Canal walk

Last Saturday I mentioned I was looking forward to a Canal Walk organized by Folsom Lake SRA staff, exploring the history of the East Canal that connected the original Folsom Dam to the historic powerhouse. We had a beautiful morning for our excursion, and I did manage to learn a few things I had never known before. It had been […]

Read More →

The Adventure Continues… Camarillo Ranch

The early history of California is filled with not only Spanish missions and gold discoveries (not to mention the indigenous peoples) but huge tracts of land operated as cattle ranches by the Californios. Here in Northern California, the neighborhood I’m sitting in was once part of the vast San Juan Rancho land grant; and down in Southern California it’s just […]

Read More →

Mt. St. Helena ashfall

Off along a short side trail at the Petrified Forest in Calistoga, I found an extra bit of geological history — a large ash fall left over from the eruption of Mt. St. Helena 3 million years ago. Although the entire site is scattered with concrete-like remants of the ash deposits (like the one in the image below), this spot […]

Read More →

The Adventure Continues… Aerial L.A.

Two weeks ago I featured an episode of Visiting called Over L.A. from 1990s. You might say that in a sense this episode is an update; it aired in September 2007 and highlights the newest technology at the time, serving as a great contrast with the aerial views from Huell’s earlier outing. His hosts for this segment, Helinet Aviation, are […]

Read More →

The Adventure Continues… Over L.A.

Huell always excelled when it came to looking at things from an unusual perspective — going places and enjoying experiences most of us will never be able to do ourselves. And this episode of Visiting, which originally aired in 1994, is a great example. Hold on for a unique view of Los Angeles, complete with freeway traffic jams, layers of […]

Read More →

Memory Monday: Salmon River, 1966

It’s been awhile since I did a Memory Monday post, mostly because I haven’t felt greatly inspired. But today I’m excited about it, because I went out to Denio’s on Sunday afternoon and found a wonderful little photo album that I just had to bring home. I don’t know who the people in the photos are, but as soon as […]

Read More →

The Adventure Continues… Survival Food

Today I was planning to feature a completely different episode of Visiting, but then I happened to read the blurb from this one, which originally aired in July 1999. Since I actually mentioned foraging in my post on Monday (Earth Day), it felt only fitting to take a look at some serious foraging right in the heart of Los Angeles. […]

Read More →

The Adventure Continues… Muybridge

Eadweard Muybridge (born Edward Muggeridge) was a deeply fascinating personality and a pioneer in the field of photography. A native of England, he spent much of his life in the western United States from the 1850s through the 1870s. He began as a bookseller, basing himself in San Francisco around 1855. But it took a traumatic accident with a runaway […]

Read More →