Let's Hear It For Hiking Guides
Plus, a Bridge is Out on the JMT, Pinnacles National Park, Houses vs. Wildlife Corridors, Wildflowers in the PNW, A New Gold Rush in California, and Colorado is NOT A RECTANGLE
howdy
You know what? I’m just going to come out and say what I want to say right at the top of this week’s newsletter: hiking guides are great.
Some people may be guides without even knowing it. Back when I was just a baby hiker in my mid-20s, I convinced my friend Will to join me on early Saturday mornings to explore the San Gabriel and Santa Monica Mountains. We each did our share of planning and research, but for me, having someone on the trail with me who had a lot more experience was a great way to learn by osmosis—even if sometimes those lessons were “here’s what not to do.”
Of course, there are also people who guide via writing. A few weeks ago I wrote about learning from the guidebook authors Jerry Schad and John Robinson, who taught me the deep history of the terrain I was hiking in, as well as how to appreciate, learn from, and read that landscape moving forward. They also taught me how to write about the outdoors and about hiking trails specifically. I never met Schad before he passed but I did get to meet Robinson at a history event to thank him, and he was every bit as kind and generous as I could have hoped.
And then there are the people who actually, literally guide us on hiking trails. I owe a lot to the volunteer Sierra Club guides who introduced me to safety and organization, as well as countless miles of trails. And you want to know a secret?
Sometimes I still enjoy going on guided hikes.
Outside recently published a piece about the benefits of going on a guided hike—even for experienced hikers and backpackers. They mention the value of learning about the place you’re exploring from a local’s perspective, learning new outdoor skills, and learning a newfound appreciation for a place you might not have noticed otherwise. If you’ve been on a hike that I’ve led in Southern California, I can almost guarantee you at least picked up the names of one or two new plants to spot on the trail. It’s brought me joy to see people’s faces light up with new perspective, and I’ve also had that look on my face, too.
Especially if you’re traveling somewhere, a guided hike can also take a TON of planning and research off your plate, giving you more time to enjoy the experience of being where you are without worrying about all the stuff you might be missing. When I started planning a trip to New Zealand, I got very quickly overwhelmed with possibilities and ended up just going with a great guide company instead. This meant that I got to stop trying to squeeze “international trip planning” in on my calendar while I was working a very exhausting job with long hours, and once I got there I could just enjoy the experience instead of constantly checking an itinerary or booking confirmations.
What are some of your favorite guide experiences? Have you ever considered doing a long-term guided hike or backpacking trip before?
DON’T FORGET!
We’re doing a hike soon! Come join us!
The Big Story
Something to talk about
If A Bridge Falls in the Mountains
Well, it appears the Long Wet Winter is officially behind California, which is now girding its collective loins (and, OK, looking for gold) for the Long Wet Thaw. In addition to the likelihood of long-term flooding in much of the state depending on how quickly those 90-degree days return in the high elevations, we’re already seeing signs of this winter’s effects on cranking up the difficulty level of certain hikes.
Last week I told you about the Grand Canyon’s North Rim remaining buried under snow, which throws a major wrench in the plans of anyone hoping to hike the Arizona Trail or a Rim to Rim adventure. This week, the San Francisco Chronicle highlights a 100-foot long steel footbridge in Kings Canyon National Park that’s been damaged and will likely cause a re-route for John Muir Trail and Pacific Crest Trail thru-hikers.
Groups are still waiting on official word. A detour over Bishop Pass wouldn’t be a huge inconvenience for hikers, but it would cause people to miss Evolution Valley, which is one of the major highlights of either route.
Related:
Yosemite National Park to close Valley access this weekend due to rising flood waters.
Modern Hiking
Good stuff from the Modern Hiker site
A Pinnacle Wildflower Display
Pinnacles National Park lies just 125-ish miles southeast of San Francisco, but its small size and relative remoteness mean it can often be overlooked when you’re looking to plot your next outdoor adventure.
I still fondly remember my first visit to Pinnacles, back when it was still a National Monument. I was stunned by the variety of the terrain and the flora and fauna, and I had a wonderful weekend exploring its namesake pinnacle formations, talus caves, and secret reservoirs.
For everyone tracking wildflower blooms, the show may be moving on from Southern California soon but the show is heading directly into the neighborhood of Pinnacles, so now is an excellent time to visit. Melissa Ozbek just added a terrific new loop trail that hits most of the highlights of the park, and she’s told me the rangers there expect a solid bloom show over the next few weeks.
Your Parks
Your Places
If You Build It, They Won’t Come
Look, I am not an expert on housing policy. And I am aware that well-intentioned environmental regulations have been used to prevent ANY new housing from being built in some places, which is also not great. But I have a feeling that a luxury development in the middle of a wildlife migration corridor between two fire-prone mountain ranges amidst urban sprawl is also probably not a terrific idea—especially when the developers are scrambling to get it done because they’re about to run out of their 20-year construction window.
The area in question is between the Verdugo and San Gabriel Mountains near Burbank and Glendale. The project—the Canyon Hills Development Project—was approved in 2005. Since then, three major wildfires have burned through the area, and residents and naturalists have observed mountain lions nearby as well. You’d think a city that threw a huge star-studded bash for P-22 and celebrated its under-construction wildlife crossing would maybe take a pause at this, but we’ll see.
via Los Angeles Times.
Siskiyou Stretches Out
On his way out the door of the Oval Office, President Barack Obama expanded the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument in Southern Oregon and Northern California by 48,000 acres. The January, 2017 proclamation was supported by most of the region’s state and federal representatives, as well as Chambers of Commerce and indigenous tribes, but was immediately snarled up in court over some issues with areas set aside for timber production.
This week, a federal appeals court upheld the original 2017 expansion and now the full national monument is protected.
via Oregon Public Broadcasting
Tech Talk
Gadgets, Technology, and Hype
For the Birds
In your daily, casual doomscrolling, did you ever stop and say to yourself, “gee, I sure wish there was a way I could see millions of birds migrating in real-time all across the country?”
Enter BirdCast, a joint project of UMass Amherst, Colorado State University, and the Cornell Lab (along with many other funders and supporters), that uses weather surveillance radar tools to track bird migration patterns along with precipitation to provide daily bird migration forecast maps.
Each map notes the number of birds predicted to be migrating that day, along with the intensity of each migration. This data can be used by cities and towns to encourage people to turn their outdoor lights off at night to aid in the migration.
Check out your local migration forecast here. And enjoy this New York Times Magazine piece that clued me into the tech, too.
Leafing Out
Plants!
Are You Participating in No-Mow May?
And no, this is not some weird movement from people who just think April should go straight into June, it’s an effort to highlight our weird American obsession with non-native grass monocultures a.k.a. the ‘tidy’ (and generally lifeless) suburban American lawn.
In the Lower 48, there are about 40 million acres of grass lawn, according to a 2005 NASA estimate. That’s 2% total of land and makes grass the country’s largest irrigated crop by area. Most of us with lawns tend to dump a lot of things like pesticides and fertilizers on those lawns, which negate the wildlife value and can pollute watersheds. A piece in the Washington Post tackles the movement to let more lawns run wild to benefit—well, pretty much everything, really.
The article notes that just letting your grass run wild alone isn’t really going to do much, though. Ideally you’ll have some landscaping with native plants or at the very least include some low-growing flowering plants in with your grass and mow less frequently, which can support more diverse pollinator communities.
Y’all know I’m a big fan of native gardening, and I’m slowly taking over more and more of our property for native plants. But we do have a small backyard lawn for our dogs and for entertaining during the nice-weather months. I use a grass seed blend that includes drought-tolerant varietals, mix in local clovers so I don’t need to add a nitrogen fertilizer, and I’ve planted native trees and shrubs around the perimeter for the local pollinators. You don’t have to give up the green grass completely!
via Washington Post.
It’s Northwest Wildflower Season
As I write this, the sun is pouring into my office for what seems like the first time in months. Our temperature in Portland is finally getting above 65 degrees and spring is here (at least I think it’s here. I’m not putting my fleeces away just yet).
I did not know that political news site Axios had local news subsections, but they’ve posted a good round up of wildflower hikes for Northwesterners on their Portland vertical, along with the usual good times to visit. Just note that the PNW’s April was one of the coldest and wettest on record, so blooms may be a bit delayed this year.
One More Thing
Oh yeah, before I go …
OK, so I read this on Atlas Obscura recently and absolutely everything about it reminded me of why I love that outlet so dang much.
Did you know Colorado is not a rectangle? Or that it actually has 697 sides?
Until next time, Happy Trails.
I just found your site!!!
It took my breath, you immediately had me with your superb writing style and heart for the outdoors. I love your site!!
Now, I am a 72 year old grandmother who lives in the middle of city of Dallas.
The Katy trail is one block away and my inner city wilderness! I will love reading your posts and photos until I can get out to the trails of country side of Texas, Colorado, Wyoming and North Carolina to get on some trails in the wild.
Keep writing and posting places for all of us to dream about and for a moment or two be on the trails with you!!