While I have taken many long weekend trips that mean carrying a pack 30 miles, I have found it much more enjoyable — even with my ultralight backpack — to take trips where the pack-carrying is limited and day hiking to explore the wilderness is the order of the day. One of those short trips [...]
U.S. award-winning outdoor writer, columnist and TV personality Tom Steinstra is writing an eight-part series in the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper about a 70-mile backpacking trek through Sequoia National Park, starting at Siberian Ridge and ending at Mineral King, which takes in Mt. Whitney, one of highest points in North America. Steinstra says in this [...]
This is not a list of hikes, but rather a few notes about the book 100 Classic Hikes in Northern California I bought as a birthday present for backpacking companion Wild Bill. Hopefully, he won’t read this because he doesn’t get the book until later this week. I’ll bet I’ve purchased more than a dozen [...]
Trip: backpack camp on Redwood Creek in Redwood National and State Parks, Northern California One way distance to camp: 1.5 miles Total weekend mileage (Friday afternoon and Saturday): 15 miles We often think of backpacks as journeys, treks or adventures — long distance hikes that take us beyond the realm of the day hiker into [...]
On my trip to the Emigrant Wilderness in Northern California (not far from Sonora), we hiked to Chewing Gum Lake, a gain of nearly 2,000 feet over 4.4 miles from the Crabtree Trailhead. You may note that I call it dead. That’s because two biologists surveying the lake’s wildlife said there were no fish. Hard [...]
How to get there: near Sonora, California, on Highway 108 before crossing the Sonora Pass in the Western Sierra. Campground: Baker (there are many surrounded by 100-foot red cedars right by the Stanislaus River). Where to eat: the Kennedy Meadows Resort & Pack Station, opened in 1917, and called the “Gateway to the Emigrant Wilderness”. [...]
People’s reaction to mosquitos is pretty odd. On our Emigrant Wilderness Trip in California’s Sierra, we saw: -A happy couple with full face head nets. They seemed to be pleased that they had spent 99 cents to keep the little guys away from their face. Missing was the ear plugs or the iPod to block [...]
I am heading out in the morning for a week-long trip. It will combine car camping with backpacking. Backpacking pals Wild Bill and Duke and I leave tomorrow at 7:30 and head to the Dardenelles, a 10-hour trip. We’ll overnight in the campground, fish and get acclimated the next day, then leave early Wednesday morning [...]
The San Francisco Bay Area is famous for preserving a lot of its natural spaces despite the seemingly unending onslaught of housing developments. In the San Francisco East Bay, near the town of Livermore, is the Ohlone Wilderness Trail, which transverses three regional parks. Along the way is Rose Peak, at 3,812 feet the second [...]
As I said in my last post, I figure we can get into the mountains for backpacking or hiking early this year, based on the snowpack and my trip this past week to visit a friend in Weed, a tiny town at the foot of Mount Shasta. Shasta, which is more than 14,000 feet, is [...]
