Soquel, California, Land of Medicine Buddha

 Waning Gibbous Moon

 Ancestral lands of the Ohlone Awaswas people.

Tucked away in the gorgeous redwood forest near Soquel, California, adjacent to the Forest of Nisene Marks, is the Land of Medicine Buddha. The Land of Medicine Buddha is a meditation and retreat facility, not a state park or recreation area, but during the months of May through October, the gates are open for hikers and responsible dog owners to explore a six-mile loop trail and view the facility. I have heard about the place for years, but yesterday was the first time for me to visit.

I parked alongside a few other cars just before the bridge that leads to the main gate and wandered in, looking for a trailhead, a little cautious so as not to disturb the quiet. The signs on narrow Prescott Road (speed limit 15 mph) try to prepare you for a different experience. This is not a public park where you bring your boombox and all the neighborhood kids to twist and shout. The amusing road signs gently tell you so. You are entering a magical forest with faeries and elves and gnomes, they say. Go slow, leave your hurriedness back in town. Stay calm and yield to the banana slugs. You either get it or you don't, but if you don't get it, please start getting it right now. Okay, the signs don't have that many words, but I can't remember exactly what they said, so I'm paraphrasing.

Anyway, I pretty much get what Medicine Buddha is saying, and what I don't get, I still respect, so I began to walk. I noticed right off the bat the two large signs that read No Mountain Bikes and Dogs on Leashes Only. My dogless intention was to walk on my feet through the trees for 4 miles and turn around, carefully yielding to banana slugs. I think the colorful buildings and prayer flags and shrines are beautiful, but I didn't want to disturb anyone who might be doing what people do around those things. I just wanted to enjoy a nice, silent hike in the woods. So I did not enter the part of the loop that included tippy-toeing around earnest meditators and prayerful yogis. I met three really nice, smiling, healthy, solo women hikers along the trail. We exchanged muted hellos and a few pleasant niceties, and continued on our merry ways. That successfully checked the social interaction box for the day for me. Perfect!

The trail gradually climbed and descended through ferns and redwoods above a surprisingly still-running, drought-resistant creek until it dropped down to cross the water where it rippled just above the soles of my shoes. Then the path started to climb up the side of a fairly steep mountain, gaining 1,200 feet in a half a mile. In that segment, the forest changed from redwoods to firs to oaks, and narrowed a bit, making it important to dodge runners of poison oak encroaching upon my legs. I worked up a pretty good sweat there and as far as I know, I didn't get poisoned. At the top of the climb, I hit the 4 mile mark and turned around.

By far the best part of this hike was the redwoods-and-fern section. Come to think of it, not counting the oceans and waterfalls, the redwood-and-fern sections of the planet might be the best part of Earth. The trail frequently ducked under fallen logs and led me past interesting mushroom communities. Walking here was absolutely invigorating.

Some of the mushrooms were as big as my head, some were as small as my thumbnail, but all seemed very healthy and absolutely at home in this gorgeous forest. 

On my way back down the trail to the gate, five college-age mountain bikers, four men and one woman, came barreling along, all smiling and how-ya-doing. They knew what they were doing was wrong and they didn't care. Not even a little bit. There are miles and miles of great riding trails right next door in the Forest of Nisene Marks State Park. I guess that's not enough for them. How long before self-centered people like these make the Land of Medicine Buddha trails off limits to the public?

That would be a crying shame.

Peace, Love, and Things I Just Don't Get,

Jim

#2,022 in 2022

Watsonville, California - Pinto Lake County Park

 Waning Gibbous Moon

Ancestral lands of the Ohlone Kalentaruk people

Yesterday I took a little journey to another nearby park that I had never visited before. Pinto Lake County Park is situated in the agricultural lands northeast of Watsonville in Santa Cruz County. It has the appearance of an older facility, with weathered wooden pavilions and restrooms and infrequent signs. But there are groomed soccer fields, a few miles of walking paths, and an 18-hole disc gold course, too, as well as Pinto Lake, of course. I didn't know what to expect really, but I decided to go just to see something new (to me). 

I forgot to take a picture of the park's sign. This photo is from Google.

I have been spoiled lately by Santa Clara County parks that have neat and clean kiosks with shiny detailed maps of their hiking trails and facilities. Nothing like that was to be found, so I followed my nose around the soccer field to spy what I took to be a trailhead. It was actually one of the last holes of the disc golf course, but a small, faded sign said golfers shared the trail with hikers, so off I went. The golf course looked pretty challenging to me, an admitted novice and infrequent player. I think it would be a fun course to try. The trails that I followed were clean single tracks through the woods above the various "fingers" of Pinto Lake. They covered less than three miles total, but nonetheless, it was a pleasant, if short hike. After winding through the trees, I found a connector trail that led me down to a wooden walkway next to the water. 

There were a few different kinds of wildflowers and some very shiny ivy growing along the shady trails. There was no trash. I could see what I guessed were fisherman's or fisherwoman's narrow side trails that plunged steeply toward the water. It appeared to be poison oak central and I wasn't interested in that, so I stayed on the main paths.

The walkway over the water seemed to be a popular fishing spot for non-fans of poison oak. Two guys were plopping surface lures into the water as I passed by. I can't imagine what they were trying to catch. They answered my standard fisherman question ("ketchin' inny?")  with a very resigned and simple "nope." A small boat with a silent trolling motor and two middle aged dudes were not ketchin' inny either, but they were having fun being followed by two begging ducks. The dudes stopped and fed the ducks some pork rinds. Watsonville ducks love them some pork rinds, don'tcha know.

At the end of the boardwalk the trail made a U-turn and climbed up a little ways directly to a most colorful and decorative surprise. I had stumbled into a shaded flower-and-candle laden shrine to the Virgin de Guadalupe. Little did I know that this humble outdoor chapel has been featured on CNN and visited by thousands of people from all over creation. 

As the story goes, a woman named Anita Contreras was walking along by herself next to the lake one day in 1992. She was feeling deeply sad and despondent due to a failed marriage at the time, when lo and behold, she looked up and saw the likeness of the Virgin Maria looking down on her from the bark of an oak tree. A devout Catholic, Anita took this as a sign and a blessing. She pledged to build and maintain a shrine at that spot and to share it with other people in need of solace. She did exactly that, caring for the place for more than twenty years before she passed on. Now others have taken her place and Mass is celebrated there by local priests for the faithful on most Saturdays and Sundays. 

A happy, toothless gentlemen about my age, originally from Mexico, was there yesterday, tending to the flowers and candles. I didn't catch his first name, but he said his last name was Figueroa and he claimed to be a descendant of the famous General Jose Figueroa (governor of Alta California from 1833 to 1835), for whom Figueroa Street in Los Angeles was named. Senor Figueroa worked in vineyards from Los Angeles to Santa Rosa in his lifetime, slowly learning English and helping to raise a large family. A nicer man you have never met.

I didn't know Anita's legend before yesterday, so I didn't look for the image in any of the trees close to the shrine. Is it still there? Is it visible to ornery pagans like me? I'll go back and check one of these days. One thing for sure is that Senora Anita saw something there that changed her life for the better and however it happened, that's okay by me.

On my way back on the loop trail, I saw a sculpture of sorts. There were no signs or happy, holy attendants, but I guessed that the turtle represents Turtle Island, what is called North America today, with little symbols of some of the continents animals on its back. A biggo turtle sculpture may not be as sensational as a virgin birth, etc. etc., but hey, this is pretty cool, too.

Peace, Love, and Comfort

Jim

#2,022 in 2022

Pacific Grove, California, Walk of Remembrance

 Full Moon (Total Lunar Eclipse 9:11 p.m. PDT)

Yesterday was the 11th Annual Walk of Remembrance  in Pacific Grove honoring the residents of the historic Chinese fishing village which "mysteriously" burned down in 1906. The village was located at Point Alones, now the site of Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station close to today's Cannery Row. There were several attempts by the U.S. government to remove Chinese immigrants in California and elsewhere prior to this local tragedy. The Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History and the Pacific Grove Public Library are good places to start if you want to learn more. 

The Walk of Remembrance program began at the museum on Central Avenue where a crowd of about 300 people gathered to hear a handful of local and state officials speak about the importance of diversity and justice in society. The final speaker, a Pacific Grove councilman, read a proclamation by the city which formally apologized for the racist destruction of the Point Alones Fishing Village and the more recent anti-Chinese American hate speech associated with the COVID-19 outbreak. A few lighter moments were provided by the Monterey Bay Lion Dance Team. 

The Walk began after the speeches were over, proceeding down toward the Monterey Bay Recreation Trail a little less than a mile to the Hopkins Marine Station. Several members of the procession carried small posters which the museum provided that were photographs of the victims of the fire. 

At the village site, the crowd re-assembled to watch a traditional dance performed before a small group of descendants of the original villagers. The dance was followed by speakers from the Marine Station and a historian from Stanford University. 

Nobody can change history. Discrimination that happened in the 19th and 20th centuries forever changed the lives of people who were only doing their best to feed their families and to earn a hard living in a rapidly changing world. There is no valid excuse for what took place in 1906 and there is no valid reason for any of that to continue into modern times. I applaud the city of Pacific Grove for their efforts to mend the hurt that still haunts families of the 1906 victims. And I pledge responsibility for my own thoughts, speech, and actions in every human and natural encounter. 

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." 

- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Peace, Love, and Remembrance,

Jim

#2,022 in 2022

Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, Moss Landing, California

 Waxing Gibbous Moon

The ancestral tribal lands of the Ohlone Kalentaruk people.

The Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve is a Central Coast jewel located near Moss Landing, CA. As the name implies, the reserve protects and studies the tidal wetlands adjacent to the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Considering that 90% of California's wetlands have been destroyed by development in the past 250 years, the reserve's importance cannot be overstated. To learn about its history and its modern mission, click the link above and explore their ever-improving website.

For my purposes, the Slough is home to a network of trails, most of which I have hiked multiple times. Yesterday I visited with the notion of walking the ones that were still new to me. It was sunny but the sea breeze was chilly, so I layered up and adjusted accordingly. The last time I was there I surprised a napping bobcat concealed by some tall grass - I had the pleasure of seeing it up close as it sprang up and fled into the trees. Sorry, Bob, but thanks! 

Would I have the chance to see something that cool again? There was only one way to find out, one foot in front of the other. I checked in with the staff at the nicely landscaped Visitor Center and headed down to the trailhead. My modest goal was to walk the Long Valley Loop, the Murphy Trail, the Parson Slough Trail, and the Five Fingers Loop before returning on the main trail from the barns to the Visitor Center. This is an easy walk for most able, healthy individuals with just a little bit of up and down.

There were wildflowers and grasses and tree tunnels everywhere lining the trails plus several sitting benches along the way at strategic viewing places. One bench was dedicated to Sam Farr, a former Congressman for our area and from everything that I can tell, a great human being. Sam stood up for the beauty and environmental importance of the Central Coast and its inhabitants at every opportunity. A bench with a view is the least we can do to show him the respect he has earned.

I didn't see a bobcat this trip, but I did see a curious little vole (meadow mouse). It scurried out from beneath some newly mown grass on the trail and headed straight for my Vasque Breeze low cut trail runner. I stopped to see what it would do and it burrowed back into the grass a few inches short of my foot. Was I walking on top of its den? Was it protecting its babies? Did its buddy vole dare him/her to do it? I'll never know, but it seemed a little reckless to me. Not every Vasque Breeze trail runner is attached to a gentle soul-sole like me-mine.

The tide was about in the middle between low and high from what I could tell. The views of the slough were interesting and colorful, although the trails stayed well away from the water most of the time. I didn't see any sea otters or pelicans (my two favorite local animals), but I did catch a few fleeting glimpses of what I think was a soaring golden eagle. I wondered if it would bother to swoop down after something as little as a vole.

On the way back I passed a couple of old barns that add some charm to the scene. The staff person in the Visitor Center had asked me to stay out of the barns for safety reasons - otherwise I would have poked around in there for a bit. I love old barns.

Peace, Love, and Meadow Mice,

Jim

#2,022 in 2022