January 24-30

Topa Topa
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We are in Ojai this week and staying at Krotona, a theosophical community and school that was established here in 1924. The above picture was taken from near the Krotona library, looking eastward over the grounds of Krotona towards Topa Topa bluff. We arrived on Saturday and have been enjoying our visit.

Signposts to the Past

In a recent walk around the Indralaya forest, a variety of artifacts revealed themselves.

These first two pictured items are remnants from the old yellow trail. My recollection is that this trail was originally established by Phyllis Roberts, though I’m not 100% certain of that. This was a long trail that ran in an east-west direction across the middle of the Indralaya forest, then down and around the waterfront to Inspiration Point and back up to the Grove.

This first trail marker is just north of and below the Grove.

The Yellow Trail was abandoned in the late 80’s and early 90’s after two severe winter storms brought down innumerable trees in the middle of the forest and made the trail impassable. Some efforts were made to clear it at the time, but there were those in camp who sensed that this section of Indralaya was closing itself off for some purpose different than human access and a decision was made to honor that perception.

This second trail marker is to the southwest of the Mossy Meadow trail. Near this marker is a lonely fence post that can be seen from the trail. This fence post is a remnant of the days before the south forty acres of the property were acquired. The first meetings at Indralaya were on the McClaren farm, which was approximately 30 acres in size. The south forty was acquired in the late 1940’s. Austin Bee (father of Helen and Carol Bee) was instrumental in this acquisition. Later, an additional eight acres were purchased, bringing Indralaya to its current 78 acre size. The eight acre parcel is on the western side of camp and is the location of our water source and water storage tanks B&C.

The old sign in this picture is a remnant of a series of descriptive signposts that were placed in different areas of the forest to provide information on different tree and plant species. Leonie’s recollection is that these signs were made by Jack Davis, Doreena Toomer’s father. This particular sign is a description of the Grand Fir that it rests against. The Grand Fir (Abies Grandis) is native to the Pacific Northwest.