TCT #29 -- COVID-19

Rebecca Andrade, Gary Stockel, and I employed Zoom to produce this month's Tuolumne County Trailhead episode.  We discuss what we've been doing, watching, and reading during the statewide Stay At Home Order:

• Rebecca offers some nature-oriented websites such as California State Parks PORTS, https://www.ports-ca.us/ and Yosemite Nature Notes, https://www.nps.gov/yose/learn/photosmultimedia/ynn.htm
• Gary suggests a couple of books: "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson and "The Death and Life of the Great Lakes" by Dan Egan
• Wendy recommends some movies: "Wild," "A Walk in the Woods," "Mile...Mile and a Half," and "The Way."

Wendy also editorializes and PROMISES a return to hiking IF we all do our part to bend the COVID-19 pandemic projected infection curve:

• As Governor Newsom said, "Just assume that you potentially are contagious and act accordingly .. Be a good neighbor.  Be a good citizen."
• Bear in mind that "Asymptomatic transmission is driving coronavirus epidemic, experts say" (SF Chronicle headline, April 3, 2020)
• Respected hiking sites (American Hiking Society, https://americanhiking.org/blog/hiking-responsibly-faq-covid-19/) and outdoors organizations (Sierra Club) say to limit your outdoor excursions to your immediate neighborhood with members in your immediate household.
• During normal times, hiking is essential.  For now, we must sacrifice this simple pleasure out of care, concern, and love of our elderly and immune-compromised family and friends. Out of respect for businesses which closed to keep us healthy and businesses limping along in order to hopefully reopen after all this is over.  Out of respect for laid off workers and essential workers still providing services.  Out of respect for front-line health care providers and first responders.

Finally, we play our theme music, "Switchback" by Bill Horvitz (on his album "Tuolumne Songs"), in full.  No fade ins or fade outs or voice overs.  We need the optimism of this bright, cheerful song!

Please take a listen!  https://drive.google.com/open?id=1i9rl_uZpSUekhMH4ksDUHL8TcjmIssC4

Stay the bleep at home - COVID-19 non-hiking

"I Stayed Home" badge "stolen" from The Mountaineers

Hello, Trail Heads.
No hiking for us for a while.  We won't carpool; we won't crowd trailhead parking lots; we won't travel to rural areas and potentially impact their limited medical resources.

We will take walks in our own neighborhoods.  We may introduce and/or encourage our spouses, significant others, and housemates to join us in our favorite pastime.  There are predictions of a baby boom 9 months after the COVID-19 crisis ends.  We may also experience a Trail Head membership boom!

Meantime, you may want to seek out hiking or outdoor-oriented books, podcasts, movies, TV shows, YouTubes, websites, and more.  You may want to service your gear.  You may want to plan dream hikes and backpack trips for the future.  You may want to hone your nature journaling skills.  You may want to listen to the back catalog of "Tuolumne County Trailhead" (at the KAAD-LP 103.5 FM program archives:  https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-tKI43sgIjqTugSua5JH9oYDSJ735zr9).  You may want to support hiking, natural resource, and outdoor-oriented non-profits and organizations.

Wash your hands!  Don't touch your face!  Make a mask out of your bandanna!

Watch this space; I know we'll be seeing each other soon!  Love you, Trail Heads!  -w

Hiking Movies
"Wild," Cheryl Strayed's story about finding herself on the Pacific Crest Trail
"A Walk in the Woods," based on Bill Bryson's book about hiking the Appalachian Trail
"Mile ... Mile and a Half," five friends walk the John Muir Trail in a high snow year
"The Way," after his son dies while walking the Camino de Santiago, a grieving father completes the hike

Hiking Books
"The Man Who Walked Through Time," Colin Fletcher walked the length of the Grand Canyon in 1963
"Salt to Summit," Daniel Arnold hiked cross-country from Badwater, Death Valley to the Mt. Whitney summit in 17 days late one spring
"Trespassing Across America," Ken Ilgunas walked the proposed route of the Keystone Pipeline
"Into Thin Air," Jon Krakauer's classic about the disastrous 1996 climbing season on Mt. Everest

Hiking Podcasts
"The Outside Podcast," from Outside magazine (check out their old "Science of Survival" series)
"The First Forty Miles," Heather & Josh Legler, a married couple from Oregon produced a delightful  214 episodes that ended in December 2018
"Life in 16 Ounces," a fun podcast about outdoor adventure and beer, brought to us by Modesto-area residents Brandon and Paul
"Tough Girl Podcast," since 2014, Sarah Williams has been inspiring and motivating women and girls in outdoors pursuits through interviews with female explorers, adventurers, athletes, and plain folk

Hiking Online Learning Resources and Videos
"Yosemite Nature Notes," a video podcast available through your podcast provider and YouTube
"CA PORTS," California State Parks Online Resources for Teachers and Students
"Smithsonian Learning Lab," free online access to millions of Smithsonian images, recordings, texts, and videos

Local Organizations
Tuolumne River Trust
CSERC (Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center)
Stanislaus Wilderness Volunteers
American Hiking Society
KAAD-LP 103.5 FM, Sonora
YExplore
PCTA (Pacific Crest Trail Association)
Friends of the Inyo
Three Forests Interpretive Association
Yosemite Conservancy