The Summit

Mount Ina Coolbrith and an unwritten poem are alike. Both are wild with no established entry points, no trails to follow, and no signs telling you which way to go. They are also different: While a poem has a metaphorical peak to scale, few have climbed Mount Ina Coolbrith, an 8,068-foot-tall mountain in the Sierra Nevada, six miles southeast of Beckwourth Pass where Ina crossed into California at eleven years old.

On a June day in 2018 I scaled it at sixty years old. We rose before dawn, but it took hours to find a good starting point. Though Mount Ina Coolbrith is on U.S. Forest Service land, its base is a sea of sagebrush, fences, and “No Trespassing” signs. With me were my husband, Dave; Wade, our fox terrier (dumb idea); and Debbie Bulger and Richard Stover, peak climbers in their retirement.

Mount Ina Coolbrith was the last item on my bucket list of Coolbrith-related pilgrimages. As her biographer, I visited her birthplace in Nauvoo, Illinois; walked the cities where she lived; and paid my respects at her Mountain View Cemetery gravesite, which had gone unmarked for years until the Ina Coolbrith Circle righted the wrong with an elegant pink marble headstone.

At around 10 a.m., we began our ascent on the west side of the mountain with its arid expanse of sweet-smelling sage and yellow mule’s ears. Up, up, up we went. By the time we neared the summit it was nearly five p.m., and clear to me that the effort was beyond my stamina. The sun was low, and the vehicles several ridges away.

Debbie pointed to the summit where we would register our names and leave a copy of Coolbrith’s “In Blossom Time.” As the others climbed the Volkswagen-sized boulders to reach it, I chose to stay behind and gather my resolve for what I knew would be an arduous hike down.

We descended by a different route, and with ankles askew, slid on loose talus, skirted sage brush, and pushed our way through dead manzanita bushes. After hours of walking on the near-sheer terrain, my thigh muscles went rubbery, and it was harder to catch myself when I slid. Wade, our terrier, had reached his limit, too, and was hitching a ride in Dave’s backpack.

The sun went down. It was a moonless night and by 10 p.m. it was pitch dark. Dave and I were unprepared. We didn’t have headlamps or a flashlight; I had a light on my phone, but Dave’s phone was dead.

The second time I fell, my heels touched my butt, and I knew I was in trouble. “I think we have to spend the night on the mountain,” I said for all to hear.

“No!” Debbie said sternly in the dark. “I won’t let you die on this mountain!”

Richard took my backpack, and we continued to walk for another hour on a black hillside that slanted near the angle of repose.

Finally, we made it back to the vehicles at 12:30 a.m., drove to our campground, and collapsed. The next day I couldn’t walk, and days of hot baths didn’t help. I saw a physical therapist and used a cane for five months until my knees began to track again.

I didn’t reach the summit, but I am at peace with that. Like writing a poem, a pilgrimage is about the journey, and summit or no, I still climbed Mount Ina Coolbrith.

By Aleta George, written for The Gathering 16, The Ina Coolbrith Circle Poetry Anthology 2024-25

Dave George, Aleta George, Richard Stover, and Debbie Bulger

 

 

 

California Forever's planned city is practically in my backyard

Site of proposed 17,500-acre city in southeastern Solano County.
Photo by Aleta George.

As an environmental journalist who has covered open space and development issues for two decades and a resident of Solano County, I have followed California Forever's plans to build a new city. The 17,500-acre planned city is twenty minutes from my house on land that I know and love.

After several months of attending town halls and events, talking to supporters and detractors, and studying the proposal, I wrote about it with the goal to cover both sides of the issue fairly. 

I also covered what it might mean for the Suisun Marsh, the only tidal brackish wetland of its kind and size that’s left on the West Coast, and a wetland that could play a vital role in mitigating sea level rise. Although the planned California Forever city is not sited within the Suisun Marsh, it has holdings that border it. 

Read "Wheat Fields or Walkable City for Solano Open Space" in KneeDeep Times, the Bay Area's climate resilience magazine.

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Yoshimatsu Nakata's Hawaiian Home

In the deep shade of an 80-foot-tall monkeypod tree in the O'ahu Cemetery in Honolulu, Hawaii, I paid my respects to Yoshimatsu Nakata, Jack London's longtime valet and surrogate son.

Nakata was central to London's life, and is featured in my book in progress about London's formative and lifelong relationship with the San Francisco Bay.

Nakata started as a cabin boy on the Snark, the boat that London built to sail around the world. When the trip was cut short, Nakata returned to California as the author's valet. Nakata was also London's first mate and surrogate son.

After eight years, Nakata married his sweetheart, Momoyo, and left London to study dentistry. In Honolulu he opened a successful practice, raised his children, Gertrude and Edward, and was elected president of the Hawaii Dental Association. He died in 1967 at age seventy-eight.

I visited the Nakata family gravesite with Yoshimatsu's grandson James Nakata, Edward's son, and his lovely wife, Lisa.

In the Japanese tradition, Jim washed the marble stone with water and a sponge in homage to his ancestors.

Nakata purchased the stone and site for his family, and I couldn't help but feel proud of him, an Issei who had migrated to Hawaii as a teenager.

Jim's office includes photos of his "grandpa." The cabinet at right was in the dental office that Yoshimatsu shared with his son, Edward, who became a dentist and a partner in the practice. 

The historic photos are courtesy of The Huntington Libary. All others by Aleta George.

Nakata's Smile

The Huntington Library,
San Marino, CA

Yoshimatsu Nakata won me over with his smile.

He was Jack London's valet for eight years, but he was more than that.

He sailed the South Seas with London on the Snark, the yacht that London built to his own specifications.

He embarked with his boss on a trip around the Horn on the tall ship Dirigo.

And he was first mate on the last boat that London owned and sailed on the San Francisco Bay, the Roamer.

The Huntington Library,
San Marino, CA

In early 2022, I found two of Nakata's personal diaries, a real find since Nakata is a central character in my book in progress, a place-based biography about London and the San Francisco Bay. 

Here is my story in California magazine about finding the diaries, the long journey of translation, and my continuing fascination with this young man who London considered more of a son or younger brother.

Nakata's Smile: Unlocking the Diaries of Jack London's Valet

Food Forests: A vision for the future

Photo by Aleta George

Best friends Nam Nguyen and Natalie DeNicholas graciously welcomed visitors to their "food forest" garden Greyhawk Grove by picking pea pods and handing them out, sharing eggs from their Easter-egger chickens, and answering questions about plants.

Nguyen planted the garden nine years ago with the help of Sustainable Solano, a Solano County nonprofit that helps people create sustainable yards. Along with its fruit, greens, and herbs, Greyhawk Grove has benches for sitting, framed poetry for reflection, and spring bulbs for cheer.

 “We are aware of mental health in this house, and it’s nice to have a calm place in the garden,” says DeNicholas, as a hummingbird fluttered to an apple blossom. 

This spring, Sustainable Solano hosted open gardens that they helped plan and plant, offering visitors a chance to find out just what a food forest is: a garden layered like a natural forest that includes fruit-bearing trees and edible plants.

Read more in Kneedeep Times about this garden and another on the tour that was planted with flood mitigation in mind.

El Bosquecito, or Little Forest, garden. Photo by Aleta George

Eight years after the publication of Ina Coolbrith: The Bittersweet Song of California's First Poet Laureate, it has a sweet new review!

Ayako Hoshino, an assistant professor at Wayo Women's University in Ichikawa, Chiba, Japan (near Tokyo), wrote a review for Lifewriting Annual: Biographical and Autobiographical Studies.

Hoshino begins by saying, "Although much has been written about California’s rich literary history, the life of poet Ina Donna Coolbrith (1841–1928) seems to deserve a brighter spotlight."

The closing paragraph says, "George gives a sympathetic and comprehensive treatment of Coolbrith’s ambitions and intelligence, recognizing the struggles she faced in a male-centered world."

Thank you for the review and recognition of Ina, Professor Hoshino!

Hoshino, A., (2022) “Aleta George, Ina Coolbrith: The Bittersweet Song of California’s First Poet Laureate. Suisun City, CA: Shifting Plates Press, 2015. 337 pp.”, Lifewriting Annual: Biographical and Autobiographical Studies 5(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.16995/la.1887

Dorothy Lazard, My Favorite Librarian

Librarian, historian, and writer Dorothy Lazard has just published her first book, What You Don't Know Will Make a Whole New World (Heyday Books, May 2023).

I first met Dorothy more than a decade ago at the Oakland History Center at the main branch of the Oakland Public Library when I was researching my biography on Ina Coolbrith, Oakland's first public librarian and the nation's first poet laureate. Dorothy quickly became my favorite (living) librarian, and I'm not alone in my enthusiasm. She retired two years ago to pursue her decades-long interest in writing.

In March 2023 I met with Dorothy to talk about her book, her path to the Oakland Public Library, and her passion for writing.

Read my profile of Dorothy Lazard in California magazine here.