I stumbled upon a treasure trove of old outdoors books at Iconoclast Books in Ketchum, Idaho this weekend; this one's from 1970.
The cover ultimately doesn't make much difference, but I like this one.
If only hiking through sun cups like these was as serene and lovely as the photo implies. Also, the introductory text instructs Yosemite visitors, "DO NOT FEED, TEASE OR MOLEST THE BEARS." Noted.
The page layout is classy, and the book is simple to navigate -- each set of facing pages describes one hike. Also, the map is intended as a thumbnail overview, not as the actual guide for use during the hike. (In 1970, maps could be acquired by sending $0.50 to the USGS.)
How do you know which map to purchase from ...
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18 Sep 07 · filed under: lit, outdoors, the ancient past, visual · 
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When I start a camping trip, the Van Halen song "Panama" [Video on YouTube] often pops into my head -- I wish I could represent Eddie Van Halen's reverby guitar opening in words, but I was humming it and singing the chorus -- Pa-neh-ma ... Pa-neh-ma-ha -- as this picture was taken. That's the Wind River Range coming into view beyond my friend Nick. For the next 10 days, it would dominate us. In fact, this photo represents the last few moments of peaceful hiking. Our packs were really, really heavy, and soon enough the hurt would begin. Then, we would get rained on pretty often, and (for my part) suffer too many black fly bites and a few altitude-related headaches. Still, totally, totally worth it.
I could go on and on here, but my pictures on Flickr really tell the story better than I can.
I'm a shameless sucker for gear, so here's some shout-outs:
Bridgedale socks. They were really wet, ...
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24 Aug 07 · filed under: ecology, flickr, outdoors · (1) ·
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I'm usually the person who recommends going anywhere but Yosemite in the Sierras because it's expensive and tends to be over-run with people even in the high country, whereas the Emigrant Wilderness, for instance, tends to be pretty sparsely visited, even on the busiest of weekends. But let's keep that on the shhhh. Anyway, I spent 3 warm, sunny days in Yosemite last week with my good friend and all-around good guy Andrew Goodman.
We had nice weather, went to popular places (North Dome, Yosemite Falls -- which has its own Wikipedia page), and yet saw very few other people. Maybe it's the time of year, or the fact that it was a low-snow year, or both? Or our route? We hiked down to North Dome on the Porcupine Creek Trail, and then got back to 120 via the Yosemite Creek trail (where, incidentally, we took some excellent swims). Whatever contributed to it, I've now seen the good side of Yosemite.
Yosemite Valley from North Dome, rendered via the magic of Autostitch. It assembled 25 or so photos from my Motorola SLVR into a ...
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21 Jun 07 · filed under: ecology, flickr, outdoors · (0) ·
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During my hike on the PCT in 2001, my two favorite pastimes were swimming and eating. When I was walking -- which was most of the time -- cool swimming holes and sizzling cheeseburgers filled my daydreams. When my hiking partner, Nick, and I talked, it was more often than not about swimming and eating cheeseburgers: How far to the next river, creek or lake? How long would it take to hitch out to get a cheeseburger at the next road crossing?
As the two attached lists indicate, we found lots of chances to follow these particularly blissful pastimes. Cheeseburger-wise, the best were found in the Cheeseburger Belt, which begins as the Sierras give way to the Cascades in northern California, and ends a little north of Ashland, Oregon. The best of the best in the belt were found at Buck's Lake Lodge near Quincy, the Pines Frosty in Chester (which also has kick-ass shakes), and Lake of the ...
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13 Aug 06 · filed under: ecology, flickr, outdoors · (0) ·
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Five years ago today, I was hiking on the Pacific Crest Trail. I spent the summer of 2001 hiking through California, Oregon, and Washington; on the 12th of August, I was chilling out at Crater Lake, Oregon.
Crater Lake had been a really major destination for me, not because of its legendary, otherworldly beauty or because I'd never seen it or because I was looking forward to bumming beers off retirees in RVs, but BECAUSE I was having a new pair of shoes delivered to the PO there. My feet, at that point, were thrashed. The trail can be unkind to feet in a variety of ways -- extreme heat in the south, frequent river crossings and snow in the Sierras -- and it doesn't help when you wear one pair of Asics Gel Trabuco III's for the last two-thirds of the state of California.
I take a look at my PCT journal a few times every summer; the entry scanned above represents some of the happier times on the trail. A little ...
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13 Aug 06 · filed under: ecology, flickr, outdoors · (0) ·
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