I think it was in the LA TImes, a Steve Lopez column, that I read that Southern California has only two seasons, brown and green. The blistering record-breaking heatwaves that have hit us this past month have made this even more evident, and the weather patterns of these past few decades indicate that the brown season is extending. Trees, old growth pines, oaks, eucalyptus and sycamores are dying in record numbers–not to mention forest fires–and the chaparral is gradually favoring a thorny desert-friendly vegetation where evergreen manzanita and laurel sumac typically dominate. The upside is that, under a soft early morning light there is an abundance of rich earthy tones that contrast stubbornly with beds of grey dead matter, and the occasional splash of white, lemon or scarlet from brave flowers. Go high enough and silhouettes of defiant yuccas in full bloom line the ridges like the caravan of death in “The Seventh Seal”. They don’t seem to mind the rationing of rainwater, neither does the wild sage I like to pick and attach to my backpack. It smells a lot better than a sweat-soaked tee-shirt after a couple of hours of trail scrambling. This palette of life and death is both daunting and inspiring. For now at least, until the sun peaks out over the eastern shadow of Muir peak and Panorama point, it’s slightly cooler on the ruins of Echo Mountain than in the San Gabriel Valley below.

Walking Project 125_summer morning- unedited #04 from chris worland on Vimeo.