These last 4 days, we had a visit from Steve Pezman, the co-creator and recently-retired editor of Surfer’s Journal, and his long-time surfing buddy, photographer Leo Hetzel. Steve interviewed me and Leo shot photos for an article in the magazine. We talked about the old days, among other things, and this was the cover of a scrapbook I made of a surfing trip to Costa Rica in 1990. It shows Kurt Van Dyke on the balcony of his hotel for surfers in Puerto Viejo, on the Caribbean coast southeast of Puerto Limón. When he saw me about to take a picture, Kurt said, “Classic, eh?”

(I have a long history with the Van Dyke family. Betty Van Dyke is one of my oldest and very best friends, and I hung out with Peter Van Dyke in the ’50s; Kurt is Betty’s son.)

Spent a windy night in this driftwood windbreak shelter. It was cleverly angled to block northwest winds.

Rick has been working for months to coordinate the changeover from Blogger to WordPress and we’ve finally arrived. I was partially inspired by Cabinporn, with its large images. I also have more control over layout, but it’s going to be a learning curve. Here I go.

At left is a driftwood shack at the Mattole River beach. I’m in the midst of revising and expanding my book titled Driftwood Shacks: Anonymous Architecture Along the California Coast.

I know everyone knows this but in case not, click on the photo.

At end of trip. Note driftwood trekking poles.

Set out at 8 AM after breakfast of granola with hot water and my last hard-boiled egg. Had to cross creek and I wasn’t about to try balancing on slippery log with heavy pack.

My technique: take off shoes, tie laces together, hang around neck, go barefoot across creek with my 2 bespoke driftwood hiking poles, v. carefully; slipping would be a disaster. Got across, dried feet, rebooted, was on my way.

Felt great — it was lucky that the fast-moving hiker the night before had told me how to get up on bluff trail; otherwise would not have seen it and struggled through beach boulders and deep sand.

Whoo! Walking on a trail was a cinch, and this one was lined with flowers. Fortified with almonds, chocolate, and 14-grams-of-protein Power Bar, numerous water stops, I made it through the 2nd high tide zone.

What I learned to do was rest before flat-lining. I stopped for 15 or so minutes, 4-5 times, resting near a creek and once, lying in the shade in a driftwood shack, to regain strength and then pushed on. I ended up walking for 8½ hours until pretty near exhausted, reached Shelter Cove around 5 PM.

Someone stole a workbench from  under the house in broad daylight.