Reservations apparently are still available for this nifty fund-raiser for the Bay Area Ridge Trail for 45 miles over five days from Castro Valley to Martinez — somebody else will haul all your camping gear and food. It’s $225 (or…
Yearly Archives: 2008
Bay Nature’s site relaunch
by tom • June 25, 2008 • 5 Comments
Bay Nature magazine, of my favorite publications on the planet, has revamped its Web site with a bunch of cool features like events calendars and maps of Bay Area attractions. Also has videos like this one: They’ve also put all…
Ventana Wilderness closure expected
by tom • June 24, 2008 • 2 Comments
John Fedak sent me this e-mail from a posting to a Ventana Wilderness listserv: Folks – I just got a call from Patrick Bailey, the Wilderness and Trails Manager for the Monterey Ranger District. He tells me that in response…
Ruins along Bay Area trails
by tom • June 24, 2008 • 11 Comments
No matter how much we crave trees, flowers, meadows, mountain peaks, etc., we still like seeing human stuff along the trail — provided it’s suitably old and existing in a state of advanced disrepair. Last week’s water bottlers and PowerBar…
Pescadero Creek County Park, a first hike
by tom • June 23, 2008 • 3 Comments
Add Pescadero Creek County Park to your must-hike list, if it isn’t there already. It’s remote, quiet, full of ambitious young redwoods and a smattering of really old ones that, oddly enough, survived the steam-powered saws of outrageous fortune. Pescadero…
All new map of Two Heel Drive hikes
by tom • June 20, 2008 • 1 Comment
I built this with Google maps this morning; it’s built around the park profiles I’ve written for the Mercury News. View Larger Map
About those SPOT rescue beacons
by tom • June 19, 2008 • 5 Comments
Read this before you buy one. (Read the whole thing, it’s a corker … I won’t spoil it here. It’s about the Backpacker Magazine guy on Denali, in case you’ve seen the coverage on other outdoor blogs.) Previously: Mulling the…
Latest Hikes column: Huddart County Park
by tom • June 19, 2008 • 0 Comments
In this morning’s Mercury News: Huddart County Park, built on a Santa Cruz Mountains hillside west of Woodside, is better known for family reunions and Fourth of July barbecues than hikes. The racket of car engines and rowdy kids takes…
Like you need a reason to hike at Purisima Creek Redwoods
by tom • June 18, 2008 • 6 Comments
Well, here’s one from alert reader Barbara Hagin: You’ll have to visit Purisma Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve soon…the baby quails are out in full force. My husband and I hiked from the trailhead to the Soda Gulch trail on…