Alta California : Counterpoint : 9781640091658 : 1640091653 : 05 Nov 2019 : This national bestseller chronicles one man's 650?mile trek on foot from San Diego to San Francisco?sure to appeal to readers of naturalist works like Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire, Paul Thoreau's On the Plain of Snakes, and Mark Kenyon's That Wild Country. In 1769, an expedition led by Gaspar de Portola' sketched a route that would become, in part, the famous El Camino Real. It laid the foundation for the Golden State we know today, a place that remains as mythical and captivating as any in the world. Despite having grown up in California, Nick Neely realized how little he knew about its history. So he set off to learn it bodily, with just a backpack and a tent, trekking through stretches of California both lonely and urban. For twelve weeks, following the journal of expedition missionary Father Juan Crespi', Neely kept pace with the ghosts of the Portola' expedition?nearly 250 years later. Weaving natura