The Tale of a Beard, Four Paws and a Forest
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Segue: Costa Rica Reprieve
Livin’ la Pura Vida As we walked through the drizzle, the Little Man subjected me to the usual queries: “what kind of plant is this, Dad?” … “is that flower edible?” … “do you think there’s giardia in that river?” And I didn’t know — not once. It was a uniquely disconcerting experience, not having…
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End of the Road
There has been no shortage of idle musings and short reports from this site of our numerous excursions along the Kennedy Ridge trail and the (Far) East Camino Cielo, exploratories which culminated to a degree with the brush-busting mess that was our November 2013 exploratory beyond the “known road” of the old East Camino Cielo…
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Gridley Canyon Service
In the waning days of 2014, the rather impressive rains that inundated California’s Central Coast after a long spell of virtually no precipitation were a welcome respite for our parched backcountry. But with those rains of course came some problems (most notably the mudslides in the Springs Fire area in Camarillo Springs and along the…
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Hiking and Backpacking Santa Barbara and Ventura Errata
To accompany the release of the revised first edition of Hiking and Backpacking Santa Barbara and Ventura, I’m happy to also offer a downloadable pdf of the revision’s changes as well as additional errata/updates that may be of interest to anybody who uses the guide. You can download the errata here. As always, I invite…
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Revised First Edition
Release the Hounds! Five years ago this past September, the RSO and I grabbed the uber-hund and headed out into the Los Padres to document just about every route in the Ojai, Santa Barbara, and Mt. Pinos districts. We made a lot of new friends and gained some new hiking pals along the way, and after…
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Dungeons of Maptitude Review No. 5: Harrison’s 2014 Sespe Wilderness
Earlier this year, backcountry cartography stalwart Tom Harrison released his revised Sespe Wilderness Trail Map, updated for 2014. For those who tread the Sespe Wilderness and its immediate environs with any frequency, the Harrison map is the only area map worth having in your kit.