In March of 2020, COVID-19 closures began altering our lives in fundamental ways. At the time, I was unusually active on social media in an attempt to clarify and distill information on what was open and what wasn't open anymore. During that time, I heard a common refrain among folks in the hiking community who …
I've been arguing on the internet again, guys. This morning, a lady on a Facebook group had some very strong feelings about ongoing closures at Yosemite National Park. This lady - let's call her Lorraine - was angry because she wanted to go to Yosemite, but the park has so far been vague on when …
By virtue of spending a mildly obscene amount of time on hiking trails over the last decade, I've had a lot of time to ruminate in the midst of an astonishing array of hiking experiences. Because I'm one of those people who seeks out patterns in everything, from which I often derive analogies, I've been …
This weekend, I took a trip out to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park to take an overnight hike up to Whale Peak with my friends, Jim and Alex. As with any hike into Anza-Borrego, this was also an opportunity for me to re-scout a few routes (5, in this case) for a possible 6th edition. I …
When I was 19 years old, I worked in a grocery store that often kept me late hours into the night. Much of the time, I would be awake until 4 in the morning. On one of those late mornings, I found myself aimlessly rifling through the cabinets where my parents kept family photo albums. …
Note: Most of these photos were either from January of 2015 or June of 2015. In early January, I re-scouted the Indian Creek and Garnet Peak routes from Afoot and Afield as part of an extremely casual re-hiking of the entire book. Of course, we'll see if I really re-hike the whole thing. Jerry Schad …
Continue reading "Trip Report: Indian Creek and Garnet Peak"
Note: Fall color photos are from November 2014. The photo of Thunder Valley is from June 2018. In the most casual way possible, I've been re-hiking the 5th edition of Afoot and Afield in case there ends up being a 6th edition at some point in the future. I'm not approaching anything in a systematic …
If you spend enough time on the trail, the practice of hiking will change you. Once upon a time, I was hellbent on the summit, pushing at maximum speed to rack up the miles and check the destinations off an ever-growing list of challenges. I've come to call that sort of hiking "bucket-listing." Bucket-listing stems …
Last Sunday (11/23), I took a trip out to Cuyamaca Rancho State Park to take a look at trail conditions up along the Cuyamaca Crest. I heard about an SDG&E project that was blocking access to the summit, which was of interest given Cuyamaca Peak's inclusion into the San Diego Six Pack of Peaks. I …
At the beginning of the song Grown Ocean by the band Fleet Foxes, drummer J Tillman counts off two half notes and then four quarter notes right before a pounding, lush acoustic arrangement erupts into the band's cavernous reverberated sonic environment. Within these first moments of the song, my memory transports me instantaneously to Sequoia National …
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