End Pavement

While it might just be a political ploy (and considering how little of the state budget the parks cost, it probably is), but Governor Schwarzenegger is threatening to eliminate all funding for California State Parks beginning July 1st.

From the LA Times Outposts blog, “California state parks said to face biggest threat in 150-year history”

Now, facing a projected $24.3-billion budget shortfall, his back is against the wall and he has again aimed his bazookas at those vast parcels of wilderness that afford such a treasured refuge for millions of citizens seeking to escape the chaos of civilization, if only briefly, to rejuvenate body and mind.

Beginning July 1, the governor plans to cut core funding for 279 parks in half (by $70 million), and during the next fiscal year he intends to cut all funding. If the cuts are approved by the Legislature, more than 200 parks could be forced to close.

With the budgetary threats to education, health care, welfare, infrastructure, and everything else, this state is in real trouble. And not the kind of trouble that’ll work itself out at the end of a two-hour action movie, either. It’s just depressing as hell.

The ever-awesome Internet Archive is hosting a collection of 50,000 USGS maps! How cool is that? And they’re nice resolution TIFF files that you could crop or print for your hikes as desired.

• Collections index of the 50 states
• California index
• All California items, sorted by date added (2,800+ items, 50 items per page)

One tip — use the string “collection:usgs_ca” (minus the quotes) in the search form, and then add any other terms, like say san gorgonio to look for individual maps.

Via the IA collections team’s post “Mapmaker, Mapmaker, Make Me a Map”.

If it’s from The Onion, you know it’s going to be full of great tips. ;)

“Camping Tips”

Summer is just around the corner, and that means it’s almost time for fun in the great outdoors. Here are some tips to make your next camping trip safe and enjoyable

My personal favorites:

• When facing an enraged grizzly bear, be sure to wear comfortable, waterproof shoes and thick socks.
• To hike, put one foot in front of the other, propelling yourself forward at a steady, workmanlike pace. After repeating this action thousands of times, you will theoretically begin to experience “fun.”

There’s a Severe Weather Alert going out at the moment, with crazy-hot temps hitting inland SoCal this weekend. So if you were planning on a lot of strenuous exercise outdoors, you might want to rethink it. Or at least stay hydrated.

ORANGE COUNTY COASTAL AREAS-SAN DIEGO COUNTY COASTAL AREAS- SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTY VALLEYS-THE INLAND EMPIRE- SAN DIEGO COUNTY VALLEYS-SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY MOUNTAINS- RIVERSIDE COUNTY MOUNTAINS- SANTA ANA MOUNTAINS AND FOOTHILLS- SAN DIEGO COUNTY MOUNTAINS-APPLE AND LUCERNE VALLEYS- COACHELLA VALLEY-SAN DIEGO COUNTY DESERTS- 156 PM PDT THU MAY 14 2009

…NEAR RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURES INLAND THIS WEEKEND…

STRONG HIGH PRESSURE WILL BRING HOT WEATHER INLAND THIS WEEKEND WITH MAXIMUM TEMPERATURES GETTING NEAR RECORD LEVELS SATURDAY AND SUNDAY. THE HOTTEST DAY WILL BE SUNDAY WITH TEMPERATURES ABOUT 12 TO 18 DEGREES ABOVE SEASONAL AVERAGES INLAND.

HIGH TEMPERATURES WILL BE IN THE 90S TO NEAR 100 DEGREES IN THE INLAND EMPIRE AND INTO THE MID 90S IN THE SAN DIEGO INLAND VALLEYS. THE LOWER DESERTS WILL BE IN THE 105 TO 110 DEGREE RANGE SUNDAY. THE WARMER MOUNTAIN AREAS WILL REACH THE LOW TO MID 90S. THE MARINE INFLUENCE AND ONSHORE FLOW WILL MODERATE HIGH TEMPERATURES NEAR THE IMMEDIATE COAST WHERE THEY WILL REMAIN IN THE LOW TO MID 70S.

LAist has the story on a missing 22-mile trail in Los Angeles:

It was back in 1992 when the Mulholland Scenic Parkway Specific Plan went into effect, setting course for the city of Los Angeles to preserve the historic 1924 drive through a set of land use regulations and improvements. Among those was the Core Trail, some 22 miles in length, roughly from near the Hollywood Bowl to Topanga Canyon Boulevard. Approaching 20 years since it became law, some are wondering why nothing has been done.

Continue at “What Happened to Los Angeles’ 22-Mile Hiking Trail?”

I have to get out on a trail, even if it’s only a few miles — I’m starting to get twitchy. :)

Meanwhile, Alex McInturff is off on a real adventure.

“Stanford grad student walking 320 miles in John Muir’s footsteps”

Alex McInturff, a 23-year-old earth sciences student, finds that much has changed as he retraces the conservationist’s trek from San Francisco to Yosemite Valley in 1868.

McInturff, walking through Central California, says his spirits began to lift once he hit the Sierra foothills. The mountain range that changed Muir’s life 141 years ago hasn’t lost its magic. “Returning to the forest today, I rediscovered the freedom I love about walking, which was lost a little in the San Joaquin,” McInturff wrote on his blog.

Not sure how they managed to mangle his blog California Transect’s URL so badly in the online version of the article, but it should be muirwalk.blogspot.com. Alex describes himself and his journey thusly:

On April 6, Alex McInturff is setting off to retrace Muir’s path across California. Alex is a master’s student in the Earth Systems Program in the School of Earth Sciences at Stanford University. He has been researching the history of and current state of conservation in California in conjunction with the Bill Lane Center for the American West and our collaborator iMapData. Alex envisions his own walk as a way to examine the history, current state, and future prospects of a wide range of conservation efforts on public and private lands, across a telling transect of California, from urban areas, through suburbs and parks, across the large parks and ranches of the Coast Range, the irrigated industrial agriculture of the Central Valley, Kesterson Wildlife Refuge, up the Merced River, across the Don Pedro Reservoir and Lake McClure, through historical mining towns, and national forests to Yosemite National Park.

I’ll definitely be adding his blog to my RSS reader.