On paper, Sword Lake does not fit my definition of a great destination. It is a popular lake, not a place to go for solitude. It’s not above treeline or filled with pristine glacier-fed waters. It is surrounded by forest so the views are minimal. There are mosquitoes and noisy boyscouts. There are no fish. [...]
Lamont Peak is a small peak in the Southern Sierra, with a trailhead accessible from highway 178 via a short 6 mile drive on graded dirt road. It is probably the easiest peak on the Sierra Club SPS list. There is a trail all the way to the top, and although it is steep, not well [...]
Just north of China Lake Naval Weapons Center is a tiny little wilderness area called the Coso Range Wilderness. It’s small, around 50,0o0 acres, with limited access (4WD desert road/old mining road). There are no facilities, no signs, no visitor center. It’s not a place to stop and gawk at nature from paved RV-sized pullouts [...]
Last weekend I headed into Yosemite for an overnight backpack along Chilnualna Creek. There were eight of us and it was great fun. I’m not going to write out a full trail report since I did it approximately one year ago. However, I wanted to drop in a quick post here with a link to [...]
In what is becoming an annual tradition, a couple of weekends ago we headed to BLM’s Cache Creek Wilderness area for a spring backpack. Cache Creek offers beautiful wildflowers and great wildlife, so it’s a nice place to visit in the spring. In the summer I imagine it would be miserably hot. I have described [...]
When we lived in Los Altos, if I wanted a quick hike I’d head over to Rancho San Antonio or Monte Bello. When we lived in Sunnyvale, I’d head over towards the parks around Steven’s Creek Reservoir. Now that we’re in San Jose, I’m closest to Almaden Quicksilver, and this makes me very happy. AQS [...]
Over Easter weekend we headed down to Carrizo Plain for the fantastic wildflower bloom. Rather than clutter things up with text, I’ll let the pictures do the talking. Make sure to visit the full album of all the photos from Carrizo.
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