2020 was a difficult year for travelers, wanderers, adventurers, and explorers here in California. I did get out – sometimes with groups, sometimes furtively by myself – and was rewarded with solitude, silence, and freedom within the great cathedrals of nature that California offers from the deserts to the beaches, to the mountains and deep forests.
As with any exploration, it’s all about knowledge and preparedness. My hardware set is pretty solid – if I can’t get out of a jamb, I can call someone to come and find me – but this year my software set has been a bit lacking.
Next Level Camping is what I was looking for when I discovered you could rent fire lookouts. I’d been a member of the 
One great thing about California is the federal management of public lands. While our state government continues to wheeze and struggle under mismanagement, crazy half-baked “rules” made up by Gavin Newsom who claims to be using science (but his random decisions seem to indicate he’s not even using a dart board and a blindfold, much less an so-called actual “science”), the federal government continues to roll back lockdowns and re-open our lands as soon as it is feasible to do so.
