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“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

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

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Recently Read
- Swordfish Cave, Earliest Chumash Rock Art On California's Central Coast
- Eating Poison Oak
- The Snow Frosted Waterfalls of Rose Valley (+ Video)
- Indian Head Test Pattern (1939)
- Pine Mountain Fossil Foray
- The Sisquoc Falls: A Little Known Region in California Explored (1884)
- California Slender Salamander
- Mark of Conquest; Benchmark and Mortar
- Wallace Creek Offset at the San Andreas Fault, Carrizo Plain National Monument
- Condor Petroglyphs, Death Valley National Park
Photos from the blog
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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

Tag Archives: backcountry
The Myth Of Wilderness and Ethnocentrism: Race and Recognition In the Woods
Los Padres National Forest, Santa Barbara County “The evidence strongly suggests that the prehistoric Indians’ effect on the environment can no longer be ignored by scientists and government agencies charged with stewardship of our natural resources.” M. Kat Anderson Tending … Continue reading →
Posted in Santa Barbara
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Tagged Anthropology, backcountry, Chumash, Hiking, Los Padres National Forest, National Forest, Native Americans, Nature, Race, Wilderness, Writing
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9 Comments
Rename Los Padres National Forest? Race and Recognition In the Woods
Should Los Padres National Forest be renamed? In the roiling social wake of the George Floyd killing, and the peaceful protests and the violence and destruction that erupted across these United States and the world, in this moment of national … Continue reading →
Posted in Santa Barbara
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Tagged backcountry, Backpacking, Hiking, History, Indians, Los Padres National Forest, Native Americans, Race, Racism, Social Justice, Wilderness
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38 Comments
Condor Cave Reference On Redwood Log, Disney California Adventure Park
Chumash pictograph, Santa Barbara County “Native people drew spiral pictographs—sets of concentric rings radiating out from a center—on cave walls and rock shelters in locations where they are illuminated by the rising sun on the winter solstice. Solstice ceremonies, such … Continue reading →
Posted in Santa Barbara
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Tagged Adventure, Archaeology, backcountry, Chumash, Hiking, History, Indians, Native Americans, Nature, Pictographs, Travel
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4 Comments
Carrizo Plain Elk Under Full Moon
Tule elk graze Carrizo Plain. Two photographers perched before one end of Selby Rocks outcrop shooting the moon rising over the broken spine of white sandstone. We drove past, along the meandering dirt road, through the undulating beige grassland, down … Continue reading →
Posted in Santa Barbara
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Tagged Adventure, backcountry, Carrizo Plain, Elk, iPhoneography, Landscapes, Nature, Photography, Pics, Sunsets, Wildlife
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1 Comment
The Sign
Santa Barbara backcountry The men emerged at dawn from the confine of darkness with strained faces wet and ruddy as writhing newborns and the forested land materialized before their bloodshot eyes by the minute in the lightening day, ever larger, … Continue reading →
Posted in Santa Barbara
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Tagged Adventure, backcountry, Backpacking, Fiction, Hiking, Nature, Non-fiction, Outdoors, Santa Barbara, Wilderness, Writing
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12 Comments













