My wife planned a great backpack for this last weekend to help celebrate my upcoming birthday.  It was a fantastic trip full of friends and fun.  The original plan was to take advantage of our pilot friend Ollie, and use his skill and connections to fly into the Catalina Airport in a [...]

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I had the somewhat dubious pleasure of spending a very soggy weekend backpacking with a Wilderness Basics Group to the San Mateo Canyon Wilderness area this last weekend.  This fast, high mileage backpack from the northern edge of the park down into the canyon bottom was punctuated by almost continual rain from lunchtime on Saturday, [...]

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I had the pleasure of leading a group of WBC participants on a soggy weekend jaunt through Blair Valley and Little Blair Valley and all the wonders it contains.  It rained almost constantly.  This bodes well for the upcoming desert wildflower season  and I am looking forward to the explosion of color that will mark [...]

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Four Day’s in the Canyon; 25 miles, a mile of elevation (down and up), spectacular views of a landscape that rivals any on earth, and a communal solitude that forged a bond between my daughter and I that will be a marker in our lives journey.

The idea of hiking the Grand Canyon with my very [...]

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I just discovered that my old friend Dusty from back in the day when I worked in the local news industry is hosting a Surf program on Channel 6 on Friday mornings. Dusty is one of the most genuine people I have ever met in the news business, and I am excited to he [...]

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Things here at Outside San Diego are going to be very interesting over the next few months.  Here is a preview of what we will be doing in the weeks and months to come.
WBC-
The Wilderness Basics class will begin on January 20th.  The class is filling up very fast, and is expected to reach capacity [...]

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I have presented the 10 hikes I feel everyone should hike in 2009.  While these are all great hikes, and I personally hiked them at some point in 2008 (and will see most of them again in 2009)  they represent just a small fraction of all of the fantastic hiking opportunities in San Diego, Southern [...]

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The Slot, located in the Borrego Badlands, is a hike like no other in the San Diego area.  The mile long slot canyon is a monochromatic stroll in the underworld of the desert.  There is something unique about how the light filters through the narrow crevasse above your head that gives you that otherworldly experience.

While [...]

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I spent Sunday exploring the Mud Caves of Arroyo Tapiado in the Anza Borrego Desert.  We parked our car at the base of the wash and hiked up the wash exploring the the slot canyons and mud caves the dot the landscape on each side of the canyon walls.  Like so many places in the [...]

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Backpacking at 7
•    Means collecting 5 lbs of pretty rocks to bring home to family and friends, and stashing them in your backpack and carrying them home without a peep to your unsuspecting Dad.

•    Means loving Top Ramen like it a a gourmet meal, and asking why we never have such good food at home.
•    [...]

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