Is It Time for Mount Baldy Permits?

Plus leadership training, hot bird pics, and why we help each other outside

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The Mount San Antonio (Mt. Baldy) area

2 weeks ago, Crystal Paula Gonzalez-Landas died after sliding 500-700 feet down an icy hillside at Mount Baldy. Late last week, despite repeated official warnings about the dangerous conditions on Los Angeles County’s tallest mountain, actor Julian Sands went missing with another hiker. Jin Chung of Los Angeles went missing on Baldy but was thankfully found this week. My heart goes out to the friends and families of anyone who has been lost or injured, but it’s beginning to be clear that something else needs to be done. Officials have responded to 14 rescues on the peak in the past month (as of last week). Press releases have gone out. Digital road signs warn “HIKING NOT ADVISED.”  I wonder if we are one step closer to Mount Baldy becoming a regulated, permit-only winter destination.

Because here’s the thing – Mount Baldy in the winter is one of the most spectacular outdoor experiences in Southern California … if you know what you’re doing. The problem is too many people assume because the mountain is so close to the Sprawl of Greater Los Angeles that it’s got guardrails, safety measures, and quick-and-easy help at the call of a cell phone. Part of that is outreach, part of that is non-judgemental education, and the deeper part of that is just re-investigating how we conceive of nature in the first place.

In the trail guide I wrote for Mount Baldy, safety warnings and information about winter conditions and inclement weather are right at the top and in bold. In some newer pages with better Google Juice, these warnings are sometimes buried many, many paragraphs down or not included at all. That’s a problem – especially for sites and apps that scrape content and use SEO black magic or paid promotion to get to the top of search results. But with this plus the press releases, digital roadsigns, warning signs, and other attempts to communicate with visitors, it’s clear that there may need to be some more strict enforcement coming from the land management side, too.

Looking toward the Devil’s Backbone during good summer weather

There is a not-impossible future where this area – which is on the edge of both the Sheep Mountain and Cucamonga Wilderness areas – is subject to the same sort of trail-traffic limiting permits we’re seeing pop up at high-use areas all over the country. Honestly? I don’t think I’d mind it here – at a minimum it would dissuade the most casual and unprepared hikers or perhaps give pause to consider the very real risks of spending time in this part of the San Gabriels. At best, it could help mitigate some of the truly depressing erosion from switchback cuts on the south face of the summit – which seem to get worse every summer and does not seem to have official maintenance. Even if this was only for the winter months, it could do some good.

Anyone who’s worried about this happening probably doesn’t need to worry too much, though – this would require an entirely new system to be built and maintained by the Forest Service managing the National Forest and National Monument. And like many federal lands they seem to never get the money they need (although the 2022 and 2018 Omnibus Bills did help with fire budgets eating all the funding). That makes it all the more important that those of us who enjoy these places do our part in getting the word out and setting a good example ourselves.

The Big Story

Something to talk about

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

If you’ve ever been out in the middle of nowhere on a hiking, backpacking, cycling, or other trip and encountered someone who needed help, odds are you didn’t even hesitate to chip in, right? Well, partially that’s because you read this newsletter, and scientific studies have shown that all people who read this newsletter are lovely – but it’s likely also due to nature’s ability to increase and promote “prosocial attitudes” – a sense of connection to the people and places around you, often with a lessening of the importance of the self. Tom Vanderbilt’s piece in Trail Runner magazine goes into the psychology behind this effect … and wonders how we can find a little more of it in our time off the trails, too.

Modern Hiking

Good stuff from the Modern Hiker site

Snoqualmie Falls // Photo: Melissa Ozbek

I am very happy to announce that writer Melissa Ozbek is contributing more trail guides and posts to Modern Hiker once again! You may remember Melissa from her excellent and comprehensive guides for Bay Area hiking and backpacking adventures — and she’ll be contributing more of those soon. But she was up near Snoqualmie Falls recently and just couldn’t resist giving this incredible site the full Modern Hiker treatment. Welcome back, Melissa!

Your Parks

Your Places

Become a Leader

A recent Leadership Academy Cohort // Credit: Nature For All

If you’re in Southern California and are interested in working in the world of outdoor advocacy, you really need to consider applying for the Nature For All Leadership Academy. It’s a free 5-month long public lands advocacy training program that will help train you to become a leading local advocate for public spaces of all kinds. I may be biased because I’m on the Advisory Board for Nature For All, but literally everyone I have met who’s gone through this program has been so inspiring, and the work they do is astounding. You’ll also get plugged in to a great local community of like-minded folks, too! Participants must be over the age of 15 and live in Los Angeles County. Applications are due by February 12th.

Tech Talk

Gadgets, Technology, and Hype

Trash Talk

Do Americans throw out a lot of uneaten food? Yes. Does most of that food rot in landfills, releasing the greenhouse gas methane? Yes. Do we need to purchase a $500 kitchen gadget to dry or ferment our food waste and compact it into little cubes? Ummm … probably not?

A lot of outdoor gearheads were very excited when the co-founder of home security / weird invasive surveillance system Nest decided to get into the home composting gadget biz with Mill – a subscription-based service that dehydrates and grinds your food into a powder that you mail back to the company to be used as animal feed.

I kind of feel like the goal of this – to get more people to compost – is a good one. But I also kind of feel like it’s a Bay Area Techbro looking to cash in on something that should be provided for free (This JUST started in L.A.!). If you don’t live in a place with composting yet, bother your electeds to get one going. If you already do, just be better about making sure you’re not putting stuff in the compost bin that shouldn’t be in there. You prooooooobably don’t need another gadget and monthly payment, but you can read this glowing advertorialish piece in Fast Company if you want a counterpoint.

Wildlife Crossing

Wildlife and the Outdoors

It’s For the Birds

One of the winners // Eric Christensen/Audubon Photography Awards

So I realize I’ve been writing a lot about birds in this newsletter so far. I wouldn’t even consider myself a birder, to be honest – I can probably name maybe a dozen common species, although I do really enjoy having them around. Again as I write this, a large raven is sitting on an electrical wire outside my window and I’m preeeetty sure they’re saying hi to me when they hang out here. Anyway, Audubon Magazine has shared some stunning photos of rare and unusual bird behavior from their 2020 Photo Awards, and they are definitely worth your time.

Dry January Update

Hi my name is Casey and it’s been 26 Days since I went on a Social Media Dry January

Wow! I’ve almost gone a month without being on social media and … I kind of don’t miss it? Do my eyes still draft to where my Facebook and Instagram apps used to be on my phone? Yes, absolutely. But have I felt a strong urge to re-install them? Not really.

super moody representation of social media // Pexels

If you’ve been considering taking a break from all that social media noise, I can attest that setting up even mild, minor roadblocks can go a long way toward helping you. Because I still use a scheduler to post to the Modern Hiker channels, I can’t fully delete my accounts – but removing my personal account from Instagram and deleting the Facebook app from my phone so I have to go through a browser to see it is just inconvenient enough that it gives me time to think about what I’m doing and why … and I usually end up thinking of a better use for my time.

As of right now, I have no plans on re-engaging with my personal social media when January rolls into February … so we’ll keep this number increasing for a bit!

Have you tried to do this before, successfully or unsuccessfully? Share your tips and travails!

One More Thing

Oh yeah, before I go …

The Digital Workplace is Designed to Bring You Down

Turns out it’s really freakin’ hard to focus on things when this is dinging every 15 seconds // Pexels

A few years ago, I was running a writer’s room on a TV show. I gave writers tasks and deadlines but let them write however they wrote best. Some wrote in groups or pairs. Others wrote solo. At the end of the day we met up, went over what we did, and punched up our work together. We were getting our work done and the writers enjoyed having clear goals and expectations for both short and long term timelines.

For me, taking a walk around the neighborhood is a very important part of my writing process, but to some of the older folks above me it looked like we weren’t working even though we were delivering solid work before deadline. You know the tale – we got micromanaged instead and the morale and end-product suffered.

Today I’m working primarily remotely, and all those hands-on managers have a slew of new tools at their disposal to measure things that don’t need to be measured and bother you at all hours. So it was with great relish that I read this interview with Georgetown professor and author of “Deep Work” Cal Newport in the New York Times Magazine.

If you, like me, have felt more burned out, less focused, and less effective from remote work, you are not alone. And there are physiological and psychological reasons for it. If you’re a worker, share this with your fellow workers. If you’re a manager, think about this when you’re organizing your groups.

Until next time, Happy Trails,