Moments in Dirt and Ink

The month's outdoor sketches: I found a couple plein air painters on the beach and sat for a moment to sketch them.  The tide was starting the threaten. Another trip up to Nordhoff , another look at a bit of the tower. Wandering around Colson Canyon on another trail, or at least what remains of it, up to the ridge road and back around. I had jury duty, so why not hang in the Court House's sunken gardens for lunch?

Los Padres National Forest Map link. I set out for Colson Canyon with the intent of doing the loop with Bear Canyon. A few loops are possible starting out near Colson Canyon Campground and heading to Peach Tree Spring and up onto the ridge. There are a couple ways to drop into Bear Canyon on the other side to meet with some motorcycle trail. Turning left to get to the road allows for a longer loop, climbing up to Buckhorn Ridge then coming back down the other side of the motorcycle loop to Bear Canyon. Turning right comes directly to Bear Canyon, then follow it down to Colson Road, nearly where it meets La Brea. (The USGS Tepusquet Canyon 7.5' 1995 marks it coming out at La Brea, nearly to Colson, but on the ground reconnaissance confirms the location on Conant's San Rafael Wilderness Guide, along Colson.) From there, it's an easy hike on Colson up Rattlesnake Canyon to the saddle and back down Colson Canyon. I parked at the campground because, well, I don'...

Circle X Ranch A map link. Once again, the variable crew of HIKE the GEEK people gathered together to make a circuit of the Mishe Mokwa and Backbone trails. We managed to collect almost entirely at the same trail head of the two options and started off with a pretty big group. Up at the first junction, we made a right to leave Sandstone Peak, the highest point in the Santa Monica range, for last. This put us parallel to the road for a short stretch and able to see the other lot. It looked quite full, as did the one we were coming from. The trail would be crowded. The marine layer hanging over the beaches wasn't quite getting to us, so the day was warm. Looking down over the smaller, and quite full, parking lot. Why is there a bus? I blame rock climbers without any evidence.

Ojai front country (map link) The bit of Pratt Trail from Cozy Dell Road to Valley View Camp seemed nice enough, so I've been meaning to see what the rest of it is like. The islands cleared up, which I find to be encouraging for a climb up a bit of front country because it means good things about the expansiveness of the views. I had watercolor plans and waited another day, allowing a bit of the fog back in to fuzz things up. Never mind, I headed for the hills. The plan: hike the whole of Pratt, probably stopping by Valley View on the way up. Once up Pratt, no reason not to go all the way up Nordhoff and visit the fire lookout skeleton. Once to Nordhoff, why not head down Gridley, which can be connected to Pratt at the bottom via the Shelf Road or Foothill Trail or Firebreak Road? With a predicted high of 87°F for Ojai, it is getting to the point when I consider the 5 liters of water in my pack to be 10 miles worth and this plan, using Shelf Road and with the spurs to ...

My Whisperlite seems to be coming to a pressure just high enough to use, but no more. I keep having to pump it while cooking or it will go out, but it'll still have pressure in the morning. Actually, considering how little the volume changes during use, there's probably something else wrong. I need a new pump, probably. Instead of getting a new pump, I decided to go for something that actually is extremely light, but still runs on a liquid fuel. And it can be made for under $10, a bit more if a few things aren't already had. I tossed together an alcohol stove from cat food cans, bike spokes, and a lasagna pan. The stove itself is described here , although there are quite a few other places, and I took clues from there. I had to get a small cat food can, because my cat doesn't get overpriced food in tiny cans. I punched a single row of holes out with a hole punch rather than the church key on this one. The larger can has holes punched around in a double row and a small...