The Adventure Continues… Idyllwild

While Huell’s California’s Gold series took him to all corners of the state, in Visiting he focused on Southern California, and especially Los Angeles and its environs. As a native of Northern California, whenever I think of the southern half of the state, suburban sprawl and deserts usually come to mind. So it’s good to be reminded the region includes […]

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Riparian habitat

I really wasn’t sure what to expect when I started the trail known as the Ecological Staircase at Mendocino County’s Jug Handle Reserve, but it turned out to be a really great hike — not too physically demanding and yet a decent workout. All the way out to the Pygmy Forest and back, it totals about 5 miles. After taking […]

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Memory Monday: Summer 1990

Back in the summer of 1990 my family visited (for the first and last time) what was then Marine World/Africa USA in Vallejo, California. There have been lots of changes to the park since then. The place is now known as Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, and there are more rollercoasters these days than large animals — although some animals do […]

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Peelings, oh, peelings

My apologies for the punning reference to a song from 1974, but that was pretty much what popped into my head this morning after I spent nearly an hour laboring over my backyard project. I bought this small shed last spring with every intention of assembling it by myself; and I have done most of the work thus far, with […]

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Bridges and boardwalks

If you’re traveling along coastal Highway 1 in Mendocino County, you will probably notice there are quite a number of different bridges crossing over creeks and rivers that flow into the Pacific Ocean. From south to north, the scenic artery crosses the Gualala River, Elk Creek, the Navarro River, the Albion River, the Big River, Jughandle Creek, and the Noyo […]

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Rabbits at Russian Gulch

The campground at Russian Gulch State Park is currently closed for the season — to humans, that is. On the other hand, the cottontails are making themselves right at home. I accidentally caught a few of them in the middle of an afternoon snack when I took a stroll through the area last week. They didn’t seem especially alarmed to […]

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Memory Monday: Sonoma Coast, 2015

We just arrived home yesterday from our latest trip to the Mendocino coast near Fort Bragg, and this morning Google Photos prodded me with memories of an earlier visit, just a bit farther south. It was September 2015, and we were staying at the Ocean Cove Lodge in Sonoma County, a great little spot located between Salt Point to the […]

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