It’s still 2020 and the pandemic-/-climate change apocalypse just got even worse.

The West Coast is burning. Residents of the San Francisco Bay Area awoke to dark orange skies, as a thick layer of smoke settled over Northern California. (Smoke scatters blue light, allowing only red and yellow to reach the ground.)

It’s hard to overstate how really, terribly bad this fire season has been. In California alone, wildfires have blown through 2.5 million acres of land since the beginning of the year — about 10 times more than last year, and much more than 2018’s previous record of 1.8 million acres.

Meanwhile, in Washington state, fires erupted over Labor Day weekend, scorching 330,000 acres in just 24 hours. The smoke led cities across the West Coast to warn their residents to stay inside and keep windows closed to avoid breathing some of the dirtiest air in the world.

One of the reasons, of course, is climate change. High temperatures dry out vegetation and the surrounding air, making wildfires more likely to burn fast and hard. The fire season has also lengthened. What was once a four-month season has stretched to six or even eight months in some regions of the U.S., according to the Forest Service.

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When Mandy Keathley began hiking the John Muir Trail, she expected the over 200-mile journey to take about 18 days.

The 32-year-old hadn’t made plans for the summer. So when she got a month off from work, she figured it was the perfect time to spend a few weeks in the open air. She packed a 45-liter backpack with her tent, sleeping bag, stove, food, water filtration and clothes.

What she didn’t expect was for her solo hike to go up in smoke and end — about a week after it started — in a predawn evacuation on a military helicopter.

Hundreds of people endured similar surreal experiences trapped in remote locations of the Sierra Nevada by the destructive Creek fire. The blaze grew to more than 100,000 acres over the Labor Day weekend and left hikers, campers and others stranded with no apparent way out.

By 2 p.m. Sept. 8th, California Army National Guard helicopter crews had rescued a total of 373 people and 16 dogs.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said at a briefing, “They saved many, many lives and that’s just an example of the kind of heroism that is a big part of this moment as well.”

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More than a dozen aftershocks continued to ramble through the eastern Sierra near Mount Whitney, forcing rangers to delay searching for possible victims and assessing the damage done to several popular hiking trails by a 5.8 earthquake that rocked the region.

The initial quake struck in a rural area of the Owens Valley Fault System, which is known to occasionally produce big quakes, near the town of Lone Pine — about 45 miles east of Mount Whitney.

While it caused little damage to structures in the rural region, the quake did rock the Whitney Portal campground area. It has been followed by more than two dozen aftershocks over the last 24 hours ranging in magnitude from 4.6 to 2.5.

The aftershocks delayed efforts to search for possible victims. Rangers said no one has been reported missing but the area is extremely popular with hikers. There were 40 vehicles in the parking area near the Whitney Portal campgrounds at the time of the quake.

“After an evaluation by a U.S. Forest Service geologist this morning, the intention is to send in search and rescue teams and canines to check each of the debris fields,” according to a release by the Inyo County Sheriff’s Department.

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  A scenic hiking destination in Thousand Oaks, CA has been shut down after visitors left behind large amounts of trash and human waste, authorities said.

Paradise Falls in Wildwood Park has been overrun with crowds “in the hundreds” in the past two weeks as the weather has started warming up and residents cooped-up by COVID-19 look to get outdoors.

According to Conejo Open Space Conservation Agency (COSCA), rangers have collected “multiple truckloads of trash” left at the 40-foot canyon waterfall despite the presence of trash cans in the area.

The organization also cited issues involving human waste after “many used areas along the creek both upstream and downstream as a toilet.”

“COSCA has worked diligently to encourage visitors to be respectful of the environment and fellow visitors, and to obey posted rules, but many have not answered these calls,” a spokesperson said.

Paradise Falls will be closed starting Friday “until further notice.” The Thousand Oaks Police Department will be on site and will issue citations for anyone entering the posted closure area, according to COSCA.

Note: This can happen anywhere if we don’t behave. Please follow Leave No Trace principles. Be a good steward.

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Battery storage is a vital part of a cleaner grid because it helps to fill in the gaps left by the fact that wind and solar are intermittent resources. And, like wind and solar, the growth of battery storage is closely tied to a decrease in its costs.

The combination of high need and falling costs means we are seeing new projects on a scale we’ve never seen before, including a whopper announced in California.

The utility Southern California Edison said it will work with developers to build seven lithium-ion battery storage projects that add up to an eye-popping 770 megawatts, which is more than all of the battery storage projects commissioned in the country last year and enough to power a small city. The projects each use four-hour battery systems.

This is an important part of fighting climate change because the combination of renewable energy and battery storage can function much like a traditional power plant, capable of being dispatched when needed by grid operators during times of high demand, and replacing the functions that are now mostly carried out by natural gas power plants.

Southern California Edison says construction will be complete by August 2021, which is a quick turnaround, especially considering the size of the projects.

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Backpacking isn’t for the faint of heart—it takes a bit of careful planning and, yes, you have to carry all your stuff. But the rewards are well worth it: no cars, no RVs, no crowds. Take baby steps toward becoming an intrepid backpacker by first setting off on short hikes into campsites that will check all your boxes for privacy, lush foliage, and killer views. A nice one starting with a short trek into Sky Campground, is at Point Reyes National Seashore, California.

Most Bay Areans have been to Point Reyes National Seashore, but only the backpackers will have found the small, secluded, and serene pockets of nature that are carved out specifically for hiking into one of its four campgrounds: Wildcat, Glen, Coast, and Sky. The latter is the most accessible to beginner backpackers, requiring a steady, 1.4-mile uphill climb to the campsite, which sits on the western side of Mount Wittenberg.

The hike to the campsite is uphill but also moderate; this will get you accustomed to carrying the weight of a small child on your back without overdoing it. Don’t rush—after a while you’ll forget the weight of your pack and, when you arrive to your campsite, you’ll be rewarded with panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean, Drakes Bay, and Point Reyes from the tent sites, which are scattered along the hillside and tucked among the trees or out in the open for ocean views.

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The Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship (SBTS) is on a mission. With an endgame of building sustainable, recreation-based communities in economically disadvantaged areas, the Connected Communities project and Lost Sierra Master Trails Plan will eventually link 15 towns in Sierra, Plumas, Lassen and Butte County, California with more than 300 miles of new motorized and non-motorized trail.

Connected Communities will focus on the Northern Sierra Nevada range, home of both the Yuba and Feather Rivers; critical watersheds delivering more than 65 percent of California’s clean drinking water. Proposition 68, The Clean Water and Parks Act, was passed on June 6, 2018, authorizing $4 billion in general obligation bonds for state and local parks, environmental protection and restoration projects and water infrastructure projects.

Central to Prop 68 is educating the public about these important environmental efforts, and getting the public outdoors on trails to see these efforts firsthand is an effective and engaging way to learn while bolstering the economies of watershed communities.

“Recreation is a powerful economic sector, eclipsing the previous boom and bust cycles of mining and timber in Northern California,” said Greg Williams, SBTS Executive Director. “More importantly, recreation is sustainable, and building trails is a perfect dirt avenue to educate users about public lands and healthy watersheds.”

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Hiking is the new yoga, and there are stats to prove it. According to Merrell, the No. 1 outdoor rugged footwear brand in the world, participation in hiking is up 22.5% since 2014. And hiking is the fourth most popular outdoor activity in the U.S. with 45 million annual participants. So if you’ve resolved to hike more this year, you’re extremely on-trend, because hiking is officially in vogue.

One of the (many) reasons for the popularity surge is that hiking, just like yoga, is actually proven to reduce your stress levels. Research conducted at Chiba University in Japan revealed that a 15-minute walk in the woods reduces cortisol (a stress hormone) levels by 16% and blood pressure by 2%.

Whether you’re hoping to unwind in the woods or you’re looking to stay active on vacation, seeking out great hikes can continually motivate you to #optoutside. If you’re planning a trip to Southern California, or you live in the San Diego area, now’s the time to be scouting new hiking trails. California has such a wealth of terrain, and the best hikes of prove that the perpetually sunny city has something for everyone.

Here are the top San Diego hikes…

Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California contains an array of stunning landscapes, dotted by its namesake oddly shaped plants. Mountain ranges, unusual rock formations, desert and wilderness found within its 800,000 acres offer a unique visual and sensory experience. “It’s the rock star of California deserts.”

But those in the know say drive past Joshua Tree to the Mojave National Preserve. “It’s even more pure and vast. No one is there.”

The 1.6 million-acre preserve is exquisite. There are desert, dunes, salt flats, plateaus, mesas and buttes, ancient volcanoes, abandoned mines, and few paved roads or established trails.

“It’s a beautiful, powerful landscape that most of the world doesn’t encounter.” In 2018, the National Park Service recorded only 787,000 visits.

You can climb and slide on the sand hills in rarely visited Cadiz Dunes Wilderness. Wander through the underground caves in the spectacular Mitchell Caverns. Hike to the center of Amboy Crater — an extinct cinder cone volcano — atop black lava. Walk around volcanic rocks perforated with holes caused by uneven cooling and erosion.

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First-time visitors to California’s Death Valley National Park can enjoy multiple hikes and points of interest within a few days.

Artist’s Drive provides a look at marvelously colorful landscape on the western edge of the Black Mountains. A nine-mile drive takes visitors through an explosion of colors, featuring mountains that are red, pink, yellow, green, and purple. There are multiple places to stop and walk around and admire the geology, including the notable Artists Palette, an especially colorful viewpoint.

Just south of Artist’s Drive, Badwater Basin marks the lowest dry elevation in North America at 279 feet below sea level. Hikers here enjoy a short out-and-back walk on the large salt flat where a lake existed thousands of years ago. Only a shallow pond of very salty water remains, hence the basin’s name.

Dantes View affords one of the most dramatic and rewarding views of Death Valley, and terrific sunset photography. Visitors can reach it simply by driving to the end of Dantes View Road. Those slightly more ambitious can hike about a quarter mile to the north to summit Dantes Peak.

More suggestions here…