Adventure Sports Journal // April/May 2022 // Issue #123

DONKEY RESCUE / YOSEMITE / TRAIL BUILDING / RANDONNEURING / SEA GLASS

FESTIVAL GUIDE

Photo

PHOTO CREDITS: (20) Ryan Sheridan; (10) Mark Meyers; (14) Foster Snell / Joshua Tree Music Festival; (18) Matt Johanson

PUBLISHING + EDITORIAL

PUBLISHER

Cathy Claesson cathy@adventuresportsjournal.com

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Matt Niswonger matt@adventuresportsjournal.com

EDITOR

Michele Lamelin michele@adventuresportsjournal.com

COPY EDITOR

Jennifer Stein jen@adventuresportsjournal.com

SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER

Marissa Neely marissa@asjmag.com

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

Mark Meyers, Cody Siler, Matt Johanson, James Murren, Eric Perlman, Justin Olsen, Ryan Sheridan, Chris VanLeuven, Devon Delattre, Andrea Nicole, Josh Becker, Heather Ekstrom, Gene Torno, SF Randonneurs, Jerm Cohen / Outside Lands, Foster Snell / Joshua Tree Music Festival, LG Shecker / The Days Between Festival

LAYOUT

Cathy Claesson

COVER DESIGN

Lauren Worth

asj contributors

Tell

leoniesherman

Years ago I snuck away from my backcountry climbing party to play banjo to the stars. When I looked up my headlamp reflected the green eyes of a deer that was drawn to the noise and enjoying my music.

jimscripps

During a mountain bike ride in Mexico, I came across a dusty village in the middle of nowhere, and there was a fully sanctioned cockfight happening in the town square, with fans and everything. Roosters are wild, right?

mattjohanson

When I saw my first wild bear up close, I grabbed my camera and shot pictures like mad. He didn’t like it and let me know with a snarl and a bluff charge in my direction. I got the message and backed off.

chrisvanleuven

So many. Rappelling over a rattlesnake while in Indian Creek, Utah. Various interactions with bears in Yosemite. One time horses trampled my tent in Arizona.

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Matt Niswonger matt@adventuresportsjournal.com

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Jennifer Stein jen@adventuresportsjournal.com

Opinions expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Adventure Sports Journal or our advertisers. We usually agree with our articles, but sometimes we don’t. We welcome all contributions.

All content © Adventure Sports Journal 2022. No part of this publication may be reproduced without permission of the editors

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codysiler

A wild fox rummaging through my panniers once woke me up when I was wild camping in northeastern Spain. I looked down from my hammock and gave him a stern glance and he took off with my salami.

jamesmurren

While mountain biking in Idaho’s panhandle, there was a sound I never heard before that 30 continuous seconds later I was able to identify: a moose ramblin’ through the forest. S/he had no interest in me, thank goodness, clopping on up the trail.

kristahoughton

It was Halloween and we were alone, camping along the Colorado River. I was startled awake by my husband saying, “it scratched my head twice!” Less than 2 feet away, tail in the air was a skunk! Now that’s a trick or treat moment.

mattniswonger

Camping in the Sonoran Desert I’ll never forget being warned about the 12 inch long centipedes. Then I saw one and it was like a horror movie. They like to crawl in sleeping bags and deliver a painful bite.

us about a memorable interaction you had with a wild animal while adventuring.

Escape From Freedom Lessons from Ukraine

Watching the people of Ukraine heroically rise up and defend themselves from Vladimir Putin has left me to ponder what it means to be “free.” While I abhor bullies like Putin, I’m also somewhat cynical about the freedom the people of Ukraine are fighting and dying for. I do believe the freedom Ukraine wants is worth fighting for, but I’m experiencing a touch of sadness because the people of the democratic “free world” have thrown off the shackles of dictators like Putin only to fall victim to other kinds of bondage.

In his influential 1941 book Escape From Freedom, psychologist and philosopher Erich Fromm distinguishes between two types of freedom and attempts to understand the human tendency to seek refuge in evil, authoritarian regimes.

Fromm makes the point that true political freedom, of the sort we have in the United States and Europe, is unbearable for many people. For Fromm, a German Jew who spent his life trying to understand why humans continually seek the tragic “security” offered by dictators like Hitler and Stalin, true freedom is something most people find painful.

Living in California we have the kind of freedom the people in Ukraine are fighting and dying for. In other words we have democratic freedom from dictators and oligarchs who control every aspect of our lives. Living in the United States, we are blessed with freedom in the political sense, but are we truly free? Generally speaking I believe the answer is no; we are not free. We are not free because we are not happy. The truth is we have squandered our political freedom and replaced it with a form of mental slavery characterized by addiction, despair, loneliness, and estrangement from nature.

One example of this is the homeless problem that seems to get worse every year. Here in Santa Cruz I’ve watched the homeless encampment behind the government administration buildings grow larger. Hundreds of tents are packed together in filth and squalor, with IV drug users injecting themselves in plain sight. I’ve even seen an addict sitting on a bench, nodding off with the needle still stuck in his arm. We call these people “homeless,” but really they are just a symptom of a larger struggle we are all dealing with in our “free” country. This struggle is addiction, loneliness, despair, materialism, and estrangement from nature. Everyone from the tech millionaire driving a Tesla to the IV drug user living in a tent is facing this struggle. It’s the struggle we share as human beings.

The people of Ukraine want what we have. They are shedding blood to stay free and rightly so. Our kind of freedom IS worth fighting for. However, before we pat ourselves on the back we need to understand that we are failing the people of Ukraine—and every other nation fighting against autocratic tyranny—by squandering our freedom

and replacing one kind of bondage with another.

For Fromm, the way to become free as an individual is to be spontaneous. This is crystallized in his existential statement “there is only one meaning in life: the act of living itself”. To be truly in touch with our humanity is to be truly in touch with the needs of those with whom we share the world. Here is how Fromm describes people who successfully take on the challenge of freedom: “There is only one possible, productive solution for the relationship of individualized man with the world: his active solidarity with all men and his spontaneous activity, love and work, which unite him again with the world, not by primary ties but as a free and independent individual.”

When a person accepts the challenge of freedom and lives a noble life despite the daily temptation to slip into despair and all kinds of addictions, that person has the kind of life that Ukraine is fighting for. The Buddhist philosopher Thich Nhat Hanh called it “Interbeing,” a sense of connection with the living world; a way to deal with the loneliness and despair of the individual ego.

For Buddhists, the kind of despair we deal with as free people living in a democracy is inescapable until we look honestly at what is causing our suffering in the first place. The idea that something “outside” of us can fix our inner pain—food, drugs, people, a new car, a bigger house, a dictator who promises to fix everything—is the root of all suffering. Buddhists call it “duhkha,” the fundamental painfulness of mundane life and one of the Four Noble Truths.

When Erich Fromm used the phrase “escape from freedom,” he wasn’t suggesting we are better off with dictators like Hitler, Stalin, and Putin. He was saying that freedom from tyrannical forms of government is just the beginning. True freedom happens on the individual level when we throw off the shackles of addiction, despair, and loneliness. True freedom takes hard work, courage, and self-discipline. True freedom demands we develop insight into the nature of duhkha, the conditions that cause it, and how it can be overcome.

Otherwise freedom is not worth fighting for.

Slava Ukraini! Matt Niswonger

HAPPY NEW MEMBER

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— Jeff Richmond, Santa Cruz

WHY I ENJOY ASJ

I really enjoy Adventure Sports Journal! The range of articles, covering many different adventure sports and widely differing points of view is impressive, and makes for great reading. I also love that you editorialize about digital addiction and the “power of right now.” I love that you use your platform to educate about issues that matter to us as a society. I am also particularly impressed by the work of Leonie Sherman, and her excellent tips about “greening” outdoor adventures! What’s great about her articles and many of your articles is that they aren’t just “inspirational” or “philosophical”; they give actual “action items” that we can implement right away.

I’m proud to be a subscriber and an occasional advertiser!

— Chris Kostman, Race Director

THICH NACHT HANH

Thought you might enjoy the attached photo. Thank you for an enlightened Editor’s Note and especially great because this is actually the first time I have read your magazine … but I will now do so regularly.

— John Wood, Solano Beach

EAR TO THE GROUND

News & notes from the outdoor industry

CAMTB GOES STATEWIDE TO PROMOTE AB 1789

The California Mountain Bike Coalition (CAMTB), a 501c(4) non-profit representing 28 trail advocacy organizations throughout the state, is rallying all recreational trail users to support AB 1789. This bill would create the California Trails Commission, to consist of eight specified members, within the Natural Resource Agency to promote policies and investment opportunities that maximize the health, fitness, and social benefits of non-motorized natural surface trails, trail networks, and greenway corridors.

The bill would require the agency to assign a California Trails Coordinator to staff the commission and report to the secretary of the agency. This bill would also create the Trails Corps Program within the Califronia Conservation Corps to provide training, education, and skills implementation in the advancements of sustainable trails, trail landscaping, and the designing, and best management practices for the operations and maintenance, of non-motorized natural surface trails.

RAISING MONEY FOR THE LOST SIERRA ROUTE

The Lost and Found Gravel Festival is coming to Portola, June 4, 2022. This weekend festival is a celebration of the mountain spirit and a fundraiser for the Lost Sierra Route — part of Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship’s (SBTS) Connected Communities Project.

Many riders come to the Lost and Found Gravel Festival to prove their stamina and strength by conquering 100 miles of backcountry roads in fierce competition. But arguably the best time at the Lost and Found is had on the 35-mile course featuring 3,537 feet of elevation gain with mostly paved and 35% dirt roads. Here the ride is much more casual: lots of laughs, smiles, and conversations with kids and friends who ride along just enjoying nature.

There are no awards for the 35-miler because it’s not about speed, it’s about enjoyment of the high alpine meadows, bountiful wildflowers and cool mountain streams that delight the eyes.

We love hearing from readers. Drop us a line at: staff@adventuresportsjournal.com

AB 1789 would appropriate $75,000,000 to provide non-motorized infrastructure development and enhancements. After June 30, 2023, the bill would continuously appropriate $15,000,000 each year to the agency for competitive grant programs. Learn more at asjmag.com/ab-1789

Join SBTS on this 35-mile “fun” ride or just get your friends and family to come to the festival to enjoy good food, craft beer, live music and camping. Pledge your support and contribute to SBTS’s Connected Communities Project and help mountain communities recover from wildfires and grow their economies through recreational trails. Learn more at asjmag.com/lost-and-found

REACTIVE LIGHTING in our performance headlamps. HYBRID CONCEPT in our battery packs. AIRFIT headband of the IKO. Upward tilt of our lamp bodies. 50:50 brightness-to-burntime ratio. THESE ARE THE PETZL DIFFERENCES WORTH JUSTIFYING.

all rush no routine.

GROUND

IMPROVING THE MTB EXPERIENCE IN MARIN

Access 4 Bikes (A4B) is a non-profit trail advocacy group in Marin that is dedicated to improving the Marin mountain bike experience both now and for the future. Unfortunately, mountain biking in Marin is sometimes portrayed as out of place on public lands, tolerated rather than celebrated.

Mountain bike access in Marin is largely relegated to over-grade, rutted fire roads, many of which were built decades ago when recreation and environmental protection were scarcely considered. Such fire roads are not only less enjoyable, but they are less safe than narrow trails, which inherently keep speeds down while also drastically reducing environmental impacts.

A4B works to empower Marin mountain bikers to get fair and reasonable access to public trails. They believe in sharing trails with other user groups, and are happy and willing to lead the way in trail stewardship and environmental protection with their growing demographic and enthusiastic volunteer corps.

A4B is excited to bring back their Ales and Trails event this May with JAMBAR as their title sponsor. There will be a beer garden and awesome food that will be on point to accompany the tasty beverages. There will be demo bikes on site, as well as guides and organized rides to take you on a sweet ride — or you are welcome to ride on your own. This is a family friendly event (kids are free).

Join A4B on May 7, 2022 and enjoy the live music, the famous kids race, and reconnect with 400 of your closest friends to celebrate the success and struggles of opening more trails to mountain bikes in Marin County.

Learn more at asjmag.com/ales-and-trails-2022

NEW 320-MILE TRAIL TO CONNECT SF BAY TO HUMBOLDT BAY

After 30 years of debate, California has made it official. An abandoned rail line along the North Coast will now become the longest “rail trail” in the US. After 30 years of controversy, massive policy setbacks, and near bankruptcy – the North Coast Railroad Agency officially ceased operations and the Great Redwood Trail Agency (GRTA) took over the rail corridor.

GRTA will set out to connect San Francisco Bay to Humboldt Bay, along the old Northwest Pacific Railroad right-of-way. The southern portion will run alongside the SMART line, before heading north out of the Bay Area The Trail will serve not only as recreational, social, and exercise path, but will quickly become an economic driver for the north coast communities it runs through.

Learn more at asjmag.com/grta

AN ACCIDENTAL LIFE

On October 11, 2017 Quinn Brett fell over 100 feet while speed climbing the Nose route on El Capitan in Yosemite. Hanging from the end of her rope, bleeding and semi-conscious, Brett was saved by a daring helicopter rescue and taken to the nearest hospital trauma

center. She awoke to devastating news: her back and spinal cord were permanently injured and she would spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair.

A fierce woman with legendary willpower, Quinn Brett made the transition to adaptive mountain biking and later completed the Continental Divide Trail. An Accidental Life is the powerful film about Brett’s amazing comeback, and what the future holds for this unstoppable mountain athlete. An Accidental Life will debut at the Mountain Film Festival in Telluride and other festivals around the country.

Learn more at asj.com/an-accidental-life

CALIFORNIA WOMAN RESCUES HORSE FROM UKRAINE

Santa Cruz horse advocate Vicki Rose has been working to rescue a Ukrainian horse named Estados from Kyiv.

Rose came across Estados via an online forum back in December and had looked into purchasing him back then. After vetting him and running the numbers on getting the horse to the US, she decided to pass. When the war in Ukraine broke out, the owner of the horse had to flee the country with her four-year-old daughter. She texted and called Rose, begging her to buy Estados and get him out of the war zone. “After staring frozen at my phone for five minutes, I just knew I must help this woman and get Estados out of there,” explains Rose.

As we go to press, Estados has made the arduous journey to the Polish border and has escaped the fate of the other horses who burned in his barn near Kyiv. He is safe at the border, waiting for the finalization of his paper work, before heading over to Germany where he will get on a flight to CA.

Learn more at asjmag.com/ukrainian-horse

SANTA CRUZ CLIMBER DIES IN PATAGONIA

John Bolte, a well-known climber from Santa Cruz, was killed by rockfall while descending Patagonia’s Fitz Roy on February 23. He and Adam Martos, a fellow Santa Cruz local, had finished a successful two-day ascent of Afanassieff on Fitz Roy’s northwest ridge and spent a clear night on the summit.

On the last rappel before reaching safety, Bolte was struck by falling rocks and killed. Martos descended the final pitch and reported the accident in the nearby town of El Chaltén. A rescue team was assembled and Bolte’s body was recovered.

Bolte was a member of the Santa Cruz climbing gym Pacific Edge, where he is remembered as a gregarious and fun-loving climber who learned to climb on the Pacific Edge youth climbing team.

HUG-A-TREE CHALLENGE

Join with the world on Earth Day, April 22, 2022, and help establish a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS® title for the most photos of people hugging trees uploaded to Instagram in one hour.

Learn more at asjmag.com/hug-a-tree

HUNTING FOR SEA GLASS

Looking for sea glass is more adventurous than most people think

By Krista Houghton

My introduction to sea glass hunting began innocently enough. As a surfer I would often be at various beaches, scoping the waves. Inevitably, I would come across a piece of sand-worn glass along the shore. Usually, the color would catch my eye, a flash of green-blue among the sand. I heard them called “mermaid tears” by a family friend and I would pick them up as a good luck charm, to be stowed away in various jacket pockets.

It wasn’t until I had filled various jars and vessels that I began to see my innocent pickings had in fact become a daily obsession. Soon, all my surf sessions included a scour of the shoreline in hopes of finding a rare cobalt shard. This in turn led to beach outings with no surf on the agenda, just sea glass hunting. This takes a keen eye and a giving beach. I learned that our California has some amazing sea glass beaches and winter/spring is the season for hunting.

MARINA STATE BEACH: This is an amazing beach to look for sea glass. For starters, it’s expansive and uncrowded. Just miles of sand dunes and open beach. The sea glass is a result of Marina Beach’s long history as a dump site. The sand dunes here literally shine with glass shards. Another contributing factor was the Del Monte railroad, an

all my surf sessions included a scour of the shoreline in hopes of finding a rare cobalt shard.

express train from San Francisco to Monterey where the Hotel Del Monte was a thriving destination in the early 1900s. The Hotel had its own signature dining wear, and my collection contains dozens of pottery shards that can be sourced to the hotel. Because of the age of the railroad and dump site, sea glass of historical significance like bottle stoppers and jug handles can be found, as well as rare colors like red and blue.

DAVENPORT BEACH: The sea glass found at Davenport beach is as unique as the locals and the beach itself. It stems from the famed Lundberg Studios, where world renowned glass artist James Lundberg created one-of-a-kind glass objects since the 1970s. But don’t be fooled by the ocean here, strong ocean currents and cold-water temperatures can be dangerous. Be prepared and wear a wetsuit, as the best pieces are found in the shore break (where the ocean and sand come together). You can sometimes find pieces up on shore, right after a storm and at low tide. Save room for a great muffin and coffee at Whale City Bakery, across the street from the beach.

FORT BRAGG: No beach glass beach list would be complete without a trip to Fort Bragg in Mendocino. Its name says it all — Glass Beach is the most famous sea glass beach in North America. Fort Bragg was a dump site since the early 1800s, an era before plastic. Plastic was not widely used until after the 1950s so during the 1800s and early 1900s almost

everything consumed came in glass. So, at Glass Beach the sand literally sparkles with glass. It is perhaps the most beautiful beach in the world, as it consists of mostly hundred-year-old glass, ocean worn to smooth sea glass grains.

Note: It is now prohibited to collect sea glass here. It was a beach “loved to death” as thousands of sea glass enthusiasts visited every year, and the beach itself was disappearing under the pressure of collecting. Nonetheless, Fort Bragg’s Glass Beach is a breathtaking example of trash turned into treasure and well worth a visit.

If you’re feeling festive, plan to attend the 14th Annual Santa Cruz Sea Glass Festival at the iconic Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk on November 5-6, 2022. This long-standing festival is a local favorite. There is also the Santa Barbara Sea Glass Festival, which takes place September 10-11, 2022.

It wasn’t until I had filled various jars and vessels that I began to see my innocent pickings had in fact become a daily obsession. Soon,

Top to bottom: Author Krista Houghton searches in the surge zone for sea glass at Davenport Beach; Some sea glass treasures from Davenport, the remnants of famed Lundberg Studios.

PEACEFUL VALLEY DONKEY RESCUE

How a small non-profit is saving donkeys across the nation and beyond

By Leonie Sherman • Photos by Mark Meyers Photography

When Mark and Amy Meyers’ horse seemed lonely, they purchased a donkey named Izzy to keep her company. A quarter of a century later they’ve helped over 12,500 other donkeys find homes through the non-profit they started, Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue.

“

Izzy opened our eyes to a whole new world,” explained Mark. “She was nothing at all like a horse, more like a big dog! Horses learn from pain, but donkeys don’t react to pain. I once saw an idiot try to use a cattle prod on a donkey, the donkey turned around and bit the tip off! Donkeys are intelligent. They won’t do what you want them to unless they trust you.”

Not only did Izzy open their eyes to how friendly and loving donkeys can be, she opened their eyes to how many donkeys were out in the world suffering. Amy noticed one with a chest rubbed raw at a local store and the couple adopted the neglected animal, paying over $1,500 in veterinarian bills to bring him back to health.

“We stayed up every night to talk to him and by the end of a few months, he was just as friendly as Izzy,” Mark remembers fondly. “So we started buying more and more and fixing them up until we had about 25 donkeys. We decided we’d better do something or we were going to have a big problem.”

That problem became their new life’s calling. In 2000, a few years after adopting Izzy, they founded Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue (PVDR) to adopt out their beloved docile donkeys. “If you sell them, there are no rules for what happens to them, but if you adopt them you can set rules,” explains Mark. “We have a reverter clause that if people can no longer care for them they get returned to us and we find them a new home.”

Five years later, Mark and Amy found a new home for themselves. They sold their other businesses and moved from their LA County home to Kern County to pursue their passion full time. “At first we thought this would be a good way to teach our sons about responsibility,” laughs Mark. “Now here we are with 50 employees, nationwide, and working in the Caribbean as well!”

Every donkey they adopt out undergoes a rigorous training regime. First, any health issues are tended to, and then, if male, they are castrated. After they’re healed up, trainers teach them to accept a halter, walk

“Once people found out there was some idiot out there willing to capture donkeys, they called and called and called. I actually lived apart from my wife for two years.”

— Mark Meyers

THIS PAGE, TOP TO BOTTOM: WILD DONKEYS IN THE SALINE VALLEY OF DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK; MARK AND AMY WITH THEIR FIRST DONKEY, IZZY.

on lead and pick up all four hooves for trimming. If a donkey isn’t ready for adoption, they are often placed into a sanctuary program.

“We run usually 20 sanctuaries, each is about 500 acres and holds about 100 donkeys,” explains Mark. “They still get all the medical treatments, but they have much more freedom, and it’s cheaper than having to hand feed them every day. Every once in a while trainers go out and see if sanctuary donkeys are ready for training yet.”

In 2008 an unfortunate event rocketed PVDR to national attention. “Texas Parks and Wildlife decided it was a good idea to shoot 90-some-odd donkeys on the Rio Grande,” Mark sighs. “The story went nationwide and made them look real bad, so they called me to come and capture the donkeys instead. I moved out — temporarily I thought — to get things organized.”

When the TV show Texas Country Reporter featured PVDR’s efforts, Mark’s phone blew up with calls and messages from folks in need of his services. “Once

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people found out there was some idiot out there willing to capture donkeys, they called and called and called. I actually lived apart from my wife for two years.”

Eventually the whole family was able to relocate to San Angelo, Texas, from where they oversee three training centers and 40 satellite adoption sites, three of which are in California. “We only deal with donkeys,” explains Mark. “Horse rescues are like Starbucks, there’s one on every corner. We are solving the donkey problem in the US, both wild and domestic.”

The domestic donkey problem usually involves abuse, neglect, hoarding and abandonment. Sometimes PVDR rescues donkeys from their inadequate homes; sometimes their work involves capturing them on abandoned property.

The wild donkey problem involves National Park and military lands where donkeys are not protected. PVDR works with Death Valley National Park, Mojave National Preserve, Fort Irwin at the southern border

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: WILD JACKS IN THE WILDROSE PORTION OF DEATH VALLEY NP; JENNETS AT PVDR HEADQUARTERS IN SAN ANGELO, TEXAS; WILD DONKEYS IN THE STRIPED BUTTE AREA OF DEATH VALLEY NP.

Though they contract with federal agencies, they don’t accept any money from the government, choosing instead to rely on donations and grants. Last year PVDR raised $8 million through direct mail and relationship fundraising. Donors are an integral part of their team. “Without them, none of this would work!” explains Mark. “Everything we do from capture to training to adoption requires money.”

After more than two decades rescuing donkeys, PVDR is expanding their focus. “We are putting together a donkey history museum in Mesquite, Nevada, an hour north of Las Vegas, which opens in November of this year,” explains Mark. The museum will feature the donkey-related memorabilia he has been collecting for decades and have movable displays so there’s a new visitor experience for every winter.

Though wild donkeys rarely live past their teens, Izzy is now 23 and spends her days right outside Mark’s office door. “This can be a sad job, but it’s the best job I ever had,” explains Mark, as he recalls scenes of abuse and neglect. “This work needed doing. Donkeys needed saving and we are doing it, we are literally saving them.”

to learn more, and maybe even adopt a donkey.

music and the outdoors go together like peanut butter and

APRIL

LUCIDITY FESTIVAL

>> April 8-10

Santa Ynez

A transformational festival with an immersive and participatory experience that delights the senses & builds community. lucidityfestival.com

COACHELLA

>> April 15-17 & 22-24

Indio

Music and Arts Festival in the Coachella Valley. coachella.com

DESERT HEARTS

>> April 28-May 2

Lake Perris

Defining what it means to be a DIY party crew that fosters a community of House, Techno & Love. festival. deserthearts.us

STAGECOACH MUSIC FESTIVAL

>> April 29-May 1

Indio

Bringing some country to California. stagecoachfestival.com

SOL BLUME

>> April 30-May 1

By Cathy Claesson

hop together with an underlying emphasis on art, culture, love, social diversity, and good vibes. solblume.com

MAY

THE ALL DAY I DREAM FESTIVAL

>> May 12-15

Oakdale

A boutique feel-good festival in nature with electronic, house & techno music that helps create a magical experience. thealldayidreamfestival.com

JOSHUA TREE MUSIC FESTIVAL

>> (Spring) May 12-15

Joshua Tree

Supreme live music experiences, deep dive workshops, yoga and healing, random acts of mindfulness and spontaneous eruptions of gratitude. joshuatreemusicfestival.com

THE UNTZ FESTIVAL

>> May 13-15

Browns Valley

Dedicated to spotlighting underground artists who are changing the electronic music landscape. theuntzfestival.com

Sacramento

A celebration of R&B, soul, and hip-

chocolate. After a twoyear pandemic hiatus festivals are back! we’ve put together this guide to help you GEt Inspired, get away, unplug and tune into the Positive vibes of the season. MOST of these Fests offer camping and/or nearby accomodations on a first come First served basis, so Make sure you Plan ahead.

PHOTO: Jerm Cohen / Outside Lands

BEACHLIFE FESTIVAL

>> May 13-15

Redondo Beach

A SoCal festival that celebrates the power and beauty of the ocean through art and a weekend of folk, indie, reggae and rock music. thebeachlifefestival.com

CRUEL WORLD

>> May 14-15

Pasadena

New Wave and post-punk legends like Morrisey and the Violent Femmes are on the bill, same lineup both days. cruelworldfest.com

STRAWBERRY MUSIC FESTIVAL

>> May 25-30

Grass Valley

Celebrating its 40th anniversary with an epic return of eclectic Americana music and family friendly festivities. strawberrymusic.com

LIGHTNING IN A BOTTLE

>> May 25-30

Buena Vista Lake

LIB is a prized destination for artists to showcase their unique crafts within creative stages built for immersion and wonder. lightninginabottle.org

CALIFORNIA ROOTS FESTIVAL

>> May 26-29

Monterey

One of the largest reggae festivals in the country, California Roots delivers good vibes, happiness, family, peace, love & joy. californiarootsfestival.com

BOTTLEROCK NAPA VALLEY

>> May 27-29

Napa

Six music stages paired with the best in wine, food and craft brews makes this an authentic wine country experience for festival guests. bottlerocknapavalley.com

JUNE

OJAI MUSIC FESTIVAL

>> June 9-12

Ojai

Adventurous, open-minded audiences join together with musical thinkers who approach their craft with creativity. ojaifestival.org

HUICHICA

>> June 10-11

Sonoma

A weekend where music, wine, and food are shared in an intimate, familyfriendly setting with vineyard views. huichica.com

WEST COAST WEEKENDER

>> June 10-12

San Diego County

An elevated boutique music festival and conference experience with a weekend celebration of music, dance, and culture. westcoastweekender.net

HOG FARM HIDEAWAY MUSIC FESTIVAL

>> June 10-12

Laytonville

Three stages of music, interactive art installations, adult libations, cannabis club, kids-zone, activist area, healing sanctuary, and more. hogfarmhideaway.com

SUMMER ARTS & MUSIC FESTIVAL

>> June 18-19

Cooks Valley

A family-friendly gathering space to enjoy local, regional and national live music and performing artists at various stages. mateel.org

KATE WOLF MUSIC FESTIVAL

>> June 23-26

Laytonville

Relax and enjoy a great weekend with friends, family and lovers of fabulous music. katewolfmusicfestival.com

STILLDREAM FESTIVAL

>> June 23-27

Blue Mountain

An earthy festival that focuses on music, community, nature, culture & consciousness. stilldreamfestival.com

HIGH SIERRA MUSIC FESTIVAL

>> June 30-July 3

Quincy

A family-friendly, community oriented music festival with an eclectic mix of genres, playshops, arts and crafts, plus gourmet food and drinks. highsierramusic.com

PHOTO: Foster Snell / Joshua Tree Music Festival

JULY

MOSSWOOD MELTDOWN

>> July 2-3

Oakland

A punk-heavy festival hosted by filmmaker John Waters who says it’s the ‘perfect cult gathering of young and old music rebels who hate everybody in the world except each other.’ mosswoodmeltdown.com

CALIFORNIA WORLDFEST

>> July 14-17

Grass Valley

Experience new cultures through seven stages of music, while honoring Native Peoples with an emphasis on conscious living and sustainability. worldfest.net

NORTHERN NIGHTS MUSIC FESTIVAL

>> July 15-17

Piercy

This festival has an eclectic mix of music, industry-leading cannabis programming, and serene natural landscapes. northernnights.org

BEAR VALLEY

MUSIC FESTIVAL

>> Jul 22-Aug 7

Bear Valley

Enjoy a variety of music including classical, rock, country and jazz. bearvalleymusicfestival.org

AUGUST

MAMMOTH FESTIVAL OF BEERS & BLUESAPALOOZA

>> August 4-7

Mammoth Lakes

This summer fest will delight all outdoor enthusiasts looking for a cool brew, blues and a good time. mammothbluesbrewsfest.com

THE DAYS BETWEEN

>> August 5-7

Laytonville

An intimate, family-friendly music festival, where oak woodlands and majestic meadows provide a magical setting to gather and celebrate the music and memory of Jerry Garcia. daysbetweenfest.com

The Original earn your beer

T-Shirt

SF OUTSIDE LANDS

>> August 5-7

San Francisco

A Bay Area celebration of music, food, wine, beer, cocktails and cannabis, in beautiful Golden Gate Park. sfoutsidelands.com

BURNING MAN

>> August 28-September 5

Black Rock City

Tens of thousands of Burners gather to build a participative temporary metropolis in the Nevada desert. burningman.org

SEPTEmBer

PRIMAVERA SOUND

>> September 16-18

Los Angeles

Created in Barcelona, made for the LA music lover primaverasound.com

MONTEREY JAZZ FESTIVAL

>> September 23-25

Monterey

Experience the best that jazz has to offer at the longest continuouslyrunning jazz festival in the world. montereyjazzfestival.org

DESERT DAZE

>> September 30-October 2

Lake Perris

Epic yet intimate, esoteric yet accessible, catering to weirdos, but embracing to all, Desert Daze facilitates the ever expanding growth of the human spirit. desertdaze.org

HARDLY STRICTLY BLUEGRASS

>> September 30-October 2

San Francisco

Three days of free music with an eclectic lineup of country, soul, folk & more. hardlystrictlybluegrass.com

OCTOBer

AFTERSCHOCK

>> October 6-9

Sacramento

California’s biggest rock festival with a powerful lineup of rock and metal favorites. aftershockfestival.com

JOSHUA TREE MUSIC FESTIVAL

>> (Fall) October 6-9

Joshua Tree

See JTMF Spring (May 12-15) for more info. joshuatreemusicfestival.com

DIRTYBIRD CAMPOUT

>> October 7-9

Modesto

A boutique festival where wild ones and weirdos, music heads and party animals come to create their own destiny. dirtybirdcampout.com/west

NOVEMBer

WONDERFRONT

>> November 18-20

San Diego

Beautiful waterfront parks, piers, ships and yacht parties play host to three days of electronic, hip-hop, reggae, and rock. wonderfrontfestival.com

PHOTO: LG Shecker / The Days Between Festival

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MAGNIFICENT SEVEN

Hike to these scenic Yosemite waterfalls

Words & photos by Matt Johanson

Spring brings good things to the Sierra Nevada, like the opening of mountain passes, blooming wildflowers and snowmelt to awaken rivers and creeks. Nothing shows nature’s transition from winter to summer like those streams when they fall over steep rocky cliffs, and no place in California boasts more magnificent waterfalls than Yosemite National Park.

Some great viewing opportunities require only a few minutes of walking. Reaching others takes a full day of high-altitude hiking. Both extremes and choices in the middle are all worthy options. These favorite outings are arranged from least to most exerting.

BRIDALVEIL FALL

Bridalveil Creek falls over a steep drop in a long, elegant flow that resembles a bride’s veil, as the name suggests. This is the first grand sight reached by those entering Yosemite Valley from the west and certainly merits a stop. Turn right off Southside Drive towards Highway 41 and quickly turn left into the parking area. The hike to the viewing area is a quarter-mile long with some gentle climbing.

LOWER YOSEMITE FALL

A half-mile hike on a paved trail takes visitors to the base of one of the world’s highest and prettiest waterfalls. Park on Northside Drive near Yosemite Lodge or take the shuttle to the Lower Yosemite

Fall stop. The viewing area affords a fine look at the lower cascade, though the approach walk shows off the entire waterfall. For variety, make the outing into a loop by crossing the bridge at the viewing area and returning on the pleasant wooded trail east of the main route.

WAPAMA FALL

Discover the park’s wonder outside Yosemite Valley at a powerful yet little-known waterfall at Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. Find the road heading northeast to Hetch Hetchy west of the Big Oak Flat entrance.

From the parking area, cross O’Shaughnessy Dam and walk through the tunnel. Continue east along the shoreline over moderate climbs and drops. Early-season visitors will first see Tueeulala Falls. Wapama Fall, a 2.5-mile hike from the parking area, tumbles down a staircase of granite almost yearround.

Mind your watch, because Hetch Hetchy Road closes between 5pm and 9pm, depending on the season; check

the park website or inquire at the entrance station.

VERNAL FALL & NEVADA FALL

Vernal Fall and Nevada Fall have enthralled millions of visitors on the park’s most popular hike. These two scenic wonders on the Merced River can be enjoyed on a single loop hike of about seven miles.

From Curry Village, walk a half mile or take the bus to Happy Isles. Here begins a steady 400-foot climb to Vernal Fall Bridge, where you’ll get your first good look at the 317-foot namesake. This segment is a doable hike for most anyone, including families with small children.

Shortly after the bridge, hikers reach a fork in the trail. Some turn right up the switchbacks of the John Muir Trail, which rejoins the Mist Trail above Nevada Fall in about three miles. Most turn left to stay on the Mist Trail, which ascends some 600 rocky stairs to the top of Vernal Fall. Now’s the time to put on your rain gear, for the Mist Trail earns its name, especially in spring. The

drenching hikers receive is a small price to pay for a great close-up look at the waterfall.

Enjoy the view from the top of Vernal Fall but respect the warning signs and railing separating hikers from Emerald Pool. The algae-covered rock beneath the current is incredibly slick. Fatalities have occurred here when visitors waded into the water and were swept over the fall.

Crowds thin out considerably by Nevada Fall, about two miles away and 900 feet higher. Cross a footbridge just past Emerald Pool. About a mile later, beneath Liberty Cap, turn right toward the Nevada Fall footbridge. Enjoy looking down on the raging Merced River and the 594-foot waterfall.

For more variety, go back on the John Muir Trail. This affords hikers a terrific view of Nevada Fall and Liberty Cap, and another of Vernal Fall at Clark Point.

CHILNUALNA FALLS

Chilnualna Falls consists of a 240foot waterfall and several impressive cascades in a little-known part of Yosemite. The half-day, seven-mile outing near Wawona provides an interesting alternative to better-known hikes in Yosemite Valley and Tuolumne Meadows.

From Wawona Road just north of Wawona, turn east on Chilnualna Falls Road. Drive about 1.5 miles past a

school, grocery store and cabins to a parking area.

A sign points to the trailhead and there’s quickly a fork dividing hikers and horseback riders. Take the hikers’ option which passes by the picturesque

Lower Cascade of Chilnualna Creek. After steep stone stairs, the trail turns, climbs and winds its way northward up a ridge.

The climb eases as hikers ascend on switchbacks through a forest of oak, pine and cedar trees. Hikers will get their best view of Chilnualna Falls after turning east on the final switchback. Enjoy it here, for though it’s a quartermile distant, the trail offers no closer view. But the worthy Upper Cascades of Chilnualna Creek await above the main waterfall.

UPPER YOSEMITE FALL

This physical hike is both the most difficult and most rewarding of our magnificent seven outings. Gaining 2,692 feet of elevation, the Yosemite Falls Trail provides a challenging workout but repays faithful travelers for every step. Those who go the distance (seven miles round-trip) get to stand beside the brink of a raging Upper Yosemite Fall.

The trail begins north of Camp 4 and

so does the climbing. Welcome to the world of switchbacks. You’ll complete dozens of them and gain about 1,000 feet by Columbia Rock, a good spot to enjoy the view, rest and assess your progress.

From Columbia Rock, the route flattens for about a mile, still with some ups and downs; watch your step on the sandy switchbacks. Then you get your first look at Upper Yosemite Fall. Soon after that, a spur splits from the main trail to an outlook with the trip’s best view of the entire 2,425-foot waterfall: Upper Yosemite Fall, the Middle Cascades and Lower Yosemite Fall. The route’s next landmark is the winter closure gate. Most reach this in about half the time they take to reach the trail’s top.

RESPONSIBLY MADE GEAR THAT YOU CAN TAKE ANYWHERE

Now the switchbacks return. Early in the season, a cool mist will ease your ascent. After the waterfall dries up in summer, expect a solar beating. There’s manzanita and gravel requiring careful footing, but no shade on the upper portion of the trail that gains some 1,600 feet. Good thing you’re tough!

The climbing ends at the upper winter gate. From here, a narrow and exposed path drops about a quarter-mile to a fenced viewing ledge beside the upper lip of the waterfall. Hikers get to stand just a few feet away from the thundering river as it shoots into the void. Enjoy your stay and retrace your steps to return to Camp 4.

This spring the waterfall season looks to peak early, so get out there!

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Opposite page: Upper Yosemite Fall. This page, left to right: Bridalveil Fall; Wapama Fall; Vernal Fall; Nevada Fall; Chilnualna Falls.

Some great viewing opportunities require only a few minutes of walking. Reaching others takes a full day of high-altitude hiking.

RYAN & PRISCILLA Living the highlife in Yosemite

By Chris Van Leuven

Sheridan resides in a 10’ X 12’ white canvas cabin in Curry Village in Yosemite Valley. He shares the tiny space with his partner, professional athlete Mewborne. They’re crammed into the tight rectangle frame house among piles of climbing gear, static ropes, and aerial silks.

For eight years Sheridan has lived here; Mewborne five. Summers are baking hot, and the winters are cold and snowy, with strong winds blowing overhead. Nearby, Glacier Point Apron — nearly a mile wide and thousands of feet tall — reaches up to the sky. The beauty overwhelms them.

To live in Yosemite, Sheridan ekes out a living for the park’s concessionaire doing bike and raft rentals, stocking linens, shoveling snow, emptying trash cans, and working for employee recreation. Mewborne works as a hotel porter in Curry Village, where she drives a golf cart and helps guests by carrying luggage to their rooms.

This allows them to live legally in the park. Unlike the rest of us, they don’t have to adhere to annual visitation limits — two weeks during peak season — or deal with the day-use permit system enacted during the rise of Covid.

“If you don’t get a job for the park service, the concessionaire, or others, law enforcement will

notice your vehicle,” Sheridan says. “Shoveling snow eight hours a day is less work than running away from the rangers.”

Mewborne adds, “More often than not I find myself putting in long days. This includes working a full shift, heading straight to the big walls once I’m off, and staying out until it is time to clock back in the next day.”

Over their tenure in the park, they’ve balanced lowskill jobs with high-skill professional athleticism and expert rigging. Sheridan applies his background in physics from the University of Buffalo and Mewborne uses her engineering degree from Cal State Fullerton to make high-strength, naturally protected highlines. Highlining means walking across one-inch webbing strung between vertical points, and setting it naturally, meaning not piercing the rock with a drill to install permanent bolts.

Sheridan and Mewborne’s strong big wall climbing skills, where they rely on pitons hammered into thin cracks to ascend the massive walls of Yosemite, allow them to access vertical locations seen by very few. Midway up these routes, Mewborne does aerial silks with the security of the climbing rope tied to her harness and tucked out of view. In one image she posted on Instagram (@lovealwayspriscilla), she

hangs inverted, with her silks wrapped around one leg and firmly clasped with one hand. Snow-filled gullies shine in the background and Horsetail Fall, which spills over the precipice from the top of El Cap, flows behind her.

“Every climbing route is so unique and in order to silk from a wall there are a number of factors that must align. It’s very exciting when I find a place that is steep enough to fly from and when it works out, it really makes the whole experience for me.”

In fall 2021 Mewborne and Sheridan partnered with highline experts Ryan Jenks, Alonso Rodriguez, Greg Kommel,

By sharing a tiny canvas cabin and working menial labor jobs to reside in the park, Ryan Sheridan and Priscilla Mewborne maximize their time on the soaring walls of Yosemite.

Opposite page: Priscilla Mewborne silks during a winter ascent of El Capitan with Horsetail Falls in the background (Ryan Sheridan). This page, top to bottom: Ryan Sheridan climbs South Seas while establishing a highline across the Alcove (Justin Olsen); Mewborne and Sheridan carrying haul bags and camera gear up the Death Slabs (Chris Van Leuven).

and Jose Oliva to rig a massive highline

from the edge of Leaning Tower, above Bridal Veil Falls. The goal was to walk the highline, do aerial silks and perform record-length rope jumps. They rigged the jump in remembrance of Dan “Dano” Osman, who died at age 35 leaping from that very location.

“Yosemite’s Leaning Tower is about 1,150 feet tall. The exposure is really intimidating. Luckily we were prepared to make things as safe as possible. We did thousands of break tests, set up hundreds of highlines and did over a dozen rope jumps to feel ready to repeat the Osman rope jump off Leaning Tower,” said project leader Jenks of the massively complicated jump.

For years during the ‘90s, Osman took the sport of rope jumping to extremes and starred in several Masters of

Counter clockwise from left: Mewborne climbing towards one of the best campsites in the park, Peanut Ledge (Ryan Sheridan); If you commit your day to tying knots and rigging you might as well be comfy. Sheridan secures the ropes while establishing the highline “bottom of our heart” (Devon Delattre); Sheridan on one of Lake Tahoe’s more scenic highlines (Justin Olsen).

Stone climbing films. In the movies he free soloed at a high level, climbed active waterfalls with ice tools and flung himself off bridges and cliffs, plummeting hundreds of feet before climbing ropes stretched tight and arrested him. Osman’s final jumps from Leaning Tower were so long that at rope’s end he flew through the space between giant pines that grow up from the base of the wall. He died on November 23, 1998, when his rope jammed up in the rigging during midflight from Leaning Tower.

Twenty-three years after Osman’s final jump, to help build the Leaning Tower rope system, Sheridan and Mewborne climbed the hard aid route Roulette (A4) on the face of Leaning Tower. Sheridan and Mewborne chose Roulette because of its location on the wall — it faces directly across the canyon from Fifi Buttress. As they climbed the route over several days and nights, they fixed static lines up the route for use in rigging and hauling up supplies.

One night after completing her shift, Mewborne found herself leading a crux pitch on Roulette, when suddenly a piece of gear ripped out and she fell back to the belay. Between all the hiking, climbing and anchor rigging, they’d been in the field 20 hours a day. Then they’d stumble back to work and do it all over again.

After months spread out over weekends, the line was ready. On November 23, twenty-three years to the day Osman made his final leap from Leaning Tower, Rodriguez successfully

Over their tenure in the park, they’ve balanced lowskill jobs with high-skill professional athleticism and expert rigging. Sheridan applies his background in physics from the University of Buffalo and Mewborne uses her engineering degree from Cal State Fullerton to make high-strength, naturally protected highlines.

walked across the 300-meter highline located 1,500 feet above the ground and Mewborne danced on her silks positioned midway across the highline. Then, one after another, five people successfully leapt off the edge of Leaning Tower, in a massive free fall Osman called “Flossing the Sky.” One jumped with arms and legs outstretched like a starfish, another did a backflip, and Sheridan, last on the line, did a triple backflip into a cork screw spin. He completed his rotation as wind rushed through his ears like a jet airplane and the ropes stretched tight on either side of his body. The catch was “softer than most climbing whippers I’ve taken,” he says.

Gear safety has improved over the two-plus decades since Osman’s final jump but rope jumping remains a sport practiced by very few. The team, utilizing the finest tools of the trade, plus jumping with a redundant system, two ropes instead of a single one as Osman had done, succeeded without incident.

“I did it at last light, and it was beautiful,” Sheridan says describing his jump from Leaning Tower. “I could see lights from Merced, The Rostrum where I did a previous rope jump, and I could see the light behind the Tunnel View overlook.”

With the tribute jump behind them, and the joyous memory of the flight still firmly in their minds, Sheridan and Mewborne are back at work dreaming of other projects. In the meantime they are back to working long hours at various jobs in the Valley, keeping their Yosemite dreams alive.

To view footage of the Flossing the Sky jump from Leaning Tower, visit Ryan Jenks’ social channels, including youtube.com/c/HowNOT2, Instagram @hownottohighline, and his website hownot2.com. A tribute to Dan Osman’s final Leaning Tower jump is also featured In Masters Of Stone 5 by Eric

Perlman.

This page, left to right: The Leaning Tower jump was a tribute to Dan “Dano” Osman who pioneered Yosemite rope jumping in the 1990s (Andrea Nicole); Osman in his element before his tragic death in 1998 (Eric Perlman).

FULL MOON GLORY

Three epic moon journeys

By Leonie Sherman

But once a month, when the blush of sunset stains the western sky, a globe of silver rises to the east. The full moon traces the sun’s arc across the night sky, illuminating the world. Coyotes gather in packs and greet it with a communal howl. Our

ancestors used it to measure the world and the passage of time. Climbers and skiers complete epics under its guiding light. A familiar stroll becomes a thrilling adventure.

When the moon is perfectly aligned between our planet and the glowing

ball of nuclear reaction that supports life here, it appears full. As that ball of rock travels to the opposite side of the planet on its orbit, it appears smaller and smaller until a thin smile of a crescent shines down. When earth is directly between the moon and the sun, we can’t see its light at all. A full moon is sunlight reflected from 93 million miles away on a lifeless ball of rock almost 239,000 miles away.

The day before the full moon, it appears about 50 minutes earlier, slightly smaller. The final week before

full is ideal for wilderness epics because as soon as the sun sets, an almost full moon casts enough light to navigate easy terrain. Moonlight turns a desperate stumbling exit into a magical memorable adventure.

As my interests move away from what I can accomplish in the outdoors and toward what I can appreciate in the wild world, I’ve started planning trips to enjoy the full moon.

Here are my top three ways and places to enjoy a full moon.

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When darkness falls, most people head inside and turn on the lights. Modern civilization protects us from cold and dark. Even while camping, most of us curl up in the home we carried not long after sunset.

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Photo: Erik Rochner

THE KELSO DUNES

The tallest Kelso Dune towers 650 feet above the surrounding terrain. The sandy slog to the top is the most popular hike in the nearly 1.6 millionacre Mojave National Preserve. Beyond the summit lie waves of shimmering sand that stretch over 40 miles to the north. Untrammeled crests of sand form sinuous curves that travel back and forth across a zone 30-40 feet wide, like waves on the ocean. The ridges drop into hollows and rise to rounded ramps. Most of the sand was deposited between 2,400 and 9,000 years ago when a drier hotter climate exposed sediment from nearby lake beds. The Granite and Providence Mountains funneled the windblown sediment to form the Kelso Dunes. Individual grains were tumbled smooth in their 35mile journey. Today, when a footstep triggers a small slab avalanche at a certain angle, the dunes produce a low vibration a hiker can feel in their bones. This “booming” phenomenon is found in less than 10% of dunes on the planet. Sunset casts a purple shadow on the Providence Mountains as a full moon rises behind their bulk. On the Kelso Dunes, its silvery light makes the expanse of sand glow, beckoning to the curious and playful. Leap off slopes, slide down chutes, roll over the edge and crawl back up a steep head wall of sand. Take off your shoes and wander barefoot for hours. Bring a sleeping bag and spend the night watching the moon cross the sky as your home spins in the vast emptiness of space.

POINT REYES NATIONAL SEASHORE

Tomales Bay is a thin finger of water approximately 15 miles long averaging nearly one mile across, sandwiched between the mainland and the shore. Its placid protected waters and the heaving expanse of the Pacific Ocean gleam like burnished metal under a full moon, reflecting liquid silver in mesmerizing shifting patterns.

To appreciate the moonlight on water at Point Reyes National Seashore, you need to spend a night, which requires a reservation. Kayak campers can enjoy a wave-free paddle in the bay and sleep on secluded beaches. Coast and Wildcat campgrounds offer outhouses, potable water, and picnic benches all with a soundtrack of crashing waves.

Point Reyes National Seashore and the surrounding lands are home to the Coast Miwok or Tamál people, who lived in over 600 villages stretching between Bodega Bay and southern Marin county. The Tamál called the peninsula Tamál-Huyé or Coast Point. European

disease and land grabs decimated their numbers and way of life. The indigenous struggle for autonomy continues today as the National Park Service often advocates for colonial era cattle preservation over native rights to their ancestral home.

European greed wreaked havoc on native animals as well. Northern elephant seals, hunted for their blubber, were believed extinct by 1884. Several years later, a Smithsonian expedition found eight of them on an island off the coast of Baja; they killed seven to study. Mexico protected the animals in 1922; the US followed several years later. Since then, the population, estimated at 200 in the 1880s, has grown to 200,000. Sometimes rescuing animals from the brink of extinction is complicated; sometimes we only need to stop killing them.

The northern elephant seal’s northern most breeding ground is on a sheltered beach below Chimney Rock in Point Reyes. In 1981, two of the lumbering blubbery mammals bred there; 30 years later almost 2,000 of their descendants haul out at the same spot every winter. If you’re lucky enough to spot them, keep your distance and leave them in peace.

WHITE MOUNTAIN

California’s easternmost 14er has no technical routes to the summit. Any way you approach, it’s a tedious slog up a glorified road to the top of White Mountain. But the White Mountains, the first of the waves of land we call Basin and Range, drop almost 10,000 feet to the floor of the Owens Valley, beyond which rises to the steep escarpment of the Sierra Nevada.

Barcroft Field Station is perched on the shoulder of this massive mountain, in a dry expanse of rubble raked by winds. Students and scientists flock here from around the world to study the effects of high altitude and extreme conditions on life. You can hike to the top and see for yourself.

I never took altitude sickness in California seriously until I saw someone die from it at 11,300 feet in Humphreys Basin. Driving from the coast and attempting to summit the next day is a miserable and dangerous proposal. Spend some time at 10,000 feet and sleep at least one night above 7,000 feet before attempting to climb White Mountain.

Aim to summit at sunset and the reward is vermillion and lavender hues cast on over 200 miles of muscular mountain crest, stretching from the Sawtooth Range to the Whitney Zone. Turn to the east and watch a full moon creep over the inky indigo violet expanse of the Great Basin desert stretching into Nevada. Its silvery glow will guide the way back to your car. Whether camping, climbing, paddling or simply strolling, venturing out under the full moon transforms desert, mountain and ocean adventures into mystical experiences. Don’t hide inside. Let the full moon shine on you. Seek it out and soak up the unexpected rewards.

As my interests move away from what I can accomplish in the outdoors and towards what I can appreciate in the wild world, I’ve started planning trips to enjoy the full moon.

TRAIL WORK BEGINS AT COTONI-COAST DAIRIES

First phase includes 19 miles of singletrack north of Santa Cruz

By Jim Scripps

After decades of planning and wrangling over details about ownership and land management, the vast, mostly undeveloped coastal property north of Santa Cruz known as Cotoni-Coast Dairies — an on-shore unit of the California Coastal National Monument — is finally ready for prime time. The 6,000-acre plot, which has a provenance as the indigenous land of the “Cotoni” peoples, then as a turn-of-the-century cheese dairy before it eventually went into public trust, will eventually host an expansive 27-mile public trail network for hikers, mountain bikers and equestrians.

Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship (SCMTS) is building the trail, following a detailed design process in conjunction with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the land manager for the property. One of the more complicated aspects, creating public access with trailhead parking, will fall under the BLM’s purview. Access to trailheads will be available at several points along the north and south edges of the property, with trails for just about every kind of (non-motorized) user including world-class, purpose-built adaptive-accessible loops.

Design and construction will take several years, with bits of the trail system opening in phases. Phase one comprises 19 miles, with a $3 million budget. SCMTS paid trailworkers, and volunteer trail crews started the work in recent months, cutting trail in a canyon on the east side of Highway 1, just south of Davenport’s Swanton Berry Farm.

Matt De Young, SCMTS executive director, anticipates an aggressive schedule of volunteer and staff-driven trail days with the goal of completing nine miles of singletrack by spring.

“It’s been a long time coming. In 1998 a whole slew of organizations got involved in acquiring and protecting this land,” De Young says. Several land trust organizations initiated the effort to prevent large-scale development on the property, but progress toward public access didn’t come until recent years. “Eventually it became BLM land in 2014, and it was one of the areas designated as a national monument in the last part of the Obama administration, in 2017.

“From there it kicked off planning process with public engagement, and that’s where [SCMTS] got really involved. We raised hands and said, ‘We can help with this.’”

THE PROPERTY

On an unseasonably warm Friday morning in February, a group of 25 volunteers from Fox Factory, a suspension products manufacturer with a corporate facility in Scotts Valley, gathered along a newly cut stretch of trail on the north edge of the Cotoni-Coast Dairies property to spend the better part of the day swinging pickaxes, shoveling dirt and rock, and scraping at the exposed earth with McLeods. It’s part of the company’s Trail Trust program, which gives grants and volunteer time to support access to trails and the benefits that come with trail recreation.

This first stretch of trail is a teaser of the majesty of the property. Many of the routes will have views to the ocean and horizon. Some trails will take users into the forest, while others will traverse huge grassy knolls. For these trail volunteers, it’s manual labor with a million-dollar view.

If the weather cooperates, many more volunteer crews — and trail building days with other local corporate partners — will join SCMTS’s paid crew, superintendent and the volunteer “trails sages,” with a robust schedule of workdays in the coming months. When SCMTS puts out a call for volunteers, those spots are quickly filled, an indication that volunteerism is thriving in the local bike community.

“Dig days are some of the most fun and exciting ways to get involved in the community of trail users,” says

Katy Poniatowski, SCMTS marketing and communications manager. She joined the Fox employees during the volunteer dig day. “When you look at this, when we do these bigger projects, everyone can feel like they can come and help. And it’s getting to the point where people can’t ignore the power of the mountain bike community.”

THE PROCESS

The shape, variety and level of difficulty of the trails on the Cotoni-Coast Dairies land is partly the vision of Drew Perkins, trails program manager at SCMTS. He says he worked with BLM’s recreation planner, as well as other stakeholders, to create a “holistic” planning process.

“We started deliberately, just working with their staff, going hiking, coming up with ideas, but just rough ideas,” Perkins says. “You get to know the corridor, flag certain aspects, do groundtruthing and align elements. We don’t usually do superdetailed design in the environmental review phase, but enough to know that it’s doable.”

Part of the challenge will be to work around trail-user needs as well as existing features: The land has four management zones, and approximately ten different watersheds. Equestrian trails will be separate from mountain biking trails, and technical mountain biking trails will be

farther from the trailhead to promote greater accessibility for casual riders, hikers and users with mobility limitations. There will be some trails that are hike/ bike/mtb, some hike/mtb, and others hike/ horse. The first loop will be built with the goal to accommodate adaptive (threewheel) mountain bikes, Perkins says, which requires a minimum width, and consideration of obstacles and gates, to enable those riders to negotiate the trails unassisted.

Another unique feature of this project is preservation of the heritage of the land. An old ranch building off Cement Plant Road is slated to become an interpretive

Opposite page, top to bottom: Overhead views of the Cotoni-Coast Dairies property (Josh Becker); There will be accessible ADA trails, hiking-specific trails, and shareduse hiking, cycling, and equestrian trails (Gene Torno for Trail Trust). This page, left to right: The Fox Factory crew gets to work at Cotoni-Coast Dairies (Gene Torno for Trail Trust); SCMTS

Trails Laborer Heather Ekstrom captures a morning with the cows out at Cotoni-Coast Dairies. Active grazing will take place throughout the property (Heather Ekstrom).

center, and will include historical education elements, while three ranching operations will continue to run 149 head of cattle on the property. Before the property was surveyed for recreational use, its history and archeology were surveyed as well, including by the Amah Mutsun Land Trust, which chronicled historical presence of the Ohlone, the indigenous peoples of the Popelouchum, an area that stretches from Año Nuevo to the greater Monterey Bay area. As the public experiences the land, it will have opportunities to interact with that history through things like programming and educational signage.

SUPPORT

SCMTS has its hand in many trail development and restoration projects, both self-funding in its interaction with public land, and as a contractor for projects that require expert level trail development. The Cotoni-Coast Dairies project is part of the Timeless Trails campaign, a threeyear $5 million fundraising effort that will underwrite construction, restoration and maintenance of more than sixty miles of trail in and around the Santa Cruz Mountains.

To learn more about the project, or to donate to the campaign, visit SantaCruzTrails.org.

“JUST A MINDSET”

The post-pandemic popularity of randonneuring

By Cody Siler

Early on a cold Saturday morning in February, more than 150 cyclists streamed into the parking lot of the Pleasanton BART station. They arrived by train and by car, dressed in spandex and reflective gear, their bikes adorned with lights and their bags straining at the seams with snacks. They snacked, chatted and stretched, and as they rolled away to start their ride, they made sure their cars were locked and double-checked their rear lights. They were setting off to ride 200 kilometers, or about 126 miles, and most wouldn’t be back for 10 hours or more.

It was February 19, 2022, and they were beginning the Del Puerto Canyon 200k, hosted by the San Francisco Randonneurs (SFR). The cyclists that filled the parking lot were randonneurs, participants in a long-distance, noncompetitive cycling sport with origins that predate the Tour de France. Randonneur rides, called “brevets,” are usually long-distance affairs of 200 or more kilometers, and this one had a special distinction: with 171 riders on the official roster, it was the best-attended brevet in the nearly 25-year history of American randonneuring.

It might be surprising that so many people got up so early for such a long ride, especially with no support, prize money or free t-shirts at the end—especially considering that, one year ago, the club was completely shut down. “There were a lot of people that had been doing long distance riding until the pandemic,” said Rob Hawks, the Regional Brevet Administrator of SFR. But when everything shut down—including brevets—some riders fell off the saddle and didn’t get back on. “A lot of people, once things started up again, had a tough time coming back from the weight that they gained from baking bread.”

On the other hand, over the last two years, many new riders have found themselves with the motivation, free time and fitness to start riding brevets. “There’s a huge amount of interest in randonneuring right now,” said Hawks. Since brevets started back up in the spring of 2021, SFR has grown quickly. In March, SFR broke another record with their Healdsburg 300k, which drew more than 100 riders, the largest turnout for a 300km brevet ever in

the US. Membership is the highest it’s ever been—today, over 400 members of Randonneurs USA (RUSA), the national organization, list SFR as their home club—and many of those riders are brand-new to the sport. The growth of SFR suggests that, post-pandemic, riders are feeling drawn to the natural beauty, personal challenge and camaraderie that come with long-distance riding— without the atmosphere of competition that distinguishes randonneuring from racing.

The history of randonneuring goes back to the oldest still-running cycling event in the world: Paris-Brest-Paris, or PBP, a brevet of 1,200 kilometers or about 745 miles. The concept is beguilingly simple: riders begin in Paris, ride to Brest, and ride back to Paris. PBP started as a race in 1891, twelve years before the Tour de France. Eventually, the stage race format of the Tour de France won out with the professionals, and since 1951, PBP has been a noncompetitive event run exclusively for randonneurs. PBP comes around every four years, and in order to earn an invitation, a rider must complete a “super randonneur series”—a 200, 300, 400 and 600km brevet in a single year—leading up to the event. Typically SFR membership spikes in the year of PBP as riders try to qualify for the big ride. The next PBP is in 2023, and interest is high among brand-new randonneurs. Jasmine Wu Yap, a Bay Area cyclist who rode her first century in 2021 and her first brevet in 2022, said she wants to see how long she can stretch her long-distance riding with the club. “If I can make it to six hundred [kilometers] and qualify for PBP, that would be incredible,” she said. “But we’ll see how that goes.”

Compared to bike racers, randonneurs are less competitive and more focused on having fun. There’s no first, second or third place at brevets, and no incentive to complete the ride quickly beyond a fixed time limit that serves as a cutoff for an officially recognized effort. Riders’ finishing times are listed on the RUSA website, but they’re organized alphabetically by name, not by speed. Wu Yap said that after getting into long-distance riding, she’s seen more of

This page, top to bottom: Riders on the Del Puerto Canyon 200k brevet (SF Randonneurs); Quiet roads on a brevet near Tracy (SF Randonneurs). Next page, clockwise from top: A group of riders entering Del Puerto Canyon in Pleasanton (SF Randonneurs); Refueling after a long day on the bike (SF Randonneurs); Starting a long climb to Mines Road (Cody Siler).

California in the past year than in her first 15 years of living here. “My whole life I’ve exercised for exercise’s sake,” she said, “because, you know, it’s good for you, you do it. But this is the first sport where I’m just having fun. I enjoy all the moments of it. I enjoy the beauty of California.”

The randonneurs like to make their sport sound casual, and for some of them, it is: it’s not uncommon to see a group of riders sitting around a plastic table at a café or deli someplace far off the main road, sipping beers in the middle of a multi-hundred-mile ride. For many, brevets have offered an opportunity for organized challenge—and socialization—that was lacking during lockdowns. “People are stuck in their homes and it could get depressing,” said Naveen Kommareddi, a randonneur who rode his first brevet in 2021. Biking during the pandemic, according to Kommareddi, has been “therapeutic.”

Brenda Nguyen was training for triathlons when the pandemic hit and all the events on her calendar were canceled. She bought a new bike and, with her partners from Xe Dap Viet (XDV), a predominantly Vietnamese cycling club based in San Jose, started riding centuries and double centuries. “I like to challenge myself,” she said, and find out, “where is my limit?” With triathlons and marathons, she said, “Usually I set a different goal every time, and my goal is to beat my time every time.” But

To outsiders, randonneurs’ laid-back attitudes might seem baffling. How can riding for 10, 15 or 20 hours at once be relaxing? But for many of them, it is.

brevets are “more casual … I can enjoy the scenery, I can carry a conversation.”

To outsiders, randonneurs’ laid-back attitudes might seem baffling. How can riding for 10, 15 or 20 hours at once be relaxing? But for many of them, it is. “Everybody can finish a hundred-miler,” said Kommareddi. “You’ll just be slower, but you can finish it.” Cameron Pitts, an Oakland-based cyclist who rode their first brevet in 2021, said they appreciate the “specific niche” that randonneuring occupies: “endurance rides that aren’t a race.”

The casual atmosphere on SFR’s brevets attracts a unique mix. Hawks estimates that the youngest active riders are in their early 20s, and the oldest are in their mid-70s. SFR’s new randonneurs are somewhat more diverse, thanks in part to strong showings from clubs like XDV and predominantly South Asian Team Asha, who Kommareddi rides with. Pitts, who is transgender, said that other organized cycling events in the Bay Area can be “hyper-masculine and competitive.” Compared to that, they said, SFR is “refreshingly warm and welcoming.” And despite the reputation of cycling as a sport for middle-aged men in spandex, SFR’s riders are increasingly youthful. In some other RUSA regions, said Hawks, “they’re kind of envious of the fact that we are getting younger people.” The average age of riders at PBP, he said, hovers at around 50 years old—but within SFR, it’s “definitely below” that.

For some people, the casual, social nature of brevet-riding is exactly what makes it so appealing. Randonneurs, according to Hawks, “don’t necessarily say, what’s the toughest thing I can go do? They’re coming to this because their friends have

CHASE TRAIL YEAR-ROUND IN

done it, or heard about it and said, let’s try this.” The randonneurs are “just a bunch of people” who are “all just nice to each other. They’re always helpful,” said Kommareddi. Riders take their time at the grocery stores and gas stations along the way, sipping sodas and chatting. Unlike other rides, according to Kommareddi, no one on the brevets is “measuring themselves” against their fellow riders.

But if a brevet is so casual and social, why isn’t it a day at the beach—or a shorter bike ride, for that matter? The long distance, said Kommareddi, is “meditative.” On a brevet, “there are stretches of forty, fifty miles that you’re riding by yourself. You aren’t always riding with somebody. And I’ve noticed that during those times, I don’t think about anything else in this world. Like work, or COVID, or people dying, or people getting sick … somehow your mind goes into a state where time becomes irrelevant. You don’t realize how minutes turn into hours, and then suddenly you’re forty miles in.”

Riders are drawn to these extra-long rides for their own reasons. The “camaraderie” of “suffering together,” as Wu Yap said, is one appealing factor. So are the beautiful landscapes, from Gilmore to Fort Bragg, that randonneurs pass through on brevets. And for some, the draw is the challenge of seeing how far you can go. But for many, the feeling of randonneuring is hard to explain. It’s more than the sum of its parts: something that, as Kommareddi put it, “feels like a religious experience.”

In short, it’s something that has to be experienced firsthand. Hawks urges new riders, “don’t be intimidated by the distances.” And if you’re learning the ropes on your first few brevets, you’ll find plenty of helpful randonneurs to ride alongside. In the end, the distinction between randonneurs and other riders is less about physical fitness and more about “whether you want to try it,” said Hawks. “It’s just a mindset.”

EARN YOUR BEER

Mountain biking Palm Springs

By James Murren

THE EARNING

By James Murren

Riding up the Art Smith Trail in Palm Desert will have you questioning why you decided to do it in the first place. It’s steep, rocky and difficult to pedal, with several mandatory hike-a-bike sections. The technical and tight switchbacks with boulders will scrape flesh from you if you bump into them. This trail is Type 2 fun, and I knew what I was getting into.

Early in the morning not many minutes after sunrise, I had the trail pretty much to myself. The trail is classic desert riding, with some cross-country flow and quick climbs. Succulents and cacti sit at home along the remote trail, and every once in a while I caught a glimpse of green from the Coachella Valley. There were also views of Mt. San Jacinto and San Gorgonio to be had. After some 8+ miles to the end of the trail, where the junction is well-known for the bulldozer that is there, you can

continue on to other pieces of the trail system. This time around, I went back down Art Smith Trail. By mid-morning, there was considerable trail traffic: many hikers and a couple trail runners. The vibe was easy going, everyone out to get some exercise and be in nature. At the very end of the trail, I finally saw desert big horn sheep. Two were eating on the green ends of the chaparral growing in the wash, a perfect ending to a few hours of mountain biking in the desert.

THE BEER

In the Old Las Palmas neighborhood of Palm Springs is a nano-brewery that pays homage to the name: Las Palmas Brewing. They specialize in saisons, and offer other lower ABV brews, but also have IPAs. Locally-owned and operated, they also offer natural wines and non-alcoholic drinks.

The trail is classic desert riding, with some cross-country flow and quick climbs. Succulents and cacti sit at home along the remote trail, and every once in a while I caught a glimpse of green from the Coachella Valley.

I had the Fifty Four French Saison, which was pretty much perfect on a sunny afternoon. Saisons being what they are, seasonal farm ales (to be succinct), the fruit notes were there along with a subtle spiciness that is more-or-less a standard in saisons. Sitting out back in the patio, the scene was very relaxed, soft conversation and occasional laughter lifting into the air. A food tent was there, offering BBQ meats and vegan options.

On my way back out, the inside seating area was filling up, including a fully-kitted road biker having a beer with his bike leaning against a table. Out front, the sidewalk tables were an

ideal spot to sit and people watch. No doubt, when I’m back out in the land of the Cahuilla, I’ll make a point to stop in and enjoy what Las Palmas Brewing

SPRING RACES & EVENTS

BIKING

APRIL

2 — Fish Rock / Boonville / BikeMonkey.net

9 — Mulholland Challenge & Double Century / Agoura Hills / PlanetUltra.com

10 — MTB Mayhem / Folsom Lake SRA / TotalBodyFitness.com

16 — Lake Sonoma / Lake Sonoma / 23.5 miles / rolling & flowy single track / A big loop MTB race /Single Speed State Championship / 3500 ft. / GrasshopperAdventureSeries.com

23 — Bike Around the Buttes / Sutter / BikeAroundTheButtes.com

23 — Levi’s GranFondo / Windsor / BikeMonkey.net

23 — Tierra Bella Bicycle Tour / Southern Santa Clara County / TierraBella.org

23 — Mt. Laguna Classic / Pine Valley / PlanetUltra.com

23-24 — Chico Velo Wildflower Century / Chico / WildflowerCentury.org

24 — MTB Championship / Folsom Lake SRA / TotalBodyFitness.com

29 - May 1 — Belgian Waffle Ride California / San Marcos / BelgianWaffleRide.bike

30 — Ridge to Bridge / Marin / RidgeTrail.org/events

MAY

1 — Grizzly Peak Century / Moraga / 3 routes / Grizz.org/century

5 — Quick n’ Dirty Summer Series, #1 / Escondido / QuicknDirtyMTB.com

7 — Ales & Trails / San Rafael / Bikes, beers, bbq, good music & good times / Benefits Access4Bikes / ICareClassic.org

7 — I Care Classic Bike Tour / San Jose / 4 routes / ICareClassic.org

8 — California DIRT MTB Series #1 / Nevada City / Hoot, Pioneer & Dascombe Trails / ybonc.org

12 — Quick n’ Dirty Summer Series, #2 / Escondido / QuicknDirtyMTB.com

14-15 — Bike MS: LA Coastal Challenge / Santa Monica / BikeMS.org

15 — Strawberry Fields Forever Ride / Watsonville / StrawberryFields.org

15 — Sherwood Adventure / Fort Bragg / Epic coastal roads. / Half gravel and half pavé / Finishes with 40 miles of gravel back to Fort Bragg / 88 mi. 8500 ft. / GrasshopperAdventureSeries.com

19 — Quick n’ Dirty Summer Series, #3 / Escondido / QuicknDirtyMTB.com

21 — Grinduro / Shasta / Grinduro.com

21 — Chain Smoker / Las Vegas / Desert riding with Red Rock Canyon as a backdrop / QuicknDirty.com

21 — Georgetown Enduro (all-new) / Georgetown / Presented by MTB Experience and California Expeditions / CaliforniaEnduroSeries.com

21 — Stetina’s Paydirt / Carson City, NV / StetinasPaydirt.com

26 — Quick n’ Dirty Summer Series, #4 / Escondido / QuicknDirtyMTB.com

28 — Ridin High at the Ranch / Susanville / ybonc.org

28 — Heartbreak Hundred / Los Padres National Forest / PlanetUltra.com

28 — Heartbreak Double Century / Los Padres National Forest / PlanetUltra.com

JUNE

4 — Wente / Willits / RaceWente.com

4 — Eastern Sierra Double Century / Bishop / PlanetUltra.com

4 — Mammoth Bar Enduro / Mammoth / Presented by TBF Racing and The Hub Roseville / CaliforniaEnduroSeries.com

4 — Lost and Found Gravel Grinder / Portola / 40 mile, 60 mile & 100 mile / Epically beautiful / Pavement, dirt road, gravel road and historic railroad grade / SierraTrails.org/events

SUNDAY

Spring Races & Events Calendar

BIKING, cont.

5 — Humboldt / Weott / Series Finale / Two timed segments / Two dirt sections / Redwoods, river crossings, remote coastal roads / Best 100 mile ride in NorCal / GrasshopperAdventureSeries.com

5 — America’s Most Beautiful Bike Ride / Lake Tahoe / BikeTheWest.com

9 — Quick n’ Dirty Summer Series, #5 / Escondido / QuicknDirtyMTB.com

11 — Truckee Dirt Fondo / Truckee / BikeMonkey.net

11 — Tour of Two Forests / Santa Clarita / PlanetUltra.com

11 — Fears, Tears & Beers / Ely Nevada / The oldest and toughest MTB enduro in the US / ElyNevada.net/fears-tearsand-beers

11 — Gold Country Cycling Challenge Road & Gravel Ride / Nevada City / RotaryGoldCountryChallenge.com

16 — Quick n’ Dirty Summer Series, #6 / Escondido / QuicknDirtyMTB.com

18 — Climb to Kaiser / Clovis / ClimbToKaiser.com

18-25 — Sierra to the Sea Bicycle Tour / Lake Tahoe to SF / SierraToTheSea.org

23 — Quick n’ Dirty Summer Series, #7 / Escondido / QuicknDirtyMTB.com

25 — China Peak Enduro / Lakeshore / Presented by China Peak Mountain Resort / CaliforniaEnduroSeries.com

25 — Alta Alpina Challenge / Markleeville / AltaAlpina.org/challenge

28 — California DIRT MTB Series #2 / Susanville / Ridin’ High at the Ranch / ybonc.org

30 — Quick n’ Dirty Summer Series, #8 / Escondido / QuicknDirtyMTB.com

RUNNING

APRIL

2 — American River 50 Mile Endurance Run / Sacramento to Auburn / ar50mile.com

9 — Romancing the Island Half Marathon & 10K / Angel Island State Park / Envirosports.com

9 — The Mighty Dog Trail Runs / Granite Beach, Folsom SRA / TotalBodyFitness.com

24 — Big Sur International Marathon / Big Sur / BigSurMarathon.org

30 — Ridge to Bridge / Marin / RidgeTrail.org/events

30 — T9 Mermaid Run East Bay / Fremont / MermaidSeries.com

30-May 1 — Badwater Salton Sea / Borrego Springs / So Cal deserts & mountains / 81 miles & 9K’+ of elevation road and trail / teams of two to three ultra runners / NOT a relay / Badwater.com

MAY

1 — Fair Oaks Sun Run / Fair Oaks / FairOaksSunRun.com

7 — Miwok 100K / Stinson Beach / Miwok100K.com

7 — Wild Wild West Marathon / Lone Pine / plus 50K, 50mi, & 10mi / LonePineChamber.org/events

7 — Dirty Secret Trail Run / Cool / DirtySecretTrailRun.com

14 — Quicksilver Endurance Runs - 100K & 50K / San Jose / QuicksilverRunning.com

14 — Gold Country 5K & Kids K / El Dorado Hills / goldcountryrun.com

21 — Bishop High Sierra Ultras / Bishop / 20mi, 53K, 50mi, 100K & 6K fun run in the scenic foothills of the Eastern Sierra Nevadas / BishopUltras.com

21 — Malibu Creek Trail Run / Malibu / TrailRace.com

22 — Surfer’s Path Marathon / Santa Cruz & Capitola / Coastal courses / Breathtaking scenery / Beachfront finish with music and celebration / RunSurfersPath.com

28 — Armed Forces Half Marathon / Concord / ArmedForcesHalf.com

28 — Heartbreak Hundred / Los Padres National Forest / PlanetUltra.com

29 — Siren Run / Minden / Peaceful protest run / RideAgainstRacism.com

29 — Wounded Warriors 5K Run/Walk / Manteca / OnYourMarkEvents.com

30  — No Excuses 5K / Sacramento / noexcuses5k.com

JUNE

TBA — State Street Mile / Santa Barbara /StateStreetMile.com

3-4 — Reno-Tahoe Odyssey Relay Run Adventure / Reno-Tahoe / RenoTahoeOdyssey.com

Confirm dates and details with event producers.

4 — Truckee Running Festival: Waddle Ranch Trail Half, Legacy 5K & 10K / Truckee / TahoeTrailRunning.com

4 — Marine Corps Mud Run / Camp Pendleton / MarineCorpsMudRun.com

11 — Olympic Valley Half and 8 Miler / Olympic Valley / OlympicValleyHalf.com

18 — Rock Tahoe Half Marathon / Lake Tahoe, NV / EpicTahoe.com

18 — Ward Mountain Trail Run / Ely, NV / elyoutdoorenthusiasts.org

19 — Burton Creek Trail Runs / Tahoe City / 6K, 12K, Half Marathon / TahoeTrailRunning.com

25-26 — Western States 100 / Olympic Valley / wser.org

SKIING

APRIL

3 — Mammoth Marathon / Mammoth Lakes / FarWestNordic.org

16 — Caldera Burn / Mammoth Mountain / Ski & skin / five ascents & descents / Elite and recreational routes available / MammothMountain.com/ caldera-burn

16 — Billy Dutton Uphill / Palisades / FarWestNordic.org

SWIMMINGA

JUNE

25 — Tahoe City Swim / Tahoe City / TahoeSwimming.com

TRIATHLON / DUATHLON

APRIL

3 — Millerton Lake Triathlon / Millerton Lake / SierraCascades.com

23 — ICE Breaker Triathlon & ICE Breaker Dash Triathlon/Duathlon / Folsom Lake / TotalBodyFitness.com

MAY

14 — Folsom Lake International Triathlon / Folsom Lake / TotalBodyFitness.com

15 — Herbalife24 Triathlon / Los Angeles / Herbalife24tri.la

22 — Orange County Tri Series / Lake Mission Viejo / OCTriSeries.com

22 — Morgan Hill Sprint Triathlon / UVAS Reservoir / USAPevents.com

APRIL 16, 2022 | MAMMOTH MOUN TAIN

Lung-burning fun for all. Starting from Canyon Lodge, participants ski and skin their way through ve ascents and descents on Mammoth Mountain to complete this battle against themselves and the terrain for a spot on the podium. Elite and recreations routes available.

FOR MORE INFO AND TO REGISTER, VISIT MAMMOTHMOUNTAIN.COM/CALDERA-BURN

Summer & Beyond

16 — Color Me Ely / Ely, NV / 5K / ElyOutdoorEnthusiasts.org

27-28 — Northstar Enduro / Truckee / CaliforniaEnduroSeries.com

11 — Tour de Tahoe - Bike Big Blue / Lake Tahoe / BikeTheWest.com

JUNE

11 — TRI for REAL #1 / Rancho Seco Park, Herald / TotalBodyFitness.com

12 — TRI for FUN #1 / Rancho Seco Park, Herald / TotalBodyFitness.com

25 — Tahoe Off Road Triathlon / Tahoe City / AdventureSportsWeekTahoe.com

VAN EXPO

Adventure Van Expo / Various dates & locations / Open house vans, 4X4 rigs and gear / Demos and workshops / Music, food and camping / See ad on page 33 / AdventureVanExpo.com

PLAN AHEAD

JULY

16 — Death Ride - Tour of the California Alps / Markleeville / 6 pass ride, 103 mi, and 14,000 ft of lung-busting climbing / DeathRide.com

23 — Santa Cruz Mountains Challenge / Santa Cruz / Four ride options / challenging climbs / coastal views / gorgeous scenery / SantaCruzMountainsChallenge.com

23 — Golden Gate Sharkfest Swim / Sausalito / SharkFestSwim.com

23 —Donner Lake Triathlon / Truckee / DonnerLakeTri.com

24 — Alpine Fresh Water Swim / Truckee / TahoeSwimming.com

27 — Granite Bay Triathlon / Folsom Lake / TotalBodyFitness.com

30-31 — Mt Shasta Enduro / McCloud / Presented by Mt Shasta Ski Park / CaliforniaEnduroSeries.com

AUGUST

13 — Remembrance Run / Yerington Paiute Tribe / Hosted by runner Kutoven Stevens / In honor of the children who survived Indian boarding schools / 50 miles in two days / fb.me/e/1XWTYJ5yU

13 — Sky High Tri / Ely, NV / Triathlon, duathlon, relay / Sprint, beginners & kids / ElyOutdoorEnthusiasts.org

28 — Lake Tahoe Open Water Swim / Tahoma / TahoeSwimming.com

SEPTEMBER

5 — Alcatraz Invitational / San Francisco / 1.27mi open water swim / From Alcatraz Island to Aquatic Park Beach / Views of the city, Golden Gate Bridge and Bay Bridge in the distance / SERC.com/alcatraz-invitational

10 — Race the Rails / Ely, Nevada / Mountain bikers and road bikers race against the train / elynevada.net/racethe-rails

10-11 — Mendo Hopper / Mendocino County / Two day adventure ride. / Little known dirt roads / Day 1 — 75 miles & 6,500 ft / Day 2 — 79 miles & 7,990ft / GrasshopperAdventureSeries.com

10-17 / California Coast Classic / SF to LA / Fully supported / Ride iconic Highway 1 at your our own pace / Use code ADVENTURE for $25 off / Events. Arthritis.org

17 — Take it to the Lake Half Marathon, 10 K & Kids Fun Run / Ely, NV / ElyOutdoorEnthusiasts.org

21 - 25 / Yosemite Facelift / Yosemite / Pick up litter and engage in service projects / YosemiteFacelift.com

26 - Oct 2 — OATBRAN (One Awesome Tour Bike Ride Across Nevada / Lake Tahoe to Baker, NV / Epic cycling journey across Nevada / BikeTheWest.com

OCTOBER

16 — Wahine 10K / 6K / Santa Cruz & Capitola / Coastal courses / Breathtaking scenery / Beachfront finish with music and celebration / RunSurfersPath.com

NOVEMBER

11-13 — Monterey Bay Half Marathon / Monterey Bay / Run along Cannery Row and next to the Pacific Grove shoreline / USATF certified / MontereyBayHalfMarathon.org