Recently, I wrote a post breaking down the Ten Essentials, and there was some feedback about including cell phones on this list. To recap, the Ten Essentials are items that you need to have on you when you're hiking to ensure a safe situation AND protect you in case of most emergencies. They should be …
Continue reading "The Hiker’s Handbook: Are Cell Phones the Eleventh Essential?"
In previous posts, I broke down where to find reliable information, how to incorporate a knowledge of climate into your planning, and various means of determining what the weather will be like when you hit the trail. I even talked a bit about the sunk cost fallacy, a thinking error where we fail to recognize …
You did it! You somehow managed to emerge from the Half Dome permit lottery with permits in hand. You've tried for three years to get those permits, and now you've finally managed to obtain what was starting to seem unobtainable. You plan for months and months, which includes multiple challenging day hikes designed to build …
Continue reading "The Hiker’s Handbook: The Sunk Cost Fallacy"
In the last blog, I did a quick and tidy breakdown of climate and how it factors into general planning. I compared climate to "personality" by pointing out how it's a collection of traits, tendencies, temperaments, and characteristics that remains stable over time. I then compared weather to "moods," which are day-to-day, or even moment-to-moment …
Here in the American west, we have a tremendous degree of climate variability, and those variables are some of the principle factors to take into account while you prepare. Does this seem too basic? Well, consider that, every year, hundreds of people require rescue due to heat related injuries because they started an inland hike …
In just about every hiking guide I’ve written, I’ve used the phrase “nothing in life guarantees success as much as good planning.” I can attest, as I’ve had more than my fair share of fails arising from poor planning. There’s the time I arrived at Yosemite in the middle of a snowstorm with nothing to …
Welcome to the first in a series of blogs that will break down many of the in's and out's of hiking skills. This series will function in the spirit of the adage, "teach a man to fish, and he'll eat for a lifetime," and it's my hope that I what I share over the course …
Last week, 60-year old Sheryl Powell vanished from Grandview Campground after a reported confrontation with a knife-wielding male who intended to sexually assault here. Search and rescue operations found Powell after four days, during which time she survived by drinking spring water. Only a few weeks prior, a man was shot after entering a couples’ …
I found myself with an hour of leisure time between the moment I dropped my kid off at daycare and the moment I had to be at the office. So, as has become a custom on Tuesdays, I stopped at the Calavera Hills trail network for a quick hike. Normally, I stick to the lake, …
This past Saturday, I explored an area of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park that I had long wanted to explore, but never had the time to do so. I initially planned to include a route up the Carrizo Gorge in the 5th edition of Afoot and Afield San Diego County, but after one false start where we …
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