Alaska

Shelter Cove, California

It has been a year since my hitchhiking and backpacking trip with Chelsea to the Humboldt Redwoods State Park and the Lost Coast trail. We emerged in Shelter Cove, tired and hungry, from backpacking along the trail, and spent the last night of the trip camping on a bluff above a beautiful black beach. That trip was the catalyst for my move from Juneau, Alaska […]

Shelter Cove, California Read

Chelsea

This past weekend, my friend Chelsea and I met up for a short camping trip along the California North Coast, starting in Fort Bragg and ending in San Francisco. Stopping by a boutique store in Fort Bragg, Chelsea found a golden “space” suite, and after some persuasion, it was hers. An outfit like that (a “daily wear”, she called it) begged for a beach photo

Chelsea Read

California Brown Pelican

It’s hard to miss these peculiar brown birds gliding, in small groups, above braking waves of the ocean edge, disappearing into the fog. The Brown Pelican is the smallest of the 8 species of Pelecanus. It’s mesmerizing to watch them glide 30 feet above the surface looking for aggregations of small fish, bomb-diving for them, once spotted, head straight down, wings half-stretched, often disappearing completely

California Brown Pelican Read

The North Pacific Coastline

The sheer expanse of the Pacific Ocean. Thirty percent of the Earth’s surface. So properly christened Peaceful by Magellan. The incredible coastline of the East Pacific, stretching from the northern tip of Western Alaska to the southern tip of Chile. Inviting and soothing at times and places, like a kitten. Crushing and spewing and hissing and boiling at its mightiest. Dotted with coves and lagoons

The North Pacific Coastline Read

Sea Birds of the Pacific Northwest

As I was driving along Highway 101 to my new temporary home town of Arcata, California, I stopped overnight in a charming fishing town of Newport, Oregon. Besides great CouchSuring hosts, another highlight of Newport was the Oregon Coast Aquarium, with their Passages of the Deep and the Sea Bird Aviary. Even though it was January, and the birds weren’t in their bright mating outfits,

Sea Birds of the Pacific Northwest Read