News / Packing

We had an amazing trip to Santa Rosa Island which is a part of the Channel Islands National Park for a weekend of camping, hiking and relaxation. After seeing a lot of the pictures, a lot of people I have talked to didn’t know that you can camp and explore there, well until recently I didn’t know you could either. So, one of the major parts of adventuring on this island is getting there…

Last weekend I completed a hike I have been wanting to do for a while across Anza Borrego Desert State Park in eastern San Diego County. This two-day hike took me across thirty-three miles of diverse desert landscape and was challenging and rewarding with some great solo hiking and amazing views.

Survival Starts at Home: Tools, well there are a million and one ways to address this and I will start off with this one, make sure your tools are in good repair and ready to go. So much of what we do in the outdoors is seasonal and because of that a third of our gear can be shelved for the season at any given time. So, we should be aware that what we need to make sure we might need to keep our backcountry adventures safe and fun might need some periodic maintenance and a check out before we grab it and go.

Coming back from 4XFAR (read about that here) we were driving through Anza Borrego Desert State Park (California’s larges state park) and figure instead of wasting the gas and a two-hour trip we would break it up and get a camp in.

Wet Winter Hiking, don’t do it. The fact is that when it rains many of our popular trails pay the price when we hike them, muddy trails mean deep ruts from hiking through puddles or wearing down and unnaturally.

Back in June I ran into the gang at Planetary Designs at the Adventure Van Expo in Big Bear California. These guys have a bunch of cool stuff for the coffee and tea enthusiast and I picked up a couple things to test out at camp.

Base camp is a term used in the outdoor world to establish a semi-permanent home from which adventures begin. It is defined as a main encampment providing supplies, shelter and communications for personas engaged in wide-ranging activities, such as exploring, reconnaissance, hunting, hiking, mountain climbing and even in the film industry. It is essentially the home away from home and why this month I will be reviewing a few key points listed below on the importance of base camps.