2012 Trips
Big Bend national park
6 miles of hiking • 6000' elevation gain • 2 nights
Went with my awesome friend Nicky, and her friend Bryce. We drove from Austin, spent 2 nights in one of the only mountainous areas of Texas, and drove back. The views are wonderful, the trails are great. Bring lots of water!
November 24 – November 26, 2012
Yellowstone with Schlanger
24 miles of hiking • 5000' elevation gain •
Went here with my fraternity brother Erick Schlanger. Nature threw everything at us but we survived. Stay tuned I want to write up lots more about this trip, so come back and read.
October 18, 2012
Ozarks with Landon and Laura
12 miles of hiking • 3500' elevation gain • 1 night
Flew out to visit my friend Landon in Kansas city and then drove south to the Ozarks. Amazing!
September 15 – September 16, 2012
Cabins at Big Basin Redwoods
2.5 miles of hiking • 500' elevation gain • 1 night
Came here with my wife, who hates camping, and we tried cabin camping instead. There are some beautiful waterfalls here, and the trails are beautiful, the trees are big. This was the first state park in CA, and for good reason. Went much better, the final verdict was that she disliked cabin camping less than tent camping. I want to go back here and do a backpacking trip!
September 8 – September 9, 2012
1
Santa Fe National Forest with Dad
13 miles of hiking • 6000' elevation gain • 3 nights
There are no bathrooms in the Santa Fe National Forest! So we spent 3 nights out there and at the end went to a Japanese spa in the city. Great hiking up mountains, very tall. Dad got winded but it was the best trip we had ever taken together.
September 1 – September 4, 2012
Bothe Napa trip with Nicky and Friends
1 miles of hiking • 250' elevation gain • 1 night
My friend Nicky was driving north to Oregon with a few friends and we decided to all go to wine country, do some camping, and drink wine. Super successful.
July 30 – July 31, 2012
Mount Shasta with Mark and Friends
4 miles of hiking • 8000' elevation gain • 2 nights
Went with a bunch of friends in the summer, with my ice axe and crampons and all... it's a glacier after all.
July 14 – July 16, 2012
San Bernardino National Forest
4 miles of hiking • 500' elevation gain • 1 night
Went camping with the wife after a trip through LA. Breath-taking views over the cliff, over San Bernardino valley. The hiking is so-so, the real amazing part is the drive up here. The air is nice and clean too. Even though she hates camping. She was pleased with the quality of the restrooms.
July 5 – July 6, 2012
Ohlone Wilderness
24 miles of hiking • 4750' elevation gain • 1 night
Nearly died of dehydration in 90 degree weather where all of the water sources had dried out.
June 30 – July 1, 2012
Pinnacles with Laura and Dominique
7 miles of hiking • 1250' elevation gain • 1 night
Went with my friend Laura, explored caves. Fun road trip, car camping.
June 23 – June 24, 2012
Lake Tahoe with Dean
14.5 miles of hiking • 4000' elevation gain • 1 night
Lake Tahoe, went up to lost lake, and wandered around the mountains. Was a much longer hike than we anticipated, and there were plenty of bugs flying around. But the views were well worth it.
June 16 – June 17, 2012
1
Uvas State Park with Laura, Mark and Raechel
5 miles of hiking • 1000' elevation gain •
Last minute decided to go on a trip with friends. I didn't know much about where they were going, I only knew that I wanted to hike. Turns out that this spot is amazing if you love waterfalls. Granted they are really small waterfalls, and we didn't go during the wet season so they were tiny, but still very cool. There's 5 waterfalls worth seeing and they are all within a 5 mile trek around the park. The trails aren't hard, but there is a good bit of up and down, constantly. Well paved though.
We drove up and down from here in Mark's convertable, singing along to the radio at full blast and catching the cool California wind through our hair. Getting here isn't that bad, but also not super scenic.
Enjoy the photos!
June 9, 2012
1
Half Moon Bay State Beach with Dan
5 miles of hiking • 0' elevation gain • 1 night
Picked up someones cancelation for Sunday when I realized that it would be a full moon. Normally this is booked solid even on weekdays. My office is only 11 miles away, so I double-checked that the campground had showers, and made sure I had no meetings at work before 10:00. Let me tell you, there is nothing quite like coming in to work on Monday after having been on the beach all day Sunday and having walked along the beach in the morning before work.
My friend Dan from Austin was in town this weekend and I was very grateful to have him join.
The campsite is tiny lots for RVs, and not really that much to look at, but the beach is super nice. You can set up your tent on the beach during the day and watch the sunset, it's quite a treat. We brough a solar panel and charged our phones and ipads in the tent, and then cooked dinner on the beach by digging a hole for a windscreen However setting up the tent at night in the campsite is a bit harder, especially since the ground is very hard. BRING A HAMMER if you're going to stake into the ground. I really like falling asleep to the sound of the ocean (I used to go sailing a lot with my dad when I was younger, I love the sea). Normally this is for car campers... so now on to hiking...
There are trails along the beach, but we "hiked" on the beach. It's about 2 miles out, and then another 2 back. Wear sunscreen. There's some cool cliffs just a little way down, on which you can see the erosion that menaces California's beaches. There are trees that stick out on top, as if their roots were a balcony, but the soil around them is gone. There's a few ravines that make some edges into the cliff.
At night, when the moon is full we went hiknig yet again about a mile out and back after setting up the tent. Oceans are surreal at night under full moons. You don't need a flashlight, but it's not quite bright enough to seem real. A bit like being in a movie.
We got a bit of a surprise in the morning when it started raining.
The showers are coin-op, and they (along with the restrooms) are not the cleanest thing in the world but that's probably because they get heavy heavy usage, and because the sand from the beach.
I would recommend this for a relaxing trip, but there's no serious hiking to be had, and no serenity in the camp. I definitely recommend it on Sunday nights especially if you work in San Mateo.
June 3 – June 4, 2012
Henry Cowell Redwoods with Ellen & co.
9 miles of hiking • 1000' elevation gain • 3 nights
Went here with a coworker and her family, for memorial day weekend. Was really more car camping, they had a huge setup and I had my backpacking gear (which, given that I'm still relatively new to camping, that's all I have). There were a lot of families here, every campsite was full of laughter from kids running around and playing ball. I however preferred to get some exercise.
The trails aren't half bad. They're well maintained and easy to walk on. I wore my Vibram 5 fingers and it was great. Everything is a bit sandy though. Sandy mountains are part of the unique geography of this place, and it makes for a primordial looking landscape. Check out the observation deck if you come here, the view is nice, and then there's tons of trails that branch out from there.
Lots of streams, and Open Street Map told me to cross streams in a few places where there was no bridge and no rocks to help. There were paths on the other side so I guess you have to know how to cross a stream to get to some of these trails. I'm still new so I didn't want to risk having to hike back 3 miles and 1,000 feet in wet vibrams (and didn't want to risk tripping and ruining my gear, including cell phone and solar panel), so I didn't cross, but now I'm kicking myself. I gotta learn to cross streams.
It's just north of Santa Cruz, so we spent half a day in town, including drinking beer because the camp has signs everywhere about how alcohol is prohibited. Then shared lots of fun stories around the campfire. The showers were really cold and I'm pretty sure that they run the clock fast. But good enough to get clean.
I would recommend this place. :-)
May 25 – May 28, 2012
Portola Redwoods
10 miles of hiking • 1250' elevation gain • 2 nights
Started at base camp on Friday, at the hike-and-bike camp. Walked around a little bit in the small trails, saw a waterfall, a stream with ducks. Slept under a giant redwood. Saturday I climbed up the trail into the peak in the open space preserve to the east of the park. 5 or 6 miles each way, the trail through the redwoods was not well maintained fallen trees at 2 spots totally blocking it (had to do some climbing) but then the top of the hills is wide open fields with a great view but no shade. Sunday, had blisters so just a short walk around the camp then got picked up and went home.
May 11 – May 13, 2012
Marin Headlands: Hawkeye camp with friends
10 miles of hiking • 2000' elevation gain • 1 night
Marin headlands is a great place to learn a lot about camping, or to just quickly get away from it all in SF. It's just over the bridge so I found it's easy to get lots of friends who aren't adventurous to sign up for this. The views of the city and the ocean are great but the views of the hills are OK, the weather is generally great, the paths are well maintained, the park staff are friendly, and the reservations are surprisingly easy to come by (even a week or so ahead of time, still available). Best part is that you can hike and see the Golden Gate Bridge, and through it the city of San Francisco as if framed in a painting.
I would recommend this for single-night camping alone without the hassle of far-away destinations, for groups of friends, or for beginners.
April 21 – April 22, 2012
Solo camping Marin headlands
7.5 miles of hiking • 1250' elevation gain • 1 night
Really my first real camping trip. I hiked up here alone with the backpack that I just bought from REI, and the tent and sleeping bag that I had bought earlier for Occupy.
The hawkeye campground is a great hike, up a small mountain, with a view of valleys below. The last part up the hill riht before the camp is surprisingly hard.
Marin headlands are amazingly easy to get reservations for because I guess not a lot of people know about it. I'm a huge fan because it's that easy.
March 17 – March 18, 2012
View trips from: 2012