EISPIRATEN

Unfortunate thing is this is all too common in South Africa, especially if you're white. Although apartheid has ended, poverty among the black majority has not, and a lot won't wait for economic reforms to take hold at there natural (slow) pace. Probably the only thing preventing the country from de...

Changed my avatar, thought it was more appropriate for this time of year. You all can figure out where it was taken.

Cheers

In the early 1990's the Ski Hut trail was not very well known, at least where you'd pick it up off of the San Antonio Falls Fire Road. Yesterday there was a big cairn by the side of the road signifying where it started. Might as well get CalTrans to put a big off ramp sign up there. Trail running ha...

A little follow-up: Nice day on Baldy, and it was NOT crowded at all. About 10 cars around the Ski Hut trail starting point (the fire road), which grew to about 30 when I got back. A few other folks on the trail all the way up, but nothing like the usual weekend traffic jam. Clear views all around a...

Interesting, and scary to think anyone would try climbing there. When I first saw those on a trip to the U.K, I wondered how anyone could climb them. Its too loose to rock climb, I couldn't see how to place anything (nuts, bolts, screws, tools . . . whatever) in the chalk, and there's also the fickl...

Thanks, eman. Hoping the trail traffic would be lighter on the holiday. I'll just have to suck it up if I make an early morning go of it. Maybe I'll get lucky and everyone will stay down in the flatlands.

Cheers

Anybody been up there on Turkey Day? Tons of traffic or a nice quiet day? Thinking of a morning hike up the Ski Hut route, just don't want to go up there if its a "zoo" of people (Koreatown group hikes, religious cults, etc).

Don't even bother with a footprint. Those things are one of the biggest rip-offs in outdoor gear. Instead, go to your local hardware store (Home Despot, Lowe's, etc) and get a plastic painter's dropcloth. Its waterproof plastic, so no worries about condensation coming up through it. Get a slightly t...

Gotta love the the modern L.A. Times and there modern-day publishing strategy. Why not make a story out of something so obvious as the fact the winter rains will cause muddy debris flows to come down the hills after a brushfire denuded them in the fall. "Why not?" is the relevant question...

NEW Category: Illicite Activites: Finding booby trapped pot farm: loose points for getting injured, bonus points for getting out with some significant stash! :D Finding unstable meth lab residue - No loss or gain of points for getting out, loss of points if you get injured; if you die from explosio...

Gotta love the the modern L.A. Times and there modern-day publishing strategy. Why not make a story out of something so obvious as the fact the winter rains will cause muddy debris flows to come down the hills after a brushfire denuded them in the fall.

The plants & animals should recover in time. If you go back next year about this time you'll probably see quite a bit of regrown vegetation; give it two years and and it'll look pretty normal (except for trees). Human improvements (campgrounds, picnic areas and the like) might be a bigger issue,...

I can see the humor in it (yeah, gallows humor), but the average person would probably be offended. Just a thought, but that would look neat if it said "Death Valley National Park" on the sign. Considering the weather out there this time of year, 'ya wonder why the signs on the main entran...

Cheese, crackers (good quality ones) and extra-dry salami (the stuff with the white-powder coating on it). Throw in some fruit, some angel-hair pasta or ramen, and you've got a simple overnight food kit. Cocoa also tastes good, and flavored oatmeal always works for breakfast. Pop Tarts just don't wo...

I like the part about how past generations of kids would consider being kept inside as 'detension' ( I recall that as "being grounded"); amazing how the rapid flow of information has made us such a paranoid society. As long as I showed up at home by dinnertime my parents weren't too concer...

How about a fake IED on the back seat? Nothing complex, just a few fake morter rounds wired to an old pager, maybe a few wires running out to the door jams, or even a hardware store motion detector with a red blinky on it, too. Betcha no-one touches your car after they peek inside! Leave some papers...

Outdoor Research also sells them, the Bug-Off(?) and Flex-Tex(?). Around $30-$35 retail. I've got a pair of the REI desert gaiters. They work great if you're traveling through sandy, pebbly, or slightly snowy area. For full-on winter conditions or nasty-azz bushwhacking you'd do better with a pair o...

He needs to turn in his Texan and Man Cards! What a F*#@ing wimp! He needs a emergency sex change operation....Jeeeeez Perhaps we can contribute to the fund A sex change operation won't do any good. I'll bet any self respecting gal from Texas in this same situation would be able to walk out on her ...

Thumb sucking injury? That dude's gotta "man up" or take up knitting.

Here's a similar program around the Big bear Lake area:


http://sevensummitsofbigbear.blogspot.com/

Orange Juice, dudes. The best recovery drink. Simple sugars and some protein from the pulp. I like to slam down a quart after a hike. And what this crap about In-N-Out? That's sooo passe! If I'm crusin' along the 210, I'm stopping at 'The Hat': http://www.thehat.com/ (make sure your computer's sound...

Some nice hikes? This summer I've done the peaks on the north side of Big Bear Lake. Most are short hikes (6-7 mile RT) and they receive very little traffic: -Grays Peak receives a lot of traffic (both hikers and MTBr's). -Butler Peak is a 14 mile RT on a fire road (defiantely a good MTB trip) with ...

A quart (or two) of orange juice. The effect 20 minutes later must feel like what an addict feels from injesting drugs; what a rush! Other than that I just eat/drink normally. I also try to do some easy exercising that involves muscle groups not normally used for hiking: bicycle riding, swimming, or...

I've got a friend who goes back there every few years for a visit. He's done the highest peak, Damavand (18,500'?), says its an easy crampon walk above the ski resort thats just north of Tehran. Showed him so pics from a trip I took years ago to Orizaba and he said its just like that. As simonov men...

Interesting in Scotland & England without a lot of suffering?: Hiking Hadrian's Wall. This is a hiking route that runs across the UK along the Scotland/England border (Newcastle-on-Tyne on the North Sea coast to Carlisle near the western coast. It follows a wall built by Roman emperor Hadrian to...

Why not take a poncho? Summertime in So Cal & the Sierra Nevada is too warm (& sometimes muggy) during the summer to be enclosed in a parka & rainpants. They just turn me into a walking sauna. Ponchos are open, allowings some ventilation, so it keeps the sweat build-up down to a minimum ...

You can't fix stupid. That video is the best reason yet to divide California into two states. You post as if there aren't people like that south of the Grapevine. I can assure you, there are and worse. Yeah, there's some pretty whacky folks down here. But I'd separate California into two parts: 1) ...

You can't fix stupid. That video is the best reason yet to divide California into two states.

Sadly, that's not too far from the truth when it comes to the average citizen-speaker at any city council/county supervior meeting I've been to.

The Pacific Crest Trail north of Big Bear Lake. It runs along the north side (shady side) of the ridge that separates Big bear Lake from Holcomb Valley, and has quite a bit of tree cover. Lots of entry points - Holcomb Valley Road just north of Baldwin Lake, Van Dusen Road, Cougar Crest Trail, Polig...

Not unusual to see plagerized stuff on websites, especially when the content is put up by 'members' Summitpost.org's mountains, routes and peaks pages are filled with stuff copied directly from guidebooks, some of it no longer relevant. Makes you wonder if the folks who put up those pages ever hiked...