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; …
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 …
It takes precision to steer a canoe down a rapid. Standing waves curl upstream towards the bow, ready to fill the boat. They should be skimmed, not ploughed through, though the canoe should be kept close enough to the turbulent current to avoid other obstacles. Precision is something Eric did not have on our third …
I was surveying the bone-dry San Luis Rey riverbed recently, performing autopsies on crunchy, senescing weeds, when I had a revelation in sound. I heard a newborn bird learning to sing. First, from a nearby willow, drifted the adult Vireo’s song: a well-formed, two-part warble. Then came baby’s: a squeaky, unfinished attempt tapering into hesitating …
The San Diego River is full of trash. In an effort to keep it under control, the San Diego River Park Foundation organizes clean-ups two or three times each week. I lend a hand as often as I can. Most days, removing trash from the river means clearing abandoned homeless encampments. Some sites, representing whole communities, …
Continue reading "In San Diego, Rescuing our River After the Rain"
Stars, like salt. 