(A first ascent, as it might have appeared in an adventure rag of your choosing). One day a year, they open the path to El Toro. Straight up the spine of the signature peak that glowers at the edge of…
Hiking
See y’all at El Toro
by tom • April 5, 2008 • 1 Comment
It’s where all the cool kid are going to be.
Joseph D. Grant County Park
Feedback on Grant Ranch article
by tom • April 4, 2008 • 0 Comments
This one arrived in today’s e-mail at work in regards to my profile of Joseph D. Grant County Park: Tom – Just a quick note to say that you did a good job on the Grant Ranch piece — I…
Wildlife
Find your watershed
by tom • April 4, 2008 • 0 Comments
This is a nifty tool: a map of watersheds of the West. You enter your city name and a map highlights all the areas nearby from which water flows into it. How it works is here. Link via the Daily…
Carrizo Plain National Monument, Photography
More Carrizo Plain pics
by tom • April 4, 2008 • 0 Comments
Carol took some most excellent pictures the weekend before last during our camp-out at Carrizo Plain National Monument. Check ’em out. (They leave mine in the dust).
Wildlife
Hidden Treasures of the West
by tom • April 4, 2008 • 0 Comments
The Wilderness Society has a couple of excellent videos profiling Bureau of Land Management properties. Here’s Part I (which mentions our beloved Lost Coast): Here’s Part II: The society’s also urging folks to send Congress a note ahead of next…
Hiking
Wheelchair-accessible trails in the Bay Area
by tom • April 4, 2008 • 1 Comment
4WheelBob on the way to White Mountain’s summit. You could just ask 4WheelBob where he goes, but Bob gave up on “accessible” trails years ago. Web sites of the various park districts are all over the map on telling folks…
Photography
A few nice nature photography links
by tom • April 3, 2008 • 0 Comments
Andy Howell explains how to use color filters to achieve cool black-and-white effects. Won’t turn you into Ansel Adams but it will be helpful if you have expensive cameras and high-end editing software like Photoshop. Adam Paul caught some great…
Joseph D. Grant County Park
Latest Hikes column: Joseph D. Grant County Park
by tom • April 3, 2008 • 0 Comments
I focused on the park’s ranching heritage. Often called Grant Ranch in honor of Joseph Grant, who once owned this vast, mountainous tract east of San Jose, the park still has plentiful reminders of its ranching heritage: old windmills, rusty…