Skyline: eight miles of pure backcountry splendor

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.

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First Eagle Flight Pilot – New pilot satisfies long-held desire to fly

The EAA has a great first flight program, Eagle Flight, that allows you to opportunity to fly, and be introduced to everything that aviation has to offer.  From the EAA:

Ever since he was growing up in Los Angeles, Brian Lewis knew he wanted to fly. He fondly remembers family outings at LAX where they’d park near the end of the runway at night to marvel at the big planes taking off and landing.

Lewis, now 54 and living in Cottonwood, Arizona, finally realized his dream of becoming a pilot this year thanks in large part to EAA’s year-old Eagle Flights program. He went up with Dale Williams, EAA 1058739, in Williams’ Cessna Cardinal (177B) for an Eagle Flight on November 27, 2012, and this past July Lewis became the first “Eagle” to earn a pilot certificate.

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Air to Air Photo Shoot of the CAF Dixie Wing Douglas SBD Dauntless

Moose Peterson shooting the Commemorative Air Force ( CAF) Dixie Wing Douglas SBD-5 Dauntless at the 2013 Air venture in Oshkosh. The CAF Dixie Wing SBD Dauntless is one of the only two airworthy left in the world.

Tip of the wing to warbirdsnews.com for adding the update!

Trail Life USA – a Christian-based alternative to the Boy Scouts of America

traillifeusaAs the Boy Scouts – an organization that I have long admired – trundles down a path that I believe is going to end up tearing the organization apart, a new group – Trail Life USA – has emerged.  The faith-based group believes that they are set to become a premiere organization for boys and young men. Their stated goal is to “counter the ‘moral free-fall’ of the nation, and ‘raise a generation of faithful husbands, fathers, citizens and leaders.'”  As they become more and more public, the group has captured attention because of their open competition with the BSA.  Their mission is to “provide a robust alternative to the Boy Scouts of America (BSA).” The name of the group was chosen to avoid any political or controversial undertones. Continue reading