Starting July 2, guided hikes are available on the Salmon Pass Trail, just south of Fortuna in Humboldt County, every weekend through mid-November.
The trail sits at the southern end of the Headwaters Forest Reserve. The hike covers three miles over three to four hours, climbing 360 feet through a mix of old-growth and second-growth redwood – moderately strenuous, definitely not a stroll. The ground is unpaved. Rain turns it slick, and the forest holds its chill – even in July.
The Bureau of Land Management is selling firewood permits for a dollar a cord on public land near the Chester Airport, and the wood is already on the ground. It’s from the 2021 Dixie Fire – standing dead and downed trees that need to come out of the forest anyway, and now you can haul them home for next to nothing.
That’s the deal: a dollar per cord, and every cord you collect helps clear out fuel that’s been sitting there for five years. Fewer dead trees means healthier forest and better habitat behind the burn scar.
Here’s How to Get Your PassIf you’ve been putting off a visit to one of California’s state historic parks because of the entry fee, here’s some good news: for a limited time, you don’t have to pay it.
California State Parks is giving away a special edition of its Historian Passport — normally a $50 annual pass — completely free. The catch? You’ve got to grab it before Monday, July 6. Once you’ve downloaded it, you’re set for the rest of 2026, with unlimited admission for up to four people per vehicle at more than 30 state historic parks scattered across the state.
I get inspired the same way I learned to write—by doing it. When I was a kid, I just wrote because nothing was standing between me and a blank page of onion-skin typing paper loaded into a Smith Corona typewriter.
I used to be a writer, and the best thing about it was that there was no expectation; I wrote, and no one expected anything. It was private work—messy drafts, late-night notes, parcels of thought I could toss out or keep without explanation. That freedom is the engine of getting better: you try things that look stupid on the page, you fail fast, and you learn what’s worth rescuing. There’s a calm in knowing nobody’s billing you for your honest mistakes.
