My Mother’s Daughter

I am my mother’s daughter.  As I scoured the trapper’s camp for good angles on the long abandon rowboats and food cashes, I suddenly found myself drawn to the midden heap.  Ok, it was really the dump or garbage pile but midden heap sounds much more historical and less icky so I’m sticking with it.  I was reminded of walks through the woods with my mother, finding little cabins long abandon and searching for hidden treasures.  A maple syrup tap was one of our greatest finds and I can still see it held high in my mother’s triumphant hand today.  

I held up a rusted key from a tin of sardines, square nails, a rusted fork and a wine bottle with a hand carved stopper.  I can just imagine the trapper on a cold winter night, carving that stopper after his sardine meal.  Saving the last bit of wine for another night.  No Internet, no TV, no Twitter or Facebook.  Just a man and the elements.

Remains of a meal

Unlike my mother, and after hearing the sage words from Paul, “You can’t steal history”, I left my pile of treasures where I found them.  As an historic site I’m certain it will see many more visitors over the years.  You never know, there might be someone else who likes garbage as much as I do and these items will be there for them to explore.

Were these discharged at a threatening polar bear or simply to dispatch a reindeer for dinner?

Looking Around at History

It's easy to forget that there are amazing things to photograph right near home when you travel as much as I do. Sometimes it seems as if all of my time between trips is taken up sorting and cataloging images from the last trip and then packing for the next.

So today I went out exploring in my own back yard and I found a wonderful place to poke around. A 15 minute drive (plus or minus 5 minutes for the tunnel stop light) out of San Francisco is the Marin Headlands. The area has beautiful rolling hills, bobcats, deer, bunnies and coyotes, a gorgeous beach with sea stacks off the coast, wildflowers and a lagoon... as the Nature and Wildlife photographer that I pride myself in being... I photographed Battery Mendel.

The headlands area is littered with old military sites including a restored Nike missile base. The particular battery that I visited today was completed in 1905 and was in active service until 1943. Wandering the ruins and looking at the rust you could almost feel the history of this area. I tried to imagine what it would have been like to have been stationed in such a beautiful location. I climbed the stairs to the top to take full advantage of the view and was hit by a blast of cold ocean air. I decided that being stationed in such a beautiful location most likely had it's downside as well. Adding the fog to that cold blast would have chilled me to the bone.

I'll be going back since there is so much more to explore but next time I'll bring a heavier coat!