Cool hiking-related stuff I did in summers past:

I slept on an actual bed every every night in the summer of 2008 and barely got out of the Bay Area. I had four weeks of vacation and couldn’t find time to squeeze in a single camp-out. Upside: nobody had to pretend they were impressed with tales of my outdoor exploits. Didn’t have any.

Lessons/memories/conclusions now that it’s all over:

  • Hearing the distant train whistle from the Roaring Camp Railroads from deep in the eastern half of Wilder Ranch State Park is just plain cool.
  • Also just plain cool: Walking through groves of essentially newborn redwoods already towering skyward at Pescadero Creek County Park.
  • Making little movies of your hikes is not that hard — the video function on your digital camera and some video editing software is all you really need. String together a bunch of short clips, edit out the boring/too-shaky parts and whammo: you’re in showbiz.
  • If you find people you like hiking with, find a way to do it. Life keeps intervening on me and preventing this from happening.
  • If you’re thinking, “by God I need to spend a week backpacking in the High Sierra,” find a way to commit yourself to doing it. I spent this year thinking maybe I’d get around to it and never did.

What about the rest of you? Any insights to be gleaned from your summer adventures?