Tag Archives: Los Padres National Forest

100° Hike

Santa Ynez Valley viticulture as seen on drive to trailhead. It’s an ordinary summer day. It’s not one of those media hyped heat wave events, but it’s supposed to be hot out. Such forecasts don’t really apply to the backcountry, … 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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Mountain Pools

Several pools along a tributary of Sespe Creek.

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Wild Cucumber, Trout and Pictographs

Wild cucumber (Marah macrocarpus, previously called Echinocystis macrocarpa), also known as Manroot or Bigroot, was called molo’wot’ in Barbareño Chumash and chilicote in Spanish. Got it? “And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah; for … Continue reading

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