“Roughing it” may be a bit of an exaggeration, but we have had to adjust — for a few days we’re doing without a microwave and a coffee maker! More dauntingly, our only heat source is a small woodburning stove. We’re off the electrical grid, so all the power is battery operated; we need to keep an eye on the power meter to keep it from dropping below 80. So running the space heater we brought from home probably definitely isn’t the best idea. That’s no problem on those days when the sun is out and the weather is springlike — but at the moment we’re sitting in the middle of storm clouds bringing wind and pouring rain to the region for the next couple of days. Still, we made good use of our window of opportunity to get outside and enjoy the beauty all around us on the Mendocino coast. While the Big Guy was fishing, I explored a trail at Russian Gulch State Park. It was sort of a happy accident that I wound up on this trail (more details on that later), but I’m so glad I found it — and I had it all to myself.

Western skunk cabbage

Trillium