This week I tossed out the idea of an Afoot and Afield San Diego County challenge. When I say “tossed out,” I mean I created a detailed spreadsheet with 100 routes that would give hikers a taste of everything great that San Diego County has to offer.
In this blog, I’m going to lay out some thoughts as to how I’m going to tackle it in the hopes that it might offer some insight for others considering the challenge.
- I’m starting on April 1st 2021, and I’ll wrap it up March 31st, 2022. I would have loved to do a calendar year approach, but I had the idea yesterday, so what are you going to do?
- I will cluster certain hikes together. Blue Sky/Woodson Mountain; Five Peaks Challenge in one day; Secret Canyon/Horsethief, Mountain Palm Springs/Bow Willow. This will save time, gas, and effort.
- I will group hikes according to seasonality, since some of them are best during certain times of the year. See breakdown below for more details.
- I will post each trip on Instagram with the hashtag #AASDchallenge
- I might make a few revisions based on a few hikes that I missed.
Here’s a breakdown of when I’m thinking of taking specific hikes according to region. I group it this way as to set aside specific trails for times when I think the conditions are optimal.
April: Mission Trails, Poway, Escondido, Fallbrook
May: Julian/Cuyamacas, Palomar; Warner Springs
June/July/August/September (AKA: Sierra Season): North County; La Jolla/Torrey Pines; Point Loma; Tijuana River Valley; City Center; Rancho Penasquitos; South Bay;
October/November: Mt. Laguna; Pine Creek; Warner Springs; Jacumba Mountains; Santa Rosa Mountains
December: Agua Caliente; Bow Willow; Split Mountain
January: Blair Valley; Carrizo Badlands; San Felipe Hills; Split Mountain
February: Ramona/Lakeside; Alpine/Jamul;
March: San Ysidro Mountains; Borrego Badlands; whatever is left over.
scott turner hikes 
seanblknp@gmail.com
On Tue, Mar 9, 2021 at 11:08 AM scott turner hikes wrote:
> Scott Turner posted: ” This week I tossed out the idea of an Afoot and > Afield San Diego County challenge. When I say “tossed out,” I mean I > created a detailed spreadsheet with 100 routes that would give hikers a > taste of everything great that San Diego County has to offer. ” >
Scott, this looks like a great idea. Everything in Afoot & afield is great but focusing in on some of the highlights and recommendations is going to be a great asset to people who are in discovery phase and for folks like me who will find inspiration to go back to places where we may not have laid down footprints in a while. Thanks for this and for all you do!
Thanks, Stephen.