All it took was a crumbly shard of shale cascading down a steep cliff face to force me to look upward into the blue skies above the Sespe Wilderness, part of the Los Padres National Forest.
Then it took a majestic desert bighorn sheep ram nimbly traversing toward me to make me forget about how exposed I was on my lofty, precarious perch. His gaze captivated, and his gregariousness knew no bounds as it approached to within 25 feet of me.
Still, hunger was a priority for the burly ram. He eventually grew bored with me and easily turned his attention to a steady diet of birch-leaf mountain mahogany, hollyleaf cherry, and spiny rush.