News / hiking

Last weekends day trip to Ladder Canyon in the Mecca Hills Wilderness just outside of Mecca California which for us SoCal types is basically between Borrego Springs and Palm Springs depending on if you are coming from LA or San Diego. I had seen some pictures a while back and was intrigued about the 4.9 mile day hike through slot canyons and the local desert, of course this being a desert timing is everything when it comes to exploring so March seemed like an appropriate time to head out on our first adventure here.

The spirit of adventure and exploration doesn’t have to be super dangerous and difficult sometimes it’s just going a different route or somewhere you have not been before. That’s not to say planning and preparation are not important either. One of the great things about San Diego’s backcountry is an area you have been to many times can still have a few surprises up its sleeve.

We often don’t get days off together so when a Monday lines up we like to jump at the chance to get out together. Running a small business means our schedules don’t really line up but the day after valentine’s day we headed to the coast for a little adventure.  We would be doing the Ho Chi Minh Trail in La Jolla.

Waking up was difficult, after a decent night of sleep and temperatures in the forties I was warm in my bag and had only minimal tossing and turning. I had only needed to leave the comfort of my bag once in the night to pee.

Last week was another great adventure, the week prior we were getting our snow camp on In Eager AZ and then in a span of a week we were back in the desert backpacking Joshua Tree

We did not wake up for an alpine start… the sleeping bags were too warm and after a night of tossing and turning it was nice to sleep in a little bit. After driving out Thursday (read about that here) and a full day hiking up to camp (read about that here) we took out time getting up, that was a good thing. After a hearty breakfast of power bar and coffee we packed up and headed towards the summit.

With the lock downs compounded by the California wildfires I was getting a little stir crazy at the house. I was doing good until the backcountry pretty much got secured to reduce the possibility of more wildfires so when my buddy Mike put together a hiking trip to Mt Charleston, I jumped at it. My usually summer go to of the eastern sierras was off the table, so I got to do a mountain I have wanted to try for a while, but Las Vegas kept getting in the way, haha.

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.