Bennett Barthelemy

"What’s the worst that could happen?" Alarm bells ring whenever I hear these words uttered. Yes, there are times when you find yourself in situations while exploring the wilds that you have no choice. Go for it! Do or die time! It’s a good day to die! I wouldn’t say I seek these moments out […]

I remember reading somewhere that high adventure, like high treason, often comes with a hefty price tag. If you manage to finagle your way past the king’s men relatively unscathed, then you are not doing too badly. My battle scars from the adventure last weekend are mostly psychological. I can expect the night terrors to […]

Summer seems to be here, finally. Two weeks of beautiful weather — the week before finals and the week of , according to the students’ lament. Now it would seem the ubiquitous summer fog is back, with only dribbles of sunshine falling through. When it does, the beaches are in full-bloom with red-tinged alabaster bodies. […]

When I look at the images I pull from my camera I often find that there are pictures within pictures. I can crop the image and find two, three, even five powerful images within one frame. As a photographer and a reveler of beautiful natural areas it is easy to get caught up in grand […]

Springtime in Humboldt County has to be my favorite season. Some will argue summer is best. I’ll admit that it is hard to beat jumping into a turquoise pool on the un-dammed and naturally warm South Fork of the Trinity River while steelhead swim past, but as inland temps soar the companion coastal fog gets […]

Wind pulsed through the domed labyrinth of quartz monzogranite as I scrambled downward looking for a safer descent. The spring sky was a typically cloudless and brilliant blue. Above, the murmur of voices from the knot of students and my co-instructor at the tabletop summit some 20 feet above faded in and out with the […]

"Serendipity is looking in a haystack for a needle and discovering a farmer’s daughter." Julius Comroe Jr. Looking for a change of pace last month, my wife and I opted to sleep on the marble slab called a futon instead of our comfy bed. I was awakened after dawn by her exclaiming, "Oh! That’s why […]

As I gaze back over the 15 odd "Off The Pavement" articles I have penned for the Journal, it would seem one big theme has emerged. I might define my overall interpretation of them as something like, the necessity of being outside.So if this theme has appealed to you, then you are in luck. This […]

When some of us think of the Alps, we envision long waits in our cars as fire crews remove logs that have trundled hundreds of feet down to the 299 from blackened hillsides that lead up to the vertiginous slopes of the remote Wilderness Area. What the uninitiated don’t know is that the Alps are […]

You have got chains, right, Ben?" We had skipped town again, this time with cross-country skis, to take advantage of the recent cold snap — finally a benefit to the omnipresent Humboldt County winter precipitation. The joy of writing an outdoor column is that you always have a handy excuse to escape, nearly guilt-free, and […]

If you really desire to fall of the map, head down to Sinkyone State Park. It has an almost mythical quality to it, starting with the drive in. From the north, narrow paved roads give way to one lane of dirt a few miles from the rustic visitor’s center at Needle Rock. The muddy strip […]

Some six years ago, during spring break at HSU, I hiked the Lost Coast for the first time. On that trip we hadn’t seen another hiker for two days and nearly 18 miles. It was a bit of a shock when arriving at Big Flat to have our first encounter be with a Cessna and […]