Nature, environment, and a little philosophy
Our annual Sierra Nevada backpacking trip might be the only predictable part of our lives, yet we're never proactive enough to score permits for the "good" trailheads. That's how we found ourselves hiking over Baxter Pass in the last week of June, elevation 12,300-feet (3,749 meters), practically alone on the trail, managing headaches and nose …
Our big birding day, that is. San Diego County has more species of birds than any other county in the United States: 520 species. On Global Big Day, Eric and I set out to see as many of them as we could. We have a lot of birds because we have a lot of geography; …
July 2020: plans to return to the Alps this summer crashed and burned, so we pivoted locally and went backpacking in Southern California's backyard: the Eastern Sierra. Eric and I aren't classic trail warriors. We prefer to follow our curiosity up pathless valleys and over unnamed saddles, walking quietly, treading lightly. Optimism is our strongest …
Blue I knew it would be bright but I didn't think it would be blue. Electric! From the cliffs, my first sight of the crashing surf was such a shock I gasped. On the beach, I hopped about behind Eric and watched the ground light up beneath his feet. Water splashed around us like blue …
Last winter, after eight rainless years, California's drought finally ended. In San Diego, it rained what felt like every week, for several months. The hills flushed green then orange with poppies, the desert bloomed, the reservoirs refilled, the rivers flowed. We learnt that there were waterfalls in the mountains. In early March, in an extraordinary …
Every time I visit Joshua Tree seems like the last time I'll photograph it - for how many ways can there be to frame a yucca? Yet each season brings new colour and weather to the desert. In December, the buckwheat had turned a vivid burgundy, and it was stormy. Our first evening, we climbed …
Stars, like salt. 