Hike: Mission Hills & Presidio Park

This was a part urban, part nature walk through the fancy Mission Hills neighborhood, then in and around Presidio Park. There are some beautiful homes to gawk at on this trip but Presidio Park is the real destination. You’ll find several hidden clearings, and a nice bench to take a break after a steep hill. Also, commemorative statues abound here- perfect for those lewd and hilarious photo opportunities. Overall, a nice and non-crowded park. The walk has some elevations and some patches of rough terrain, but not too much of a challenge. Also, if you like weather vanes (don’t ask) you’ll find several good examples here.

The route mapped here isn’t completely accurate as I had trouble determining the specific trails. But you can figure it out easily when you get there.

Hike: Balboa Park east grand tour

So where is the largest urban park in the country? If you guessed Central Park in NYC or Griffith Park in LA then guess again.

Balboa Park lies in the heart of San Diego, and is not only the largest urban park in the US, but also home to the San Diego Zoo. While most folks just visit the zoo or museums, the best part of Balboa is the hundreds of acres of undeveloped land and the many miles of trails. I often forget that a 15 minute walk from my house is the start of several fantastic and well-maintained hikes.

This 7.7 mile trip is basically a grand tour of the eastern half of Balboa. Its a good mix of unspoilt San Diego nature with some historic neighborhoods and a golf course thrown in. The elevation is mostly level and the trail gentle, but there are are a few hills and canyons, including a particularity steep climb at the end of the trip (folks not used to such terrain may want to map around the return stretch between Florida St and Park Blvd).

Overall, a great hike. And check out the cute house on 3406 Texas Street. Anyone want to buy it for a friend of mine? Anyone?

Grow Your Own Hops, part 2

Okay, so my last post didn’t mention how we actually planted the hops.  Its pretty damn easy, so here’s what to do:

1. Find a spot that gets partial to full sun. Hops love sun.
2. Dig a hole about 12″ across and 12″ deep.  Space each planting hole out about 2 feet. If you have tough rocky soil like we encountered, swear a lot.
3. Fill the hole(s) mostly full with planting soil. We used the cheap stuff that comes in the giant bags.
   

   Williamette Hop Rhizome. Notice the roots and the white buds.

4. Plant the rhizome in the hole about about 4-6 inches beneath the surface. Place the root pointing down, and the white buds pointing up.  Don’t sweat it if the depth isn’t exact or you don’t know which direction to plant the root.  Hops have been figuring out gravity long before we got involved.
5. Cover and level with more planting soil.
6. Water throughly and  keep the soil slightly moist until it sprouts.
7. Open a home brew, sit on the ground and watch the spot intently until it sprouts. This will take anywhere from 1-3 weeks.  I recommend another home brew.
8. At some point the little hop plant will break the surface and you’re on your way! This is what it will look like.
   

   Hops plant sprouting!

9. Have a home brew to celebrate.

Thats all for now.  Basically don’t fret about the details too much.  With water, lots of sun, and decent soil you can’t go wrong.

Next update will go over how to build support for the hops once they start to climb upwards

Creek to Bay Cleanup

A fossilized Great White Shark Tooth!

On Saturday morning a friend and I participated in the annual San Diego Creek to Bay Cleanup.  As a huge proponent of sleeping in, I was initially not crazy about the idea of getting up early on Saturday to pick up other people’s trash.  But it turned out to be a really fun and rewarding experience.

We chose Albatross Canyon because its in the hood and one of those neat little canyons that define the area.  Here’s a map. The weather was nice, we meet some neat and very dedicated people, and collected over 165lbs of trash! The coolest part however was this what my friend found in the creek bed that runs through the canyon.  A fossilized Great White Shark tooth!  A very random and cool find.

I’m tempted to return there with a backhoe and look for the rest of the shark.  Maybe I’ll just settle on going back next year for more trash/treasure.

Grow Your Own Hops

Hello- the blog is back in action!  So I thought I’d start out right with a serial post about how to grow hops. This is going to be a multi-post affair, but I hope to have all the details down in regular updates.

Williamette Hop Rhizome attacks! In 3D!

As an avid home brewer, the brew gang and I have slowly gotten more and more into the ingredients of brewing and less about drinking the beer itself.  Don’t get me wrong- I love home brew and we periodically have folks over for mass tastings, but as I got comfortable with the brewing process I started to wonder where and how the ingredients were made.  For instance, peat moss for beer clarity?  Really?!

Beer is comprised of 4 wonderful and basic components, water, malt, hops, and yeast.

So in the spirit of that simplicity I present to you:

GROWING HOPS: REVENGE OF THE RHIZOME, IN 3D!

Here’s what a hop rhizome looks like in 2D:

Williamette Hop Rhizome below an artist's delicious end result depiction.

And here’s what it looks like when you’ve defeated it.

Hop Rhizome defeated....for now?

Wait, I’m probably missing a bunch of before and after details. I’ll fill those in this week…

oh hai!

server died- but now i gots me some interwebs again.  now i just need some new content.  how hard could that be?