A short but rugged trip up to one of the lesser-known summits in the San Gabriels. Easily accessible, but still moderately challenging, with some light rock-scrambling and a use-trail descent if you’re feeling adventurous.
Continue reading ‘Hiking Mount Lawlor’
Monthly Archive for January, 2007
I am proud to announce the beginning of full-on Google Earth support for the hikes I’ve done for this site. Or, more accurately, the ones I’ve done since I bought my GPS device.
Now, at each hike write-up, you’ll be able to download a tiny Google Earth file, which will let you do 3-D fly-throughs, add your own waypoints and markers, see distances and elevations, and find highly-accurate directions to the trailhead.
I’ll be adding a small thumbnail picture to every enabled hike, so you’ll be able to easily access this information. If you’d prefer a clean .GPX file, simply click through the EveryTrail Google Satellite map to download one.
If you don’t have Google Earth, just click on the Google Pack link on the sidebar and snag it. It’s 100% free, and a beautiful and powerful program by any means.
Wow, technology is great, isn’t it? Google Earth Hiking.
For ease, here are the three GPS-enabled hikes I’ve got ready to roll. From now on, these files will be on the individual hikes’ posts.
Enjoy!
Mishe Mokwa Trail to Sandstone Peak and Tri-Peaks
Icehouse Canyon Trail to Timber Mountain
Matilija Creek
Graffiti is generally given a negative connotation. It’s a sign of urban decay, lax security, some douche with a spray can and too much free time.
Stuff that ventures beyond someone just writing their name on a bridge can approach the slightly haughty term ‘urban art’ when it’s conveying a message, like some of the best works by Banksy.
But do you call it when graffiti artists paint by removing dirt and grime from formerly clean areas? Reverse graffiti? Anti-painting? An eco-statement? “Addition by subtraction”?
This particular artist’s work forced the Sao Paulo city government to clean the soot from every tunnel in the city to prevent further ‘vandalism.’ So cool lookin’ and effective.
The 2007 Gear Guide Issue of Backpacker Magazine arrived in my apartment last night. It’s 144 pages of gear-testing goodness, with detailed reviews and comparisons of almost 500 backpacks, 600 boots, and over 400 tents. It’s also got a great collection of reader-written reviews and the usual helpful mini-guides, like how to properly hoist a heavy backpack on and the best way to stuff your tent on the trail.
In other words, it’s exquisite Gear Porn.
Either that, or a way for you to look into the future and see where your next three paychecks are going.
I love fooling around with Google Earth. Not only is a great time-waster, but there’s also a ton of stuff you can do with it.
Unfortunately, importing your own GPS tracks was formerly limited to those users who purchased the $20 a year upgrade. At least until someone found a way around it.
Free GeoTools is a fantastic blog dedicated to doing awesome stuff with your GPS on-the-cheap, and they’ve got a write-up on a Windows freeware program called GPS Trackmaker. It lets you easily save your GPS tracks in Google Earth-friendly KML format, and once you get them into Google Earth you can email screen shots, do fly-throughs in 3-D, and take an automated, animated tour of the trail following your waypoints.
It’s all great, and it’s all free. Here’s a screen grab of the Matilija Creek trail I just did. You can see our off-trail scramble up that horrible mountain on the left:
Until then, though, there’s tons of great information on Free GeoTools if - like me - you’ve bought a GPS unit but still aren’t 100% sure how to use it.
A beautiful, isolated, and rugged river canyon in the Los Padres National Forest. Lots of river crossings, swimming holes, fascinating geology, and opportunities for off-trail adventuring.
Continue reading ‘Backpacking Matilija Creek’
Due to the holiday weekend, and me being back at work tomorrow, it may take slightly longer for me to get the next hike write-up ready for viewing.
Right now, the story is that I fought off an angry bobcat with my bare hands.
…
In reality, the story is not quite that exciting, but it’s still pretty good. I’ll go as quickly as possible.
But my hands hurt.
A backpacking trip down a rarely-used route to a popular mid-mountain campground — an alpine lake-side camp in view of Southern California’s tallest mountains. A great way to get deep into the heart of the San Bernardinos.
Continue reading ‘Dry Lake Backpacking - San Gorgonio Wilderness’
If you’ve been looking for a way to snag more pictures on the trail, or have just been waiting for a good excuse to buy an absurd amount of storage for your digital camera, now is the time.
Buy.com is offering a 2 gigabyte Kingston SD card for ten bucks after rebate. And shipping’s free, too. Write-speed is a little enh (’up to 5MB / sec,’ according to Kingston), but if you’re looking to expand your GPS’ map capacity or don’t mind a slight delay when you’re snapping shots, this is something you probably don’t want to pass up.
Rebate is good through this Saturday.
Or, Google Earth, at least.
Google Earth 4 is out of Beta and now available for free-download over at Skynet Google.
The latest version has a slicker interface, more 3-D content, more info-overlays, and generally snazzier everything.
For twenty bucks a year, you can also open the program up to GPS devices to import your tracks and see where you’ve been in glorious high-res Google satellite maps.
At the very least, it’s a great little program to download at work. Personally, I never get tired of flying from my apartment in Los Angeles to the fully 3-D mapped interior of the Grand Canyon. Beats the hell out of the drive, that’s for sure.
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