I’ve just (belatedly) started telling Lesley where I’m going when I head out alone in the hills or on the beaches. In case I don’t get back and someone has to come looking for me. Yesterday I was taking off for a long bike ride and mushroom hunt, and I said I’d be home by dark. “In case I break both legs,” I said. Ha ha.

So I got out, deep into the woods, left my bike leaning against a tree, and set out, finding nothing much but death caps (Aminita phalloides), but it was nice being in groves that contained, in addition to bay trees and conifers, healthy live oaks not hit with sudden oak death. I stalked and wandered for maybe an hour and decided to head back to my bike, and at that moment congratulating myself on my sense of direction. I usually can track my way back to the starting point.

Well, smart ass, after a few steps, I realized I didn’t know where I was. Nothing looked familiar. I knew west because of the setting sun (yeah, brilliant, no compass), but I had no idea of the direction back. After 20 minutes, following various deer and coyote trails, I realized I had maybe an hour before it was dark. For some reason I had a phone connection, and I called and left Lesley a message, I’m OK, but lost and it’s possible I may have to spend the night out here, so don’t call in the troops…

I started jogging, decided to head for what looked like a canyon, because I figured it would run west and that would lead to the road. I was getting a bit worried, shit, it was gonna be a cold night. I finally got to the canyon and the opposite wall looked almost vertical.

BUT then I spotted some red banners. and started following them down to the bottom of the canyon,  and there was a faint trail going up the steep west side. Never been so glad to see trail markers.

AND at the top, I spotted telephone poles. Eureka! Bushwhacked over to them, then hiked a mile or so back to my bike, got home just after sunset, dog tired and happy. A great adventure.

Anyone have ideas for a good GPS app for an iPhone 6s?

My longtime good friend Sam Rehnborg and his wife Francesca took off this summer on their 70-foot sailboat for the South Seas, retracing a voyage they made over 30 years ago. They got some rude shocks from the effects of global warming, as he explained in an e-mail to me last week:

“Bottom line for me is that it was a great experience retracing my steps through this part of the world.  It only reinforces what I sort of knew anyway about the ocean temperature, which has been averaging up here about 88 degrees F.  The fish have disappeared.  The corals are bleaching and dying.

 The water is getting acidified.  The local people are doing the best that they can, but there is not much they can do about some of these big, big changes that are taking place.  The efforts are going to have to take place on a much larger scale.”

The photo shows him sailing out from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco this July, heading for The Marquesas Islands. His blog on the trip: www.drsamsblog.com

Sam has a Ph.D. in Biophysics and a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering and is the president of the Nutrilite Health Institute, makers of vitamins and dietary supplements. He just got back and is motivated to do research on global warming.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BLv7ghJBxQv/?taken-by=lloyd.kahn

Fox was the only living man. There was no earth. The water was everywhere. “What shall I do,” Fox asked himself. He began to sing in order to find out.

   “I would like to meet somebody,” he sang to the sky.

   Then he met Coyote.

   “I thought I was going to meet someone,” Fox said.

   “Where are you going?” Coyote asked.

   “I’ve been wandering all over trying to find someone. I was worried there for a while.”

   “Well it’s better for two people to go together… that’s what they always say.”

   “O.K.. But what will we do?”

   “I don’t know.”

   “I got it! Let’s try to make the world.”

   “And how are we going to do that?” Coyote asked.

   “Sing!” said Fox.

   -Jaime de Angulo, Coyote Man & Old Doctor Loon

This lovely painting is on the wall of the Santa Cruz Museum Of Natural History, a wonderful small museum with displays of the former inhabitants of the Monterey Bay Area, as well as local flora and fauna. It’s at 1305 East Cliff Dr., Santa Cruz, CA 95062.

What a beautiful life California inhabitants had before the Europeans arrived!