today we have a good one.

🌤️ Today's weather: Slight chance of drizzle before 2pm, then mostly sunny by afternoon. High near 62, low around 48 overnight. (Source: National Weather Service)

☀️ Weather outlook: Sunny and warming through the week. Highs climb from the mid-60s Monday to the low 70s by midweek, then hold there into the weekend. (Source: National Weather Service)

Today's newsletter: the Women's Dipsea Hike of 1918, city council decisions and a recap from Tam High's softball game on Friday.

- Written and edited by Franz Strasser-Galvis

Nearly 50 people filled Sweetwater Music Hall on Tuesday evening for Mill Valley Briefing's launch event, a panel conversation about what makes this town what it is, and what it risks losing. The four panelists were invited by the Briefing to represent different perspectives on the community.

Historian and author Joyce Kleiner opened with a simple question: what made Mill Valley yours? The answers set the tone for everything that followed.

The four panelists brought different angles to the same town. Community artist Tim Ryan, who has lived in Mill Valley for 29 years, was direct about what kept him here. "Mill Valley is special for me because it's a bunch of people that want to do," he said. "And when we do things, we run parcel taxes, we run bonds, we have elections that are contentious and that have meaning and outcome."

Erma Murphy, executive director of the O'Hanlon Center for the Arts, was more direct about the pressures and said most working artists in Mill Valley can't survive on their art alone. "They have to do other things as well to be here," she said. An audience member put it plainly in a written comment: Rita Abrams, who wrote and performed the Mill Valley song, has since moved away, saying publicly she could no longer afford to stay.

Raven Twilling, a policy advocate who graduated from Tam High in 2018, said she only understood what Mill Valley meant to her once she left for college in Los Angeles. Coming back gave her a clearer view of what she had taken for granted. She mentioned the Depot as a hub where teenagers could hang out and feel part of the community. "You could be a middle school student and know that people around you care about you," she said. "That is such a unique thing."

Veery Maxwell, a founding partner at Galvanize Climate Solutions, moved to Mill Valley from San Francisco during COVID looking for something warmer and closer to nature. "The neighbors that have been there for 30 years kind of embracing all of the new families that have come in," she said. "Everyone here has been unbelievably welcoming. It's not just neighborhood by neighborhood. It's just part of the DNA of the community."

The four panelists agreed that Mill Valley has built something exceptional, but also said the town needs new sparks. Miller Nights, a series of summer Friday gatherings planned for Miller Avenue, came up as an example of the kind of initiative that brings the town together.

A recording of the discussion will be published as our first podcast episode. We’ll link to it here when it’s ready.

📅 Mill Valley Briefing plans to host panel discussions like this every 2-3 months. They will remain free and open to the public. We will keep you posted about the next one.

On April 21, 1918, 171 women gathered at the Mill Valley train depot and set off to Stinson Beach. Organizers called it a hike to avoid an Amateur Athletic Union ban on women in distance races, according to the Dipsea Race's official history. Soldiers patrolled the course to detain anyone caught pacing a competitor, according to Barry Spitz's Dipsea: The Greatest Race, and the mayor of Mill Valley opened the town hall for changing. Of the 171 who started, 148 finished, said George James who organized the race.

The first finisher was Edith Hickman, 19, a San Francisco swimmer who crossed the line at Willow Camp in 1 hour, 18 minutes and 48 seconds. She led from the stairs onward and by Lone Tree she was six minutes ahead of her nearest competitor. According to the San Francisco Call and Post, she wrote afterward: "I hope there are more hikes for girls and women. If there are, I feel certain that we will develop some champions who will give any of the men champions a tussle in any kind of walking."

Scores of San Rafael men had made the trip to Stinson Beach just to watch, according to the Marin Journal. After the race, 22 of the competitors, including Hickman, signed a letter of gratitude to the organizer.

Five Women's Dipsea Hikes took place between 1918 and 1922. Barry Spitz, the leading Dipsea historian, calls it likely the longest cross-country race exclusively for women ever held in the country. The race lost its biggest champion when organizer James fell ill and died in 1922. Local clergy and physicians had also objected to the competitors' costumes and warned the exertion would harm women's health. After the 1928 Olympics, women were excluded from distances beyond 200 meters until the 800m was restored in 1960. The Dipsea Race did not officially admit women until 1971.

In 1973, a 10-year-old named Mary Etta Boitano crossed the finish line first. Since then, according to Marin Magazine, nearly half of all Dipsea winners have been women. The 2026 Dipsea runs Sunday, June 14 from downtown Mill Valley.

Sources: San Francisco Call and Post, 1918; Marin Journal, April 24, 1918; dipsea.org; Barry Spitz, Dipsea: The Greatest Race; Marin Magazine.

🏪 The City Council gave final approval Monday to an updated commercial zoning code that cuts permit costs for new businesses. Councilmember Urban Carmel said in the session that the city is reducing two types of business permit fees: administrative use permits by 75% and conditional use permits by 25%. Carmel said business owners have told him they faced $8,000 to $10,000 in city permit fees before opening. "How often do you hear that being said by a city government?” said Carmel. “That we're dropping fees by 75%." The changes take effect 30 days after adoption.

🌳 The Parks and Recreation Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to recommend the Boyle Park master plan to City Council. Before voting, commissioners removed pedestrian-only language from several references to the proposed north-south spine path through the park, following a request from the Marin County Bicycle Coalition to clarify that bikes would be permitted on the route. The plan is expected to come before City Council next month.

🚲 A group of children addressed the City Council Monday evening with a 78-signature petition asking for a dedicated place to ride bikes. One resident who also spoke said the skate park was "completely jam-packed with younger riders on bikes and scooters," adding that the current setup wasn't working well for either skateboarders or bike riders. A $140,000 feasibility study for a pump track had been proposed, but City Manager Todd Cusimano said he wants to skip it and instead have city staff lead a public process to identify a location, then work through design, environmental review and costs before bringing a recommendation to the Parks and Recreation Commission and ultimately to Council.

🚧 Storm drain culverts have failed at eight locations along Miller Avenue between Reed Street and Camino Alto, damaging the roadway. One location has already been repaired by city staff. The Council approved a $354,200 project Monday to address the remaining seven, with construction expected to begin in late May and take up to five weeks. Work hours are 8:30am to 5pm on weekdays. Lane shifts and parking restrictions are possible on that stretch.

🏠 The City Council voted Monday to raise the threshold that triggers Mill Valley's affordable housing impact fee from $145,000 to $151,000, effective May 1 for new permit applications. Homeowners pulling permits for renovation projects above that value owe the city 1% of their total project cost. The fee rate itself did not change. The threshold adjusts annually using the California Construction Cost Index. Construction costs rose 3.9% in 2025, driving this year's increase.

Mill Valley has seen some rain for the fourth consecutive week and this last one was the wettest of the bunch. In fact it was the fourth wettest week of 2026. Below we listed all nine weeks that saw some rain. There are eight weeks this year that saw no rain at all.

Mill Valley’s wettest weeks of 2026

All numbers in inches. Measured by a Marin County rain gauge near Miller Avenue and La Goma Street.

Mon, Apr 27 - Madrona Bakery switches to new hours. Now closed Mondays in addition to Tuesdays and Wednesdays. But opening half an hour earlier Thursday and Friday 7:30am to 3pm, and Saturday and Sunday 8am to 3pm.

Tue, Apr 28 - Marin Youth Poet Laureate Inauguration, Mill Valley Public Library Creekside Room, 6:30pm. Readings by teen poets from across the Bay Area. Free.

Tue, Apr 28 - Tuesday Night Comedy, Throckmorton Theatre, 8pm. Featuring Pat Hazell, Robert Mac, Kaseem Bentley, Nicole Tran and host Kirk McHenry.

Tue, Apr 28 - Holly Bowling, Sweetwater, 8pm. The SF pianist reimagines Grateful Dead and Phish on solo piano.

Thu, Apr 30 - Bees of Marin, Mill Valley Public Library Creekside Room, 1pm. Free talk on local bee populations and how your garden can help. Registration required through the library.

Thu, Apr 30 - Karla Bonoff, Sweetwater, 8pm. The California singer-songwriter whose songs have been covered by Linda Ronstadt and Bonnie Raitt.

Fri, May 1 - Molly Tuttle and Ketch Secor, Sweetwater, 8pm. Two-time Grammy-winning bluegrass guitarist Tuttle performs with Old Crow Medicine Show's Ketch Secor, co-writer of Wagon Wheel.

Sat, May 2 - Repair Fair and Clothing Swap, Mill Valley Public Library Creekside Room, 1pm to 4pm. Bring a lamp, appliance, textile or bike for free repairs. Pre-register repair items at the library. Clothing swap included. Free.

Sun, May 3 - Suss with Evann McIntosh, Sweetwater, 8pm. New York trio Suss plays what Pitchfork calls "ambient country." Pedal steel and mandolin woven with synthesizers. Opening act Evann McIntosh mixes alt-pop and R&B.

🔍 Businesses and venues mentioned in this section are covered on editorial merit only. No business has paid for coverage. Promotional content is always labeled.

Tamalpais softball falls 5-0 to Novato despite 14-strikeout outing

Senior Ava Lee struck out 14 and walked one, threw 129 pitches in a complete game and allowed two earned runs. It wasn't enough. Tam High fell 5-0, shut out at home by Novato’s Isabelle Rykov, who held the Hawks to four hits across seven innings.

Tam freshman Cedra Crews went 2-for-3, with senior Zoe Pletcher and sophomore Leah Graveline each adding a hit. Over the team's last three games against Redwood, Marin Catholic and Novato, Crews has gone 4-for-8 with a triple and a home run, driving in three runs.

"[Friday's] game was tough, but it was what we needed," coach Lynnette Egenlauf told the Briefing. "We came out super flat and the energy did not match the toughness that Novato always brings. I think this loss will help us refocus as we take on three teams in a row next week, all on the road."

Lee has been one of the league's most consistent pitchers this season, going 8-3 with a league-leading 0.92 ERA in 76 innings. Opponents are hitting .135 against her. She trails only Marin Catholic's Malliah Foster for the league strikeout lead, with 131 to Foster's 132.

Tamalpais falls to 8-4 overall and 6-3 in MCAL play, dropping to fourth place in the league standings, 1.5 games behind second place. The top two teams earn a first-round bye and enter the playoffs at the semifinals.

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Corrections: If you spot an error, please email [email protected]. We correct the record promptly and transparently.

Thanks for reading the Mill Valley Briefing.

I'll be at the farmers market in Strawberry on Tuesday. Say ‘hi’ if you see a guy taking pictures of seasonal vegetables with his 35mm film camera.

- Franz

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