October 8, 2009
Wildcrafting Yerba Buena
People often wonder what wildcrafting is like. Here is a picture I took last week, sitting underneath a bush harvesting my favorite wild mint, Yerba Buena, in the local coastal mountains. I spent the whole day crawling around beneath the the dense canopy of coyote bush and coastal scrub plants, searching for secret patches of this lovely, lemony smelling wild herb - my knees were sore, the flies were buzzing and my hands were getting cut to shreds by the bramble, but I was immersed in the bright, summery, minty world of Yerba Buena all day long. The best thing about this kind of attentive, small scale wildcrafting is getting to know plants in a real and intimate way. I spent the whole day touching and smelling this wild herb went to sleep with dreams of the minty, salty ocean air, tiny shimmering green leaves and sunlight streaming through the branches above my head.
Yerba Buena, so tiny and delicate
A wildcrafters view of the world: crawling underneath the Coyote Bush, A Berkeley Bowl grocery bag full of Yerba Buena
Posted by michael in Wildcrafting at 4:52 PM | comments (0)
September 22, 2009
Our last hike of the season!
When is that pesky Autumnal equinox again? Summer is winding down, but it isn't over yet, right? I hate to see Summer end, but I guess I gotta let go - this was our last hike of the season which means it's the end of Summer fun for us and the beginning of the busy and hectic Holiday Season, drat! You wouldn't think anyone would be thinking about the holidays in September, but when you run a business September means, well, sing it with me - sleigh bells ring, are you listening, in the lane, snow is glistening ...
We spent the day hiking at Las Trampas Regional Wilderness just east of Oakland with the incredibly jolly New Connections crew! These are the people who sell our products to organic food stores such as the Berkeley Bowl, Rainbow, Whole Foods etc ... throughout Northern California - what a fun group! We had a beautiful Indian Summer day, a little hot and the plants are mostly dried up and done for the year, but it was still very pretty out. Thanks New Connections for the great day, and we'll do it again next year in the Summer, maybe we'll hit the redwoods next time!
Kalu (sp?) the dog romping in the grass - Kalu looked like a dolphin bobbing in and out of the grass, she ran all day long, tongue hanging out, huff huff huff, tired but couldn't get enought of it - dogs know how to have fun.
Posted by michael in Wildflower Walks at 12:37 PM | comments (0)
September 11, 2009
Black Sage Harvest 2009
Oh my goodness we're up to our ears in Black Sage right now. Everyone has heard of White Sage, but Black Sage is my favorite of California's wild Sages. It is much more fruity and floral smelling than White Sage. We use this in our Coastal Sage soap, but I'm also distilling lots of it to make essential oils for potential new products including perfumes, essential oil diffusers, and possibly candles. I made a gorgeous Mt. Tamalpais perfume with essential oils of Bay Laurel, Redwood, Yerba Buena, Coyote Mint and Pitcher Sage - it's so nice! I'm going to give some samples of our new perfume/colognes away on facebook because I'd love to get your feedback, so stay tuned.
Posted by michael in Wildcrafting | Wildcrafting at 5:09 PM | comments (0)
July 8, 2009
A slice of summertime heaven - the Sandy Bar Ranch!
I love the Sandy Bar Ranch! It's like a dude ranch for hippies - instead of horses and trail rides, here it's just simple, rustic cabins, a gorgeous organic farm and all in the wild heart of the Klamath-Siskiyou region.
What can you do here? Aside from enjoying the organic farm scenario and swimming in the Klamath river right outside your door, there is an embarassment of outdoorsy riches in this area. The Sandy Bar is right in the heart of the Klamath-Siskiyou wilderness complex and there are endless hiking opportunities here. In my opinion, and I've spent my life backpacking and hiking the West Coast, this is right up there among the premier hiking destinations of the West Coast - ok it's not as spectacular as the Central Sierra, the Olympics or the Big Sur coast, but for big wilderness with plenty of solitude, this area can't be beat.
And river freaks take note - the rivers here are world class, the very best on the entire West Coast. I'm not talking about the murky, warm-water mess known as the KIamath, I'm talking about the undammed, coldwater gems that flow into the Eel, Klamath, Rogue basins. If you're into deep, bouldery, cool, un-dammed, crystal clear rivers, the kind that wild salmon like, the Siskiyous are for you: The Illinois, Smith, Salmon. Mad. these are among my 3 favorite rivers anywhere, and I spend ridiculous amounts of time swimming and "researching" the rivers of the West Coast.
The cabins are $80 a night - affordable for regular folks like you and me - and you can pick all the organic raspberries you can eat and buy fresh produce from the organic farm
My little girl with the farm dog
The sauna at the Sandy Bar Ranch
Bloomer Falls river access on the Salmon River. This picture just doesn't do this swimming hole justice. I spend my life looking for sweet little swimming holes like this one, and this is one of the best driving accessible ones I've ever found! Deep, clear, cool water with big boulders sitting at the bottom of the river, and best of all since it's the Siskiyous and it's in the middle of nowhere, we didn't see anyhone else all day! Never mind that it's 90 degrees out and this is one of the sweetest rivers anywhere! If you have a brain in your head and you want a sweet taste of real summer, drop whatever you're doing right now, get in your car and start driving to this river - just look for the Salmon river turnoff at Somes Bar on highway 96 west of Yreka, and drive 16 miles to the sign for "Bloomer Falls River Access"
Don't change a thing Sandy Bar Ranch - I love everything about you, and we'll be back again soon!
Posted by Hall in Fun Places to go - camping, cozy cabins etc ... at 12:35 PM | comments (1)
June 28, 2009
Big Sur's best campgrounds
There are plenty of lists out there of campgrounds, but they're just lists - no one ever tells you what's good and what to avoid. I'm nothing if not opinionated, so I'll tell you exactly where you should go and you'll thank me because, well, I've got good taste. In evaluating campgrounds, I don't care about showers, RV hookups, playgrounds, camp stores etc ..., I'm into simple wilderness style camping and so my only criteria are privacy, beauty, quietness and access to wilderness/hiking. So if you are into rustic, simple, non-RV camping in the most beautiful campgrounds in the West, you're going to love my reviews of different regions of California and the West, starting with this look at the Big Sur area ...
The best campgrounds on the Big Sur coast in order of preference are as follows ...
1. Kirk Creek State Park
2. Andrew Molera State Park
3. Limekiln State Park
4. Plaskett Creek Campground
5. Pfeiffer-Big Sur State Park
1. Kirk Creek State Park
Kirk Creek takes the prize because, well, the picture sorta says it all ...
There are places up the road where you'd pay a minimum of $2,000 for the same view, here it's $22 a night - God bless America! (are liberal, environmental hippie freaks like me allowed to use that phrase?). Plus, there's no beach access at the Post Ranch and Ventana Inns (oops, did I mention the name of the overpriced celebrity fests up the road?) - so while Brangelina and Gyllenspoon are enjoying their redwood soaks, you can take some satisfaction in knowing you've got the best seats in the house for the price of dinner at Denny's.
There are 34 sites here plus these five "hike-in" spots - and when I say "hike-in" I mean walk 30 yards down a path and sit your lazy, cheap butt down in one of the most beautiful spots you've ever been. But even if you don't want to be more than 20 feet from your car, you just can't go wrong here. Every spot has the gorgeous forever views that define the Big Sur experience in a pleasant, small scale family style camping venue.
Stats: 34 sites, $22 per night; both walk-in and reserved sites (reservations at http://www.parksman.com/). This campground is extremely popular, so during the peak summer season either reserve early or show up on Friday morning to get a spot.
2. Andrew Molera State Park.
I love Andrew Molera state park. Although it doesn't have the glamorous views of Kirk Creek, this 5000 acre state park stradles the Big Sur river and is a hikers/kayakers/sufers dream with the best beach in the whole area and endless access to the most fabled hiking trails of the Big Sur region. You have to hike in about 1/2 mile to get to the campsites which is why all the RV's and lacksidasical car campers roll right on by and check in at Pfeiffer-Big Sur State Park 200+ internal combusion engine friendly campsites. But if you can manage to drag your tent and sleeping bags and food a half a mile, you'll treat yourself to one of the best easy camping experiences in northern California.
The first time I went to Andrew Molera was about ten years ago when my new girlfriend (now wife) and I went for a backpack up to Sykes Hot Springs (10 miles up the Little Sur river trail). We were just looking for a place to camp before our trip. We pulled into the parking lot at about nine at night, and were in the process of unloading our groceries out of the back of the car when a group of insanely fearless raccoons descended on us and tried to take our food. I don't mean that they were grabbing the food when we weren't looking, they were literally grabbing the bags out of our hands. I witnessed my wife in a back and forth tug-of-war over a Berkeley Bowl bag of camping goodies with overly-empowered raccoon - she'd pull the bag towards her and yell, and then he pull it and hiss. We survived the mugging with our food mostly intact, and stumbled through the dark down the path to the campground area where we were met with the most pleasant little hippie scenario. It was UC Santa Cruz's Spring break, and the campground was packed with stoner college kids, bonfires and acoustic guitars. Now I'm not the drum circle, jam band type, but I was just so charmed by the whole scenario - the warm evening, the laughter, it was really sweet. We set up camp and went to sleep with the distant sound and singing and laughing.
Now I understand that I'm not painting the most appealing scenario with the woodstock-like campground and rabid raccoons - you'll be happy to know that the State Park cracked down on the open camping scenario that used to be in place in the meadow area. Now there are 24 official campsites with a limit of four people per campsite - so while the marauding raccoons are a constant, the campsite is very quiet these days. This is such a gorgeous state park with great access to the heart of the Ventana wilderness, hippie jam sessions or not, you just can't go wrong here.
Stats: 24 campsites; $12 per night; no reservations/walk in only.
3. Limekiln State Park
I've never stayed here but I took some pictures recently when I was driving through. This is a really nice campground tucked away in the redwoods with access to a great little beach. Here are the pics ...
Stats: 34 campsites/$25 per night; revervations http://www.reserveamerica.com
4. Plaskett Creek Campground.
This is a flat, grassy campground right across the highway from the best beach in the southern part of the Big Sur Coast - Sand Dollar Beach. Great family campground with good access to trails and great ocean views.
Stats: 44 campsites/$22 per night; reservations http://www.recreation.gov/
5. Pfeiffer-Big Sur State Park.
Not to be confused with Pfeiffer Burns State Park which has two great hike-to environmental campsites, this is the place where most people stay when they come to this area. 200+ campsites tucked away in the redwoods with lots of RV's, but it's still frickin' gorgeous. If none of the other campsites were available, this wouldn't be a bad option at all. As an added bonus, you can leave right from the camping area and hike up the Little Sur River trail which is one of the best trails in the region.
Stats: 204 campsites/$25 per night; revervations http://www.reserveamerica.com.
Posted by Hall in Fun Places to go - camping, cozy cabins etc ... at 2:28 PM | comments (0)
