Sunday morning I spent working on my laptop, and the need to get into the woods became overpowering. The solution was clear; mountain bike to my office 7 miles away at Cabrillo College, drop off my fanny pack, and keep my CamelBak and continue on another 7 miles to the Bottom of the Incline in Nicene Marks, lock up my bike, and run on a beautiful and uncrowded trail, to my favorite spot in the park - Five Finger Falls. I brought my little Lumix DMC-SZ3 and planned to capture images particularly suitable for rendering in watercolor, mostly at creek crossings where I planned to pause anyway for a good soaking and drinking deep of the natural waters.

Aptos Creek reflecting sunlit trees, tumbling onto the last coppery leaf of the past Autumn, rendered as a watercolor.

Looking up from ground level at mushrooms growing on a fir tree

An ancient small bridge of rough-hewn redwood creaks as I run across it

A newt couple, lazily drifting through the swimming hole at the base of Five Finger Falls

happy newt

An azure pool a quarter mile below the falls

A downed redwood, polished by years of hiking boots