sketches

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Sketches for the month.

The tree up on Echo Mountain.

Looking over the Salton Sea while in Joshua Tree.


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Offline Digital Maps (for free) for Hiking

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Since I last wrote about digital maps, the S1 Mobile app has been shut down and the Forest Service released a new map app that looks pretty good. It might be time for a new post on maps. (Check the "equipment" tag for older editions.) USFS app in offline mode showing a section of the Pacific Crest Trail north of Marble Mountain Wilderness including intersecting roads, streams, and contours. As before, this will focus on legal, free ways to have maps stored on your handheld computer (AKA "phone") so you can have them anywhere and any time. While these are free, it does help insure that independent developers keep going next year if you send some money toward them. My criteria for a map app: Works offline. If you only have a map when online, you don't have a map. It is as simple as that. This is non-negotiable. Maps should include contours. I'm looking to hike with these maps after all. Shows location. User configurable storage opt...
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Cascade Falls

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Patapsco Valley State Park interactive map link I was charged with deciding on a hike that kids could do, except I have no experience in this or in evaluating what a particular kid can do. Plus, I would be without any parental supervision. Alltrails offered up Cascade Falls as a possible suitable suggestion, except that it would be done on the weekend and is a very popular location. I liked a climb on Garrett's Pass and a drop on the Cascade Falls Trail, which is 4 miles and only 300 feet or so from bottom to top. (It goes from ~20m to ~100m.) That's not so much, right? And I even had the means for up to 2 kids to be self sufficient, able to carry water, snacks, camera, and a light sweater on their own. Self sufficiency for the win, right? The hike would be in the Patapsco Valley State Park, like most my hikes would likely be. This park has a mix of free lots and pay lots. The pay lots have different prices for in state or out of state, weekends/holidays or weekdays. T...
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Icehouse Canyon

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Angeles National Forest Locate the trailhead. Icehouse Canyon is on a right hand straight (the road turns sharply left) just after Baldy Village. To enter the Wilderness some two miles up, you need to get a permit. We also needed a hang tag to hold the Golden Eagle so we were good and let them count us. That didn't make parking any easier on a Sunday morning. Backpackers and early(er) risers had gotten all the real spaces in the large lot, and quite a few of the imaginary ones. I was able to imagine one more spot on the second time around so we weren't so good on the parking but we weren't blocking anything either. The trail itself goes up at a steady, determined pace. It is about 3.6 miles of constant up. It does not go flat, it does not go down, it just climbs and climbs until it gets to the saddle. There is one junction along the way which is actually just another way up to the saddle but takes about two miles longer to get there. We took this going dow...
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Crooked Trail to Lady Bird Johnson Grove

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Redwood National Park Click for interactive map On the prior Thursday, I joined the California Invasive Species Advisory Committee's invasive species tour of Eureka. It was at the last minute because I figured I knew all about these things since I spend a bit of time each week hacking them down as a volunteer. Of course, they were talking about the lesser known things and the tour started out with aphids that affect Sitka spruce terribly as we toured Mouralherwaqh, a patch of land that is Wiyot again. This one is not open to the general public, but we also visited the 'O Rew Redwood Gateway, a piece of land that is Yurok again, and is open to the public as of 1 Aug and where I discovered a new trail. I also noted that although this was most recently an abandoned mill site, there are some nice rounded tree tops poking out of the forest nearby, one of the signs of old growth. I decided I would be back to try that new trail. The sign at the after hours/overflow parking a...
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