This winter has been one of my favorites in southern California. San Diego County is on the weak southern-most edge of the atmospheric rivers that have been blasting the West Coast with moisture. Although our basement unit flooded a couple times, we haven't experienced anything like the precipitation intensity seen in the Sierra Nevada, the Central Coast, the North Coast, or Los Angeles.
Still, the consistent rain has kept the air clean, the garden damp, and the creeks flowing. The normally water-limited coastal mountains, full of latent nutrients deposited by clouds of urban air pollution, have been transformed into lush, verdant landscapes. Usually pale brown and faded olive, these slopes now glow lime green and deep emerald with splashes of fiery yellow, red, and purple where poppies, Indian paintbrushes, and lupines have bloomed.
On a recent visit to Cuyamaca Peak (6512 ft, the second highest point in San Diego), I was surprised to encounter about six inches of snow! Cuyamaca Peak belongs to a group of micro-climates known as "sky islands" in the desert areas of the southwest United States and northern Mexico. These high refuges characterized by conifer forests are vestiges of past climates: following the cooler temperatures of the last ice age, they became trapped above the intense heat of the desert valleys below. A warming climate will make quick work of these forest landscapes in the coming decades, but for now, they remain as a relic of past landscape evolution.
In some exciting news, Raf and I will get to continue enjoying moist, foggy coastal weather for our next move! This past week, Raf accepted an Instructor position at Vida Verde Nature Education center near San Gregorio, California, where she will guide underserved youth on hikes through coastal redwood forests and tide pools, share her love of banana slugs, and teach skills like milking goats and growing vegetables. We will live together on-site, and I will continue to work remotely. It will be great to live in a rural community of folks who are passionate about the outdoors, education, and farming.
While we won't be near any major wilderness areas, we will live among the redwood forests, grassy hills, and Santa Cruz mountains that separate the coast from nearby Silicon Valley cities like San Jose, Mountain View, and Palo Alto. It will be nice to be near Big Sur, the central Sierra Nevada, and the North Coast, all areas that I am excited to explore more in the coming year. The housing / land market is still too crazy to make any moves towards our longer-term land plans, so this will be a great intermediate step that will allow us to lead the rural, outdoor lifestyle we seek! The move will happen sometime this summer; in the meantime, I'm hoping to do some backpacking on the Olympic Peninsula. Stay tuned!
Elfin Forest:
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