National Park visitation increased by nearly 3.9 percent from 2008, the National Park Service reported recently.
 
What does that mean?
 
By the numbers it means 285 million people visited national parks compared to 275 million in 2008.
 
What caused the increase? Are more people partaking of the pleasures of the great outdoors?
 
I doubt it.

Watching the TV news and reading super-exaggerated reports of a “Niagara of Mud” reminded me of the many trails in the San Gabriel Mountains that have been affected by fire and flood. A number of hikers have asked The Trailmaster for an update on trail conditions in the Angeles National Forest, so here’s an overview.
 
There’s nothing like what the TV news terms a “natural disaster” to get the reporters out of the studio into the hills. Recent rains washed a whole lot of soil from the fire-scorched slopes of the San Gabriel Mountains. Mud, lots of it, washed down natural creeks and manmade flood control channels, as well as a few streets and driveways.
 
The 2009 Station Fire burned some 161,189 acres in the San Gabriel Mountains. Vegetation in the burn area was mostly chaparral, though the fire did burn forested areas at higher elevations and scorched a number of riparian areas along creeks and rivers.

Boredom thwarts our best intentions to exercise—including going out for a walk. Taking the same neighborhood loop day in and day out can dull the motivation of even the most diehard walking enthusiast.
 
To keep the spring in your step, add a little green exercise and try a different route. You might be surprised what a little research might uncover in the way of greenery and scenery in your area. Reinvigorate your walking by relocating your usual walk and turning it into a hike.

Before we gather for Thanksgiving dinner with friends and family, it’s our tradition to take a hike.
 
Usually, we hit the trail on Thanksgiving morn, and our family hike is as much a part of our celebration as the big turkey dinner and the Robert Louis Stevenson Thanksgiving prayer I like to recite. This year, however, with the need to prepare a feast for a whole lot of relatives, more than a few of whom are quite elderly and in ill health, we took our hike the day before the holiday.
 
My wife Cheri, son Daniel, 12, and I meandered through the Coronado Butterfly Preserve located on the coastal bluffs about ten miles north of downtown Santa Barbara. We wanted to see if the monarch butterflies had arrived after their long migration from colder climes. The butterflies seem to have a knack for wintering in some of California’s most beautiful coastal locales, and the eucalyptus grove where they hang and hang out at the edge of Santa Barbara is a lovely place.

“God has two dwellings: one in heaven, and the other in a meek and thankful heart,” declared Izaak Walton, the 17th century English writer now regarded as the patron saint of fishing.
 
Walton’s walks by the river Dove and along the banks of many other brooks and ponds, inspired him to write “The Compleat Angler,” still regarded as the greatest book ever about fishing. His book combines practical advice on the art of angling with some highly moral and spiritual passages. Walton’s gratitude for God’s gifts, the beauties of pastoral England and the companionship of his fellows shines right through in his book, as popular now as it was 300 years ago.
 
“Nobody expresses their gratitude about anything or thanks me,” you say. Likely as not, you’re probably right. Try to remember the last time anyone thanked you for anything. It was probably a “Thanks-and-have-a-nice-day,” at the check-out counter from a supermarket cashier or a “Thanks for your order,” from a fast-food franchise. Such gratitude!
 
Now try to remember the last time anyone thanked you for anything important. It’s a dispiriting cycle: we rarely get thanks, and we rarely give it. Even those of us who try hard not to be thoughtless are often thankless--except perhaps for the one hour a week we spend inside our house of worship.
         
My suggestion: On one walk—better yet one hike—a week use a few minutes of your time to exercise your gratitude while you stretch your limbs. List everything in your life that you are thankful for, and everything that you enjoy. Contemplate this list on your walk.
         

 
 
 
Every kind of media is supplying loads of Thanksgiving week travel advice: The dangers of driving or of facing what is now either an unpleasant or barely tolerable experience of getting on an airplane. No one, however, is giving advice about keeping nature or the natural elements in mind when preparing for travel.
         
I thought of this lack of regard for nature as I flashed back exactly three years ago to the Kim family Thanksgiving week ordeal in the snowy Oregon backcountry, the tragic death of James Kim, and the fortunate rescue of his wife and two young daughters.
         
My friends and family, and people across the nation and around the world were gripped by the sequence of events that led the family from Interstate 5 in Roseburg Oregon to a dead-end spur road in the rugged coastal mountains near the Rogue River.ving advice about keeping nature or the natural elements in mind when preparing for travel.

I’m always looking for a semi-secret trailhead that helps me get a good hike off to a great start and avoid the sometimes maddening crowds. I figured I’d love the rather obscure Liberty Canyon Trailhead at the northern edge of popular Malibu Creek State Park.
 
I figured wrong.

Coleridge and the Lake Poets of 1809 have a message for today's hikers: Take a walk in nature, renew your spirit, and gain a fresh perspective on what really matters in this life. Oh, and don't spend so much time on your business that you stop walking and stop writing.

Excerpted from John McKinney’s The Hiker’s Way. 

John McKinney: My Life as a Hiker

The Wonder Years My unusual career path began when I was a Boy Scout in Troop 441 in Downey, California. I lived for the monthly hikes in the mountains, deserts and forest around California, and for weeklong summer hikes in the San Gabriel Mountains and the High Sierra. Hiking was far and away my favorite merit badge earned on my way to becoming an Eagle Scout. (It should have been a tip-off that I wasn’t cut out to be a Wall Street mogul when I needed three tries to pass the test for the Personal Finances merit badge.)

When I was fourteen, my parents sat me down for what they characterized as a frank discussion about my future.

When the National Park Service talks about trails, hikers listen. More than 80,000 miles of America’s trails have a connection to the National Park Service. That’s a lot of trail to maintain—and more trails are being designed and built.
In its most recent “Conservation and Recreation” bulletin, the National Park Service profiles its trails and give thanks to the many partnerships it has with dedicated volunteers, advocacy groups and local governments.
 
The Trailmaster says three—make that four—cheers for the National Park Service. In the realm of trails, the National Park Service has four major areas of endeavor, and in its November bulletin describes them: