InsideHook is the free daily email that inspires driven men. They recently recommended the Big Bear Valley Trail Foundation’s Skyline Trail. You can sign up to receive updates from InsideHook HERE.
Here’s their recommendation:
For a long time, if you wanted to hike the pine-topped ridge of Big Bear (up in the Los Angeles forest; it’s a beaut), you’d find yourself on a fireroad staring at trucks. No view. Just trucks.
That time has passed. Say hello to Skyline: eight miles of pure backcountry splendor, now open to the public.
Excavated and compacted by the Big Bear Valley Trail Foundation, a nonprofit run by sap-happy outdoorsmen, the Skyline Trail was a fire-break created during the Old Fire of 2003.
It’s now hikeable and bikeable. And pretty damn breathtaking.
Amusing Planet posted a blog with GREAT pictures about Half Dome and the joys of hiking to the top.
Redwood trees in Southern California? I had heard that there was a grove of Sequoia sempervirens somewhere in Orange County, but had never been able to figure out where.
I’ll be the first to say that I’m not a fan of mountain bikes shooting down hiking trails. While there are certainly some mountain bikers who are cognizant of others, the vast majority of mountain bikers I’ve encountered have been rude, unsafe cyclists who don’t seem to be in control of their equipment; I’ve seen far more accidents involving bikers running into hikers than the other way around.
Dick Hagerty, an Oakdale real estate developer active in community nonprofits, has written an excellent community column in the Modesto Bee about getting outdoors and hiking the Sierras.