Wet Winter Weather
Plus, spend summer in a fire lookout, outdoor fee lawsuits, a mountain lion library card and more!
howdy
There’s a big ol’ winter storm outside my window right now – it’s the same storm system that’s affecting most of the West Coast. It’s been dark and cold all day, with rain tapping on my roof on-and-off for the past few hours.
That sound itself is nice – something I only got to enjoy occasionally when I was living in L.A. But if I don’t have the four lights on in my small office (including a SAD lamp I picked up last winter), I could easily mistake 2PM for 9PM. Even my new office houseplants seem like they’re working overtime to fight back the gloom.
I find myself spending less time on the trails here in the Pacific Northwest than I did in Southern California, and the weather is definitely a part of it. L.A. is where I learned how to hike, so I got pretty used to the relative ease of climate condition concerns there – I like being in the sun; when it’s bright out, it’s easier for me to get out of bed for an early trailhead time; I don’t really mind being warm; and I really enjoyed rarely having to worry about packing waterproof gear or rain layers or mud.
It's not all gloom, though. I mean metaphorically — weather-wise it’s absolutely gloom-heavy. Don’t get me wrong, I will never complain about it kind of always being good hiking weather in L.A., but having these more pronounced seasons back in my life has also given me more to look forward to as well as an appreciation for good conditions when they’re here. I’m putting off my procrastination and finally have some dates with the ski slopes in the next few weeks (please send good vibes to my knees in advance). But this week I also put my first spring cycling event in the calendar and I’m eagerly watching my red-flowering currants and rhododendrons working on the earliest spring blooms in the garden.
It's a bit of a cliché to say that in Southern California you can blink and 5 years will pass by. I don’t know if that’s entirely accurate, but I hope wherever you are, you can appreciate each day for whatever it brings you … even if what it brings you just makes you want to stay in your pajamas and curl up with a nice book instead of lacing up those hiking boots. And if you are in Southern California, you might want to take this weekend off – the forecast looks pretty nasty …
Oh, and in case you were wondering, just one day after I took that previous photo from my office, it turned into pretty, snowy winter instead of boring, dark gray winter.
This morning, I woke up to this — after a forecast of “potential dusting of snow.”
If you get some good winter photos this weekend (while staying safe, naturally - please don’t hike Baldy in shorts with a Dasani bottle and trail mix, k?), send ‘em my way and if I get some good ones I’ll share ‘em next week!
Bonus: the Song that Always Gets in My Head on Days Like This":
The Big Story
Something to talk about
It May Be Time for Climate Rage
I’m a big fan of newsletters these days. That shouldn’t come as a big surprise, seeing as you’re reading a newsletter right now, but Paul Thorton’s opinion newsletter from the Los Angeles Times had a great one recently providing some context to Greta Thunberg’s op-ed excerpted from her recently published book “The Climate Book.”
Thorton applauds the work of Thunberg and others who aggressively and loudly point out the political BS that surrounds and cloaks the lackluster work we are doing on the climate crisis. Personally, when I think about this issue I tend to swing wildly between despair, rage, and the occasional slips into sanity-maintaining DGAF territory, but this quote from Thunberg’s op-ed is a breath of much-needed fresh air to clear out all the self-congratulatory politician-speak on this issue.
“So they did not just get it slightly wrong — our leaders completely failed. And they continue to fail; despite all the beautiful words and pledges, they are not moving in the right direction. In fact, we are still expanding fossil fuel infrastructure all over the world. In many cases, we are even speeding up the process.
Modern Hiking
Good stuff from the Modern Hiker site
It probably isn’t too often that you can take yourself from the heart of Silicon Valley tech culture to an idyllic, quiet farm tucked away in the mountains, surrounded by flowing creeks, towering trees, and super cute farm animals … but that’s exactly what you’ll get if you tackle the Hidden Valley Grand Loop — one of our newest trail guides from Melissa Ozbek.
Your Parks
Your Places
Be a Fire Lookout!
For the first time since 2009, the Angeles National Forest Fire Lookout Association is holding trainings for new volunteers to staff and maintain historic fire lookouts in the
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