Baseball and beer are back at the Arcata Ballpark as the Humboldt Crabs are up to their usual winning ways to get the season started, taking two out of three games against the visiting Lincoln Potters to win their first series. For the first time since 2019, fans were welcomed back into the ballpark at […]
Get Out
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Mad River Scramble
Despite being 10 years apart in age and opposites in many ways, my sister and I are very close. On past vacations, my pile of rusty, muddy camping gear would sit in one corner, smelling questionable, while her pile was in the other corner, her pink sunglasses and pink bathing suit smelling like perfume from […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Pedaling as Fast as They Can
Walking into a bike shop in Humboldt, you’ll be greeted by the faint smell of rubber tires that hangs in the air and the clanging of wrenches, but walking over to the bike racks, you’ll likely find them mostly bare. Bicycles and even bike parts have become hard to come by in the pandemic. “Bicycles […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Restoring Sumêg Village
A hike at Patrick’s Point State Park north of Trinidad always appeals to me, given park access to Agate Beach, Ceremonial Rock, Wedding Rock’s ocean viewpoint and the excellent Rim Trail. But if you go now, you can see work being done at Sumêg Village by a crew of Yurok Tribe members using traditional methods […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Sea to Summit Part 1: Bald Mountain
We couldn’t all cycle together in April of 2020, obviously. Cycling with a peloton of racers breathing heavily and sprinting uphill was not going to happen. Snot would fly as thighs burned, a dynamic that suddenly carried a novel, dangerous threat that was constantly evolving. We all wondered what the future held in this new […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Godwit Days Starts Flapping
My first introduction to bird watching on Humboldt Bay came on a guided April walk years ago offered by the Godwit Days Spring Migration Bird Festival. We paused at a viewpoint at the Arcata Marsh & Wildlife Sanctuary and, to my amazement, looked out at tens of thousands of migratory shorebirds feeding on the exposed […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Small Fish Finds a Fishing Buddy
After spending a month of my summer running off to Samoa Beach every chance I got to practice casting my line, fishing alone lost its luster. I had so many questions and theories building up in my head, I felt like I was going to burst if I couldn’t talk about it. I wanted to […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Citizen Scientists Outdoors and Online
Imagine wandering around in woods or streams, identifying fungi, plants, insects, wildlife — anything alive. This is what’s known as citizen science: amateurs observing and documenting nature. And if you like being alone or sharing observations from a distance, it’s the perfect activity during a pandemic. Of the active citizen scientists I spoke with, all […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Forward Movement
I have spent every spring since seventh grade involved in track and field, well over 50 years — a life of studying forward movement through running, teaching, clinics, clinician and graduate study — a lifetime study of coaching. We are all aware of the benefits of forward movement including heart strength, muscle strength, chronic disease […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Lagoon Challenge
It was a cotton cloak type of fog, reducing visibility to 30 or 40 feet. Donna and I swam this stretch in bathing suits, “skinning it,” without the protection of wetsuits. Ariana looked at us skeptically as she pulled her well-worn neoprene over her long limbs and we eyed each other warily from 10 feet […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
History of a Rural Half Pipe
Driving the Lost Coast through the spot on the map that is Petrolia, it is hard to miss the community skate ramp. Perched in a field adjacent to the Mattole Valley Community Center, it is one of only a scattering of landmarks dotting the rural landscape. As a former resident of Petrolia, I’ve witnessed faces […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Sharing our Waters with Other Mammals
Humboldt County’s has one of the richest and most diverse populations of marine life in California, as well as some 135,558 people, plus visitors. My family, like many others, is particularly active in the waterways, especially kayaking and surfing in spaces shared by other mammals. Even though we know the animals are there, encounters come […]