Solstice in California -- what a time to be alive! Everyone who lives in coastal California knows that late September and early October are a time for heat waves and gorgeous weather. Bay Area beaches are frigid and fogged-in all summer long, and then suddenly, and sometimes as late as October twenty-something, it is seventy-five degrees and not a hint of wind. We used to call it "Indian Summer" when we were kids. I can't believe I have to say that with remorse now, 'when we were kids'. But ever since high school when we had to change our team mascot from Indians to Red-Tailed Hawks because of "pc" reasons, I have come to recognize that using the word Indian to refer to the native indigenous people who lived here long before us is disrespectful. Although it becomes immaterial what name is used to describe this favorable Autumnal vibration felt in much of the western Golden State. I could use many, many adjectives to describe it, but words fail me when other senses are called into play; sight, smell, sounds . . . the array of colors blending into a feeling that is painted in the air. You step outside at this time of year and there is a nip to the oxygen field. It is almost indiscernible, but there is just a slight chill in the air that provokes a return into the domicile to grab a jacket or long sleeve shirt. Thank goodness for the premonition on this solstice celebration evening to Lizard's Mouth. It was windy up there!


If you haven't been to the top of Highway 154 and taken the sharp left on West Camino Cielo to drive the road of the sky, then you are missing out! It had been ten years since I had the privilege to make the altitude pilgrimage to this wide open outcropping of rocks named Lizard's Mouth that is way at the end of the road of the sky, almost to the shooting range where the road dead ends. It is a flat and easy hike out to the rocks through classic chaparral including the dreaded Spiny Bundles. They are a green, cactus- like, spiky plant that has about seventy pinpoint daggers growing out of its base, ready to pierce the unsuspecting victim at any moment. Well, I suppose you actually have to fall into it, since we are talking plant kingdom, i.e. not able to move. But still, these bundles hurt. I remember lodging one into my wrist one time on a hike long ago; it seemed like weeks until that thing worked its way out of my skin.


Lizard's Mouth provides the climbing community ample small ascents to practice the art of belay and rope. We have been going to this renowned spot since college, watching sunsets seemed like an important part of the university schedule back in those days. Some hooting and hollering at the fierce wind that picks up with deep warmth from the baking inner valleys was always a ritual of the sunset sessions. I wanted to re-live that feeling again, and experience those echoes of voices from the past. I listened to the wind and could hear youth speak, we were shouting and hooting and hollering. Carrying on in a dramatic way that screamed our existence to the world four thousand feet below us. Campus tower was visible from the holy sandstone boulders that form this magical place. I could hear Rich singing reggae songs and nodding his head and laughing to himself about some inwardly amusing revelation. I miss you Rich! Ten years gone. But this geologic existence remains the same. It is a fantastic place to watch the clouds refract a setting sun on one side and a pumpkin orange, pre-cursor to Halloween or harvest moon rise above the southern crest of the Los Padres.

ER Harris