Holiday gift ideas

Maps
There are piles of maps on my desk, and even with the ever-increasing availability of online materials, I will keep collecting and using paper maps. My copy of the 10th edition of A Rambler's Guide to the Trails of Mt. Tamalpais and Muir Woods is treasured, even more so now that Gerald Olmsted (who made the map) has passed away -- there will be no more editions like his. Here are some new(ish) maps you may want to add to your collection, or gift a map-loving friend.

Mount Diablo, Los Vaqueros, and Surrounding Parks, by Save Mount Diablo
This huge waterproof map is a massive boon for hikers exploring Mount Diablo State Park, Los Vaqueros, and the East Bay Regional parks in the area, including Black Diamond Mines and Morgan Territory. It will spoil you for all other maps. A must have. Copyright 2012.

Mt Tam Trail Map, by Tom Harrison Maps
Includes all of Mount Tamalpais and a bit of land north of Fairfax-Bolinas Road; the map's southern border is the northern part of the Marin Headlands. Very nice detail and on waterproof paper. Copyright 2011. Harrison makes other Marin County maps, but this is the one I use the most.

Point Reyes National Seashore, by Tom Harrison Maps
My favorite Point Reyes map, this also includes Samuel P. Taylor trails. Copyright 2011. Harrison, who's based in San Rafael, also makes great maps for other parts of California.

The Walker's Map of San Francisco, by Pease Press
I use the second edition of this map, copyright 2012, constantly for San Francisco hikes, plus it includes San Bruno Mountain and most of the Marin Headlands. San Francisco cartographer Ben Pease has several other awesome bay area maps in his stable.

Books
Books feel very personal to me, and I don't commonly give them unless I am somewhat certain they will be happily received. Of course, I would be thrilled to know that you might consider gifting my book, 60 Hikes in 60 Miles: San Francisco!

I did not read any new hiking or bay area books this past year that I would recommend (Wild, by Cheryl Strayed, which got raves, left me tepid), with the exception of San Francisco Bay Shoreline Guide. The second edition of this guide is a wonderful mix of natural history, maps, photos, and tips to enjoy the San Francisco Bay Trail to its fullest. A great idea for folks just starting out hiking, since the Bay Trail is mostly flat and well-signed.

I do have Room to Breathe, by the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District on my holiday wishlist. It looks gorgeous but I haven't seen it in person yet.

Miscellaneous

One of my favorites from the past year, a still life on Cataract Trail

• Print and share a photo from a favorite hike.
• Parks passes. I have a San Mateo County pass since I frequent San Pedro and San Bruno Mountain parks. Santa Clara County and Sonoma County offer them as well. California State Parks passes are pricey, but worth it if you visit enough of them each year (or the same one over and over). The National Parks pass is a bargain.
• Socks -- still love my Smartwools!
• Water bottles. Can you ever have enough of them?
• Homemade energy bars. Or fantastic chocolate. Or Cowgirl Creamery cheese. Or wine. Or coffee.
• The Lands End Visitor Center has a wide assortment of books, maps, and fun gifts associated with the area, like Golden Gate Bridge-colored scarves. The gorgeous new building is adjacent to Lands End.
• When money is no object, electronic gadgets are always fun. I've had my eye on this GPS, but I can't quite get over the price. For everyday hiking (and all the most recent photos on Bay Area Hiker) I carry this waterproof camera. It's small and works great (although the macro mode is finicky). 
• A reader on my Facebook page suggested donating to your favorite land management agency in honor of a loved one. A great idea.
• Make a photo book of your most memorable hiking moments. I make my son one of these books every year for his birthday, using Picaboo. Shutterfly is another option.
• Make a commitment to hiking safety. Hiker Alert is probably more than you need for bay area day hikes, but consider this system if you or someone on your holiday gift list likes to backpack or travel in more remote areas. With Hiker Alert you input your details (car make and model, your photo, your destination, etc.) on their website, share the document with your peeps, and if you fail to contact your family or friends at the end of your journey, Hiker Alert can contact the local authorities to begin a search. It's not something to take lightly (wouldn't work for those who would be prone to "forget" to check in), but I see Hiker Alert as a thoughtful gift, particularly from a parent to an active child.

The greatest gift of all
Time! Spend no money at all, instead make a commitment to spend more time hiking and exploring with your friends and family. Create healthy traditions that you will always remember and cherish. One of my family's favorite activities during late December-early January is a hike at San Pedro County Park in Pacifica, where we revel in the blooming manzanitas. You and yours might pick a waterfall, forest, or other special hike as your annual holiday destination. Or consider spending time together volunteering at your favorite park/preserve.

Happy holidays!

Disclosure: I received a copy of the Bay Trail guide for review, but paid for everything else mentioned here. The nice people at Hiker Alert have permitted me to try their system for free, which I have not yet done.

Book review: The Bay Area Forager, by Mia Andler and Kevin Feinstein

I was very excited to read this book. When I was a new hiker, I loved learning about the edible and poisonous plants along the trails. I was greatly helped by the Flavors of Home, by Margit Roos-Collins. That guide to wild edible plants of the San Francisco Bay Area is out of print and copies can be hard to find, so I was hoping Bay Area Forager would be an easily-accessible book to guide the next generations of local hikers.

Unfortunately, I can't recommend it. It does have some good points, including color photos of the featured plants, ideas for preparing the raw ingredients, and sensible thoughts about the sustainability and ethical harvest of each plant. The recipes are quite basic and did not appeal to me. Advice about where to find the plants seems maddeningly vague to me -- madrones, we are told, are found in "wilderness areas, usually fairly remote. Oak woodlands and semi-shaded hillsides." While this is technically correct, unless one was already incredibly familiar with bay area plants, the tip does not help much. Hikers would need to know where oak woodlands were common. Even a little information would be helpful here, such as, in the case of madrones, they can found along wooded trails in the Santa Cruz Mountains, or on the eastern slope of Mount Tamalpais. Perhaps the authors intend folks to forage in more urban settings; in that case they should have cast a larger net, including apples, pears, and figs which can be found on bay area trails as well as in city yards and parks. Seaweeds and mushrooms are not included in the book. Also missing: pickleweed, gooseberries, currant, serviceberry, Oregon grape, holly-leaf cherry, and one of the most tasty wild plants of all, salmonberry.

But by far the worst judgement in the book is the inclusion of several plants considered to be questionable for human consumption. Black nightshade may only be poisonous if eaten in large quantities, but I'll skip it in favor of something with no know poisonous attributes.  And I was shocked to see California buckeye in this book, as an edible. The authors write that they hesitated to include it -- they should have left it out.

I'll stick with the Flavors of Home.

Eleven years later on the trail in Point Reyes

I first hiked the Muddy Hollow area of Point Reyes in 2001, about 6 years after the Mount Vision fire. I didn't know it at the time, but I was witnessing a changing landscape. Last week I was back and boy was I surprised! Those little stubby Bishop pines that were barely making an impact to the coastal scrub in 2001 have now completely overtaken hillsides.

2001:

This fire ravaged Bishop pine was charred along Muddy Hollow Road.

2012:

The same hillside is now swathed in pine.

Estero Trail (a new segment, built to replace the perpetually soggy Muddy Hollow Trail) passes through the young forest, which is going through an awkward phase. The trees are crowded together without understory. In the coming years some will die and hopefully huckleberry, salal, and coffeeberry will fill in.

Throughout my hike, I was astounded at the amount of scat. Certainly the season has something to do with it (no rain to wash it away yet), but I saw mountain lion, elk, deer, fox, bobcat, and coyote poop. Keep your eyes open out there!

Read about the hike here:
http://www.bahiker.com/northbayhikes/muddy.html

And the area's recovery from the Vision Fire here:
http://www.nps.gov/pore/parkmgmt/upload/firemanagement_visionfire_trailguide.pdf

Take a survey about Loch Lomond

"The Water Department is launching a planning study to look at the Recreation Area and how it can improve facilities and services to visitors. The following survey will help to inform the plan and shape what kind of improvements will be made in the future to the Loch Lomond Recreation Area. Please take a moment to tell us what you think."

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Loch_Lomond_Rec_Survey

Puffing up Slacker Hill

I only had time for a short Marin Headlands hike yesterday, and I found a destination that packs a whole lot into just 0.8 mile -- Slacker Hill!

The small trailhead sits at the junction of Conzelman and McCullough. I followed a path to the north, crossed McCullough, and begin climbing on the wide signed trail. The grade is moderately steep throughout as the rocky trail climbs through nearly treeless coastal scrub, with sagebrush and coyote brush common. I saw quite a bit of zigadene in bloom, as well as some purple bush lupine, California poppies, ookow, paintbrush, and checkerbloom. At 0.2 mile, Coastal Trail heads off toward the Golden Gate Bridge, and the dead-end trail to the viewpoint sweeps right.

More climbing. Views back to the north are incredible and include all the Headlands hills and Mount Tamalpais. A pipevine swallowtail fluttered along. Near the top the trail splits once more, but the path to the left was signed as closed. The last bit to the top was somewhat overgrown and I was surprised to see native bunch grasses here.

The very top is wide open and level and offers simply the best views of the Headlands, Golden Gate Bridge, ocean, San Francisco, and just about everything else for miles and miles. The best part? I had the hilltop completely to myself.

Changes in the Marin Headlands

Local cartographer Ben Pease recently alerted me that construction in the Marin Headlands was altering the trailhead for my Gerbode Valley hike. After reading the project actions flyer I got the idea that the work was completed, so yesterday I cruised the scene.

Work is definitely not completed. At first I couldn't find the trailhead -- piles of dirt and rubble block access to the eastern leg of the little spur road, and construction equipment is staged all around. The new bridge is in place (but closed until autumn) to the west of the old trailhead, but there is no formal trailhead parking near it, so I can't guess what is planned there.

You can easily access the Gerbode Valley hike by parking on the side of Bunker Road west of the stables -- look for a small path signed to Miwok Trail, about 30 feet west of a reduced speed sign. If you get to the road junction at Fort Barry you've gone too far.

Other Headlands improvements are obvious and pretty wonderful. The road junction at Conzelman and McCullough is now a roundabout. Conzelman is nicely paved and hosts new parking pullouts. I'm excited to explore more and this is a great time of year to do it.

Bad broom

Yesterday I hiked Yolanda, one of my favorite Mount Tam trails. Broom, a non-native and invasive plant, has crept up the hillsides and nearly completely overtaken the grassy understory in the first 1/4 mile of the trail.

Here is a photo from 2008:

This is what the trail looks like now, in 2012:

Broom is a huge problem on this part of the mountain and MMWD is constantly organizing "broom pull" volunteer projects. If you love Mount Tam, consider volunteering! Maybe you have a group of friends or work colleagues who are willing to spend a few hours giving back? I don't see habitat projects for Yolanda scheduled this month, but there are several other broom pull projects planned. Or get a group together and offer your services to the greater good of lovely Yolanda Trail!