well off the beathen path

Update for Sequoia Forest, 2012 Southern Sierra areas include - Sequoia National Forest, Kern River Canyon, Kernville, Tehachapi, Kennedy Meadows, Golden Trout, Domeland, Western Divide, Giant Sequoia National Monument. Further north, there is a small chunk of National Forest land smack dab in between Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks, some of the best, free Sequoia car camping anywhere . new: USDA National Forest waterproof map, updated and printed in late 2011 . The Wilderness areas of the Southern Sierra Nevada, known as SEQUOIA, has renamed their ranger districts too. Kern river & Sequoia ranger offices What was once Greenhorn Ranger District is now called Kern River Ranger District - one office in Kernville and one office on Lake Isabella .  Sequoia Hot Springs Ranger District in California Hot Springs is gone and a new Western Divide Ranger District is located in Springville, CA . Giant Sequoia...

As independent innkeepers, marketing hotel property online and off line is now equally important. Gone are the days when you could run a small advertisement in the local newspaper and hope travelers see it. Now a full menu of advertising campaigns is necessary to even survive. A professional looking web site about your lodge with great photos, a map and current room rates, is a must in todays competitive market. hotel advertisement ON LINE - First you need to understand your cyber market, the folks that are surfing the web looking for a place to stay next weekend. Most are on the web daily, many for well over a decade and they expect web site to work properly. Amazing looking photographs to illustrate just how unique your property is just the start. They expect all links, emails, forms or PDF downloads to work correctly, all seasonal pages to be updated a few times per year, and they expect to be able to gather recreation and tourist information on your local Cal...

Benchmark Maps are the best, full state, full featured, road map for exploring the Western US. DanaMite, founder of Total Escape, has been using hers since 2000, and has always found a place to camp, on any dirt road, even in the wee hours of the night. Imagine waking up the next morning, with stunning scenery all around, cuz you went the distance. Benchmark Atlases for the Western United States CALIFORNIA ARIZONA NEW MEXICO NEVADA UTAH WASHINGTON OREGON

The masses still prefer prime time television and spoon fed news, over the web (www).  Many wish to deny reality and create fantasy, and we are in their clutches. Control and greed go hand and hand, along with profits. Corporations have run us ragged for 50 years. THEY have made us dependent fools, consumers for their worldly game.  Manipulate, associate, master-bate, educate and spread the truth, followed with science. Our planet needs us to care for her, sooner than later. Global warming is happening , we now need a meeting of the minds. Denial is no longer an option. http://earthobservatory. nasa.gov /Features/GlobalWarming/

Holy flippin moly. My footwear could give me cancer. Sunday, gorgeous weather, Autumn has arrived, and a laundry kinda afternoon. Not your typical weekend, but who's watching. Chores, yuk. I was hanging my clothes up today and just started thinking about ALL of these plastic hangers I use.  Then it dawned on me that half the stuff in my home is plastic, or some processed chemical wood product. I've heard that some plastics cause cancer, but I never bothered to verify it or look it up. Cancer rates seem epidemic  of recent - but only a few bother to find out the scientific truth.  Is plastic really that bad? it appears so. My bare feet walking, sitting, sweating in these closed-cell foam sport sandal could very well be soaking toxic in the bottom of me feet.  My ultra sticky yoga mat is made from what? Check out the numbers on Ecology Center. information is free http://www.ecologycenter.org/factsheets/plastichealtheffects.html

Camp diva DanaMite is totally re-working the GEAR store on Total Escape this summer, building new product pages and working them into the map store for ease of shopping and a place for ever expanding inventory. Kayaks to camp stoves, bear canisters to BBQs, we have your outdoor gear covered. totalescape.com/gear/ camp gear GPS units camp storage camp lighting outdoor radios camp tents camp chairs camp soaps campfire pits outdoor stoves sleeping bags

The rivers and creeks are all flowing extremely well this season, as snow is still melting in the higher elevations. Some folks have lost their lives recently because of the wild water, so be VERY careful around all water sources this summer. Just got back form a week exploring Plumas County back roads in the Northern Sierra Nevada. From Donner Pass to Downieville, Susanville to Lake Almanor, Total Escape R&D camped, GPSed and photographed some great camping sites, amazing lakes and some fierce waters. Lassen National Park was still closed on the south entrance due to snow. Mill Creek (shown above) is a small river this summer. Not the clear mellow stream we are accustom to seeing. You can expect mud or snow above 7000' elevation well into late summer. And be warned many developed Campgrounds are still closed.