Enjoying Outside, Inside: When You'd Rather Be Camping
Eliana Thompson • September 24, 2021
If you’re a fan of hiking, camping, and backpacking like me, you can probably relate to the antsy feeling of being stuck inside. Of course, there will always be times when we have to say home, whether it’s due to scheduling, responsibilities, finances, or weather. Whatever the case may be, here is a list of fun and productive things to help you prepare for your next adventure, all from the comfort of home.
- Clean out and reorganize your camping bins or gear. You know the bin- maybe it’s in your garage, or tucked away in the back of a closet, but take this as a sign that it’s time to dig it out and see what’s inside. Use any food that’s close to expiring, update your first aid kit, patch any holes in your tent or sleeping pads, and give some items a good wash.
- Test out some homemade backpacking or camping meals. Store-bought dehydrated backpacking meals can really add up and aren’t always the most nutritious. Making your own can be a fun, money saving activity that allows you to get as creative as you want with your backpacking meals. These dehydrating tips are a good place to start. When camping, take advantage of the additional ingredients and kitchen tools to try something new (or even, dare I say, gourmet?). These recipes from Fresh Off the Grid put a fun spin on camping classics, and these recipes from Bon Appetit look restaurant worthy.
- Plan your next trip primarily using a paper map. While virtual mapping and route planning resources are amazing and have made backcountry exploration much more convenient and accessible, they aren’t necessarily a replacement for physical maps. Improving your map reading skills using physical maps can help improve your trail navigation, give you a better feel for the landscape, and act as a safety measure. Here’s a helpful guide on how to read a topographic map, and a backpacker’s guide to maps to get you started.
- Take a wilderness first responder course. It’s important to recognize that when we get a little distance from civilization to immerse ourselves in the natural world, help isn’t always readily available when bad things happen. Being prepared with safety skills in the backcountry means you’re taking responsibility for not only your own life but also those you’re with. Sierra Club offers a Wilderness First Aid Class and National Outdoor Leadership School offers a Wilderness First Responder Course.
- Make some Do-It-Yourself camping tools. This is a great activity to do with kids and can save both time and money. There are tons of camping DIYs online, but a few I like include this homemade citronella candle, this hot food cozy, and these fire starters.
- Take a virtual tour of a National Park. While it’s always better to experience our nation’s natural and geologic wonders in person, today’s technology allows us to see some of these glorious landscapes without even getting in the car. Since it’s unlikely that most of us will visit every natural wonder we want to, this is an amazing opportunity.
-Eliana Thompson; ethompson@tuleyome.org
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Our wildest areas are under threat. In June, the Administration moved to weaken protections for our wildest public lands - those designated as wilderness, Wilderness Study Areas, Lands with Wilderness Characteristics, and recommended Wilderness. What do these areas represent? Millions of acres of untrammeled backcountry. The Department of the Interior, US Forest Service and National Park Service initiated the first step in unraveling these protections. They’ve called for a “review” of eight policies, opening the door to weaken protections and paving the way for short-term extractive industries, commercial development, and resource fragmentation at the expense of long-term conservation management of some of our wildest remaining public lands. Nearly 200 million acres of wildlands across the west could be impacted by this review, including approximately 120 million acres of Wilderness Study Areas and wilderness quality lands, and 75 million acres of designated wilderness areas. This includes the nearly 94,000 acres in Cache Creek, Cedar Roughs and Snow Mountain Wilderness areas in Berryessa Snow Mountain Nation Monument right here in our own region. These policies guide how federal agencies identify, manage, and steward designated Wilderness Areas, Wilderness Study Areas, and lands with wilderness characteristics. Together, they influence the management of millions of acres of federal public lands and translate statutory requirements into day-to-day management decisions. Continuing to protect wilderness qualities is consistent with protecting recreation. In many cases, wilderness-quality land provides the best opportunities for backcountry recreation; a CA outdoor industry responsible for 545,448 direct jobs valued at $38.1 billion. The total value-added worth of CA outdoor recreation is $81.5 billion, 2.2% of our gross domestic product. The Department of the Interior’s actions present a false choice between stewarding wilderness lands and providing opportunities for recreation. Let’s tell the Administration that we oppose these rollbacks and are committed to protecting our wild places. Sign on to the Wi lderness Review- National Sign-on Letter opposing five different actions across the three agencies by August 12th. Together, we can show this administration that we care about protecting these special places today and into the future. Sandra Schubert Executive Director
I first heard about Tuleyome when I retired early from UC Davis eight years ago. I was looking for local organizations for volunteer opportunities. I discovered Tuleyome and got connected with Bill Grabert and Nate Lillge. I helped them lead hikes and school programs, then took the CA Naturalist course through Tuleyome. My capstone project was to lead a backpacking trip into the Cache Creek wilderness, which I did just as COVID was descending on us. I was, and still am, impressed at how such a small local non-profit has both ensured preservation of important wild areas and invested heavily in outreach to local schools. Working with kids from Lake County in the Redbud area was eye-opening and extremely gratifying. Some of them had literally never been on a hike in spite of growing up so close to all that spectacular wild land! I donate to Tuleyome to help them keep up the great work!!! I’ve spent countless days hiking in and enjoying the Cache Creek area; what a gem of a local resource! And, only last spring was I able to get up to Snow Mountain…so glad it’s preserved and accessible for camping and hiking. Wow! A wilderness area near my home - that’s amazing. I’m incredibly grateful for Tuleyome’s hard work that resulted in preservation of these important wild places, and I look forward to seeing what’s next.
Driving around the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument one rainy day revealed a network of dirt roads that were slick as snnn… well, you probably know. The wet weather made driving less than optimal for the Subaru we were in but for our amphibian friends, the low-riding California newt, the warm, misty conditions were sublime. California Newts ( Taricha torosa ) are endemic to California, which means that they are extra special because they are only found here. They occur below 6,000 feet along the Coast Ranges from Mendocino County south to San Diego County. They are also found in the foothills and western slopes of the Sierra Nevada in the San Joaquin Valley with a few isolated populations in southern San Diego County. They utilize both wetland habitat including natural and artificial pools and ponds, reservoirs, creeks and streams for breeding during winter and spring, and upland areas such as chaparral and woodland habitats where they spend summer and fall. California Newts have stubby little toes attached to short, stocky legs. Adults range from about two and three quarters inches to about three and a half inches long, not including the tail. Their bellies and undersides of their neck and chin are bright golden yellow to orange with a reddish-brown to slate gray back. California Newts reproduce from late fall to early summer depending on rainfall amounts and habitat conditions. Adults migrate from their upland refugia to their preferred wetland to breed. Eggs are attached to submerged vegetation or under rocks and females can lay up to six masses of nearly 50 eggs a day. The eggs hatch in two to six weeks depending on water conditions and temperature. Larvae are aquatic and have gills and fins. After several months the larvae begin to exit the pond and set about metamorphosing into adults and do not return to the pond again until they are ready to breed. Larvae eat small aquatic invertebrates and organic matter; adults eat insects, slugs, snails and worms as well as other amphibian eggs and larvae. Adult California Newts are highly toxic. Like other members of the genus Taricha , adults have glands on their skin that secrete the potent neurotoxin tetrodotoxin - the same toxin that is found in harlequin frogs and pufferfish. Side note, this makes them poisonous rather than venomous (like rattlesnakes). Tetrodotoxin is hundreds of times more toxic than cyanide and potent enough to kill most vertebrates. The toxin affects sodium channels and makes it so neurons are unable to fire which results in lethal muscle paralysis. One of the only predators of adult California Newts are garter snakes. Garter snakes are one of the very few organisms that have evolved to develop a resistance to the tetrodotoxin produced by the newts. Garter snakes can ingest the toxic newts with limited effects which has created an evolutionary arms race (coevolution). As the garter snakes develop stronger immunity to the toxins only the most poisonous news survive which in turn results in future generations of news with even stronger toxins. This leads to a population of garter snakes that have developed a resistance to the stronger toxin levels and and on it goes. Loads of them were bumbling along the edges of the wet dirt road that rainy day. We made several stops to relocate those that were attempting to cross but seemed to stall out in the middle, always placing them facing the direction they were aimed. I don’t know if they were heading out to their natal ponds to mingle and breed, or on their way back to nap in their upland refugia but they were definitely enjoying the day. The California Newt is currently a California Species of Special Concern due to habitat loss and invasive non-native species introduction which makes seeing so many of these little stumpy legged tetrapods enjoying the Monument even even more groovy!