Moments in Dirt and Ink

California Coastal National Monument Click for interactive map After poking around Ocean Ranch , I headed up the hill to Lighthouse Ranch, one of the 6 pieces of California Coastal National Monument that can be visited along the mainland. There's a loop trail, interpretive signs, picnic tables, and a toilet. If you are trying to get a stamp for your National Parks passport, you probably have to go to the Arcata BLM Field Office. Other nearby pieces of the National Monument are the Trinidad Head Lighthouse to the north, which is only open during certain hours on certain days; Lost Coast Headlands to the south, which has a little more trail but the road in can suffer winter damage; and of course most the rocks and islands you can still see at high tide. This is the easiest to visit. The pathway entry from the unpaved parking at Waluplh-Lighthouse Ranch. The path is well established and the edges get mowed. Taking the right side of the loop, the trail comes quickly to t...

Eel River Wildlife Area Click for interactive map A little after I first (and last) visited Ocean Ranch , the California Department of Fish and Wildlife launched a restoration project in this bit of the Eel River Wildlife Area that I keep meaning to check out. It gets a mention sometimes on the twice monthly DERT days by Friends of the Dunes because they decided to test the best removal system for the invasive beach grass we pull by hand. The winner for efficiency includes fire. I pulled into the now paved parking lot at the top because that's all I was expecting, only to find there is now a paved road where there was a gated, uneven track down to another parking area with picnicking that is open sunrise to sunset. The wooden sign got an upgrade. There was very obviously a billowing plume of smoke originating from somewhere over by the mouth of the Eel River. A blackberry hunter suspected that folks who came to Crab County Park for the 4th to light up massive mounds of ...

Since I last wrote about digital maps, the S1 Mobile app has been shut down and the Forest Service released a new map app that looks pretty good. It might be time for a new post on maps. (Check the "equipment" tag for older editions.) USFS app in offline mode showing a section of the Pacific Crest Trail north of Marble Mountain Wilderness including intersecting roads, streams, and contours. As before, this will focus on legal, free ways to have maps stored on your handheld computer (AKA "phone") so you can have them anywhere and any time. While these are free, it does help insure that independent developers keep going next year if you send some money toward them. My criteria for a map app: Works offline. If you only have a map when online, you don't have a map. It is as simple as that. This is non-negotiable. Maps should include contours. I'm looking to hike with these maps after all. Shows location. User configurable storage opt...