Well, perhaps. The New York Times Health blog notes a study linking walks outside with improving kids’ ability to pay attention. A small study conducted at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign looked at how the environment influenced a child’s…
Media (books, DVDs, etc)
Alpinist magazine folds
by tom • October 17, 2008 • 1 Comment
Just found this one. We began Alpinist almost seven years ago in a moment of serendipity. What would it be like, we wondered, to create the magazine of our dreams? Twenty-six issues later (if you count Issue 0, which we…
Travel
Trinity Alps profiled in the New York Times
by tom • October 17, 2008 • 3 Comments
John Markoff, the Times’ legendary tech writer, appears to be a hiker at heart. He pens a travel piece on the Trinity Alps, which are northwest of Redding on the way up to Mount Shasta. For most Californians, the notion…
Hiking
Place to check out: Roy’s Redwoods Open Space Preserve
by tom • October 16, 2008 • 0 Comments
Poking around at Bay Nature’s site, I happened upon a place in Marin County curious for its name and size: Roy’s Redwoods Open Space Preserve. It’s not more than a grove, really, at 377 acres. Check this out from the…
In the news
Angel Island fire shots
by tom • October 13, 2008 • 2 Comments
A section of Angel Island caught fire Sunday night. There are tons of great pictures on Flickr. I never watch TV on Sundays; otherwise I would’ve known about it (possibly; my potential for cluelessness is boundless). Cal Fire’s page here.…
In the news
Ventana Wilderness fire devastation
by tom • October 13, 2008 • 3 Comments
Here’s a chilling photo album from just one section of the Ventana Wilderness: It’s in the Tassajara area. Fedak tells me the whole area remains closed because of this year’s fires. This page notes that the Basin Fire burned over…
Sunol Regional Wilderness
New hike video: Sunol Wilderness
by tom • October 13, 2008 • 8 Comments
About time I got some actual hiking done around here. After a four-week break (the longest in four years) I decided Sunol Regional Wilderness would be an excellent re-entry point. Sunol is my default venue if I’m too lazy to…
In the news
Great pix from the Steve Fossett crash site
by tom • October 10, 2008 • 1 Comment
A kindly commenter named Gus left this link with a bunch of pictures and maps from last week’s Steve Fossett crash discovery. My Google maps of the crash site proved to be fairly accurate. What mystifies me: if the plane…
Backpacking
Backpacking: solo or in a group?
by tom • October 10, 2008 • 11 Comments
The standard advice we all ignore is: Never hike alone. It seems that since backpacking is a more highly complex kind of hiking, the directive to never go solo should be even more of an imperative. If this were true,…