Stop the Abuse of California: No Littering

Baja California Mexico posts road signs along the coast reading "No Tire Basura". For all you gringos that phrase has nothing to do with a flat tire, nor the lack of services. The translation is Don’t Throw Trash or "DO NOT LITTER" & if you've ever explored the depths of Baja back roads you know that illegal dumping is a huge problem, cuz they do not have a county dump.

So, what's our excuse? Being from a developed educated country like the USA, why do so many people still leave trash laying around. Litterbugs are everywhere, leaving their piss mark on our precious lands. A bottle cap here, a cigarette butt there, a few soda cans by the road side, a plastic bag that blew outta your truck bed... all harmless, right?

WRONG.

Is it uneducated adults doing the trash tossing? Or their clueless children?
Is it lack of caring about your public lands? Disrespect for your surroundings? Or your life for that matter? Ignorance thinking the rangers will clean it up?
Maybe the wild animals can use it?

The toilet paper in the bushes (chica pick it up), the beer bottles in the campfire pit (come on dudes), the shotguns shells near the wildflowers (shooters are too cool to pick up trash) & the soiled diapers in the creek (totally gross), I've seen it all. Even the graffiti on granite boulders is another prime example of the city moving into the Wilderness Lands. Just say no to ghetto camping.

Whatever the lame reason, littering is a huge problem in SoCal that's for sure. Total Escape is a supporter of a CLEAN CALIFORNIA: Tread Lightly, Leave No Trace & annually we organize volunteer clean up days. We can only do so much in one weekend, but the real solution is in the prevention. Let's try to spread the word about the unsightly effects of littering. Call them on it immediately, when you see it happening. What are friends for!

This blog topic brought to you by Total Escape, plus numerous other fine organizations:

Don't trash CALIFORNIA
Keep California Beautiful
Clean Sweep USA
Keep America Beautiful

Wetness of Hot Springs

Ahh, the rain is finally here in Los Padres, in Southern California.
FRIDAY night - 7pm. Our thirsty trees need it.
Let the season begin!




Backpacker sits at the source of Sespe Hot Springs , where the water is scalding hot, admiring the view of the rocky canyon.

Brazen Careerist

"Take everything you think you 'know' about career strategies, throw them away, and read this book because the rules have changed. 'Brazen,' 'counter-intuitive,' and 'radical' are the best three descriptions of Trunk's work. Life is too short to be stuck in a rat hole..."

Guy Kawasaki, author of The Art of the Start
book review for Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success

Sespe Hot Springs

Backpackers Below
Originally uploaded by danamight

I drive down the dirt road looking for an intersection. The dust was thick, as my open-air vehicle breathes in every particle of pollen & charcoal. Forest Rd# 7N03 Los Padres National Forest - Mutau Road, also known as Grade Valley, Thorn Meadows, Half Moon Campground & Mutau Flats Road, has changed a lot in the past year. No more greenery. No birds, no campers. Very quiet.

This is where the Labor Day wildfire jumped Lockwood Valley late October 2006. As I approach the eerie burnt landscape with caution, chunks of rock have given way to gravity, with pieces of the road lying in the charred canyon below, I drive slowly. A great place to get some fire wood I think to myself.

As I pull over, the skies are clear blue with warm afternoon sunshine. Everything around me is a burnt. Black & the smell of charcoal fills the air. Right here at the Yellow-jacket Trail, I stop to exit my SUV. The last time I arrived at this spot it was almost 9PM, dark, I was alone & meeting 2 stranded wheelers who hiked out. I am looking for a watch &/or a nice pair of work gloves - that we lost out here that late night in July, under a full moon. Going wheeling at night is sometimes more of a challenging than you're up for, but you do it anyway. Just for the adventure of it.

If you take this main road clear out to the end, past the creek crossings & Halfmoon Campground, you'll come to a parking lot for the Sespe Hot Springs trail head. Total Escape Adventures hiked this back in 2001. It's a whopping 17 miles RT & we came back after dark w/ flashlights. We've even got the pictures to prove it on Flickr.

Live for This

Grubstake
Originally uploaded by prentz

I live (& work) so I can see beauty such as this, the Salmon River in Northern California. Share the world through photos. Travel often.

Love me for me

I'm talking, I'm talking
I believe in the power of love
I'm singing, I'm singing
I believe that you can rescue me

With you I'm not a little girl, with you I'm not a man
When all the hurt inside of me comes out, you understand
You see that I'm ferocious, you see that I am weak
You see that I am silly, and pretentious and a freak

But I don't feel too strange for you
Don't know exactly what you do
I think when love is pure you try
To understand the reasons why
And I prefer this mystery
It cancels out my misery
And gives me hope that there could be
A person that loves me

Rescue me [rescue me, it's hard to believe]
Your love has given me hope
Rescue me [rescue me, it's hard to believe]
I'm drowning, baby throw out your rope

With you I'm not a fascist, can't play you like a toy
And when I need to dominate, you're not my little boy
You see that I am hungry for a life of understanding
And you forgive my angry little heart when she's demanding
You bring me to my knees while I'm scratching out the eyes
Of a world I want to conquer, and deliver, and despise
And right while I am kneeling there
I suddenly begin to care
And understand that there could be
A person that loves me

Rescue me, rescue me

It's not my business to decide
How good you are for me
How valuable you are
And what the world can see
Only that you try to understand me
And have the courage to love me for me




lyrics by - Madonna