Tag Archives: Backpacking

Chocolate Lily

Posted on March 21, 2019 by Jack Elliott

Fritillaria biflora Argh. The entire state of California (yes, that’s hyperbole) at the moment seems to be either gripped by what journalists and the news media love to hype as a wildflower “super bloom” or is suffering in the throes … Continue reading →

Posted in Santa Barbara | Tagged Backpacking, Hiking, Hiking (2), Los Padres National Forest, Nature, Outdoors, Pics, Santa Barbara, Wilderness, wildflowers | 6 Comments

The Mighty Chanterelle and the Gnarly Oak

Posted on February 28, 2019 by Jack Elliott

Santa Barbara County Chanterelle “In an oak forest alone, more than a hundred different species of fungi may be present in different parts of the roots of the same tree. From the oak’s point of view, this is a very … Continue reading →

Posted in Santa Barbara | Tagged Backpacking, Foraging, Hiking, Hiking (2), Los Padres National Forest, Mushrooms, Nature, Outdoors, Santa Barbara, Wilderness | 5 Comments

Wild Oyster Mushrooms and Reading the Nuances of Nature

Posted on December 12, 2018 by Jack Elliott

Oysters on a standing dead cottonwood tree in the Santa Ynez Mountains. You can see where the deceased tree’s canopy had filled in the now empty sky above, the other trees wrapping around it. “The hunter-gatherer lives on what is … Continue reading →

Posted in Santa Barbara | Tagged Backpacking, Camping, Hiking, Los Padres National Forest, Mushrooms, Nature, Oyster Mushrooms, Wild Edibles, Wildcraft, Wilderness, Writing | 11 Comments

The Mighty Chia Seed, Cuyama Badlands

Posted on October 3, 2016 by Jack Elliott

The Cuyama Badlands can be a wicked and terrible place for a human on foot with minimal supplies. Heaved aloft, scorched and desiccated, it’s a land clawed open and washed away by spotty cloudbursts that quench a sparse growth of piñon pine, juniper and sagebrush. … Continue reading →

Posted in Reference | Tagged Backpacking, Badlands, Chia, Chumash, Ethnobotany, Flora, Hiking, Native Americans, Nature, Non-fiction, Travel | 7 Comments

A Great Interval of Silence, Chumash Wilderness

Posted on August 4, 2016 by Jack Elliott

Boilin’ the billy. “Great intervals of silence are evidently conducive to our well-being. A meditative stillness, suggests Gary Snyder, was invented by waiting hunters. Perhaps this reflected the poised and ruminating hush of mothers of sleeping infants. High levels of … Continue reading →