January’s Autumn

Went up to Ojai and stopped at Bart’s Books, an outdoor bookstore where I scooped up another book on Buddhism. Continued into the mountains north of town and made a brief hike up to Rose Valley Falls where I photographed water cascading down the moss-covered rock face.

At the end of the waterfall a creek began, and it was here that I shot the fallen red leaves that had collected themselves in the basins of meltwater along the meandering water. It’s strange to see autumn foliage nestled in these hidden valleys in the second week of January. Deciduous trees stand with their mottled yellow and orange leaves alongside verdant green palm trees. Weird.

As I was heading back to the coast I recognized a sharp turnoff at the base of a mountain and realized it was the very same one I had pulled over on 7 years ago when my cousin and I were trying to find a local hot springs in the night. A little farther down the road I saw the springs we had finally found, and a torrent of memories flooded my mind. The little parking lot was a time machine, and I remembered the sulfur smell, the inky black sky untouched by the glow of electric lights, the water trickling over rocks in the shallow water. What a lovely memory this adventure gifted me.

Made it back to Ojai and decided to do the Valley View Preserve hike in the canyons just north of town since I hadn’t had enough hiking for the day. The acoustic profile of the canyon bottoms amplifies the chirp-chirp-chirp of crickets among the canyons making them sound like fearsome predators. Did a loop around the mountain and got back to the car from the opposite direction I came through part of town. Kinda odd walking through the unfamiliar slice of town to get back to where I had parked the car.