It’s the 20th anniversary of the Bay Area Ridge Trail, which is celebrating by offering its second annual September through-hike: this year’s trek goes from Castro Valley north to Martinez over five days from Wednesday, Sept. 2, to Sunday. Sept…
Blogs
Great links from the hiking blogosphere
by tom • July 15, 2009 • 7 Comments
Folks have been posting up a storm lately (must be hiking season or something). Let’s take a look: Adam Paul is posting great pix and commentary from the Southern California high country desert — (hey, it’s not Joshua Tree’s fault…
Año Nuevo State Preserve
Año Nuevo for the elephant seal molt
by tom • July 13, 2009 • 5 Comments
Every winter, the shoreline at Año Nuevo State Natural Reserve becomes jammed with amorous elephant seals. They’re all gone by spring but in the summer a few of the males return to shed their hide, which comes off in large…
Tom's travels
Lookin’ for the good stuff here?
by tom • July 11, 2009 • 1 Comment
Just check out all the posts in which I used the adjective “harrowing” (Count ’em: 17 posts!) According to the Free Dictionary, it looks like I was misusing it most of the time. (My definition: “some scary s**t”) .
Gear
Any Mountain Hardwear owners out there?
by tom • July 11, 2009 • 11 Comments
In my quest to continue providing gear deal scans that will never yield one thin dime of income (I know what you’re thinking: cosmic justice!), I added one for Mountain Hardwear this morning. I figured since they’re based up in…
Gear
Should you buy a footprint with your new backpacking tent?
by tom • July 10, 2009 • 6 Comments
Tarp, bivy and tent footprint Back when I bought my first backpacking tent at REI, I bought into the hype that by god if you put all this money into your backpacking tent, you need to protect that investment by…
Gear
REI Hoodoo 3: a backpacking tent for tall people
by tom • July 9, 2009 • 2 Comments
Anybody over 6-foot-2 has a heck of a time squeezing into most backpacking tents. This “three-person” tent from REI could be an option, assuming you’re taking a friend along. While cruising for bargains at REI I noticed they’d sliced 20%…
Blogs
Woo-hoo, We’re No. 2!
by tom • July 8, 2009 • 7 Comments
Tripbase.com is drumming up free publicity from link-hungry bloggers spreading the word about its series of awards for notable travel-related blogs. Two-Heel Drive ranks No. 2 in the walking-backpacking category, bested only by a guy attempting 36,000 miles, 4 continents,…
In the news
Search on for missing Yosemite backpacker
by tom • July 8, 2009 • 3 Comments
Yosemite Blog posted an announcement yesterday that Joshua Gunther, 34, was supposed to be out of the park Sunday after a weeklong backpacking trip from the Ostrander Lakes trail head. The announcement says only that he acquired a permit to…