Trailspotting reviews the Kata T-214, a way-cool sling bag for carrying your cameras into the woods. It’s built by a company that makes bags for the Israeli military and looks tough enough to intimidate a terrorist (and might well convert…
Tag Archive for Hiking
Latest Hikes column: Skyline Ridge Open Space Preserve
by tom • May 8, 2008 • 4 Comments
From my column in today’s Mercury News Skyline Ridge is one of a string of preserves managed by the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District along Skyline Boulevard in the Santa Cruz Mountains crest west of the Santa Clara Valley. The…
Sunday at Wilder Ranch State Park
by tom • April 28, 2008 • 6 Comments
The cool thing about Wilder Ranch State Park is how you get from one side to the other: Tunnels under Highway 1 connect the coast to the backcountry. The map shows two intended for human traffic, and those who’ve been…
Wilder Ranch State Park, a first look
by tom • April 28, 2008 • 4 Comments
I spent Sunday at Wilder Ranch State Park, a couple miles north of the Santa Cruz city limits. The rest of the pictures are here. I’ll chat up this hike later, but I figured I’d throw some pictures up for…
A great hike to nowhere at Purisima Creek
by tom • April 26, 2008 • 2 Comments
There’s a rarely traveled corner of Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve where the trail goes deeper and deeper in to the woods, the grass gets taller and taller, and then, ultimately, the trail fades to nothing. I hiked this…
Latest Hikes column: Santa Teresa County Park
by tom • April 17, 2008 • 0 Comments
Santa Teresa, wildflower and mountain biker hub of south San Jose, gets the treatment. The park at San Jose’s southern edge is a magnet for mountain bikers who delight in molar-rattling rides along the rockier trails. Riders were out in…
Best places to take your dog hiking
by tom • April 8, 2008 • 11 Comments
Shop for dog-related goodies at REI.com Hikers in the San Francisco Bay Area are crazy about their dogs, but many parks in the region (especially state parks) are not so crazy about dogs on trails (how could they be worse…
Why we hike, Version 413,463,271.3
by tom • February 24, 2008 • 4 Comments
The Hiking group at flickr.com weighed the question, which I haven’t revisited in a while so I figured what the heck, why not post a link. I used to have all the standard reasons — solitude, exercise, communing with nature,…
Are you left-legged or right-legged?
by tom • February 22, 2008 • 0 Comments
The Uncooped blog, which shows more promise with each new post, points to the time-honored human habit of going in circles, which results from one leg being slightly stronger than the other. The post links to an English-language summary of…