Jerry Schad

Jerry Schad authored the weekly column Roam-O-Rama for the Reader from 1993 to 2011. He is the author of many books about hiking and biking in Southern California and beyond. Jerry passed away in September 2011.

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Recent Articles

Mortero Palms

Take a walk through Mortero Palms in the Jacumba Mountains of Anza-Borrego.

From the trailmaster’s favorites folder. "Limmipedes,” my three-year-old son called them, those many-legged survivors from the Mesozoic era, marching across the sand in seemingly random directions, oblivious to our flashlight beams. Our land of limmipedes, ...

End of the Trail

I began writing the Reader’s “Roam-O-Rama” column on January 28, 1993, with a description of a wild and lonely campsite in the Anza-Borrego Desert called Mortero Palms. This “Roam” column, my 861st, is the last ...

June Bugs Emerging

June Bugs are emerging as summer's warmth is finally upon us. The green June beetle, only one of some 300 ...

Magnolia in Bloom

Magnolia, the southern-U.S.-native commonly planted as a decorative street tree in many of San Diego's older neighborhoods, continues to bloom ...

San Diego Heats Up

The heat of summer will most likely reach its feverish peak in inland San Diego County during the coming month ...

San Diego Zoo Loop

For a bit of morning exercise, especially if you’re a local San Diegan, consider this quick jaunt at the San Diego Zoo — a place not normally thought of as a hiking destination. Get there ...

Latest Sunset of the Year Tonight

The Latest Sunset of the year, 8:01 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time in San Diego, occurs tonight — Wednesday, June 29 ...

Agaves Blooming

Agaves, (a.k.a. century plants), are coming into bloom in many summer gardens this month. After a decade or more (not ...

San Diego in Colorful Bloom

Colorful foliage along San Diego's coastline lingers, despite the lack of rainfall and warmer, drier days. In the older, landscaped ...

Life's a (Cobbled) Beach

Cobbled shorelines are greeting some beachgoers early this summer season, as in past years. North County beaches tend to suffer ...

Imperial Beach Walk

Imperial Beach’s beaches are not as glamorous as others farther north, but they do include some very secluded stretches of sand, including the one described here, lying within the Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge. To ...