Loving the forests of my homeland, Mt Tamalpais yesterday

Home sweet home. Cool shade, soft air, and damp earth, beside flowing water, under patient boughs, and between sagacious trunks. Jungles are great, but I never appreciated the particulars of my homeland forests until I’d seen their contrasts. In my native woods, you can see more than a few feet, you don’t drip sweat unless you earn it, and you can touch, sit, and rest as you will, pretty much unconcerned that something awful is going to bite you. Want to touch that tree as you go by? Go for it. No bullet ants, here.

I cherish my memories of tropical jungles and rainforests, but the single greatest difference between them and my spirit’s primordial stomping grounds is that after a few days in the jungle, I’m exhausted. Tired from sweat, heat, humidity, and the constant watch for venomous (or simply belligerent) beasties, as the monkey within me worries about being eaten. But when I emerge from even a few hours in a redwood forest, lordy lordy, you could build a domino castle on my equanimity.

So when a friend asked if I wanted to head up to Mount Tamalpais yesterday, just across the Golden Gate from San Francisco, the answer was clear, and my gratitude assured.

And better yet, he’s one of the more talented photographers I know, AND has a tripod he can loan me, for a certain sudden trip, which begins a week from Wednesday. Not sure I’ll use a tripod in those dancing streets, where only the cigar smoke stays the same, but it’s nice to know I have the option.

Note, I’m also editing-challenged, and suspect this Bangkok-mall-discount-laptop monitor is hardly precise, so if you have any feedback (on any aspect), y’all photographers out there, let me know. And also, I bracketed most of my exposures, but came home to remember that I ain’t got no HDR software, and this tired old hardware probably can’t manage the sophisticated editing software… Anyone know of a smallish but reliable HDR program?

(The rest of the gallery from yesterday is on the vagabondurges.com version, here.)

And finally, I’m going easy on y’all with the wordcount this week because that last one was a bit long, but I’m hoping you’ll read it (here) anyway.

Happy trails!