Archive for April, 2008

ZOMG Heights

Published on April 30, 2008 in Video, climbing and hiking. 0 Comments

For a hiker, I have a few issues with heights — mainly where sheer, death-creating drops are involved.

I’m getting better — while I still have trouble making the descent on Strawberry Peak’s Mountaineer’s Route, I only had moderately severe leg-shaking while going down the Mooney Falls ladder in Havasu. One trail I will probably never do, however, is the Camino Del Rey in Spain.

Besthike dug up this first-person video tour of the hundred-year-old crumbling cliff-side walkway, and it’s guaranteed to give you at least two or three “OMG, no!” moments while you’re watching it.

… or maybe it will make you a little more confident in tackling those less terrifying ascents you’ve been putting off.


Toe Jams

Published on April 29, 2008 in clothes and hiking. 2 Comments

A new hiker named Matt has just started regularly hiking some longer distance trails, but he wrote in to me because he’s got a toe-related problem he wants fixed, pronto. He writes:

My second toe on my left foot (but oddly enough, not my right foot…) is longer than all the others. This can cause intense pain when going downhill for long stretches as my toe hits the front of the boot…

I’m wondering if any of your readers might have a similar problem and how they might have dealt with it. Should I get a bigger pair of boots just for one toe, or is there another way to solve the problem?

I will say — when I first started hiking, I had no idea what I was doing. I figured an athletic shoe should be tight fitting to give me the best support to prevent twisted ankles. I also figured cotton would be the best sock material for hot, Southern California days.

Needless to say, my feet for the first few months of hiking got pretty beat up. After spending week after week nursing blisters and sore toes, I decided to actually ask someone about proper boot fit. Things I learned:

- Cotton is awful for hiking socks.
- Buying hiking boots is much different than replacing your everyday sneakers.

I was lucky enough to get a very helpful clerk at the Santa Monica REI, who explained the basics of boot-buying to me. One of the most shocking bits of info I remembered was that boots should be supportive, but not necessarily tight. The best fit actually has to allow your foot a little bit of wiggle-room … which sounds like the problem Matt might be having.

Basically, when you’re hiking, you want your foot to have enough room to spread out to maintain balance, leave space for ventilation, deal with the slight swelling that happens when you’re walking 10 miles, and — most importantly — be able to deal with downhills. When you try on a new boot, you should find a diagonal surface and hit your foot against it — like you would if you were trying to make a quick stop on a steep downhill.

This mimics the way your foot will act in the boot when you’re coming back down from that summit. You want to make sure your toes don’t connect with the front of the boot — because if they do it once in the store, they’re going to do it thousands of times when you’re out on the trail.

null… so I hate to say it, but you might need to invest in a new pair o’ boots for this one. An arch-insole might change the way your foot sits in the boot enough to pull your middle toes back a bit, but changing the way your foot is positioned when you walk might cause discomfort in other ways.

Has anyone else had a similar problem? Or know of any other solutions? Don’t be shy.

image by pietroizzo

Hiking La Jolla Canyon

Published on April 29, 2008 in Point Mugu State Park, Santa Monica Mountains, Trail Write-Ups and hiking. 0 Comments

null A beautiful hike in the coastal mountains. Phenomenal flower blooms in the spring, strong sun in the summer, and a small spring and waterfall (during wet years), the main attraction are large swaths of native California grassland — some of the last remaining unspoiled areas in the state. A well-traveled area with lots of trail options can make this area and easy couple of hours or a full day excursion.
Continue reading ‘Hiking La Jolla Canyon’

Sierra Madre Wildfire

Published on April 28, 2008 in Angeles National Forest, City Life and fires. 0 Comments

nullUnder the weekend heatwave, I was enjoying my first post-surgery hike just off the Pacific Coast Highway. Further east, however, a wedding at Sturtevant Camp was interrupted when a wildfire started tearing up the mountains just north of Sierra Madre.

The fire began just off Santa Anita Canyon Road and spread northwest toward Mount Harvard, burning over 400 acres (as of Monday morning) and causing Sierra Madre officials to evacuate a large chunk of their city.

Nothing has been posted to the Angeles National Forest web site yet (that site is sloooow to change), but I think it’s safe to assume the Santa Anita Canyon should be off your list of hiking destinations for at least a week or two.

Via the LA Times.

Image by gtiboogieman

Getting Your Girlfriend (or Boyfriend) to Hike

Published on April 25, 2008 in City Life and hiking. 2 Comments

nullI got an email from a recent L.A. transplant the other day, who’d just moved here after living in Glacier National Park for six months. Lucky guy that he is, he managed to find himself a Gal Friday who isn’t the stereotypical SoCal airhead. But, there’s one problem — he can’t seem to get her to go hiking with him:

“It’s as if there is some deep-seeded fear of being away from the city.

I have gone hiking in the Santa Monica mountains, specifically the circle X ranch loop. I figured this hike would be perfect for a beginner, but even that won’t convince her. So I am wondering if you have run into this problem before, and if so, what to do about it?”

Some of the best things about being a hiker in L.A. are the sheer amount and broad range of hiking that’s available to you. Do you want to kill 30 minutes on a quick morning pick-me-up? Can do. Do you want to spend 3 days trekking through a mountain wilderness? We got that, too. First up, you’ve got to do a little pre-production. Here are some hints for picking out a good first trail:

Continue reading ‘Getting Your Girlfriend (or Boyfriend) to Hike’

Other Outdoor Nerds

Published on April 23, 2008 in Gadgets and Gear, Geek Stuff, Technology and backpacking. 0 Comments

So apparently I’m not the only giant nerd who also enjoys getting dirty outside. Boing Boing’s Gadget Editor Joel Johnson has just headed into the wild, uncontrolled wilderness of New York’s Harriman State Park with a bunch of gadgets and those solar panel chargers we read so much about, but will probably never, ever buy.

He’s attempting to blog, review and twitter (is that a verb now?) while camping and hiking — and making nerdy jokes that I very much appreciate.

For the less nerdy of you, his opening post details his list of gear and — as we all do — complains about his pack weight (almost 50 pounds for a 3-4 day! Damn!). My favorite gear item is a copy of Thoreau’s “Walden” on an Amazon Kindle.

Later, he panics when his solar panel appears to stop working, and manages to post a Flickr video via a 1xRTT wireless internet connection.

I’m sure that kind of cell-phone internet flies on the East Coast parks, but I wouldn’t bet on it out here. But still — I’d love to have a blogging office-view like Joel’s got:

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Actually, I’d love to have a blogging office period.


Image by Joel Johnson

Wildfire Gallery

Published on April 22, 2008 in City Life and fires. 1 Comment

null We are closing in on the one year anniversary of the start of California’s devastating 2007 wildfire season — a time of scorching that lasted well into early November and basically closed down all the hiking areas around L.A. for several weeks.

Gallery drkrm in Glissell Park will open an exhibition of photographs taken immediately after the Griffith Park Fire. While most of the news stories of the time focused on the fires’ effect on people and their property, “Aftermath: The Griffith Park Fire” will focus on how the inferno affected the wildlife and landscape.

From the few teaser images released on the exhibition’s web site, the photographs look stark, moving, and fairly depressing if you’re anything of an animal lover. But the press release does promise a dose of hope and regrowth in the gallery as well. So you don’t leave in a total downer.

The exhibition runs from May 3rd to the 18th at drkrm.
2121 San Fernando Road :: Suite 3 :: Los Angeles, CA 90065

Image by Mercy, Mercy Me
via CurbedLA

Earth Day Activities

Published on April 22, 2008 in City Life and Environmentalism. 0 Comments

nullToday is Earth Day, 2008 — conveniently held, like Election Day, on a Tuesday. Fortunately, most groups in Southern California hold an (observed) style holiday, from anytime in mid April to mid May.

But if you want to do it right, head down to Wilshire Center, where they’re shutting down a section of the thoroughfare to traffic from 10AM to 5PM to accommodate 15,000 visitors attending a free street festival.

The City of L.A. actually passed a resolution declaring today a “Car Free Day,” so try to walk, bike, or take public transit to wherever you’ve got to go. Thankfully, today is the first day my doctor said I could return to my normal physical activity, so I’ll be happily biking to the Miracle Mile in the morning. Of course, if you’d rather stay inside, you could pass your time watching NASA’s High-Def stream of earth footage, from 6AM to 8PM EST.

… just wherever you go and whatever you do, don’t leave a mess, ok?

Monkey Wrench Movie

Published on April 21, 2008 in City Life and in the media. 2 Comments

nullWhen I first read Edward Abbey’s The Monkey Wrench Gang, I not only fell in love with one of my favorite books, but I was also struck at how naturally cinematic the novel was. The characters are colorful, the settings made for wide-focus lenses, and the plot — about four social misfits trying to destroy the new Glen Canyon damn — seemed destined for a subversive action movie.

Over the past few years, there’s been some on-again, off-again interest from Hollywood in adopting Abbey’s missive for the big screen. Now it appears the interest is on-again … at least, according to us outdoorsy bloggers. As one of the few of those outdoorsy bloggers actually living in Hollywood and writing for television, I figured it’s one of my duties to fan the internet interest flames.

National Parks Traveler pulled up some confirmed information, like the director, as well as some unconfirmed stuff — like a potential cast of Richard Dreyfuss, Jack Nicholson, and John Goodman — all of whom strike me as a bit too old for those roles … unless Goodman’s cast for the sheriff.

IMDB has more sparse information, but does list Hollywood megawriter William Goldman (”Misery,” “The Princess Bride,” “All the Presidents’ Men,” “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” etc.) as one of the screenwriters, which is very good news.

It’s probably going to be a very, very long time before this thing hits any theaters, but I’m already looking forward to it.

Image by Kris247

Google Earth 4.3 Beta

Published on April 20, 2008 in Web Sites and Apps and maps. 0 Comments

Recently, Google released version 4.3 beta of their beloved Google Earth program.

It’s a minor update, but does add lots of shiny new bells and whistles — like day and night lighting effects, increased 3D views and buildings, and a new Street View layer to match up with the same view on Google Maps. Basically, lots of pretty eye-candy, and the ability to create theoretically possible clear-sky views of downtown L.A. and the San Gabriel Mountains.

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The Google Earth Blog has done an excellent job of rounding up all the new features into one easy to view video demo. Be sure to stop by and check it out, then download the new Earth software by following this link: