Haven’t had a chance to discuss or portray my experience in the San Gorgonio Wilderness just (amazingly) about three weeks ago now. Was one of the harshest and ugliest and yes, most beautiful stretches of the trail in SoCal. Blazingly hot on a Tuesday in the desert (80+ degrees). Cold and snowy three days laterContinue reading “PCT section C: I-10 to Big Bear”
Category Archives: the land
Ken Burns on Yosemite
A couple of years ago Ken Burns gave a talk in San Gabriel about one of his favorite subjects, Yosemite, and said I thought many wise things, most especially: “This couldn’t have happened any place else. It is the Declaration of Independence applied to the landscape; the full expression of the democratic experience,” Burns said.Continue reading “Ken Burns on Yosemite”
PCT haiku from section C
semi-circle of pine bark half-mooned on the trail waiting to be crunched
The hazardous truth: Santa Clara Waste Water
My old friends at the Ventura County Reporter ran my latest obsession/story, which I’ve been working on for the last six months or so, off and on, and did a nice job with the lay-out, may I say. Here’s the crux of the matter: What really happened when Santa Clara Waste Water (in Santa Paula area)Continue reading “The hazardous truth: Santa Clara Waste Water”
Santa Clara Waste Water: 1 year after the explosion
Will publish a story on the Scenes from an Explosion story I have been recently slightly obsessed with soon, but for now:
People of the PCT: Dirt Stew and Dormouse
About eleven months ago, I ran into a couple of thru-hikers as I approached Kennedy Meadows on the PCT. I was coming off the end of a super-hot section of the Mojave with little or no water, and they were south-bound. In SoCal, mostly hiking earlier in the year, heading north I hadn’t met manyContinue reading “People of the PCT: Dirt Stew and Dormouse”
Ballet of the bats over Lake Aloha
At Lake Aloha, mile TK on the PCT, I saw a sight the likes of which I’ve never been so privileged. A ballet of bats, so to speak, dancing over the still waters of Lake Aloha, chasing I think big fat whitish moths that unaccountably flutter around the water there (or so I’ve seen). TheContinue reading “Ballet of the bats over Lake Aloha”
NYC writer meets nature: The Great Surrender
A young writer lays out what it is to fall into a relationship with nature — reluctantly. …if you had told me a decade earlier, when I was living in New York City working as a magazine editor, that I would someday move to Montana—and for a man—I would have scoffed: “What a hilarious idea.” IfContinue reading “NYC writer meets nature: The Great Surrender”
People of the PCT: Chop Stakes
In section J of the Pacific Crest Trail, at mile 1140 on Halfmile’s great maps, I met a thru hiker on his way south. A young man, alone, completely comfortable with the trail, and making steady if slow progress. He said he’d just been cheered by passing the 1500-mile mark — that meant he wasContinue reading “People of the PCT: Chop Stakes”
Why does the park service make wilderness visitors lie about camping next to water?
If you wish to obtain a permit to visit the Yosemite Wilderness, to hike perhaps on the PCT, one goes to the Wilderness Permit office labeled as such, off the main road (not the stone building near the campgrounds) and stands in line and picks up one’s reserved permit, or hopes that someone else does not,Continue reading “Why does the park service make wilderness visitors lie about camping next to water?”
Kit Stolz 