Hunting for Bigfoot in the Santa Cruz Mountains

Ashley Membree, Michael Rugg and Ralph Jack hunt for a Bigfoot around Felton. (Chip Scheuer)

When I found out I’d be going Bigfoot hunting with Michael Rugg, I figured we’d hike deep into the woods to some remote destination to conduct our search. In actuality, we spend most of the time in Felton, right along the road and close to the nearby homes. “Bigfoots don’t have to be in a big wilderness area to exist,” Rugg, who owns the Bigfoot Discovery Museum, explains to me on our outing. “They can exist around the edge of town.”

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April Offers Rare Glimpse of Santa Cruz Sandhills

Few readers of Sunset Magazine know that the publication was started by Southern Pacific Railroad as a promotional gimmick to persuade East Coast residents to visit the West Coast.  It flopped at first, but eventually Laurence Lane, a former Midwestern farmer, purchased the magazine with the idea of turning it into a West Coast version of Better Homes and Gardens, and Sunset was on its way.

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Wine Passports Open Doors in Santa Cruz

A $40 Passport gives wine lovers access to 50 wineries this Saturday. Photo by Chip Scheuer.

The Santa Cruz Mountains is one of California’s oldest wine making regions, and it’s making some of the country’s most exciting wines—if you know where to find them. That’s why there’s Passport Day, which literally provides a map to some of the appellation’s greatest treasures. This Saturday, from 11am to 5pm, anyone with wine passport can gain access to some 50 local wineries—including many that are normally closed to the public.

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David Arora Demystified

Mycologist David Arora, a former Santa Cruzan, relaxes on his Mendocino County property. Photo by Christian Schwarz.

The moon has just set behind a curtain of 100-foot redwood trees, and David Arora is on his first mushroom hunt of the new year. It didn’t take him long to get around to it. It’s 12:15am on Jan. 1, and the mycologist is craving a large basket of matsutakes to bring home, soak in a rich marinade and eat for dinner the next night. “I’m trying to find at least one matsutake,” says Arora, scanning the path in front of him. “They’re amazing.”

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