This is a month ago, in the San Benito Mountains, and as you may recall, I’m ascending a series of inclines toward Condon Peak. The next rise is much steeper and I’m on my knees at the end, just to keep traction. At one point I start to slip and I’m hugging the earth. I stand and can see the southern part of the Diablo Range in the distance. This same range to the north extends to the hills close to where I grew up, and the oak tree has always had binding spell upon me. I am headed for the eastern edge of the San Benito Ridge, where Murrieta is known to have his hideout, where Harry Love pursued him in a running gun battle down to Cantua Creek, where he cut his head off and put it in a jar. You may remember, up Clear Creek Rd I reached a locked gate at Oak Flat, and so I had to turn around and find another way. I will continue my search later in the day, for now, Condon Peak is proving challenging enough. Murrieta would never attempt such an idiotic thing as to launch straight up the face of the canyon – there is another way and I will find it, but not this morning, this morning I am on La Vereda del Loco and where that ends is anyone’s guess

Looking down from a rise near Condon Peak trail, I have been walking nearly straight up hill for a mile, progressing up the mountain in steps, like stairs. I assume the trail is headed to Condon Peak., but there are no signs and I’m not following a map. I am breathing hard and I tell myself ‘the next rise, I’ll turn back’. Then the next one comes, and the next one. If you follow the crack, made from winter rains, you can get an idea of how long each of these steeps are. Looking south across the canyon where the San Benito River flows, is the tail end of the Diablo range, a pristine wilderness unchanged by time or human incursion – La Vereda del Monte