Category Archives: Santa Barbara

Blue Elderberry Wildcraft

Clusters of wild blue elderberries. “Delectable dishes made from elderberry are a leftover from old time housekeeping, when table luxuries were not so varied and abundant as they are now.” New-York Tribune, September 11, 1921 Wild elderberry trees are abloom … Continue reading

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Rolling with Little Ms. E, Sequoia National Park

You have to be committed to push a stroller along a rocky mountain trail for two miles up and down a small canyon, while wearing flip-flops. Or maybe you just need to be committed. The trail began as a three-foot-wide … Continue reading

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Mono Narrows Camp

Mono Jungle under early morning fog. I walked so much I wore down my feet— Do you know how weird that feels? —Shel Silverstein, “Foot Repair” A dense marine layer clings to the Santa Ynez Mountains as I putter up … Continue reading

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Indian Creek Waterfalls and Narrows

Santa Barbara backcountry “My companion and I, for I sometimes have a companion, take pleasure in fancying ourselves knights of a new, or rather an old, order, —not Equestrians or Chevaliers, not Ritters or Riders, but Walkers, a still more … Continue reading

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Orange Fire, Blue Twilight Along Sisquoc River

“You know to be silent in the wilderness. It is that which matters, to learn to live with silence.” —Louis L’Amour, The Californios (1974) Lying in the dirt beside the campfire, a long hard day’s hike from the nearest road, … Continue reading

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