Angeles National Forest - Annoying Road Closure Near Chantry Flat

Yesterday I drove all the way up to Angeles National Forest from San Diego to start a hike from Chantry Flats, my new favorite spot in the whole National Forest, only to be blocked at the top of Santa Anita Avenue by a sign that said ROAD CLOSED. There was a car that had hit a very large tree branch stuck there, and a bunch of kids standing around with the driver; they told me the road was blocked off for brush clearing. Given the nature of the vehicular mishap (the driver was okay), I had to wonder if this was coincidence. I don't know - but it would have been nice to know what was going on. Emergencies happen and sometimes the Forest needs to close roads, but as it was all I knew was that I'd just driven 2.5 hours, to get turned around by an unannounced closure of unknown purpose. Suck!


Icehouse Canyon, where I ended up. Still manages to make this NorCal boy homesick. From the Rambles in the Brambles blog.

I ended up hitting over to Icehouse Canyon instead and still had a nice hike, but Angeles NF is starting to seem pretty opaque in its closures (first the confusion and delay in releasing information and maps covering the fire-restricted area, and then this personal snafu.) Dan Simpson, whose SoCal hiking website is an amazing resource, also passed along this link with scheduled closures - if you hike in Angeles, bookmark it to avoid the same irritation.

Follow BoonDOCS Medicine on Twitter

If you're on Twitter (and why the heck wouldn't you be, you throwback reactionary Luddite counterrevolutionary)* then you should follow @boonDOCSwildmed. This is the Twitter feed for BoonDOCS Medicine, the Outdoor Channel show where I just joined the writing team.


The BoonDOCS Medicine logo, which if you haven't noticed is cool.

I've long wanted to know more about practical medicine in the backcountry, and now that I'm in med school I damn well should - so here's my opportunity to contribute to people's knowledge while also building my own. I'm pretty excited about it. I'll be writing the tweets and most blog posts for May so if you have any ideas about what we should cover, please don't hesitate to let me know. And make sure to follow @boonDOCSwildmed!

*This is what's called "the fervor of the newly converted"

Welcome, BoonDOCS Medicine Visitors!

If you're visiting from BoonDOCS Medicine, welcome! I'm grateful to Dr. K. for selecting me to contribute to the site and show and I hope you stay a while to check out my personal blog here - operative word personal. So, usual disclaimer stuff: because it's my personal blog, anything you see on here is my own personal opinion and doesn't reflect anything to do with BoonDOCS Medicine, the Outdoor Channel, UCSD School of Medicine, yada yada or anyone else besides my own bad self. What it WILL reflect is cool stuff that I dig, like trail running and related stuff in San Diego, San Francisco and Pennsylvania, and conservation and safety topics in general.

To those of you who were already reading my blog, let me announce that I'm lucky enough to now be able to write for a wilderness medicine show on the Outdoor Channel called BoonDOCS medicine. Right now I'm starting out blogging and tweeting and eventually (if time commitments allow) would like to move on to contributing to the show. Here's my totally BS bio for your amusement.

Do you have ideas for wilderness medicine topics you'd like to see on the show? Leave a comment! Because if you just email me, I'll steal it and not credit you. No seriously, comment so then other people will start thinking too. I want to know what's important to folks!

Off-Line Until End of June

Dearest readers, I must again sign-off, this time until late June, so I can focus on more pressing issues. Until then: stay safe, enjoy the outdoors, and protect open space and individual property rights! Unless you read this within a few hours of my posting it, I will have already updated the previous post about BCS rankings with the 2010 season stats, as promised previously.