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| John Muir (Jack) Laws & friend (Tule Elk skull) |
Jack is a science educator, a research associate of the California Academy of Sciences, a regular contributor to "Bay Nature" magazine, and author/illustrator of several books and guides. Among Trail Heads, he's best known for his 'Laws Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada," an indispensable resource on the trail for identifying anything from fish to flowers to feces (ahem, "animal evidence"). Here's my well-worn copy!
If you don't have a copy of your own, they're available for purchase at the Summit Ranger Station in Pinecrest, the Mountain Bookshop, and Sierra Nevada Adventure Company. You may order from Jack's website, https://johnmuirlaws.com/, where you'll also find a ton of nature journaling resources; information about the annual Wild Wonder nature journaling conference; and free drawing lessons presented by in step-by-step diagrams and video.
As mentioned above, over Labor Day and until September 18, 2021, all of the national forests in California closed "to minimize the likelihood that visitors could become trapped...during emergency circumstances, decrease the potential for new fire starts at a time of extremely limited firefighting resources, and enhance firefighter and community safety by limiting exposure that occurs in public evacuation situations, especially as COVID-19 continues to impact human health and strain hospital resources." After seeing the havoc that the Washington Fire wreaked near downtown Sonora, we can suck it up, right Trail Heads?!? This year's overriding lesson has been that "we're all in this together." We're fighting the pandemic with our best weapon -- the vaccine, and we're fighting wildfires by preventing them in the first place. After all, most wildfires are human-caused. No more needless, preventable deaths on the fire OR the pandemic scene!
So, keep it close, VERY close, to home for a bit -- follow Jack Law's lead and do some exploring in your own backyard. If your wandering bone just won't settle down, you can fashion an easy, medium, or challenging out of the Dragoon Gulch Trail, the West Side Trail, the ditch trails, the trails at New Melones Reservoir, or the trails at Calaveras Big Trees State Park. We have hiked at all of these locations, and if you page through this blog, you'll find trip reports, photos, and links to the TCT radio shows where we talked about the trails.
Our hearts go out to those who lost homes and critters in the Washington Fire. To help, check out the various GoFundMe's that have arisen: search "Washington Fire" at https://www.gofundme.com/en-us. Watch for fundraiser events or make monetary donations through the Sonora Area Foundation: https://sonora-area.org/. For a broader reach, make monetary donations to the American Red Cross which assists victims of wildfires, hurricanes, and other disasters: https://www.redcross.org/about-us/our-work/disaster-relief.html. The California Wildfire Relief Fund promises every dollar donated goes to relief and rehabilitation of evacuated families and rescued wildlife: https://www.californiawildfirerelief.org/
