Alternative Hiking Areas

[Hikin_Jim]

Since a lot of normally available hikes are currently off limits, here's a link to a list of alternative hiking areas. Please note that this list is from 2002 and that closure information isn't up to date. The list can be useful for identifying alternative hiking areas, but one still needs to do one's homework as to whether or not a particular area is open or not.

That said, here's the link: http://tchester.org/sgm/lists/nearby_hikes.html

HJ

[Cy Kaicener]

That's a great list HJ. What about the tramway road? There is always a strong breeze blowing there whereas Skyline is windless in the lower section. Would the wind be blowing bad air quality out, or bringing it in? Its a 2100 ft elevation gain. You can always bring your own air filter mask.

[Hikin_Jim]

Hi, Cy,

Was that you I saw walking the other day?

[cynthia23]

Just my wild and crazy two cents here, but seeing as a how a toxic cloud of benzene and carbon monoxide is currently blanketing the whole of Southern California, how about, for one weekend, NOBODY HIKES!

Seriously, folks, while I appreciate everyone's enthusiasm and inventiveness in trying to come up with some way somehow to hike somewhere, we will not die if we spend one weekend lying in bed contemplating the impossibility of everything (to steal a phrase from Zippity.) Right now here in Palm Springs, I literally cannot see the mountain, it's so smoky. Last night the moon was bright orange. Now, I'm not a pulmonary cardiologist, but I'm guessing this is not the ideal time for outdoor exercise. In fact, I would say that this isn't even a good time to walk from your front door to the mailbox. I don't think anybody should hike anywhere right now. It is just not healthy.

Maybe we should do like Olympic athletes do, and merely visualize hikes in our mind ...

[Cy Kaicener]

Cynthia - you are right - its not worth it.
This might be a good week end to get out of Southern California and head north.
HJ - Thats someone who is trying to avoid breathing bus exhaust fumes
Here is the calfire website
http://calfire.org

[AlanK]

FWIW, we've been very lucky this week. In our immediate area, the air is (and, for the most part, has been) pretty normal. I'm going on a local hike today.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... ome-center

From the Los Angeles Times

The air won't do you good

Anyone planning outdoor activities should think twice. Small children are particularly vulnerable.

By David Pierson, Marla Cone and Richard Winton
Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

October 27, 2007

Lenore Hittelman is in a quandary faced by many this weekend.

With the air still hazy with soot from the wildfires, do you allow your children to go play?

The choice is made that much harder for the Irvine mother because her oldest daughter's soccer team is scheduled to play a crucial match Sunday that could determine which division their squad will land in next season.

"We know the air quality is bad, but if the team needs you, what do you do?" Hittelman said as she and her children drove to Tarzana to stay with family to escape Orange County's poor air. "It's a difficult decision."

Whether the activity is youth sports, a hike, a bike ride or simply running errands, the region's air pollution is forcing people to adjust their routines -- and in many cases, stay indoors as much as possible.

Since Sunday, the air throughout nearly all of the Los Angeles Basin has had unhealthful concentrations of particulates spewed by the fires and spread by strong winds.

By today, air quality is expected to improve to moderate in L.A. County, except Santa Clarita. However, it will remain unhealthful for children and other sensitive people in much of Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District. In those areas, children, the elderly and anyone with respiratory or cardiac disorders such as asthma should not exert themselves, the AQMD said. Small children are particularly vulnerable because they have narrower airways and smaller lungs, and they inhale more pollutants than adults.

"We've entered a period with the wildfires where some judgment is required," Sam Atwood, an AQMD spokesman, said Friday.

Tiny particulates, whether from wildfire smoke, diesel exhaust or some other source, are a serious health threat because they can lodge deep in lungs. When particulates reach hazardous levels, hospitalizations, even deaths, increase from asthma, pneumonia, bronchitis, heart attacks and other respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.

For many people, the risk is temporary -- headaches, stuffy noses, stinging eyes, coughs and shortness of breath. But for others, it can be life-threatening.

Studies show that in the days after wildfires, hospitalizations from asthma, pneumonia, bronchitis and heart attacks rise. Even healthy people often cough and experience headaches, stinging eyes, stuffy noses and flu-like symptoms.

The air is worst in the fire zones, which include Orange County's Saddleback Valley, the San Bernardino Mountains, the San Bernardino Valley from Fontana to Yucaipa, and Riverside County between Corona and Temecula. In these areas, the AQMD has classified the air as unhealthful, meaning no one should exert themselves, and children, the elderly and people with asthma and other disorders should all remain indoors.

Any place where smoke can be smelled should also be considered unhealthful.

Many youth sports activities have been canceled close to the fire zones, but others are still scheduled for the weekend.

In Bellflower, Lorenzo Quezada was relieved when St. John Bosco High School's game against Mater Dei High School was canceled. His 15-year-old son, Steve, is a Bosco linebacker and has been feeling the effects of the bad air all week.

"The kids had been complaining about being out of breath, irritations of the throat and headaches even while running inside," he said.

The levels of particulates in much of the L.A. Basin this week were many times higher than they are on even highly polluted days when there are no fires. Because of winds driving smoke many miles away, the areas with the worst problems included Long Beach, Simi Valley, Riverside and parts of Orange County.

Frank Salisbury doesn't know if his sons' flag football games have been canceled today or not, but he's already decided that the boys won't go.

"The air's too heavy," Salisbury, 62, of Ladera Heights, said. "I wouldn't want them to play. If you don't have to, why do it? It's a health risk to go outside and do any activity."

Adults, particularly those who enjoy outdoor activities on weekends, face their own dilemma.

After much uncertainty, the San Diego Chargers announced Friday that the team would play its 1 p.m. Sunday home game against the Houston Texans as scheduled at Qualcomm Stadium. The Chargers have been practicing in Tempe, Ariz., since Wednesday because the stadium was being used as an evacuation center.

Yashar Kafi, 31, of Pasadena had just finished a six-mile run around the Rose Bowl on Friday afternoon and said he'd seen only half the usual number of runners outside the stadium in recent days. The typical scene of mothers pushing their children in strollers was absent. He said he found it harder to warm up and harder to breathe.

Christine Walker was sitting in a Pasadena park watching her 2-year-old son, Ryan, run circles in the grass. It was a relief to be outdoors after spending so much time in her home, she said.

"If I were in Orange County, I probably wouldn't go outside without a mask," said Walker, 30, who is pregnant. "But we can't stop going to the park and we can't stop living just because there's a fire going on."

A massive tree-planting drive scheduled for today was postponed in L.A. because of health concerns but will go on in parts of Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties. The event, organized by United Voices for Healthier Communities, was two years in the making and aimed to put 6,500 new trees into the ground. But organizers had to heed the warning of one of the event's sponsors, the AQMD.

"The whole point was to clean the air," said the organization's chairman, Andy Trotter, laughing in slight disbelief at the irony. "A whole lot of people had already dug holes. Certainly the timing wasn't very good."

Whether events are canceled or not, organizers have been forced to address the air quality issue.

"Obviously we're very concerned," said Muna Coobtee, who organized an antiwar protest in downtown L.A. still scheduled for today. "We'll provide a lot of water and first aid just in case. But I think people want to be there anyway."

For Hittelman, the Irvine mother, the smoky air has changed many plans. A book fair at a school library, a meeting of mothers from the school of one of her daughters and a Halloween costume party were all canceled Friday.

She said she's been stir-crazy staying at home and feels even worse for her oldest daughter Kimberly, 13, who is athletic and isn't used to having to pass all her time surfing the Internet and playing video games.

"She hasn't been sleeping well," Hittelman, 37, said. "She isn't getting her regular exercise."

Of course, many parents said it's also important to put the bad air in perspective.

Susan Hetsroni, 46, who lives on L.A.'s Westside, said the disappointment of having sporting events for her three children canceled paled in comparison with the hardship faced by those who lost homes in the wildfires.

"Given what people are going through, this is a time to count your blessings," she said. "Your eyes may sting and you have to stay inside, but some people are desperately hurting."

[halhiker]

the weather in the desert today was hot but clear, too hot for me to hike so I went to the golf cart parade instead (actually my third grade son played clarinet with his school band).

While the air quality was not too bad here I'd hate to have any of the forum members in other areas do a Marie Osmond. Let's hope it's clearer and cooler next weekend.

any thoughts of a fall gathering?

Hal

[Perry]

any thoughts of a fall gathering?

It kind of sounds like nobody is organizing anything, but there is an art show at my work on Nov 17th. It doesn't cost money to show up and chat.
http://www.mikedougherty.com/
http://www.mmodern.com/

[cynthia23]

I don't know if I should say this because maybe this too is not a good idea, fire-wise, but ya know folks, it is perfectly possible to go half way up Skyline and then, TURN BACK. It gives you a better work out anyway. Just turn around at about five thousand feet. It makes for a long hard day and works your quads and knees really well. Just do not go past five thousand feet because a) you will start encroaching onto the MSJ park terrain b) it is excruciating when you go up any further and then come down--by the bottom of the trail your legs will be shaking.

Be safe/careful wherever you hike this weekend, which will be warm and dry and windy ...

[KathyW]

Cynthia - I did that with Cy the first time I went up the Skyline Trail because we didn't know what kind of ice/snow we'd run into up higher - it certainly is a good workout.