Jim Preston, trail lead with the Ventana Wilderness Alliance, wrote in the other day to say the Los Padres National Forest and Ventana Wilderness will open May 1 (except for the Pine Ridge Trail, which still has major fire damage).…
Monthly Archives: April 2009
Hiking maps: does anybody buy them anymore?
by tom • April 30, 2009 • 5 Comments
The rise of do-it-yourself mapping services like everytrail.com has me wondering about the livelihood of people like Tom Harrison, who divides his time between walking all the great trails of California and creating basically the best maps of those trails…
Taking hike requests
by tom • April 29, 2009 • 2 Comments
You know how when you call in to the radio station and ask for a song they were going to play anyway and then they say “this one requested by Cletus from Toadsuck Ferry” … it’s kinda like that only…
Just past the 2,000th post
by tom • April 29, 2009 • 9 Comments
Who’d a thunk there was so much to say about hiking? Lately it occurs to me there still is not a be-all and end-all site for hikers, no Facebook for dirtwalkers. There are sites about gear, sites for talking about…
Great route at Henry Coe from the Coyote Creek entrance (updated with pictures)
by tom • April 27, 2009 • 4 Comments
Winehiker Russ broke out his absurdly huge Henry Coe State Park map and found this untried route from the Coyote Creek entrance: Typically I figure folks can find their own way if they use common sense and grab a map…
This just in:
by tom • April 26, 2009 • 8 Comments
The international situation is still desperate. My response: walk on dirt.
Somebody inspire me please
by tom • April 24, 2009 • 21 Comments
This is what I get for writing about writing about hiking the other day. Now I can’t think of anything to blog about. Part of the problem will only make you chuckle if you’ve been in the waiting-for-the-shoe-to-drop world of…
Tips on writing about hiking
by tom • April 21, 2009 • 14 Comments
Dan White of “Cactus Eaters” suggests avoiding “magnificent.” White led a nature-writing hike over the weekend and advised: Also: during the talk, I asked the writers to avoid using the word “magnificent” in their nature descriptions. “Instead, try to choose…
Hot Sunday at Calero County Park
by tom • April 20, 2009 • 2 Comments
You don’t get a lot of this on trails near town: the feather touch of a spider’s silk on your calves that tells you you’re the first to pass this way today. I got some of that yesterday on the…