Category: Uncategorized

I recently listened to a conversation between environmental psychologist Ming Kuo and Shankar Vedantam on the podcast Hidden Brain. They discussed attention restoration theory which proposes that spending time in nature has a profound affect on mental and physical health. In short, spending time in nature improves your state of mind and boosts your immune system. Kind of a no brainer, but I learned that spending as little as a 3 day weekend in the forrest increases your natural killer cells 50% on average. And these benefits can linger up to 30 days after you return to the big city.

You need more reason than that!

Get out there and explore!

This summer @cindysaylor and I hit the road to restore and rejuvenate our natural killer cells in the furthest north reaches of California. The state has no shortage of natural wonders. The northern third tends to get lost in the shadow of Yosemite, Death Valley and Big Sur, etc. The area is exquisite and far less crowded. From the hot springs and mid summer snow of Lassen Volcano National Forrest to the many water falls, the lost coast and the great redwoods, we were able to immerse ourselves in natural wonder and build up our immune system too.

Nothing better than a summer road trip to recharge the batteries and revive the creative juices. Living in California, there’s no shortage of destinations to explore.  Death Valley, the low point in North America, is in California. Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the continental United States is in California. The oldest and the tallest trees, a bristlecone pine in the White Mountains and the General Sherman Sequoia, are also in California. 

Besides the decade I lived in Louisiana (another state worthy of extensive exploration) I’ve spent most of my life in California.    California is huge. 163K+ square miles big.  Almost twice the size of the UK.  I’ve explored the state extensively over the years.  Yet there are still a couple of places I haven’t been.  Northern California is one of those places.  Generally, when people refer to NorCal they’re talking about San Francisco or the Bay area.  However, geographically speaking, San Francisco is only about two thirds up the California coast.  That leaves roughly 375 miles north of San Francisco to the Oregon border. This is the area I set my sights on for a summer rejuvenator.   Since this area is also 170 miles wide (and I had limited time) I decided to stick to the coast; the Lost Coast and the giant redwood forests. So I fired up the Prius and hit the road with my partner in crime, favorite travel buddy, budding herbalist, and wife, C Saylor.  

Day one and 665 miles later we made it to Fort Bragg.  We then began the slow crawl north along the Lost Coast, into the Giant Redwood Forests, up to Eureka and then back down again along the coast to Point Reyes National Seashore and Marin County, where we ran out of time and high tailed it home.  5 days on the road plus 2 a day hikes in some of the most beautiful areas California has to offer and I am completely recharged, rejuvenated and ready for the next road trip. 4 weeks sounds about right.   

Get out there and explore!