Author Archives: Jack Elliott

Lazy Day in the Hills: A Canyon Hike Called Off

View of the sunrise on my way up Figueroa Mountain and into Santa Barbara’s San Rafael Wilderness. I left the trailhead at 7 am, but was already back by 3 pm. Lack of sleep and fatigued combined with shriveled enthusiasm … Continue reading

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Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island: A Female Robinson Crusoe (1897)

Map of California coast showing Santa Barbara Channel Islands In 1835, a ship set sail from San Nicolas Island off the California coast, 78 nautical miles south by southeast of Santa Barbara, and headed for the mainland forcibly removing the … Continue reading

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Finding Frontier in the Forest Conquered

“Superficially, the world has become small and known. Poor little globe of earth, the tourists trot round you as easily as they trot round the Bois or round Central Park. There is no mystery left, we’ve been there, we’ve seen … Continue reading

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John Haines On Pool Rock

Tafoni formations on Pool Rock. “John Haines, whose experience hunting, trapping and surviving as a homesteader in the Alaskan wilderness fueled his outpouring of haunting poetry of endless cold nights, howling wolves and deep, primitive dreams, died on Wednesday in … Continue reading

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Project Sespe Creek: Stage III, Piedra Blanca Beyond Devil’s Gate

Coltrell Flat beside Sespe Creek “Free is the bush, and the desert, and the woods, and the mountain ranges for whoever likes to camp there.” B. Traven, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre I plod along the dirt footpath of … Continue reading

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