During the first week of June I headed into the Yolla Bolly-Middle Eel Wilderness in the northwestern corner of Mendocino County. In the Wintun language "Yo-la" means snow covered and "Bo-li" translates to high peak. Doubt there will be snow, but peaks rise to the 7,500 foot range. The trailhead lies a few miles south of the three main peaks: Sugarloaf Mountain, Solomon Peak, and Hammerhorn Mountain.
Posts published in “Essays”
My friend David Jouris, an eccentric mapmaker, photographer and quotation collector, has for several years suggested I create a web site called Walton Predicts. This suggestion stems from David’s amazement at my uncanny ability to make predictions that always come true. I have resisted creating such a site because making predictions is a sacred art, such prescience granted by the gods, which gifts I dare not taint with commercialization or anything smacking of self-aggrandizement. I am but a conduit for these coming attractions, an English channel.
When the Newman family first came to Anderson Valley in the late 1950s, it was as part-timers; most weekends during autumn, winter and spring, and all summer when my parent’s summer camp near Philo, El…
We were down on Big River Beach a few days ago, the weather Hawaiian, naked babies frolicking in the sand, the air scented with barbecued lamb and chicken, the river sparkling, the breezes gentle. And joining us in paradise were a dozen or so unleashed dogs gadding about making everything much less enjoyable by depositing piles of steaming dog poop in our midst and trampling our picnics while chasing each other and vying for scraps of food.
California is the most hydrologically altered landmass on the planet, a distinction it first attained in the early-mid-20th century. The Hoover Dam (on the Colorado River), which began operation in 1936, was the largest dam…
Can you imagine your young kids setting off to see the world, with no real plans, little money, and no phone or internet access? “See you in a few months or years, I dunno"? Today's…
Jim Browneagle, 60, of the Elem Pomo, is one among six people contending to represent Lake County District 3, which includes the communities of Blue Lakes, Upper Lake, Nice, Lucerne, Glenhaven, Clearlake Oaks, Lake Pillsbury, and Spring Valley.