Dave and I headed up to Desolation Wilderness this Memorial Day weekend with the standard group. As usual, a good time was had by all. Saturday we started at the…
My sister came to visit over the past week, and we spent Tuesday checking out all the tourist sites in Yosemite. It was nice to get to all the viewpoints…
There is a stretch of coast in Northern California where Highway 1 cuts inland because the terrain was too rugged to build a road along the water. This area, called the Lost Coast, is difficult to get to and some of the most scenic and wild terrain in California. This weekend I headed up there with a bunch of friends to backpack along this coast.
The group was planning on a 25 mile trek from the Mattole Beach access point to Shelter Cove (Black Sands Beach). I was only able to join for Friday and Saturday night, so I met some of the group in Shelter Cove on Friday afternoon. We car camped and the rest of the group arrived on Saturday morning and we shuttled up to Mattole. Although Mattole Beach is only 25 miles up the coast it is about a two hour drive to get there, including a long and steep stretch on Kings Peak Road, a beautiful 4WD road through the Kings Range. After the shuttle we had lunch at the trailhead and then started the hike south to Punta Gorda Lighthouse, where we spent the night in a rather fancy driftwood wind shelter.
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A few weeks ago I took on a Bay Area beast, Mt Sizer in Henry Coe State Park. Like all hikes in Henry Coe, it's a long slog up and…
We did a short dayhike on Saturday morning at San Bruno Mountain. I'd never been up here before - it is an interesting piece of nature surrounded by urban area.…
A few weeks ago David and I joined on a group geocaching 'Deathmarch'. The plan was to tackle Palo Corona Peak in Garrapata State Park, about 10 miles south of…
David and I spent the weekend up in Eldorado National Forest near Lake Tahoe. Our mission was twofold: do some snowshoeing, and get some firewood. After picking up the woodcutting…
Let’s get straight to the gear!
Continued after the jump…
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If there was any kind of ‘theme’ to the show this year, it would have been Environmental Sustainability. Several companies were announcing new environmental initiatives and renewable supply chains. In addition, the Outdoor Industry Association was asking every person to offset their CO2 emissions created during their travel to the show. There would be a monetary value placed on the emissions, and people could donate this money to the carbon neutrality project. The money was going to the building of new wind turbines. For my round trip flight from San Jose, a $12 donation would cover the cost of the wind power needed to offset my CO2 emissions.
More after the jump.
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