In Euripides’ compelling tragedy “Alcestis,” the noble wife sacrifices herself for her husband, Admetos, whose fate is to die immediately. Apollo finds a way to save Admetos if someone dies willingly in his place, but after his parents refuse Alcestis offers to die for him. Alcestis addresses her man, Admetos:

I did not want to stay alive without you, Admetos,
Without a father for my children,
Although I was young and I loved being young.
Your parents betrayed you.

If Alcestis is our fair planet, then Admetos is a negative spirit whose own father refuses to step up and die for him. If we imagine we are the “father” (Pheres), then our profligate ways and outrageous selfishness have sickened this fair planet as the Anthropocene takes over. As parents, we’re betraying our essential partner — this planet symbolized by Alcestis. 

Beguiling Tequepis Trail is among the most beautiful on this planet, and I wonder if we are “betraying” it and all the grand trails on the rustic Earth.

The jungle-like path has been named for an historic Chumash village in the area; but the site was inundated by Cachuma Reservoir in1953. The scenic trail snakes up our coastal range to 4,000-foot Broadcast Peak on the backside of West Camino Cielo.

While some may call the four-mile uphill slog “moderate” in difficulty, I found it demanding physically because of the steep elevation gain in the last mile and one-half (switchbacks) — but wonderfully rewarding psychologically.

Fragrant lilac scents from both the blue and the white fresh-blooming ceanothus plants filled the air as wild Pete and I ascended the verdant trail. Spring waxes jubilant and in many colors on the slope, with bright yellow bush poppies, purple lupine and delicate star lilies (leucocrinum montanum) in profusion.

Because we are walking on the “shady” (yin) side of the coastal ridge (Camino Cielo), the plant and foliage growth here have a jungle-like appearance.

The south-facing side of this low mountain faces away from the ocean and thus retains rainfall more efficiently and loses less of it to evaporation from direct sunlight.

On the frontside, for example, there are almost no Pacific madrones; but on our protected side (it’s really on the east side by compass), we admire the exotic tree with copper-colored bark. It’s a bit like the manzanita chaparral bush, although that tree-bush has reddish smooth bark and seems more drought-tolerant.

We drove out of Santa Barbara at 6 a.m. in very early May for this day hike and powered up Highway 154 (the Chumash Highway) in order to be hiking swiftly by 7 a.m. (see 4.1.1. Driving). We knew it would be foggy and wanted to enjoy the wildflowers that we know flourish on this protected side. This is technically “backcountry” since it is on the shady “back” of the last coastal ridge before our coastal plain spreads out down to the ocean.

Abundant wildflowers and clinging vines included acres of blue and white ceanothus, clematis, hummingbird sage, mugwort, man root (wild cucumber), and brodiaea (Blue Dicks or shikh’o’n). The brodiaea is an edible lily-like plant with a starchy tuber. The Chumash prepared it by collecting the bulbs and cooking them in the hot ashes of a cooking fire. These are quite tasty and are not bad munched raw.

The beginning of the path — an old road that turns quickly into a trail — features sycamores, bigleaf maples and huge live oaks. After almost a mile, the hiker encounters a fork: Bear left on the main trail to reach Broadcast Peak and the top of Camino Cielo. After this fork and flat place, the trail begins to ascend and finally becomes quite steep.

After almost three miles, wild Pete and I bagged the final sprint to the top and turned to admiring the flowers and vines. We noticed a bright butterfly resting on the earth and admired its beauty and lack of fear.

During the entire morning, we saw only one other hiking group: three women with their magnifying glasses out and busily identifying plants. They helped us ID the star lily.

One of the best points on the Tequepis Trail hike are the magnificent views back across Tequepis Creek and on to Lake Cachuma (a man-made reservoir). I add my photograph here from when I hiked this engaging trail on a clear day back in 2015.

If you manage to achieve the top — an eight-mile round-trip — you can ramble on the Camino Cielo and also locate Broadcast Peak with its antennae. On the other hand, you can turn it around anytime higher up yet still obtain lake views.

Let’s imagine the fair young mother Alcestis as our beautiful verdant planet. The arrogant male industrial civilization is personified by the selfish and ignorant lout Admetos, who outrageously blames his father, Pheres, for the fact that he must die.

Admetos says to his father, “I curse your greed for life.” But the father, Pheres, speaks for the fragile planet and Alkestis by replying:

You’re only alive now Admetos because you side-stepped your own fate,
and murdered your wife Alcestis … So don’t you go badmouthing me,
you cringing failure. You love your life. So do we all. If that bothers you, eat it.

We are now reading about hopes to re-introduce grizzly bears into our own backcountry, making laws that confer personhood on a major river in Peru, and legal efforts to protect fish stocks through the California marine protected areas off our coast. Good stuff, and all controversial.

Aren’t we “murdering” our fragile planet with our outrageous numbers, our pollution that causes global warming and our senseless wars? As the parents of the pollution, aren’t we all Pheres and Admetos?

As Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada recently told the current president in the White House on Tuesday, “This White House isn’t for sale, Buckingham Palace isn’t for sale, Canada is not for sale” — yet isn’t our planet actually “for sale” to the human species as we overpopulate, underregulate and openly pollute our rivers and oceans and atmosphere?

What a beautiful planet we still have and with glorious trails like Tequepis — sadly, sometimes it seems like our only activity is simply to eat it.

4.1.1.

Driving: Take Highway 154 almost to the Lake Cachuma turnoff. Turn left at this sign and bear left and keep going to the end; a dirt parking area across from St. Vincent’s has space for at least six cars.

Anne Carson translation of “Alcestis in Grief Lessons.”