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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
- Indian Head Test Pattern (1939)
- Return To Scene Of Lion Standoff
- Ticks, Lizards and Lyme Disease
- The Exceptional Sundowner Winds of Santa Barbara
- About
- Lower Lion Canyon, Sierra Madre Mountains
- Meadow Camp (Dick Smith Wilderness)
- The Day Hell Hit Santa Barbara; Third Hottest Temperature Ever Recorded on Earth
- Fossil Falls, A Glacial Relic of the Pleistocene
- Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing: A Santa Barbara Original
Photos from the blog
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Latest Dispatches
- The Exceptional Sundowner Winds of Santa Barbara
- Lobster Poachers?
- Dick Smith on Forest Access
- Old Mission Sycamore Whacked Again
- Bald Eagle, Manzana Creek, San Rafael Wilderness
- When Rains Fall, Will USFS Close Our Forest? The Coming El Niño
- Language of Forest Closure; Assault on an Ancient Right
- March of the Mustard; The Spread of Noxious Weeds
- Mark of Conquest II: Benchmark and Mortar
- Save Old Mission Sycamore … __ __ __ …
- 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
Lunar Phase

Tag Archives: Wilderness
San Lucas Falls, Santa Ynez Mountains
A view of the Pacific Ocean overlooking the Gaviota Coast from the crest of the Santa Ynez Mountains atop San Lucas Falls canyon. San Lucas Falls is rarely visited and hardly ever seen by anybody despite being one of the … Continue reading →
Posted in Santa Barbara
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Tagged Adventure, Hiking, Hiking (2), Landscapes, Los Padres National Forest, Nature, Santa Barbara, Santa Ynez Mountains, waterfalls, Wilderness
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13 Comments
Chocolate Lily
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
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Tagged Backpacking, Hiking, Hiking (2), Los Padres National Forest, Nature, Outdoors, Pics, Santa Barbara, Wilderness, wildflowers
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6 Comments
Smith’s Pool
The Santa Ynez River was once hailed as “the most productive of all the little steelhead rivers of the south” in California. (Native Steelhead of Yore) Sitting in the public library in the 1990s, I stumbled upon vague directions and … Continue reading →
Posted in Santa Barbara
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Tagged Hiking, Hiking (2), iPhoneography, Landscape, Los Padres National Forest, Nature, Outdoors, Pics, Santa Barbara, Wilderness
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3 Comments
The Mighty Chanterelle and the Gnarly Oak
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
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Tagged Backpacking, Foraging, Hiking, Hiking (2), Los Padres National Forest, Mushrooms, Nature, Outdoors, Santa Barbara, Wilderness
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5 Comments
Wild Oyster Mushrooms and Reading the Nuances of Nature
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
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Tagged Backpacking, Camping, Hiking, Los Padres National Forest, Mushrooms, Nature, Oyster Mushrooms, Wild Edibles, Wildcraft, Wilderness, Writing
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11 Comments













