well off the beathen path

It often seems as if I have forgotten about this long standing blogger blog, leaving it for months at a time without a post (maybe while traveling for weeks or working other more pressing projects). Over this past winter, I spent much time rebuilding older pages to a new format (WordPress) Outside Blog and I will continue this throughout the year. Covering the back roads like no other! I, DanaMite , am dedicated to the whole of Total Escape, my 8000 page web site on California travel destinations, off the beaten path . Established way back in 1996, in the web 1.0 days, on a 33k modem. First and foremost that I can offer is real world content, real experiences, travel logs, photos, GPS data and research I gather while exploring the golden state. Sleeping on the ground, tent camping outside of developed campgrounds, way back there "out in the field". Lakes, Rivers, Wilderness, Outdoor Recreation, Small Towns & Unique Lodging Managing databases on California d

WATERPROOF TOPOGRAPHIC MAPS Paper maps are fading fast. Literally, disappearing into landfills, campfires or into the archives of map collectors. Digital maps have totally taken over our lives and you'll be hard pressed to find a decent printed local area hiking map when traveling small towns inside California . Keep in mind that many of the middle-of-nowhere, back road destinations we feature on Total Escape do not receive adequate cell phone service, much less a wireless, high speed, digital network. So plan accordingly. Old timers, frequent travelers and experienced outdoor folks still want the hard copy - a real map! Waterproof and tear resistant plastic maps are now common. Tom Harrison was one if the first to offer quality plastic hiking maps. All the  NatGeo map titles are 2-sided, full color and plastic. USDA has slowly been transitioning their National Forests maps to plastic maps over the past few years. California Wilderness area maps are only about half