Naked dudes full#

This is very dangerous at the end of the day when you don't think you've been sweating much, and the fridge at the hotel is full of delicious Tioga-Sequoia beer. Except we were - we were constantly thirsty and quickly realized our sweat was just evaporating. We did some really long hikes (logged 12 miles one day), and we just weren't sweating. And it's gloriously dry, as in almost no humidity. But it doesn't rain much in the summer months. More: Boyle column: Is Wozniak getting preferential treatment? It doesn't rain in California My beach ball gut had nothing to do with it. As I learned, it's Mount Whitney in the Sierra Nevadas (on the edge of Sequoia National Park), at 14,505 feet. If you're like me, you probably thought Colorado, right? Wrong. A ranger told us that all the bears in the park are black bears, by species, but black bears can come in a range of colors, including brown. The weird thing was one cub was black, the other brown. We spotted a mama and two cubs on our meadow hike, and watched her rip bark off a tree and her two cubs saunter about. Hike a trail or climb a rock that requires basic exertion, and you leave the crowds behind. We took about a 2-mile hike on a meadow trail, which was gorgeous - and featured a bear sighting - and just encountered a handful of people. We first discovered this in Sequoia, where throngs of people surrounded the largest of the Sequoias, General Sherman: Crowds are really, really annoying when you're trying to commune with nature. More: Boyle column: City Schools superintendent turnover not helping achievement gap problem Exertion and crowds Oh, and conservationist John Muir is a real hero. Lesson? Left unhindered, man's voracious appetite for resources and money will stop at nothing. Interestingly, their wood is surprisingly light and not good for building much, so lumber companies naturally cut them down for yes, toothpicks. The sequoias, which reach up to about 275 feet high and are the largest trees on earth by mass, are beautiful, humbling and between 2,000-3,000 years old. So we went to Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park first, and both were just stunning.

We've got it good here in the brewpub department, folks, and really, with crime overall. But, I do highly recommend Tioga-Sequoia Brewing - fantastic Half Dome wheat beer! That would explain the armed security guard at the front gate, another by the taco truck and an unarmed guard milling around.

We flew into Fresno, California, which unbeknownst to us has 'one of the highest crime rates in America compared to all communities of all sizes - from the smallest towns to the very largest cities,' according to. Let's travel: Brewpubs and security guards So, I'll frame this as a 'lessons learned, and some weird information' piece and try not to dwell on the boring stuff. More: Boyle column: In Hickman beating case, is 'restorative justice' really justice at all? A Q&A with the DA

Naked dudes full#

It's just that the trip my wife, Grace, and I recently made to national parks in California, as well as Sausalito and San Francisco, was so full of quirky fun facts, silly behavior and stunning scenery, I do feel I must share. Yeah, they're usually a snoozefest.īut I promise that in breaking my promise I shall not put you to sleep. You know the deal - newspaper guy goes on vacation somewhere cool and then feels compelled to write up all the fascinating details.

As a columnist, I once promised myself I'd never bore you good readers with a 'travelogue' column.