A Hiking Blog for Southern California
Samantha Larson, of nearby Long Beach, successfully summited Mount Everest this week. She’d been keeping track of her progress on a blogspot blog, and now her story’s hitting the rest of the media.
At 18 years old, she is one of the youngest people ever to summit Everest, and may be the youngest ever to climb the “7 summits (a claim she’s making now, but will probably take a while to actually confirm).
Either way, congratulations to Samantha.
And thanks for making us all feel old.
I got back to Los Angeles from the east coast this week.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to tear myself away from my friends - or the unbelievably cheap microbrews ($2 a pint!) - long enough to tackle anything too deep in the Adirondacks.
Luckily, the Saratoga Springs Spa State Park was easily walkable from my hotel room. While the park doesn’t have any supremely challenging trails, I did manage to stumble on a cross-country skiing path that led to some pretty thick forests.
I’m heading to the Adirondacks for a friend’s wedding and will be without Internets until next week.
I’ve still got a few hikes to write up - and may pick up a new one near Lake George, if all goes according to plan. Until then, use the sidebar to find another friendly neighborhood hiking blogger, or find yourself a hike and hit the trail.
I’ve been waiting for a reason to spread the good word of Andrew Bird on here for a while. Now, Grist has given me a chance!
Bird is, hands down, one of my favorite musicians of all time. His albums have gone from dark jazz to 50s doo-wop to atmospheric folk and everything in between. I first saw him perform a free show outside Boston’s Faneuil Hall back in 2001, and have been hooked ever since. Turns out, according to Grist, the violinist-guitarist-whistler-glockenspieler is also pretty green.
Bird tours in a biodiesel bus, bikes around his bike-unfriendly hometown in Illinois, and has stripped-down backstage requests.
Oh, and in case I haven’t mentioned it enough, he’s also a kick-ass musician.
Read the full article at Grist, then go see Bird in concert. He’s got a few more dates in the States before heading to Europe. Or at the least, pick up his new album. Or any album, really.
… especially if you’re Greenpeace.
The lovably strident folks at Greenpeace have been picking on Apple for a long time about greening up their business model. With PC companies like Dell and Lenovo making very vocal environmental claims and trumpeting their recycling (and tree-planting) programs, on the surface, Apple looked like it was lagging a bit behind.
Personally, I always thought that Greenpeace’s claims about Apple were a bit on the exaggerated side. Reading their page on the issue, you’d think Apple was a hulking industrial age behemoth, spewing toxic waste into landfills and willfully ignoring the environment while all their competitors were squeaky-clean. In the March, 2007 Guide to Greener Electronics, Apple ranked dead last among 14 leading tech companies, and they described The Empire of Jobs as “Holding firmly in last place: low scores on almost all criteria and no progress.”
This week, Mr. Jobs wagged his finger at G-Peace with a comprehensive statement on Apple’s environmental record. Turns out, Apple’s actually doing things extremely well.
The info points out that Apple was the first computer manufacturer to completely eliminate CRT monitors, which not only have significant amounts of lead but also use more electricity than those sleek LCD varieties. They also mentioned they are well ahead of their competitors in removing harmful chemicals from their products, as well as stepping up their recycling programs and consumer incentives.
… or, in playground terms, “Nyah.”
… in dirtiest air in America, that is.
The American Lung Association released their annual “State of the Air” report today. And while generally, things are better, they still ain’t so good. Especially here in the Los Angeles - Long Beach - Riverside area, which has the worst air in the entire country.
And not only did we take home the prize in one category, but we ranked highest in smog and all three categories of air pollution - ozone, long-term particulates, and short-term particulates.
All the more reason to get up into those mountains every once in a while …
Click here for a Google Map of Los Angeles hiking trails.
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