Until my shoulder and ribs get closer to 100%, the only hiking or cycling I’ll be doing is the vicarious sort. Fitting the bill nicely, Modern Hiker just posted one of his excellent trail write-ups for Mount Lukens via Stone Canyon which is over in the Angeles National Forest.
On top of photos and descriptive text, he includes an elevation change chart, as well as KML info for Google Earth, which makes my virtual trip even more informative. :) Thanks, Modern Hiker.
Now this I could have told you without looking at the numbers, but Southern California is in the middle of its driest year on record.
The LA Times has a story on it in today’s paper. Downtown Los Angeles, as an example, has received 2.4 inches of rain since July 1st 2006.
“We’ve never had a drier year on record so far,” said Eric Boldt, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. “If nothing significant happens in March, then we’ve pretty much run out of time.”
Those in the outdoors will see the effects throughout the year, from a prolonged fire danger season, to upset insect migrations, to threatened crops and other plant life.
Even native California plants are suffering under the dry conditions. Gardeners at South Coast Botanic Garden on the Palos Verdes Peninsula have seen more dry and brown leaves in their drought-resistant Mediterranean and California plants.
Those plants usually rely exclusively on California’s winter rains, said Tanya Finney, who leads the gardening staff on the 87-acre property.
“We don’t normally have to supplement the water in the winter,” she said. “But this year it’s been so dry that we’ve started hand-watering things we usually don’t, like our rosemary and salvia.”
So keep those canteens handy. And if you have your pets along for the hikes, bring extra for them.
Thanks to Commute by Bike for pointing to an article and new guide on the Guardian website.
“The world’s greatest invention” is a lovely article by Matt Seaton on one of the greatest gifts of the 19th Century to the 21st.
It seems a paradox in the age of consumer electronics and ever more gorgeously refined designer “black goods”, but it’s this sturdy piece of Victorian technology - the good old bike - that we love most. But why does the bicycle occupy this special place in our affections?
Writers such as Henry Miller and Iris Murdoch preach the joy of cycling, as much a symbol of freedom as a means of transportation.
This is just one introductory article in the Guardian’s impressive Cycling Guide, most of which is applicable outside the UK, and just got bookmarked by me for lots of later reading. That will be the limit of my cycling-related activities until my shoulder heals enough.
Are the health gains of bicycling worth the risk from accidents and increased intake of air pollution? Nicomachus has an article exploring this question today, “The Outspokin’ Cyclist: Taking on toxins is worth it”, exploring some of the science and fitness issues involved.
No doubt, on-road cyclists are more vulnerable to their environments than drivers. It’s not just that we’re naked next to multi-ton hunks of steel hurtling past us (in either direction) at deadly speeds and proximities too close for comfort, but we’re also exposed to the gases of the landscape.[...]
So, I started wondering whether biking is actually an unhealthy thing to do. I mean, coasting up to each intersection, it sure feels like I’m breathing in more car exhaust than when I’m a passenger in a car. So who better to ask than public health specialists?
As a cyclist who’s being forced to stay off a bike for a few more weeks, I’m really unhappy about not being out there at the moment — especially since it sets this year’s training back by at least 2 months, maybe more. But it’s good to know all that hard work coming this spring will be worthwhile, no matter what the air conditions.
