inglorious wanderer

Tenshi comes out. Beyond gay terms, Tenshi takes the place of Holy Shi Tzu, the happy monkey tree sack buddha from the cordilleras of my homeland who has gone ahead, like lost or left behind on the trails. Tenshi means messenger from heaven in Japanese. The icon is a representation of the monks who are called "tenshin" at the Yokoji Zen Mountain Center near Idyllwild.  In Zen  Buddhism terms, Tenshi comes out in search of the bull. "In the pasture of this world, I endlessly push aside the tall grasses in search of the bull. Following unnamed rivers, lost upon the interpenetrating path of distant mountains, my strengths failing me and my vitality exhausted, I cannot find the bull. I only hear the locusts chirping through the forests at night." The glorious Holy Shih Tzu started off as one of my "traveling gnomes", a corny mimicry of a plot in Amelie, the movie.  The lowly happy monkey tree sack Buddha  took  the place of Pha Khin Phat wh...

Garnet Peak, like the precious stone named after the seeds of pomegranate, is for me the jewel of Mount Laguna. Located in the Laguna Recreational Park, 60 miles east of San Diego by Intertate 8, the peak and the park could be the San Diego county's rejoinder to Riverside county's Sand to Snow National Monument. The eastern cliff of Mount Laguna drops down 6000 feet into the sea level of Anza Borrego Desert Park. I attempted to hike Garnet Peak late January this year. There was probably a foot of snow covering what normally is a well-marked trail that is part of the more than 2,600 mile Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail.  The idea of killing two birds with one stone, an idiom that still reminds of Juliet without Romeo, was a spur of the moment decision to get to the Sunrise Highway from the Highway 79 connection via Pine Valley and Guatay roads. The goal is revisiting Garnet Peak with just me and myself along with the Glorious Holy Shi Tzu.  Garnet Peak i...

Oakzanita sounds like the offspring of Oak and Manzanita. But oaks and manzanitas are plants and asexual so it's hard to imagine how Oakzanita came about. I did see some oak by the creek and manzanita bushes on the upper trail all the way to Oakzanita Peak. I have always thought of the peak as Watson's Peak. Susan Watson is a favorite hiker and the peak  have been Watson's favorite. So is mine now. The view at the peak  is breathtaking and spectacular.  "That's El Cajon Peak, the most difficult hike in the county." Bruce points out the northeastern face of El Cajon to me.  "I done it three times on my own." My bragging  was spontaneous.  Bruce who looked like he's into a new wellness program seems really awed at all the challenging hikes he's looking at. E l Cajon Peak and Viejas Mountain is on the west, Cuyamaca Peak is not far to the northwest and Stonewall Peak is north almost parallel to the peak where Bruce stands. Bruce, the fellow lone...

Las Ramblas in Spanish is also referred to as "wadis" in Arabic and Hebrew. Dictionary.com define a wadi as a gully, a streambed that remains dry except the rainy season. A rambla  could also refer to an espanade.  An esplanade or a promenade could be a paved boardwalk where people could take a leisurely walk and chill. The trail must have gotten its name from Camino Las Ramblas, the road that dead ends into the Las Ramblas Trailhead. The camino is sort of the gateway into San Juan Capistrano, a city named after the Mission San Juan Capistrano led by then Padre Junipero Serra  who enslaved and tried to Christianize the Acjachemen tribe of Native Americans. Camino Las Ramblas is east of Interstate  5 and accross westward is Dana Point, the harbor where one could take a ferry and  cross the California channel into the Catalina Island. The rambling trails from the Las Ramblas trailhead branch out into several trails across the rolling hills overlooking the westside...

Aliso and Wood Canyons Wilderness Park is just over 60 miles north of San Diego. The trailhead address is 28373 Alicia Parkway, Aliso Viejo, CA. Aliso Viejo may have gotten its name from Aliso Creek, the stream that runs from the northwestern portion of the Cleveland    National Forest into Orange County cities  that include Aliso Viejo and Laguna Niguel for which the Aliso and Wood Canyon Wilderness Park sits on. Aliso is the Spanish term for alder trees. These trees must have been what I thought to be oak trees along the Aliso Creek. The park is both a nature preserve and a sanctuary for wildlife such as the heron in the photo. Now known to hikers as the Cave Rock, this sandstone outcropping was created by erosion in prehistoric times. For thousands of years before the Europeans arrived, the Acjachemen who became the San Juan Capistrano Mission tribes and the Tongva who become the San Gabriel Missions lived in the area. The  caves that seem to be everywhere in the ...