Bugforce Scale as proposed by Paul Wagner is an attempt to describe how annoying mosquitoes are from a qualitative perspective. An example of one of my level 8 experiences was descending into the basin holding Dick’s Lake. While walking down the trail I briefly stopped … “Bugforce Scale”
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The following is a reference I use when selecting the next hiking or backpacking destination with a bias toward Northern California. I make it in 2002 and just now am updating in because many of the links were out of date. Each year I say … “Hiking Destinations”
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The following is my typical packing list. Items “*” are optional. This list was extracted from my Packing & Traveling Light post. For a more complete description of these items see my yearly gear for life list. This list also exists as a google sheet which … “Packing List”
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You can get commercial information from NapaValley.COM. For years, I found The Best of the Wine Country to be a useful guidebook to the area, but it’s out of date now. Wine Wine is the first order of business. There are more than 400 wineries in the Napa … “Wine Country”
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San Francisco is a beautiful, world class city. There are numerous museums, places of nature beautiful, great food, and well known tourist spots. You could easily spend several weeks exploring San Francisco and only scratch the surface. The SF City Pass can be a good … “San Francisco”
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I would recommend taking two days to explore the area around Monterey. If you had a lot of time you could make it a four day leg and continue down Route 1 to Hearst Castle / San Simeon, Morro Bay, San Louis Obispo, and then … “Monterey Penisula & Big Sur”
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The Monta Loma (MLN) neighborhood was constructed in the 1950s as affordable housing in a “California Modern” style by three different developers. It’s on the northern end of Mountain View, adjacent to Palo Alto, and Los Altos. The neighborhood is bordered by the roads San … “Monta Loma Neighborhood and the Mid-Penisula”
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The following are notes I am pulling together for myself which might be useful to others who are considering walking The Way of Saint James. I had hoped to walk the Camino de Santiago in 2020, but that didn’t happen for obvious reasons. I am … “Camino de Santiago”
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I tend to prefer mildly spicy food with complex combinations of tastes. Southwest, Mexican, Indian, Thai, Fusion, Californian, and especially Pacific Rim. I can enjoy classic French and Vietnamese, but the subtlety is sometimes lost on me. Great meals involve more than food. It also … “Great Meals”
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I think most people would be best served packing light, and using a carry on size “travel pack” which is a cross between a backpack and soft-side luggage. Travel packs will often have light weight internal frames to make them easier to carry, handles on … “Travel Packs”
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I recommend clothing that can be comfortably worn day after day for a wide variety of activities. My clothing is typically made from technical fibers or merino wool which provides good mobility, decent durability, is light weight, fast drying, and odor/stain resistant. I use mostly … “Recommended Clothing”
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There are a number of general websites which cover the bay area including Yahoo Bay Area, SFGate (Chronicle & Examiner), San Jose Mercury News, CitySearch SF, Yelp and Craigslist. This post is mostly about living in the SF bay area. I have a separate post about visiting Northern California as a tourist. … “San Francisco Bay Area”
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I love the Big Island. You get a more more diverse experience than any of the other islands. General Hawaii Information Hawaii: Off the Beaten Path by Sean Pager is a bit dated now, but I have found it to be the best single guidebook which … “Hawaii – The Big Island”
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The following recommendations I have given friends from outside northern California who were planning a vacation here. Northern California Best Places has a lot of other ideas, though it’s a out of date now. These days you can get a “look” at many places through Google … “Visiting Northern California”
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My wife and I went on a multi-week trip to Xinjiang China to help a non-profit organization. Both of us took a carry on sized travel pack which held everything needed. This permitted our two check-through bags to be filled with educational materials that we … “Packing & Traveling Light”
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