A hiking blog for Orange County and beyond
Over the Memorial Day weekend, Joan and I met up some new outdoor friends to go camping and hiking in Yosemite National Park. Jeff A., our third partner in our upcoming John Muir Trail adventure, introduced us to a terrific group. I had never attempted to visit a national park on Memorial Day weekend, but [...]
Last month I outlined my training plan for the John Muir Trail. In a nutshell, it involves several weekday conditioning hikes, longer weekend hikes, weight-bearing hikes and most importantly, hikes at high altitude with substantial elevation gain. As I researched my options, I settled on a series of six peak-bagging hikes, each progressively more challenging [...]
My top personal goal for 2010 is simple: hike the entire John Muir Trail. The John Muir Trail (JMT) officially runs 216 miles from Yosemite to Mt. Whitney. You hike over 13 mountain passes, several over 13,000 ft. Most people take three weeks or more to hike the entire length, making this backpacking trip an [...]
The Orange County Register and OC Hiking Club have teamed up with Samy’s Cameras for their annual Wildflower Photo Contest. There are three categories, including: Nature Open – flowers; mostly natural Flower and Man – flower plus people, pets or something man made Nature – no ‘hand of man” (no non-indigenous plants, dirt trails, fence [...]
A week ago we finished outlining our training plan for our epic 211-mile John Muir Trail backpacking trip. Being active and physically fit are the primary objectives, but we also want to know how our bodies will respond to day-after-day of hiking, carrying a backpack, and at higher altitudes than our normal sea-level existence provides. [...]
I’ve had several people ask me about the rotating images that appear in the header here. The questions usually fall into either the web technology or photography category. I’ll answer them both. First, the photos themselves. All but one of these photos I took myself, including the following: This is Thousand Island Lake with Banner [...]
Joan and I sat down and did some serious working on our training plans for the John Muir Trail. On a typical week we will log at least 25 miles, with a minimum of two, hilly mid-week conditioning hikes and one long weekend hike. We’ll be adding in training at higher elevation, primarily on local [...]
Welcome to SoCalHiker.net. I am a hiker and backpacker living in Southern California, and I’m here to share my favorite hikes and backpack trips. My focus will be primarily on local hikes, with some longer trips that may require a day of travel. I don’t profess to be an expert outdoorsman, but I do have [...]
Batiquitos Lagoon in north San Diego County is one of the few remaining … more
I have hiked and backpacked for years without trekking poles. I've seen … more
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