We Need a Better Summit Selfie
Plus, open doors for fish, new plant species discovered, a park relaxes its permits, and more
howdy
Last week, I was outside of Seattle for some live event writing / production work, then I met my husband at the Seattle Amtrak station for a ride up to Vancouver, British Columbia.
Thankfully, this trip had only the usual minor Amtrak delays, and my first impressions of Vancouver were extremely good. Really terrific bike infrastructure, great parks, and the outdoor access was truly top-notch. It really felt like it had all the water, forest, and mountain amenities of Seattle—but everything was a LOT closer. Plus, poutine, if you’re into that sort of thing (I am not, really, but you do you!).
One thing I’ve definitely gained moving to the Northwest from Southern California is a vastly increased appreciation for good weather. When you have 263 sunny days a year, you can skip a few to stay inside. But for many months of the year in the northwest, you never know the next time you might see the sun (or when the last good snow day on the mountain is going to be), so you really have to carpe those diems.
Somehow, we managed to have pretty exceptional weather during our visit, and on one very sunny and clear morning, we rented a car and drove north of the city along the glacial inlet of Howe Sound to a trail a bartender had recommended.
The drive in was absolutely stunning, reminding me a lot of my time in New Zealand, which is not surprising as I later found out that this area was the southernmost fjord in North America.
The hike itself was something I’m getting fairly used to in the northwest: basically straight up, in dense forest cover, mostly no views. But the forest was lovely, there were lots of creeks and waterfalls to hop over, a few fun log bridges and even a quick scramble toward the end … but the views at the top? Absolutely worth it.
The summit wasn’t crowded, but did have a steady stream of hikers coming up. We hung out for a while and ate our lunch, and I was watching with a bit of amusement as most people stuck to the same small handful of poses for their “I did it!” photos: the one where you look thoughtfully over the horizon, the one where you stand with your hands on your hips looking strong, the one where you flex, the one where you look back at the camera as you tactfully angle your butt toward the lens.
A few years ago, the Instagram account insta_repeat started documenting this phenomenon to great effect—and it looks like it’s still going strong. Lately I’ve been reading the book Filterworld, which is an interesting dive into how social media algorithms affect the physical space outside of smartphones, influencing everything from café designs to the art we make. So I couldn’t help but notice the repeated summit photo poses—and wonder how much of each pose was subconsciously affected by seeing that same pose in a feed somewhere before.
I don’t want to rag on anyone for taking the “wrong,” summit selfie here—I definitely have taken more than my fair share and I don’t want to yuck anyone’s yum. But I was thinking of some new summit selfies I could try out that would be far less likely to end up on insta_repeat.
So … I’ve included some options I took on this hike. Feel free to vote on your favorite.
And I promise that for all of the rest of the hikes I do this year, I’ll take one of these selfie poses somewhere.
Really.
Modern Hiking
Good stuff from the Modern Hiker site
It’s been a hectic few weeks around here and I have a backlog of trails to prep for the site, but I did add a few new entries in Southern California recently that are worth checking out if you haven’t seen them already.
Now is REALLY the best time to be hiking in that part of the West. The flowers are up, the hillsides are green, the weather is nice and clear, and the punishing summer sun hasn’t quite arrived just yet. Make time for some of these routes now, before it gets too hot or you have to travel with a gallon of sunscreen to survive unburned!
If you’re looking to explore some of the San Gabriel Mountains, you’ll want to check out the new trail guides for Gould Mesa Trail Camp and Three Sisters Rock by Andrew Shults. Prioritize Three Sisters if you’re concerned about shade, ‘cause that side of the mountain range is gonna start heating up soon.
Or just stick closer to the coast with a nice loop on the Backbone and Overlook Trails in the Santa Monica Mountains or trek on over to Catalina and enjoy the Garden to Sky Trail, written up by Melissa Ozbek.
And if you just can’t wait to get summer started, maybe you want to check out some of our favorite beachside hikes instead.
Your Parks
Your Places
Fern Canyon Relaxes Permits
It isn’t too often you hear about overcrowded outdoor destinations making it easier to get permits, but that’s exactly what’s happening in Northern California’s Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park’s popular Fern Canyon. A few years ago, the popular canyon instituted a pilot permit program to stave off some of the truly absurd crowds—during the peak summer months, the trail hit 26,000 hikers in a month, with over 500 cars recorded in a single day! The permit program culled the crowds, but there was no penalty for no-shows and no walk-up option, which meant visitors were barred from hiking even when nobody was on the trail. This year they’re adding a set number of next-day permits, which seems like a good idea. They aim to keep the number of hikers on the trail between 150 and 300 people.
Tech Talk
Gadgets, Technology, and Hype
If A Tree Falls in the Forest
… would you make a staircase out of it? If you’re part of a trail crew in Muir Woods National Monument, which got special permission to use a 100+ foot tall hazard tree as a staircase, built in the style of the other CCC-era trails in the region. They posted a very cool time-lapse video of the process, where you can see the 5000-7000 pound log turned into a modern, safe staircase that has the look and feel of a staircase that’s been there for a much longer time.
Wildlife Crossing
Wildlife and the Outdoors
Ring My (Fish Door)Bell
You never knew you wanted to ring a doorbell for fish, did you? I certainly didn’t until I read about it in this New York Times story (unlocked!). The doorbell is a live, underwater webcam in Utrecht, the Netherlands at one of the city’s many locks. During the spring, fish migrate through the system but have some trouble navigating the shipping locks—understandable, as, you know, they’re fish. If viewers around the world notice a group of fish gathered or backed up on the webcam, they can ring a virtual doorbell that will alert a team of wildlife biologists in Utrecht to check the video feed. If there are enough fish nearby, they’ll alert city employees to open the locks to let the little ones through.
No fish when you tune in? No worries—you can also check in on the fish highlights of the week on their YouTube Channel. Plus, maybe you’ll learn some Dutch! (you can set subtitles in other languages if you want).
Leafing Out
Plants!
New Dudleya!
OK, maybe you’re not quite as excited about this as I am, but Dudleya are super cool and they deserve all of the attention. The rugged little succulents often look like miniature agaves with (relatively) huge inflorescence—the name for a stalky stem and its flower structure. Plus, they tend to cling to seemingly inhospitable places like cliffsides where nothing else seems to be able to grow. A new Dudleya species was just discovered, found only in Orange County, California. Dudleya chasmophyta was just added to the CalFlora database with its locations hidden to deter poachers, which is unfortunately a big problem with Dudleya.
Ceanothus from the Sky
Ceanothus is one of my favorite California native plants, and an early harbinger of spring. Seeing the hillsides of Griffith Park covered in its cloudy white flowers was a sure-fire sign that more blooms were on their way. I was able to get some to grow successfully (maybe too successfully) in my native garden in Los Angeles, and I have a massive tree-sized specimen in my Portland garden, too. But I was very, very pleased to see this very cool aerial shot of a huge ceanothus bloom in San Marcos from Vishwas Lokesh on Instagram. In this instance, I guess I’ll admit the drone footage is cool, even though I can’t help but here the whining bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz in my head while watching the video.
That’s it for now!
Until next time,
Happy Trails.
