I spent Labor Day Monday hiking around a hot and windy Caliente Canyon and lounging poolside under the willow and cottonwood trees to escape the midday swelter. Although many long sections of the creek were bone dry, there was still just enough water trickling over the sandstone ledge and into the swimming hole to keep it from going stagnant. And although it was only waist to chest deep, there was still room to swim around a bit underwater and cool down. I wasted no time jumping in as soon as I got there.


-
Join 946 other subscribers
-
“He may be just a tramp, a guy that likes to roam about this great country without any special aim, just to thank the Lord for these beautiful mountains.”
-B. Traven, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

-
“. . .here, where there are still the silences and the loneliness of the earth before man, . . .”

Search Jack’s Blog


Recently Read
- Chanterelle Mushrooms
- Widow's Tears Falls, Santa Ynez Mountains
- Condor Petroglyphs, Death Valley National Park
- The Sisquoc Falls: A Little Known Region in California Explored (1884)
- Eating Poison Oak
- Contact
- Indian Head Test Pattern (1939)
- Knapp's Castle Then and Now
- Jack O'Lanterns and Chanterelles
- Surf Fishing For Halibut
Photos from the blog
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
-
Latest Dispatches
- Raking the Forest: Anderson, Trump, Kuyper
- Initials of J.D. Reyes (1907)
- Last California Grizzlies Seen In Santa Barbara National Forest? (1926)
- Eccentric Artifact, San Marcos Foothills Preserve
- Fog Drip Morels
- Naming Santa Barbara’s Modoc Road
- Mark of Conquest; Benchmark and Mortar
- Hat Tip to the Selfless Samaritans In Service to Others
- The Intelligence of Coyote Tobacco (Nicotiana attenuata)
- The Journey of a Root (1907) and Plant Intelligence
- Santa Barbara County Morels
- Hollyleaf Cherries Golden Morph
- Barefoot Prints In Volcanic Ash, Hawaii (1790)
- Skinny-Dipper Detained, Cuffed and Cited at Montecito Hot Springs
- Red Horny Toad
Lunar Phase




















Nice trip, but man it must have been cooking. We spent part of that weekend picking around Pendola. Nice to see some water in the Oasis; will probably never be back to its pre-Zaca glory but better than nothing! Did you head up to the camp? They replaced the benches that got torched earlier this year — nice!
Let me rephrase that last part: Earlier this year, they (rangers/VWRs) replaced the benches that had been torched (by the Zaca). thx! 🙂
Yeah there was still water, but, alas, like you said, it sure isn’t the same after the fire. Although I had intended to stop by the camp, I never made it. It was hot and I was just plumb beat. I was getting overheated just lying around in the shade reading. I turned to look up the creek as I started back home, but couldn’t muster the motivation to add any more distance to the day’s walk even though the camp is just a short ways away.