Remember how I was lavishing praise on VirtualParks.org the other day? Well, just now I did some poking around at the non-local sites I used to watch every day and found that since early July, at least three other blogs…
Hiking
Finding hikes: Yelp.com
by tmangan • July 20, 2007 • 0 Comments
If you ever poke around googling local restaurants or stores you might find reviews at yelp.com. The other day I was looking for something else at the site and absent-mindedly typed in “hiking” in Yelp’s search field and discovered there…
In the news
Drastic cuts for state parks funding
by tmangan • July 20, 2007 • 1 Comment
If you think the facilities at Big Basin and Castle Rock are looking a little ragged, just stand by. Next year’s proposed state budget cuts state parks funding by 30 percent. A press release from the office of state Sen.…
Hiking
Any Huntington/Shaver Lake experts out there?
by tmangan • July 19, 2007 • 1 Comment
Tom Kotynski of Great Falls, Montana, retired newsman and active author of the Out There With Tom blog, dropped me a note asking for recommendations for hikes and climbs around Shaver and Huntington Lakes. I haven’t visited these lakes but…
Sanborn Skyline County Park
Latest Hikes column: Sanborn-Skyline County Park
by tmangan • July 19, 2007 • 0 Comments
From my Hikes column at the Mercury News. Early birds get the trails to themselves at Sanborn-Skyline, the popular Santa Clara County park just west of Saratoga. While the early hikers get the best rewards at pretty much any park,…
Mangan's memoirs
Where’s the go-to site for Bay Area outdoorspeople?
by tmangan • July 19, 2007 • 1 Comment
Interesting quote I just stumbled upon: “Few residents and fewer visitors realize that no other major metropolitan center holds such an extensive system of natural areas. The extraordinary total of wild greenbelts in the Bay Area exceeds Yosemite National Park…
Bay Area hiking clubs
More ways to meet hikers: meetup.com, tribe.net
by tmangan • July 19, 2007 • 0 Comments
Today’s sites worth seeing: Tribe.net and meetup.com. I posted a note flogging our new Bay Area focus at Tribe.net’s Bay Area Hiking tribe and got a reply from a guy offering to lead anthropological hikes around the area. Of course…
Site sponsors
We have our first sponsor
by tmangan • July 18, 2007 • 2 Comments
Awhile back an e-mail arrived from Jan Coyle, who runs a local guided-hiking service called Pacific Pathways, which specializes in trips to New Zealand and Australia. She had a few folks back out of an upcoming trip, so she asked…
Bay Area hiking sites
Essential site: VirtualParks.org
by tmangan • July 18, 2007 • 0 Comments
OK, everybody, do as you’re told and head over to VirtualParks — a collection of more than 1,000 “VR” panoramas of hiking trails and other sites in California and the West. Getting the VR to work is a bit tricky…