100 Peaks

Hot Springs Canyon Area

I am just settling into Santa Barbara and am already feeling the urge to stand up and fight for the open spaces here. I’ve had a few minutes here and there to pore over some maps and scan the area and start to build a long-term plan on exploring the mountains just to the north of me. I am so excited.

However, it turns out that the peak I decided was going to be my first is being threatened by development. Even in Santa Barbara, where I’ve heard the zoning is pretty strict when it comes to new development and urban sprawl, there is the potential of losing open spaces.

One of the challenges I’ve been having here is determining where the trail heads are and whether a peak is on public lands or accessible without crossing private property. My first peak is likely going to be Montecito Peak. It looms above where I live and it is a fairly close drive. I had planned on driving to Camino Cielo and approaching the peak from the north until I read an article in the local newspaper, detailing the fight to save Hot Springs Canyon from development.

Evidently, Montecito Peak is currently on private property and can be accessed via Hot Springs Canyon, which is currently zoned for 6 houses and a day spa and is privately owned. The 462 acres was being offered to the public for $11 million, but now there has been an agreement with the Land Trust for Santa Barbara County for $8.5 million. The good news is that local benefactors have stepped up to the plate and donated over $6 million so far towards the preservation of Hot Springs Canyon. The bad news is that time is running out. The sale needs to be completed by December 15^th, 2011.

For more information on how you can help visit the Land Trust for Santa Barbara County web page for Hot Springs Canyon.

The Mountains from Stearns Wharf

Like I said in an earlier post. It’s been quiet here. ‘Here’ as in this blog, but not ‘here’ as in my life. 100 Peaks is once again evolving. I am writing from a hotel room.

I accepted a position with an incredible company in Santa Barbara. Today was my second day at work and I can already tell that I am going to be enjoying this group of people immensely.

I find myself looking south towards all the peaks I haven’t climbed yet in San Diego County. And then I look north and see all the peaks nearby, none of which I have climbed yet.

I made a promise to hike 100 peaks in San Diego and I will complete them. Likely slightly over 100, since I want to make sure I complete the Sierra Club’s San Diego Peaks list. It will definitely take me longer than anticipated, but I still have family in the area and I plan on scheduling some weekend trips to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park for overnight peakbagging excursions.

I also see incredible opportunities to explore the Santa Barbara area, namely the Los Padres National Forest, which is pretty vast and guidebooks seem to be scarce. I don’t even know yet how many peaks there are out there.

I intend to find out.

Like I’ve said in earlier posts, researching maps, trails, trailheads, and topography are all part of the fun. Exploring new territory is the other part of the fun. For most of the forest, it doesn’t appear I need to drive very far to get there. But for some peaks, such as those on the Channel Islands, a boat is needed.

I am sad to leave San Diego, and perhaps I will return to live there some day. But, hey, I am living with my family in Santa Barbara, working at a great company, and a stone’s throw away from some amazing mountains.

It doesn’t get much better than this.

Thank you all for reading and hanging in there while I go through this transition. Feel free to reach out to me about all things San Diego, but expect some Santa Barbara hiking information to start coming through, as well. I will also continue to update the completed San Diego Peaks trip reports with trailhead and map information, for those that lack it.

San Diego will always be in my heart. I’ve spent more time outside in San Diego than anywhere else. I feel I know almost every nook and cranny, but I know that I don’t. Maybe after about 40 more San Diego peaks.

I have a feeling this new area will grow on me, though.

I invite you to come along.

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.

It’s been pretty quiet here of late, at least on the blog. That’s because a lot of non-hiking activities have been going on. Luckily, these things also coincided with the hottest days of this summer, so perhaps I saved myself from scaling mountains in 100F weather.

I’ve been flying a lot lately, which is one of the reasons I haven’t been hiking. On one of the night approaches into San Diego, I was looking down into the sea of lights that make up our urban sprawl. My eyes kept straying to the darker areas, knowing that was where I wanted to be. I craved the wilderness, the spaces where there were no lights and fewer people.

There are so many places I’d like to explore, so many dark spaces on the map. Everywhere I travel, I look for those areas and dream about experiencing them on foot: Rae Lakes in the Sierras, the Central Plateau in Yellowstone, Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park. Maybe I’ll find time to tread them all, but maybe not.

Either way, I’ll never stop dreaming about it.

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

Gut Check's King of the Hill Series

Since the start of the New Year, I started up my exercise routine. Rather than a weekly hike (ideally), and an occasional 3-mile jog from my house, I started working out again with the incredible people at Gut Check Fitness.

This has required me to get up early (5:15AM) to the point that I can no longer sleep in on weekends. While my body has been feeling stronger, and often sore, I realized this weekend that there’s a lot left to do.

I participated in Gut Check Fitness’ King of the Hill Series race, the first of which ran up and down Woodson Mountain from Lake Poway. I had an arbitrary goal of two hours, which I met, but along the way, I didn’t feel as strong as I should have. Also, I bonked in the last half mile of the race. It didn’t help that the last stretch was a steep uphill to the finish line, coupled with 10 burpee pushups before the final climb. I felt dizzy and nauseous, something I don’t often feel when being active.

I am happy that I finished the race and I wasn’t dead last. Understandably, I just re-started my new fitness regimen, but my performance really let me know that I could be doing a lot more. And I was doing a lot more before I hurt my back a year and a half ago. The pain still nags me and it really flared up while ascending Woodson Mountain this weekend. The downhill was easier, but I still ran out of steam near the end.

The PD, atop Ant Benchmark

Many of you have asked on numerous occasions, “Who is the PD?” I’ve decided to dedicate this blog post just to him. Some of it might be true. Or not.

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.