Day 8, 9, and 10: Woke up late, then all along the 10

Hey bro, coming at you from Cali town!

We spent all of day 8 traveling from Phoenix to Santa “Babylon” Barbara. Fairly straight-forward drive but we got to stop and hike around Coachella Valley Preserve. It was a unique palm oasis residing on top of the San Andreas Fault. It was a most beautiful scene and we highly recommend it if you’re ever cruising the 10 (it was just outside of Indio).

We crashed for the night in the hills of Santa Barbara and visited with Hannah, a most wonderful and cheerful human being who is an old friend of Casey’s from his Santa Barbara days. We finally got a chance to use the tent we brought along, gotta love warm weather!

On Day 9 we arose and set forth to the hidden permaculture gem of Quail Springs Permaculture. Tucked away in the mountains beyond Ojai, this site is a shining example of Earth stewardship and community where they have goats, chickens, ducks, rabbits, spectacular adobe structures, village life, a wealth of knowledge, and lots of sand.  We were able to shadow Brenton, a tree of a man with a voracious appetite to teach and the brain power to back it up. We sat back and enjoyed a five-hour lesson on stream management, watershed dynamics, and geomorphology that blended cutting-edge geological science with a genuine love for the land he lives on. It was an experience reminiscent of drinking from a fire hydrant, but we thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to learn from such a wise and knowledgeable man.

One thing we thought was very interesting was that the frequency at which a stream/river meanders can actually be predicted with relative accuracy. By taking into account a whole slew of factors, the physical length and quality of the sinusoidal path can be calculated. This is a valuable tool in stream restoration, because structures can be placed along the stream bed In order to increase the amount that the stream moves back and forth, thereby reducing the steepness and promoting a healthier ecosystem.

That night we dwelled in the guest home which was made up of sand, straw, and clay. This is called Cob (which is the same thing as adobe). The material looks beautiful, requires none of the nasty chemicals that are in our normal building structures, is resistant to earthquakes and fires, and is generally a great example of how elegant natural homes can be. This same building material can also be used to make other sweet structures including rocket-mass heaters, earthen ovens, banos secos (composting toilets), and basically any structure you want.

On day 10 we set out as intrepid explorers to the top of the watershed. It was a mildly sloped canyon adventure that led us to the beautiful views of Mount Pinos and the surrounding desert valley. A truly sacred and dry land. It was about 8 miles round trip though (and much of it barefoot) so it took up much of the day and we were pretty darn tired by the end.

The generous caretakers of Quail Springs shared with us some seeds to bring back to our Colorado homeland, and then we said our farewells and drove off into the sunset of the Los Padres.

COandCA

P.S. (Casey was super clever and came up with the above signature. CO and CA are the first letters of our names, but are also the abbreviations for Colorado and California. Mind blown...)