Hikers: If you can’t hike the trail you love, love the trail you hike.
 
“Love the One You’re With” was playing on the car radio as I was driving to a trailhead in the Santa Monica Mountains. The classic Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young tune got me thinking about how important it is to be open to new possibilities when the object of your desire is denied.
 
The trail I really wanted to take winds through Rattlesnake Canyon, located in the Santa Ynez Mountains a few miles from my home. However, this trail and surrounding environs was scorched by wildfire last year and eroded by runoff from heavy rains. Other trails in the mountains are in similar shape, and frankly are just plain butt ugly as a result of their 2009 incineration.

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.

Good gear—hiking boots, hiking clothing and accessories—makes an important, even critical, contribution to a hiker’s wellbeing and safety. While good gear alone doesn’t ensure a good hiking experience, it certainly can enhance the experience. 

Obviously you’ll enjoy a hike—even a hike in the rain—if you’re warm and dry rather than cold and miserable; the difference between the two is sometimes the difference between quality and inferior rainwear. 

The Daypack Evolves

Call me Pack-Man, a guy gobbling up miles and miles of trail, always with a daypack on my back.

All too often, my aching back. 

For years and years, on hikes around the world, soon as I reached the top of that peak or that beautiful lake, I literally tossed off my pack in relief. (Some hiking backpacks were so badly designed I was tempted to throw them off the mountain or into the lake.) 

 I’m very pleased that my children have learned to enjoy hiking—though some would point out they had little choice! Nevertheless, I learned early on what a privilege it is to share the joy of time on the trail with the little ones. 

Children’s hiking boots and children’s hiking gear can be a good investment, but the best investment a parent can make in a child is taking the time to go hiking. 

Spring is the exact same length as other seasons. But wherever you live, and wherever you hike, spring is the one season that everyone agrees is too short. Just when you notice the days are longer and the flowers are in bloom, it’s summer. 

April showers bring May flowers. 

True enough at very particular latitudes and altitudes. In the low desert, however, for example, January showers bring February flowers. And in the Rockies, June showers can bring July flowers. 

 Known the world over for its great granite cliffs and domes, enormous waterfalls and giant sequoias, Yosemite is everything a national park should be and more. Such well known Yosemite Valley destinations as Vernal Fall, Nevada Fall,YosemiteFalls and Half Dome are magnets for hikers. Equally attractive are many more sights outside the valley: Tuolomne Meadows, CathedralPeak, Clouds Rest, the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees and many more.

The park boasts a magnificent High Sierra backcountry, one that (by rather severe Sierra standards anyway) is quite accessible. Well-marked trails lead to wildflower-festooned alpine meadows, lovely lakes and tarns, trails and cross-country routes to peaks.

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.

“Map” is often listed as first essential on the hiker’s list of The Ten Essentials and you’ve got to have a map. But not just any map. You need a good trail map, one designed for hikers. I’ve supervised the making of more than a thousand trail maps, plain and fancy, simple and detailed. And I’ve reviewed thousands more as a backcountry traveler and an as an armchair traveler.