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Book Description

From agate to zoisite, this definitive guide to collecting sites throughout Southern California highlights the best that the area has to offer. Taking up where Gem Trails of Northern California left off, this companion book covers all of Southern California from just north of San Luis Obispo south to the Mexican border and all site points in between. Detailed maps and descriptive text lead the rockhound to over 70 of the best collecting sites for gems, minerals and fossils. Black and white photos aid in locating the collecting area. Stunning color photos help with specimen identification. Full of helpful hints for getting the most out of each site, the author becomes your personal tour guide to the many treasures that Southern California has to offer. Ideal for the novice, an important addition to any experienced rockhound's collection, Gem Trails of Southern California is a must for any rock collector exploring this diverse region. James Mitchell, a contributor to the Lapidary Journal, teaches school during the year and spends summers searching the West for additional gem and mineral locations.

Customer Reviews:

Gem Trails of Southern California.......2007-09-07

This book appears to be a comprehensive listing of gem localities in Southern California. Even my two brothers living in So. California did not know about many of them!

useful book, but needs an update.......2002-12-11

We just spent the last weekend in the Mojave Desert with this book. We found several wonderful sites using the guide. We also got lost on webs of dirt roads, no matter how closely we followed the book's instructions. I have to think that a lot of the roads have changed, or that some of the directions are not accurate. We also encounted two sites in a row that were closed, but not labeled as such in the book. So although the book is great, it obviously needs an update, even though it was only published in 1999. My boyfriend thought it would also have helped us to have GPS coordinates of the sites. Still, we would never have found the great spots we did without this book, so I would definitely recommend it...

Complete and accurate guide to Southern California Gem Trail.......1999-05-17

This book gives you accurate maps and information about the many sites to find gems, geode beds, old gold, chalcedony, opal and agate mines in the area, and many other sites and places of interest.It is easy to read and follow and I would recommend it to anyone interested in investigating these types of places in Southern California.

An Introduction to Southern California Birds

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Great Bird Book
Great Intro Level Book

An Introduction to Southern California Birds
Herbert Clarke
Manufacturer: Mountain Press Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Birds | Field Guides | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0878422331

Customer Reviews:

Great Bird Book.......2007-03-11

Received in perfect condition and in a timely manner. Would shop with them again.

Great Intro Level Book.......2003-04-22

This book features wonderful photography and is a great starter book for Southern California Bird Watchers. I started using it about a year ago and was happy to find 90% of the birds in my backyard could be easily identified in this book. It also features helpful descriptions and maps. Happy birdwatching!

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A Confidence Builder
Thorough, entertaining, informative

50 Trail Runs in Southern California
Stan Swartz , Jim Wolff , and Shamir Shahin
Manufacturer: Mountaineers Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Running & Jogging | Exercise & Fitness | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

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Tanita BC554 Ironman Glass InnerScan Body Composition Monitor Elite Series

ASIN: 0898867002

Book Description

Southern California's accessible mountain and desert trails, not to mention its warm climate, make it one of the best US locations for the increasingly popular sport of trail running. The Santa Monica Mountains, the San Gabriels, the San Bernardinos, and Santa Ynez offer trails suited to all levels of skill and commitment, amidst stunning natural settings just a short drive from the major metropolitan cities of Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, and San Diego. This introductory guide to the sport includes all the information you need to get started, plus detailed descriptions of the most spectacular trails in the region.

Customer Reviews:

A Confidence Builder.......2000-07-26

A recent resident of Venice, California, I looked out to the Santa Monica mountains from my second story window and wondered where the running trails were. I've bounced around LA over the past few years, running in Griffith Park, Fryman Canyon, Porter Ranch, among other routes, but these new mountains drew me to them.

How to find my way? I ran one morning at Will Rogers Park and asked someone about the trails that lured me away from the traffic and the people. The runner said: "Get Stan Swartz' book!" Thus armed, I searched a book store and found it quickly. It was exactly what I was searching for, similar in style to the wonderful book I had purchased years earlier which depicted all the trail running possibilities within New York City.

Now, eight weeks after placing third in my ritualistic 10K at Descanso Gardens, I leaf through the book almost every morning, wondering which route I will take on the weekend, building up my confidence with each page turn.What I find fascinating is that the descriptions of the routes, the distances, and benchmarks, the terrain, ALL MATCH THE REALITY. I know I am on the right trail; I know when I am half way through; I know when to turn left or right; the topographical maps give me an idea of the ups and downs. Now that I have completed several of the runs alone among this spectacular landscape, I inhale the spiritual aspect of running imbued by George Sheehan and combine it with the practical information provided by this book.

I look forward to trying out as many of the runs as I can, venturing out even to the longest ones at 13 miles. When I can, I will join the other runners on Sunday mornings. The three authors have given me a great gift: the ability to explore historical terrain with the eyes of a contemporary "critter"...a trail runner who feels at one with the wondrous varieties of Nature described so completely by those who have gone before me. Thank you.

Thorough, entertaining, informative.......2000-05-04

This book has excellent information for the novice or seasoned trail runner. With it's topography of the trails, the newest runner can pick a trail that is not too difficult. Beautiful photographs.

Seashore of Southern California (Lone Pine Field Guide)

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Seashore of Southern California (Lone Pine Field Guide)
Ian Sheldon
Manufacturer: Lone Pine Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1551052326

Beyond The Beach Blanket: A Field Guide To Southern California Coastal Wildlife

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Fun AND beautiful
A lovely, recommended pick

Beyond The Beach Blanket: A Field Guide To Southern California Coastal Wildlife
Marina Curtis Tidwell
Manufacturer: Mountain Press Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0878425063
Release Date: 2005-04-15

Product Description

Most people think of Southern California beaches as nothing more than piles of sand where urbanites go to sunbathe, surf, and people-watch. Not so, says Marina Tidwell, author of Beyond the Beach Blanket, a full-color field guide that introduces readers to the tremendous world of wildlife that lurks, burrows, and swims throughout Southern California s sandy, salt-spray wildernesses. These fascinating creatures from thirty-year-old clams, slipper snails who start life as males and change to females, and sea cucumbers who expel their intestines to confuse predators will inspire you to leave your surfboard at home and grab Beyond the Beach Blanket the next time you visit the beachWritten for all ages and levels of scientific knowledge, Beyond the Beach Blanket weaves identification information with natural history in an engaging and informative guide to Southern California s most watchable beach wildlife. Tidwell s beautiful color photographs not only make field identification easy, but they also make Beyond the Beach Blanket a delight to look at when you re sitting at home.

Customer Reviews:

Fun AND beautiful.......2005-10-26

I found "Beyond the Beach Blanket" a beautiful and easy to use field guide -- terrific photos and really interesting material. It contains much more information than the average field guide -- a lot of fun facts and cool stories about the lifecycles of beach creatures. It really covers a lot of different types of animals too -- clams and other shells, plus tidepool animals like sea urchins, plus what the book calls "near shore creatures" like fish and sharks, plus marine mammals AND shore birds. It's an all in one guide for the beach.

A lovely, recommended pick.......2005-08-08

appreciate Marina Curtis Tidwell 's Beyond The Beach Blanket: A Field Guide To Southern California Coastal Wildlife all that's needed is proximity to a Southern California beach and a general appreciation for sea life. From thirty-year-old clams to strange jellyfish, color photos supplement science-filled but lively descriptions of the habits and habitats of Southern California's beach wildlife. A lovely, recommended pick.

Geology: field guide to Southern California (The Regional geology series)

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Geology: field guide to Southern California (The Regional geology series)
Robert P Sharp
Manufacturer: W. C. Brown Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Geology Underfoot in Southern California

ASIN: 0697050300

Illustrated Guide to the Oaks of the Southern Californian Floristic Province: The Oaks of Coastal Southern California and Northwestern Baja California

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The best field guide to Oaks in Southern Calif I've seen.

Illustrated Guide to the Oaks of the Southern Californian Floristic Province: The Oaks of Coastal Southern California and Northwestern Baja California
Fred M. Roberts
Manufacturer: F. M. Roberts Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Trees | Field Guides | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

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Oaks of California

ASIN: 0964384701

Book Description

A beautifully illustrated identification guide complete with easy to use keys, descriptions, and large maps for all 18 species of oaks that are known to occur in southern California west of the deserts. The book also includes two additional species that are endemic to northwestern Baja California, Mexico, and distributional information for other species of oaks that occur in Baja California north of El Rosario.

Customer Reviews:

The best field guide to Oaks in Southern Calif I've seen........1998-11-15

This little book, which is small enough to take on the trail, is an invaluable field guide for scientists and amateurs alike, covering 19 oak species and 6 named hybrids found in the Southern California Floristic Province. It contains information on oak groups and hybridization, a key to the oaks of our region, as well as full, accurate descriptions on each oak species, including maps, drawings and distribution.

Field Guide: Coastal Southern California (Field Guide Ser.)

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Field Guide: Coastal Southern California (Field Guide Ser.)
Robert P. Sharp
Manufacturer: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0840318634

The Sespe Wild: Southern California's Last Free River (Environmental Arts and Humanities Series)

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The Basque Diaspora
A Soulful read
A Compelling Description of the Sespe Wilderness

The Sespe Wild: Southern California's Last Free River (Environmental Arts and Humanities Series)
Bradley John Monsma
Manufacturer: University of Nevada Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Sand County Almanac (Outdoor Essays & Reflections)

ASIN: 0874175364

Book Description

A hundred miles northwest of Los Angeles, Sespe Creek flows through some of the wildest territory in California. A mostly roadless expanse of chaparral and mixed forest, in many places nearly inaccessible even on foot, the Sespe is the untamed heart of Southern California, a wilderness on the edge of one of the world's major metropolitan developments. To nature writer and outdoorsman John Bradley Monsma, the Sespe is both his place of escape and the place "that teaches me to be fully alive."

In The Sespe Wild, Monsma shares his exploration of this unique and fantastic region. His attention ranges from the physical Sespe, examined on foot or by kayak, to the subsurface geology that shaped it, the Chumash people who first occupied it, and the impact of Spanish and then American settlers. He also considers the Sespe through the eyes of some of its nonhuman populations—the nearly extinct condors, the vanished grizzlies, the mountain sheep, the steelhead trout, the red-legged frogs. Through the metaphor of the river, he ponders the tensions between preservation and overmanagement of wildlife and wilderness areas, the ecology of fire, the intricate connections between species, and the almost miraculous ways that the Sespe has escaped the fate of other Southern California streams, dammed or carved up into canals by development.

"To consider this place," Monsma says, "is to call up issues crucial wherever wilderness and cities meet: recreational impacts on wildlife habitat, the dynamics of accessibility and protection, the physical and psychological need for healthy ecosystems, threats of development and resource extraction." Monsma's engaging text addresses the Sespe's losses and its ongoing pattern of creation and renewal, leading us through rich layers of natural and cultural history in a narrative as colorful and exciting as a day on a Sespe trail. The Sespe, existing at the intersection of ecological processes and human ideals of wilderness, reminds us that nature and culture have always intermingled, and that the past and present, animal and human, "natural" and "unnatural" are ultimately and irrevocably inseparable.

Customer Reviews:

The Basque Diaspora.......2005-08-25

Gloria Totoricagüena's Identity, Culture, and Politics in the Basque Diaspora is a great introduction to the understanding of Basque diaspora from a multi-disciplinary approach -a somehow overlooked area of Basque studies by the international academia and surprisingly by the homeland scholars-. It analyzes the formation of the diaspora as an historical phenomenon for the over five hundred years, reveals the multi-directional interconnectedness and networks (from a familiar to an institutional level) among diaspora Basque communities and between those and the homeland, and describes the changing nature of the meaning of being Basque from transnational and deterritorialized perspectives. The book focuses, from a historical perspective, on the physical, emotional and psychological interconnectedness among diaspora Basques and the Basque region, while emphasizing the current Basque Government-diaspora institutional relations, promoted increasingly since the return of democracy to Spain and the early 1980s-. It also pays special attention to the influence of the Basque homeland nationalist ideology on the reformulation of Basque identity on the diaspora communities, specifically in the period of the Basque-Government-in-exile between the 1940s and the late-1970s. In sum, Identity, Culture, and Politics in the Basque Diaspora is a comprehensive ground-breaking work which lays the foundation for more theoretical and empirical comparative research in Basque studies in the international terrain as well as in the Basque Country and which will attract not only an expert reader, but also a wide audience eager to learn aspects of Basque history, culture, and politics that until now have been to some extent ignored.

A Soulful read.......2004-09-09

"The Sespe Wild" is an anthology of reflections on life and life issues in the Sespe river. Each chapter focuses on an animal that lives or used to live around the Sespe. There are also chapters talking about attempted dams, oil drilling, and rock art left by the Chumash Indians. The book can be read in installments, or, if you have the time, in one sitting.

Monsma is a gifted storyteller, and traces the individual histories of each aspect in a way that makes you want to root for the cause of conservation. At the the same time, he presents both sides of each issue fairly, and never comes down clearly either way. This can be a challenge for the reader, particularly if you're looking for a more black and white discussion of environmental issues. Personally, I loved that aspect, as it left me asking questions of myself. Perhaps that is the biggest lesson in this book: You ask important questions, and as you go through life, part of the answer is revealed, but only enough to prompt more questions.

On a side note, readers with a Christian background may chuckle at some of verbal puns that hint at time spent in Sunday School, but for the rest, it's a soulful account of how a place so small and almost insignificant can be filled with life that continues to thrive in the midst of contant challenge. Monsma is obviously passionate about nature, and here he shares it with us.

A Compelling Description of the Sespe Wilderness.......2004-09-05

Drawing on his personal experiences of backpaking in the Sespe Wilderness over many years, Monsma revels in the beauty of the landscape, and its bird and animal life. His descriptions of early mornings in the wilderness are compelling; they make me want to reach for my backpack and hiking boots and head out to the backcountry.

Drawing on extensive scholarship, he tells the chequered history of the Sespe and the story of its preservation only 50 miles from the Los Angeles metropolis. Describing the threats from oil drilling, dam building and suburban development, he not only points out the short-sightedness of current energy and development policies, but also shows the remarkable ability of the wilderness to regenerate itself and obliterate the traces of earlier intruders.

He uses rhetorical figures such as the native american shamans, tricksters and bear-men to introduce different ways of seeing nature and connecting it to everyday urban life. The traces of zen buddhism and Carlos Castaneda appear hokey at the beginning, but become an integral part of the book's structure.

By the end this is the kind of book that makes you not only want to visit the wilderness, but also makes you see under the surface of urban life. Every freeway drainage ditch, patch of scrub, and visiting hummingbird comes alive with layers of meaning.

Nature Guide to the Mountains of Southern California by Car & Foot: Including: The San Gabriel, San Bernardino, San Jacinto, Santa Rosa, Cuyamaca, and Palomar Mountains (Travel and Local Interest)

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Nature Guide to the Mountains of Southern California by Car & Foot: Including: The San Gabriel, San Bernardino, San Jacinto, Santa Rosa, Cuyamaca, and Palomar Mountains (Travel and Local Interest)
Bill Havert , and Gary Gray
Manufacturer: Earth Trails Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0965176010

Book Description

The Nature Guide for the naturally curious, the novice nature-lover, the hiker, the camper, and the casual visitor to the mountains of Southern California.

An easy-to-use guide that is beautifully illustrated for all who want to enjoy and appreciate our mountains more by identifying the most common trees, shrubs, wildflowers, birds, and mammals.

Nature tours by car tell you what you see from mountain highways, and suggest interesting places to stop for a closer view of different life zones and biotic communities.

Special sections on life zones, biotic communities, and tracking in layperson's language.

The best guide to the mountains of Southern California. This book belongs in the glovebox of anyone living or traveling to California.

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