The project I started yesterday is in pretty good shape today — I’ve taken all the Hikes columns I’ve written for the Mercury News and given each one a static page with a hike description, breakout box of essential park…
Monthly Archives: December 2007
A plug for Don Edwards National Wildlife Sanctuary
by tom • December 12, 2007 • 2 Comments
A story in this morning’s Chron describes a billion-dollar plan to open up old Cargill salt ponds, build strong levees and let nature take its course, which should mean hundreds and perhaps thousands more birds and other wildlife in the…
What I’m up to this morning
by tom • December 11, 2007 • 2 Comments
I figured out awhile back that the paper’s posting only about six weeks’ worth of my hiking columns, so I’m building an archive of them here instead. They’re in the rail under “local park profiles.” These are the ones I’ve…
Gorillapod thoughts
by tom • December 10, 2007 • 6 Comments
I bought one of these Gorillapod tripods last spring and finally made up my mind to take it out in the woods and see how handy it is for hiking. Turns out it works pretty well — it stands on…
My Uvas Canyon adventure
by tom • December 10, 2007 • 10 Comments
It took me a full two days to get one good hike in at Uvas Canyon County Park, which is odd considering the park has only seven miles of trails to begin with. It might’ve gone smoother if it hadn’t…
Veronica Ruiz search effort
by tom • December 8, 2007 • 10 Comments
Veronica Ruiz has been missing since Dec. 3. Authorities have called off the search since no trace of her was found at Mount Tamalpais. A new site has been set up to coordinate volunteers who are forging ahead with the…
Cool socks report
by tom • December 7, 2007 • 2 Comments
Rick at HikeHalfdome.com writes up some very nifty hiking socks from Northern Ireland that are cut for right and left feet. Wool-synthetic blend with anti-bacterial treatment. Nice. (Field sobriety test for next wine-soaked overnighter: can you tell which feet your…
Hiking & photography
by tom • December 7, 2007 • 12 Comments
Ask Steve why he never takes a camera hiking and he’ll mention the boxes & boxes of slides from backpacking trips of days gone by that he never looks at anymore. Then there’s Dan, who could equip a polar expedition…
Christmas gifts for light-weight backpackers
by tom • December 7, 2007 • 2 Comments
LightBackpacking.com has a bunch of suggestions. Interesting ditty: A Nikon monocular/spotting scope. I have one made by Zeiss that I use occasionally — it’s small, light & handy but hard to hold still enough to get much use out of.