While at the Farmer's Market in downtown Santa Barbara I heard a rumor about a place called Tangerine Falls. With all the late Winter rain that we have been getting, they were supposedly flowing strong. Well, I am the kind of person that likes to explore new places, so the next day, rain or shine I was going to find these falls.




There was plenty of rain and only a brief respite of shine, but luckily the sun cooperated for photographic purposes. I was prepared for the wet weather with all the right gear: Gortex jacket, boots, several layers of thin nylon over a Performance undershirt that retains body heat even when submersed in water.




Rain hikes are nothing new to me. Growing up in the Bay Area we had Mt. Tamalpais State Park to explore during the long and rainy winter seasons. The creeks were lined with fluorescent green ferns and the rush of whitewater down the creek's central gully was mesmerizing. You expect to be soaked head to toe when you return from one of these kind of outings.




Well not eighteen steps out onto the trail the threatening clouds burst open and I was immersed in a steady stream of life-giving clear fluid. The normally much more dessicate creek seemed to be drawing the runoff into its fold like matter falling helplessly into a black hole.




How could I not smile? With a life that good, air that fresh? The trail eventually gave way to a crude path worn by prior hikers that skirted the side of the tributary fed by these elusive falls named after a citrus fruit.




Did you actually think for a second that I did not bring a Mineaola tangerine with me? Straight from the tree, picked it myself in the north part of town at Calimoya Exotic Fruit Farm. A perfect pick-me-up snack after I hurried the last section of the trail to catch the suddenly open heavens and bright sunshine.




Gazing down the canyon it all made sense. It's just a wet flow of circles. Life riding water molecules from the clouds to the rocks to the rivers to the sea. Leave it alone is my instinctual cry, leave it alone! Proceed no further progression machine! Let's allow the wetlands and the ponds and the murk and the mire to have a chance to live in peace without dams and projects and blueprints and commerce taking precedence.




Whoa! What happened? I got on my soap box for a second, time to hike back down to my gas-guzzling full size pickup truck.

ER Harris