The northerly was blowing strong again this morning, climbing out of the Deukmejian Wilderness on the trail to Mt Lukens. 

A two inch cricket
basking in the winter sun
chirps just once before
hopping away out of sight
due to unsafe conditions

The roar of a child
carried by a winter breeze
floats to the ocean
people smile as it passes
let the inner demons out

By the time I reached the summit it had calmed considerably though it still made a door slam repeatedly on one of the relay tower bases, while another tower whined incessantly. And then the breeze stopped. And I ventured onto a trail that was faint at first, then severely overgrown, and finally disappeared, just late enough in the game that I was committed to not turning back though I probably should have. The next mile or so was a sever bushwhack through some of the densest chaparral I have ever crossed. The effort of finding an acceptable path, without loosing footing, and scraping, pushing, crawling at times, shoving, tripping, through an endless field of branches, thorns, rocks bent on NOT letting me pass, prevented me from recording any of it–so much for my multi-tasking skills.

Lesson: when the Alltrails app fails to guide you to a passable trail, turn around, retrace your steps, or start filming and go ahead, bleed for your fun.