Perhaps you recall a post a few months ago (The Gingles Farm, 1973). During this later 1974 visit to my parents (living in another part of Iowa), I made a couple of day treks back to the Castana community and the old Gingles farm.
On one of these outings, an L.A. friend stopped off on a flyover to the East coast long enough to accompany me. I picked him up at the Omaha airport and we drove up to Castana area. We spent much of our time hiking the steep, rugged, dense area known to me and my siblings when kids as “The Wilderness”. (SIDEBAR: My friend Mike, himself a avid photographer and backpacker, had in earlier years introduced me to the Sierra Club and pulled me into a good number of backpacking, mountain climbing, rock climbing, peak-bagging and snow-caving excursions around California in the late 60s and early-mid 70s.) Herewith:
