Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

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 one I will write. I am not giving up authorship of the column voluntarily, but rather necessarily, due to stage 4 cancer.

During “Roam’s” first seven years, I described nearly 300 outdoor activities and adventures, primarily hikes, within San Diego County only. By the year 2000, the list of remaining places to cover within the county was wearing thin, and it was time to expand the geographic scope of the column to include all of Southern California. In addition, many of the previous “Roam”-column topics from the ’90s on San Diego locales were repeated in updated form over the next 11+ years.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Researching and writing the column has been a great gig. Nice work if you can get it, some would say.

I have two nuggets of advice for those who have been enticed to read this column at one time or another, but have not yet translated learning into action.

(1) Just get out there! You’d be hard pressed to find any other region in the world as scenically diverse and magnificent as Southern California. That statement is even more applicable to San Diego County.

(2) When planning a hike or other outdoor activity, be mindful of the time of the year and the time of day. The visual richness of the landscape is often colored by factors like sun angle. Choose hikes in high places when the air is crystal clear, and avoid the desert and other inland areas when it’s hot and dry. The “summer equals hiking” paradigm adopted by most people in the United States does not apply very well here, except along the immediate coastline.

I would like to thank Reader publisher Jim Holman for his support of this column from its inception. A big thanks as well goes to my longtime editor Leslie Venolia and production specialists Robert Mizrachi and Chris Woo.

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

A history of the house on the hill at Ivanhoe Ranch

From Apolinaria Lorenzana to Jane Goodall

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 one I will write. I am not giving up authorship of the column voluntarily, but rather necessarily, due to stage 4 cancer.

During “Roam’s” first seven years, I described nearly 300 outdoor activities and adventures, primarily hikes, within San Diego County only. By the year 2000, the list of remaining places to cover within the county was wearing thin, and it was time to expand the geographic scope of the column to include all of Southern California. In addition, many of the previous “Roam”-column topics from the ’90s on San Diego locales were repeated in updated form over the next 11+ years.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Researching and writing the column has been a great gig. Nice work if you can get it, some would say.

I have two nuggets of advice for those who have been enticed to read this column at one time or another, but have not yet translated learning into action.

(1) Just get out there! You’d be hard pressed to find any other region in the world as scenically diverse and magnificent as Southern California. That statement is even more applicable to San Diego County.

(2) When planning a hike or other outdoor activity, be mindful of the time of the year and the time of day. The visual richness of the landscape is often colored by factors like sun angle. Choose hikes in high places when the air is crystal clear, and avoid the desert and other inland areas when it’s hot and dry. The “summer equals hiking” paradigm adopted by most people in the United States does not apply very well here, except along the immediate coastline.

I would like to thank Reader publisher Jim Holman for his support of this column from its inception. A big thanks as well goes to my longtime editor Leslie Venolia and production specialists Robert Mizrachi and Chris Woo.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Gonzo Report: Hockey Dad brings UCSD vets and Australians to the Quartyard

Bending the stage barriers in East Village
Next Article

How Much Time Do I Get With My BetterHelp Therapist?

Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader