100 Peaks

The Coast to Crest Trail goes through the Santa Ysabel Open Space Preserve

As you likely know, legendary hiker and professor Jerry Schad passed away recently. Many people have expressed how he had touched their lives.

Once I was an adult, I started my hiking history in Orange County, using his book as my sole reference to the surrounding trails. My girlfriend at the time, (she’s my wife, now), spent many of our first dates with Afoot and Afield in Orange County as our guide. When we moved to San Diego we bought the current edition of Afoot and Afield in San Diego. I bought a new version when that came out and then gave away my older version to a hiker new to the area.

Jerry Schad spent tireless hours exploring the area and took the time to share his knowledge with us. It’s hard to calculate the inspiration he’s given us to get outside. I feel he needs to be honored.

What it might have looked like had we taken a picture

I was graciously invited by Doug Vannier, a local podcaster and fellow San Diego hiker, to be a guest on his comedy podcast, 347 Steps. We had been emailing back and forth for a while, talking about potential dates and hikes.

Since they record on weekday evenings, it’s hard for me to get away. And timing a hike together just didn’t seem to jive. Finally, we were able to get me out to Northpark, where the studio is located.

When I arrived, I met Thom, whose garage is the studio for the podcast. I also met his adorable kids and pet praying mantises (the spelling is correct, I checked it), who were munching on crickets. I should clarify: the mantises were eating crickets; the kids were not.

We hung out a bit and they let me open a bottle of wine, which turned out to be pretty good, and we proceeded to head out into the garage to set up their professional “sound-proof” recording studio, which consists of a fold-up table, some mics, and a four track.

Then I met Lee, who is training for Half Dome for a wedding. We did the podcast in sections, stopping to record each section and chatting in between. It was hard to remember what part of the conversation was recorded or not, since I felt we just chatted away. The guys were curious about hiking and asked me many questions on and off-mic.

The 347 Steps guys are funny and friendly. They’ve spent a lot of time creating a podcast that doesn’t really net them any money, and they’ve been doing it a long time. My episode is 174. Yes, it’s been around for that long.

It was a fun and  interesting experience and I felt like I made some new friends. Doug and I will definitely go hiking in the future.

347 Steps in iTunes

Question for you: If I started a podcast, say perhaps an hour a month, about San Diego outdoors events, organizations, recounting hiking experiences, local athletes, with the PD and me, would you be interesting in listening to it?

Myself, taking a photo on a windy peak

Last week, a day after I hiked Boucher Hill, I passed the two year mark. It’s been two years since I saw the San Diego Sierra Club’s List and decided I wanted to hike them all and write a guidebook about it. It’s been two years since I hiked Iron Mountain for the first time, excited at my newly-found fitness, running the entire way down.

I had hoped to be farther along that I am. But in other ways, I am exactly where I want to be. I’ve been asked by many what I plan to do after I complete all 100 peaks. Most of the time my answer is, “There are a lot more than 100 peaks in San Diego.” But in other ways, I have loftier goals.

This site nets me no money. I hope to change that somehow, not by endless advertising, but offering my readers something of value. Something useful. I am not sure in what shape, besides my book, that it will be, but it’s bound to be something.

Barn in Daley Ranch

Be on the lookout for some changes to the site to be coming up over the next several weeks. What is live now is a new Peak List, which is a sortable table that indicates whether or not a peak is in the Sierra Club Angeles Chapter Hundred Peaks Section (HPS), the San Diego Sierra Club’s One Hundred Peaks List (SDC) or whether or not I’ve created a Google Earth trail map for that particular hike.

I intend to have maps for all the hikes, so that column will go away once I am up to date.

The next minor thing is that I’ve numbered the icons on my Peaks Map to correspond with the Peak Numbers.

What’s to come:

• Creating information pages for all the agencies associated with the areas that contain each peak.
• Creating links or portfolio views to Flickr Sets for each trip report, so that higher res pics can be seen.
• Cleaning up older, more sparse, trip reports and making sure there are links to the trailhead and maps. I will also add any new pictures I’ve taken since I’ve been there.
• Working on my backlog of gear reviews, non-profit organization summaries, list of parks and recreation areas throughout the county
• Creating a list and map of my non-San Diego Peaks, and hikes, such as my trips to Mount Whitney, Ka’ala Peak on Oahu, San Jacinto Peak, and other peaks I’ve summited over the years.
• Creating a Tips Page, for hiking and camping tips. I’ve learned a lot and have made a lot of mistakes that others can avoid.
• Fleshing out my About page, containing more information about what I am doing, where I got my peak list, and what I consider a peak.

I am hoping to be summiting more peaks over the next few weeks, so these trip reports will be on the way, as well.

The weather has finally heated up and I hope you are all getting some time on the trails. As always, I love to get comments, even on really old posts.

As some of you know, it’s hard for me to find time to hit all the peaks quickly, as my schedule is pretty dynamic. I often am not sure I am going to be hiking until the night before. Hopefully that will change soon.

I hope to see you on the trail!

-Derek

If you hike in San Diego, you've either read or should read a version of this book

I have heard from several sources that Jerry Schad, the author of the Afoot and Afield books, which have guided many of my hikes around Orange County and San Diego since my youth, hasn’t been feeling well lately.

I won’t go into any details, since I have no firsthand knowledge, but I would ask everyone to save some positive energy for him and send it his way so that he gets well soon.

His bio from his website:

Jerry Schad, a full-time community college professor of physical science and astronomy, has been photographing the sky since 1965. Jerry’s astronomical photographs have been published nearly 1000 times in national (US) and overseas publications, starting with a planetary-conjunction sequence appearing in Sky and Telescope magazine in 1966. His recent photo credits include U.S. News and World Report (cover of April 7, 1997 issue), Newsweek, Time, Reader’s Digest, Scientific American, Discover, Sky and Telescope, Astronomy, and ABC News (Discovery Channel).

Schad has authored 12 books on subjects as diverse as physical science, natural history, running, hiking, and bicycling, and he has written more than 500 articles and columns on the same subjects for regional and national publications.

Update August 10, 2011: There was a very touching article in the Union-Tribune today, offering more insight into Jerry’s condition and state of mind. Jerry has terminal Stage 4 kidney cancer and has found the love of his life. Well-photographed and well-written, it’s a must-read.

Update September 22, 2011: I just heard the news that Jerry has passed away early today. I hope that it was peaceful and he was dreaming of hiking with his wife. He will be missed, but truly his spirit lives with many people hiking the trails of Southern California and beyond.

Boulder Creek to the San Diego River Valley

San Diego River Park Foundation
PO Box 80126
San Diego, CA 92138-0126
info@SanDiegoRiver.org
619-297-7380

Their vision and goals

The San Diego River Park Foundation envisions a grand park, reaching from the mountains, all the way to the sea. It is seen as a 52-mile park that follows the San Diego River, from the foot of Volcan Mountain, near Julian, all the way to where it meets the Pacific Ocean, south of Mission Bay.

Along the way, it overlaps with other open space parks, such as Cleveland National Forest, Volcan Mountain Wilderness Preserve, and Mission Trails Regional Park, among others.

Ultimately, the foundation envisions a trail system that follows the river along its length and connects to the various parks and open spaces along the way.

Many of my peaks lie in their sphere of influence.

What they do

Advocacy – They have formed a coalition with like-minded organizations throughout the county to effect change in attitude and promote cleanups throughout the area.

Land Acquisition – They have researched the area and are seeking to preserve over 700 acres of land for the park. The acquisitions will be obtained through donations of people like us, much of which will be matched by grants, to which the foundation applies.

Outreach – Appear at fairs, farmers markets. They lead hikes throughout the county to educate and raise money for the cause.

Maintain the river – They have detailed plans on how to not only restore to the river to its former glory, but plans and schematics on how to keep it that way.

How you can help

You can donate to their cause, volunteer, sign up for the eScrip program, shop at their limited online store, or, like me, become a member and write about it.

San Diego River Watershed

West Mesa in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park - It could be in jeopardy

As many of you know, Proposition 21 did not pass. If you need information on it, please read some details about it elsewhere.

I have to admit that I didn’t vote either way. Due to a crazy schedule, I failed to do the appropriate amount of research and really couldn’t make an informed decision. While I wanted to help the California State Parks and make sure that money funneled into them, I wasn’t sure if taxing each motorist was the appropriate method to do so.

As a result, and because I’m finding it difficult to get outside lately,  I am going to be starting a series of blog posts about San Diego nonprofit organizations (and local chapters of national NPOs). My goal is to get people involved and let them know how they can make a difference locally.

If you do laps on Cowles Mountain, maybe you can volunteer for a trail clean up one weekend. Or simply become a member of one of the foundations that are located all around the county. I met some volunteers in Cuyamaca with horses and chainsaws, making it safe for all trail users. They were there on their own time and dime. There are many ways to be involved with the open spaces all around us in San Diego.

You can see my memberships on the sidebar to the right, the list of which will be growing over the next few months, as I do research and write about the various organizations.

All is not lost. Stewardship can be local. Get outside and get involved.

The PD and I, feeling fine

While I didn’t train nearly as much as I wanted to, my performance at this year’s mission bay Triathlon confirmed that I have established a base layer of fitness that can apply to various events. More importantly, my extensive hiking has conditioned my brain to just keep going through discomfort and fatigue.

I didn’t win any medals, but I proved to myself that I can enter a triathlon with little to no training and do more than survive. I beat over 300 people, which is a lot more than I can say of my performance in 2002.

The PD, however, blew the doors off my expectations. I knew he was going to beat me, but he did it by over 12 minutes.

My mantra typically is, “It may take me a while, but I’ll get there.”

Yea, I’m more of a hiker than a runner.

An online friend of mine stumbled upon a couple of curious stickers while hiking on recent hikes. One was on Garnet Mountain, which I hiked about 11 months ago, and another was on Ken Point, a peak along the Desert Divide. Since I didn’t see the sticker on Garnet Mountain when I was there, I can only surmise that it was placed there fairly recently (less than a year).

Does anyone have any insight on these stickers? Please feel free to comment below.

Sticker on the Ken Point summit register

Sticker on the Garnet Mountain summit register

Sticker on Martinez Mountain

Update 10/11/2010: Added another one from the same friend who keeps finding these.

Trail Sherpa

I was asked by Tim at Trail Sherpa if I wanted to be interviewed as a part of his #hike2020 series about my recent hike to Mount Whitney, as well hiking in San Diego in general. The interview was conducted using hash tags in Twitter, which ended up being pretty interesting and encouraged audience participation. Tim is a great interviewer and I thought he asked some great questions. I was his second interview in the series, with Pamela Wilton, of the 8 Thousand Kilometer Challenge being the first.

Read the interview at Trail Sherpa if you get a chance.