Moments in Dirt and Ink

The ink this month even included a little watercolor. It is a little lighter weight for backpacking. Another while wandering through the Arcata Community Forest. Mushrooms are plentiful in the forest . Cut here and there, but I found a nice tree on the sand spit . On the third day backpacking , the trees stood out on the distant snowy mountains. A side trail is needed to find the Boy Scout Tree , which may be the biggest in the forest. Again in Arcata Community Forest with the brush pens. Wandering up San Ysidro after checking on the well flowing waterfall .

Santa Barbara front country Back to my home stomping grounds and between all the rain that has been falling down and the more cascade-like waterfalls I have been visiting, I want to see what some of the local creeks jumping over cliffs are doing. Also, I am a little suspicious we have gotten about all the water we are going to get, so now is the time to see the waterfalls. First up is San Ysidro. This waterfall never quite dried out although at some points you had to walk up and touch it to be sure. A thin film of water kept a vertical garden lush and green, but a cascade of green leaves is not what most people are looking for when heading to a waterfall. I get a late start in order to hit the waterfall around noon when the sun is most likely to be shining on it. It will likely be crowded with a lunch crowd then, but the light is all important. Parking is certainly getting hard to come by as I start. The Montecito Trails Foundation has a few extra signs to help direct...

Mount Diablo State Park Knowing I would pass through the very general area twice and figuring I should stop and do something along the way, getting to the top of Mount Diablo was at the top of the list of possibilities. I go out of my way to try to find random corner markers, so the initial point for most of the surveys of California is a must visit. There are also all the reasons this was made the initial point, namely that it can be seen from all directions for miles around. This translates into views in all directions on a clear day. Putting it on the southbound leg of my trip means there might be more wildflowers and there are definitely fewer tolls. The mountain can be a drive up. I am sure it is a very pleasant, winding road up, but I want to climb it. As hinted by the myriad of markers on the map above, there are a lot of choices on exactly how to climb this mountain on foot. I decided to build my route on a popular loop visiting area waterfalls. This has the adva...

Robert Louis Stevenson State Park I am expecting it to be dry as I go south, but it has been almost constant rain. There was even rain as I climbed the tight hairpins of SR-29, but as I pull on my shoes the clouds are clearing out as quickly as they can. I seem to have gotten here at just the right time. The air is crisp and my breath comes out in giant puffs. Hail from earlier is gathered in a few spots and pointedly sticking around. Across the road, the trail starts up to Mount Saint Helena. The peak bagger wants to go up there, but I suspect this other trail is nicer and there are only a few hours until sunset. Sign at the trailhead. A couple short switchbacks on the trail bring it up to an old road along the ridge. Trees crowd in tightly around giving very little view. Small break show pieces of what is out there. A sudden break to the left gives a huge viewpoint for the first real look around along the trail. There is a tree down across the trail to it, but ...

Headwaters Forest Reserve I almost got away with showing the northwest coast of California without rain in winter, but with my days growing short and the weather feeling uncooperative for one last hike, I am out in the rain. The weatherman claims there will not be all that much of it and it should stop pretty soon. Perhaps it will be good to see if my rain jacket is still any good. There is no one in the parking lot as I arrive a bit late in the morning. The rain is coming down harder than I expected and looks settled enough to keep on doing this all week. I just pull on my rain pants and jacket, outfit the pack with its cover, and zip the camera in under the jacket and go. The first mile of this trail is paved anyway. The first mile is a paved trail past detailed interpretive signs and a citizen science project. The climb along the trail beside the river is imperceptible. Redwoods are sparse at first, but increase quickly. This is all second growth with a scatterin...

Redwood National Park There was just enough time for a quick trip around the loop to see Trillium Falls and the old growth before sunset as I passed, so I stopped. I had a plan to include climbing the Berry Glen Trail to the Lady Bird Johnson Grove with this for a longer day of trees but suspect I will not actually get to it. And when I finish, it should be prime time for spotting elk in the nearby meadow, which is even an official viewing spot for such wildlife. For now, I head down the paved path. Picnic area at the start of the trail. The parking and picnic area and meadow were once the location of a mill and mill yard harvesting the trees. It was restored to something like its natural state before the trail was opened. The nearby old growth appears to have been left as a show piece. A once buried creek gurgles down between young trees. A dirt trail soon splits off the side of the paved path next to a sign with a detailed map of the trail. The sign shows th...

Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park Click for map. Getting out of the car at the trailhead, there is the sound of a fog horn just at the edge of hearing. It is so quiet that maybe I am imagining it. Perhaps I am homesick. This is certainly not a place where the sea comes to mind, but these are coastal redwoods and the coast is not too far away. It is not a day to think of fog either. Bits of blue can be seen above. I stand within the old growth and reflect upon the differences between this forest and the second growth of the Arcata Community Forest I have walked through a few times. These trees are certainly a lot bigger, but it is more than that. This forest grew up under a previous generation of big trees striving for a bit of sun in that shade. This is a much more open forest. Looking up from beside the road. There is some blue up there. A marked trailhead to start from. In spite of the name of the trail, it does not go to the Boy Scout Tree. It passes n...

Six Rivers National Forest Smith River National Recreation Area Click for map. So what did I miss by not crossing the creek and returning along the Old Gasquet Toll Road? Well, besides very wet boots as the sun was dropping into the lower parts of the sky. I drove along the road in the morning. I did have to stop to toss off a few rocks. They were oddly light and one showed some signs that a previous person past should not have rolled over it. And I saw a few of the things I missed. Some better views of the antics the Middle Fork Smith River and tributary creeks get up to. Melderson grave. It could use some brush clearing, but is distinctly marked with headstone and other stones. The only writing on it are scratches. Who puts graffiti on a grave? Better views of the morning clouds haunting the canyons.

Six Rivers National Forest Smith River National Recreation Area (map link) DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 There were some hours of clear skies with bright stars and moon in the night, but the cloud cover has returned now. Sunrise is a brief and savage red glow before fading into a general light that could be coming from anywhere. Breakfast on a stump seat is quiet. I did hear birds among the greener lower elevations. Perhaps that is one advantage to having hiked those six miles that got me closer to neither a destination nor my return. Those are were the hardest miles on this whole route. The return from here is a very moderate hike. A brief and fiery glow. The smear in the snow from the motorbike makes me grumble as I return to the trail. Being so close again, I head up to the lookout site again. The bike also went up this spur, right to the top, which does mean a couple small trees have been cleared. The view from the top is still clear. Th...

Six Rivers National Forest Smith River National Recreation Area (map link) DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 I am sure it was not very cold and it was not very windy, especially for a ridge top, but I slept cold. The bright moon kept the stars from being particularly numerous, but they sure were sharp. With the morning light, I can see where the river and creeks heaviest by the clouds deep down in the valleys. Wisps of cloud have come in to help decorate the crazy blue skies above. The literature I got from the Visitor Center says it drops 90 inches a year on average around here, so blue from edge to edge during the wet season is quite uncommon. The view from my shelter as the sun comes up. After a little bit of breakfast and packing, I am off along the trail again. It was freezing last night and the trail is full of fun frost decoration. Oh, and my camera lens seems to have recovered. My footsteps along the trail with its top layer lifted by th...

Six Rivers National Forest Smith River National Recreation Area (map link) DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 Looking at four days that should be practically dry, I headed out for some backpacking. Just a little jaunt taking up three of the days that should be quite easy except for whatever complications winter has for me. With two spots along the way nearing 4000 feet, there should be at least a little snow. The road from Gasquet Toll Road to the Elk Camp Ridge Trailhead is indicated to be 4WD, but is currently in good repair and suitable for a little car with reasonable clearance. There is no sign to distinguish it from the spurs for power lines along the way. In fact, it is marked as one of these spurs with a temporary sign as two of them lead away from it in a few feet. It does look a little more maintained, so I turned up it and it happened to be correct. Since I wanted to do a loop, I grabbed a turnout halfway up to hike the rest of the way. There a...

California Coastal National Monument Up at the top of the bluff are a few parks including one where one of the area lighthouses originally stood. Not much of the lighthouse buildings are left now. Signs around the little loop describe what was here and point out what is left. Other signs describe the local wildlife and other details of the area. Since the area around includes the bluff top, the Eel River estuary, and the ocean, there is quite a lot of natural things to learn about. Looking down on the beach and first parking area for the south spit on the way to the jetty. The edge of the bluff. The area was flattened for the lighthouse buildings and planted with cypress.

South Spit Wildlife Area Bureau of Land Management I headed to the south end of Humboldt Bay, stopping briefly at a patch of land at King Salmon on the way. Today should be dry, but the thin drops blown into my face by a swift wind seemed to disagree. It was drier by the time I found my way over Table Bluff and to the jetty at the north of the spit after one more stop along the way at the middle. Among the grasses and lupines on the sandy dunes. Table Bluff is the central rise of land to the south. Northerly from the same spot shows the waves that seem to be a little muddy at the moment. The far buildings are on the north spit. This spit is much narrower than the northern one and the development on it seems to be toilets at either end, the jetty at the north, the road down the middle, and a few navigational beacons. The road becomes more and more of a challenge as I go because it is full of potholes to the point that they are impossible to avoid and today they a...