Trip Records and Plans

• Most Recent:
  • Kings Canyon National Park (California); June 2002. backpacking trip, six days.
    Trip record; photography (courtesy all participants).

• Archived Records:
  You'll find here an excellent source of information for planning a trip to any of the locales touched upon, plus Wild Yarns, High Madness, and Tales of Adventure to tickle the driest and most withered of fancies.

• Upcoming:
  No firm plans... only thing close to the front burner, really, is a Hawai'i kayak trip.
  The drawing board:
  • Picacho del Diablo, near San Quentin in Baja California, a high peak well off the beaten path in a wild and beautiful area, if only Matt Brown has time both when I do and the season and weather permit... ~6 hour drive from San Diego to the drop-off, 6 mile downhill hike to base of mountain, summit reachable in one full day with day packs, some technical sections (according to Matt).
  • Group trip -- here's what I have in mind: pick a time of year and a location that permit a group whose members have quite disparate aims to accomplish their goals, namely, for some members to hike in to a base camp from which they can lounge in the wilderness, take dayhikes, eat well, perhaps swim or laze in the sun, while other members of the group, more ambitiously inclined, attempt the summit of some forbidding peak or other. The idea is to have a trip that satisfies the desire for an extreme wilderness experience, but permits the extremity-disinclined to participate and to have a blast as well. Is there somewhere that fits this bill?
  • Minnesota: Ice-fishing and snow-camping
  • Sequoia: Snowshoe trip in January or December
  • Alaska: I still intend to spend some time in Denali NP, and maybe there are some climbing possibilities within my poor powers...
  • Washington: kayak San Juans?
  • Oregon: I think it's gotta be the Rogue River, don't you?
  • Big Bend? ...Eric was talking about this one...
  • Hawai'i? ...kayak to where the lava flows right into the sea...
  • Iceland? There are rivers to kayak, wild horse trails, glaciers to trek over, saga journeys to re-enact, and much, much more.

Gear Checklists
I think these are accurate lists of all the gear I bring with me on a wilderness trip:

• Gear list: temperate hiking
• Gear list: snow camping

Links
books • recreation • parks

• Some Favorite Books on Outdoors Topics:
  • Nature/Conservation:
    • Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey
    • Green Rage by Christopher Manes
    • Encounters with the Archdruid by John McPhee
    • The Mountains of California by John Muir
    • Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner
    • Mountains Without Handrails by Joseph Sax
    • Should Trees Have Standing? by Christopher Stone
    • Rivers of Empire by David Worster
  • Exploration/Mountaineering:
    • Mountaineering in Colorado by Frederick Chapin
    • Annapurna by Maurice Herzog
    • K2: The 1939 Tragedy by Andrew Kaufman and William Putnam
    • Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada by Clarence King
    • Moments of Doubt by David Roberts
    • The Heart of the Antarctic by Sir Ernest Shackleton
    • South by Sir Ernest Shackleton
    • Paddle to the Arctic by Don Starkell
    • Beyond the Hundredth Meridian by Wallace Stegner
    • The Ascent of Denali by Hudson Stuck, Archdeacon of the Yukon
    • Eight Sailing/Mountain-Exploration Books by H. W. Tilman
    • Epic: Stories of Survival from the World's Highest Peaks edited by Clint Willis
    • Wild: Stories of Survival from the World's Most Dangerous Places edited by Clint Willis
  • Travel:
    • The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin
    • The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen
    • Blue Highways by William Least Heat Moon
    • In Trouble Again by Redmond O'Hanlon
    • The Travels by Marco Polo
    • Travels With Charley by John Steinbeck
    • Roughing It by Mark Twain
  • Fiction:
    • The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey
    • Hayduke Lives! by Edward Abbey
    • A Friend of the Earth by T. Coraghessen Boyle
    • Antarctica by Kim Stanley Robinson
    • The Three Californias (The Wild Shore, The Gold Coast, Pacific Edge) by Kim Stanley Robinson
    • Zodiac by Neal Stephenson

• Useful Outdoors Recreation Information:
  • Backpacking and Camping:
    • GORP.com
  • Kayaking:
    • Kayak the World -- Commercial site but great inspiration for travel ideas.
  • Gear:
    • Gear Review dot com
    • Outdoor Review
    • The Backpacker Gear Reviews
    • GearX -- Gear Exchange
    • The Gear Room
  • Travel:
    • Lonely Planet
    • Rough Guides

• Park Pages:
  • US National Park Service
    • Selected Alaska National Parks:
      • Denali
    • Selected Arizona National Parks:
      • Grand Canyon
        • Commercial Site with Expanded Information
    • Selected California National Parks:
      • Death Valley
        • Backcountry Hikes
      • Joshua Tree
      • Sequoia and King's Canyon
        • Backcountry Information
        • 3-week advance reservations
    • Selected Michigan National Parks:
      • Isle Royale
        • Commercial Isle Royale site
        • IR Ferry Service FAQ
      • Pictured Rocks
    • Selected Utah National Parks:
      • Arches
      • Bryce Canyon
      • Canyonlands
        • Expanded Information
        • Backcountry Permits
      • Zion
    • Selected Washington National Parks:
      • Olympic -- 30 day advance res
  • US National Scenic Rivers
  • US National Scenic Trails

  • Parks Canada
    • Ontario Provincial Parks
      • Algonquin Provincial Park