Is There Any Good Place Left???

[MtnSurfer]

Terry,

I heard you were considering parts of the NorCal coast like up by Fort Bragg. The coast is really beautiful up there. I want to drive up and shoot that area. I have heard down near Gualala and Sea Ranch is really nice also.

Another nice place along the coast is Trinidad. Larry Ulrich, a great California photographer, moved up there and has some excellent images of the coast and redwoods there. Check out his Seascape images here: Larry Ulrich. His book is also very good - "Beyond the Golden Gate: California's North Coast " which I highly recommend. I bought it on half.com from $2.00! LOL..
Beyond the Golden Gate: California's North Coast

I know you mentioned the pot culture is big up there which I have heard as well. I guess I am wondering if one can still live up there and enjoy the beauty of the area without letting the pot culture rain on one's parade?

Derek

[Haoleman]

I moved to Willits in 1978 when Sears ousted me. At that time the area was full of either dope growers or cowboys and the town had 5 bars and 4 banks. Now that town was in a time warp with a population of approximately 4500 since the early 1900's. It was truly zero growth. Back in the 60's is had been determined that Willits was one of the few safe havens from nuclear fallout by the guy that invented the hydrogen bomb as the story goes. It was also a haven for the Hippies to get away from the Haight-Ashbury and that's when pot found it's home there. The Emerald Triangle as the area is known which consists of Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte Counties has been a virtually lawless area as far as the pot culture was concerned. After getting to know many of these people. I found that they were mostly kind family people who were not making enough to survive on and grew maybe a half a dozen plants to supplement their income. That was your average pot grower back then. I have seen large production farms as large as 20 acres but between U-2 and SR 71 photo runs over the area and the formation of CAMP ( the self rightous Citizens Against Marijuana Planting) our area was regularly raided with paramilitary teams with M 16's and helicopters that tried to shut the trade down. It really hurt the town's business as these people no longer could afford many of the things that they needed to live and the town had a number of businesses close and two banks. Now please understand that I am against any form of illegal income and I have not and never will consider pot as something that I would even try but the one thing that really did **** me off is seeing some of these individuals buying steak and Ben & Jerry's, etc with food stamps and driving brand new pickups while I worked my tail off to make ends meet legally. The biggest problem now is the illegal aliens who work for the drug cartels that have been forced to grow in that area for them and the chance of violence if you were to happen onto one of their farms is much greater today. The one thing is that these farms are very remote and the chances of you ever finding one is remote as they might be a several hour walk into the forest in very rugged country. What impressed me about the area is ther number of well educated people there and the attitude of being green. Willits has produced some of the cutting edge technology in conservation available today. It's where Real Goods got their start and where the world's authority on the Biointensive Gardening lives ( John Jeavons). I suggest anyone who wants to do a back to the land survivalist thing get his books or read the latest " How to Grow More Vegetables On Less Space Than You Can Imagine" Trust me on this as John helped me to put my first organic garden in and it is amazing the results.

As to moving back there, I'd do it in a heartbeat as Willits has it's act together about the future and unlike one political group, they don't bury their heads in the sand and ignore what's happening. If you move there plan to get involved and help change the future of our planet.

Terry

[MtnSurfer]

Thanks for the history and insight regarding this part of NorCal Terry. Let us what you decide and how things goes.

Derek