Moments in Dirt and Ink

Wild sketches done during the month. Stopping for a moment while wandering on the Wilcox Property. Er... I mean Douglas Family Preserve. Hanging out in the gardens at the Getty. Heading out to one of the free summer concerts . A jacaranda on campus. My campsite at Idlehour . Walking along the trail that forms the boundary between open forest and that closed by the station fire. A spot of Humboldt Lilies by the creek .

Angeles National Forest 26th | 27th | 28th The new day started again with a gentle brightening of the clear blue sky and an eruption of birdsong at 5 AM. Someone's got to eat all those bugs. I decided not to be so lazy getting up, so I could enjoy the most time going uphill in the shade. No one had stolen my cashews in the night. I didn't manage to finish off my dried fruit even though it looked like such a small stash the day before. Camp was struck fairly quickly and the pack stuffed to the top. I got some water pumped from the stream and a little dirt scrubbed off. Then splashed on some bug attracting sunscreen and followed it up with some mostly DEET to get rid of them again. About 6:15, I started up the trail. Okay, I wasn't in that much of a hurry. I met a little sunshine in the bottom of the canyon the trail had come down, but the day was still cool. There was very little on most of the trail as it wound up the north side and around the west s...

Angeles National Forest 26th | 27th | 28th Between the elevation and all the twists and turns to get through the canyon below, there was no marine layer to darken the morning and cool the initial part of the day. Light started breaking around 5 AM and the forest erupted into birdsong. The loud stream down the short cliff very near the tent was virtually drowned out in the noise of at least a dozen different ways of screaming "mine!" Having not gone down the stream bed because of the poison oak, I was suspicious I wouldn't go up it either for the same reason. Instead, I would probably follow the trail on up to the top, maybe all the way to Inspiration Point, connecting with where I've been before. I was rather lazy about getting up. Eventually I did as the sun started touching the tops of the nearby trees. It took a while with the high canyon walls. Someone had gotten into my bags and carried off most of my almonds. Not to say I had many left, but th...

Angeles National Forest Locate the trailhead. 26th | 27th | 28th Eaton Canyon is a local hike with hundreds of people headed up to the first falls on a daily basis. The falls themselves and the area around them offer no way up to the top. Apparently you can get there for another waterfall, but that one completely blocks all progress of the hiker. Most of this canyon cannot be seen unless you've got a very long rope. I've poked around Rubio enough to know that there can be a lot more waterfalls up there. I've been meaning to take the Idlehour trail but had been told it was somewhat hard to find once (not true). I realized that it was getting late in the season and I'll never get another chance, so if I really want to go up there, I better go now. I decided to make it an overnight, or rather two night. Grab the tent, but now the rain fly since the average rainfall for this month is in the hundredths of an inch. I decided to pack it all up in the ultrali...