#14 July 2003

Welcome to the Foundation’s fourteenth E-News, an end-of-the-month monthly newsletter designed to keep you up-to-date with developments and progress related to the San Diego Sea to Sea Trail. The big news this month is that we’re now launching TRAIL DAY 2003. Everyone who worked with us last year will remember what a great day this was, and how much we achieved on the Trail – see you again this year!

Maxim of the month

Trees and stones will teach you that which you can never learn from the masters.
Saint Bernard

Foundation’s Web site wins top award!

The Foundation’s Web site has recently won a national award from leading trail advocate, American Trails. In the second year of the contest, www.seatoseatrail.org won the category for best presentation of Plans and Proposals. Eighty-eight trail-related Web sites were nominated for the competition’s 19 categories. American Trails is the only national, nonprofit organization working on behalf of all trail interests. Thanks to all our volunteers who have helped to make the site, with your work, photos and contributions!

Trail updates

Last quarter’s ‘Where on the Trail is it?’ competition spurred memories from Christina Lettang. If you remember, the photo was taken sitting west of the . “This area has changed a lot from its days as Shaw Ridge Road. I hope the Sea to Sea Trail’s presence will encourage more people to preserve the open space left in San Diego. I’ll always remember the day about ten years ago when I spotted a trapdoor spider in its nest while riding my bike on the Del Mar Mesa trails. What a lucky find! One that I hope to repeat someday."

Mind the summer heat! A word of warning to everyone - it’s very hot out on the Trail this time of year. You may have read in the Union Tribune how hikers have had to be airlifted out from the hike to Cedar Creek Falls (which is part of the Sea to Sea Trail). And one geocacher has had to be airlifted out on the section of Trail leading up to the summit if El Cajon. If you do head out, start early and take even twice as much water you think you’ll need. Wear that hat and leave your dog at home.

This month’s Web site

You’ll spend hours on this site, the dedicated work of retired Internet entrepreneur and California coastline protector Ken Adelman and his wife Gabrielle (she flies the chopper he takes the shots from!). The site covers over 12,200 digital ‘before’ photos of the entire 1,150-mile California coastline (except for a 50-mile no-go stretch around Vandenberg Air Force Base), taken roughly every 500 feet, at an altitude of 500 feet. On the home page, if you type in the GPS coordinates of N32 56.11 W117 15.77, you’ll find yourself at the western end of the Trail, at the mouth of the Los Penasquitos Lagoon. Enjoy! And savor (and save) before we may lose it.

TRAIL DAY 2003

Last year, 120 fantastic volunteers helped make Trail Day 2002 a huge success. This year will be a true family event. We’re looking for a 150 people, and we want to give you the opportunity to have even more fun, and over an entire weekend. So put September 19-21 on your calendars.

REI is once again adopting TRAIL DAY 2003 as its annual Service Project, and we look forward to seeing them once more out on the Trail! And, of course, the San Diego Mountain Biking Association (SDMBA) will be out in full force in not only helping to organize the event, but also in strength as volunteers.

TRAIL DAY 2003 will be held up in the Cuyamacas this year. We’ll all be camping at Los Vaqueros Group Camp from Friday night. Saturday you’ll be fully fed and watered with breakfast, lunch and a huge barbecue dinner, while spending the day working out on the Trail. Saturday night also includes live entertainment and our own real live magician, the Amazing Dana. We’ll even look after your children for the day (16 and under) who won’t be eligible to work on the Trail, with a fun-packed education day.

Sunday’s a fun day for all, with a large variety of activities to chose from, including SDMBA-guided mountain biking for a range of ability levels; guided hikes and walks ranging from sweat’s up to learning all about the local flora and fauna and history; REI clinics on map reading and using a GPS and; from our very own Bill Gookin of Gookinaid, a variety of orienteering courses.

Registration is now open. Book early as we only have room for 150 campers (you bring your own camping gear or RV etc). Registration (a tax-free donation) this year is $35 for a single, $45 for a couple and $65 for a family – you automatically become Friends of the Foundation and receive a free T-shirt and a free ticket for the opportunity drawing for each family member (last year we had $2700 worth of prizes!). OR, you have two options to register FREE:

* by attending any two of our Trail Sundays prior to the big event and sweating your way in! Check out our upcoming Trail work Sundays here;

* or, by just coming up for the day on Saturday (20th), working on the Trail, and enjoying a free T-shirt and breakfast and lunch with us all.

Once you’ve sent in your registration form, we’ll mail you back a full information pack with maps on how to get to Los Vaqueros Camp Ground and where to park, and what extra gear you need to bring for the weekend. Check it all out here!

Trail days – the work goes on!

August’s Sunday Trail work days are the 10^th and 24^th. Put them on your calendar and e-mail Kristen if you would like to join us on these dates!

A cry for help!

The Foundation is looking for a few more volunteers for some of our outstanding community outreach programs, as well as for generally getting the word out. Let Kristen know if you can see yourself in any of these roles, or would like any further information on them.

• Join the Trail Day 2003 organizing committee: we’ve a dynamic group of nearly 20 people who are helping to organize the most amazing Trail Day you’ll ever experience (this year). If you want to be a part of what’s going to be an awesome September weekend, then this is your chance.
• Help ensure as many kids as possible get to experience Outdoors Education 2003: we’ve got an terrific education program for local kids, out on the Trail, and would like extra help getting the word out and the kids to the events. Click here for more details on OE2003.
• A business database: we’re very keen to create a database of all businesses within a half-mile to mile radius of the Trail, from where you can develop the shots you just took of you and your pals out on the Trail, to where you could purchase a plaster for that nagging blister.
• Pacing out the Trail: here’s a good one! We have the use of a measuring wheel (courtesy of Trail volunteer Gene Dixon) and, starting from the Pacific Ocean, we need the Trail measured in miles – all 140 miles! And then we need each mile point’s GPS coordinates. Easy!
• Team building out on the Trail: we want as many San Diego businesses as possible to know that the Trail is an amazing resource, whereby their people can help create and build a priceless local resource. Qualcomm, Nokia and Callaway Golf are leading the way! Click here for more details.
• Learning out on the Trail: sponsored by REI, the Foundation is launching an experience-based program, helping to get children, and adults, out on the Trail to experience what it means to go hiking, backpacking and even to spend a night out under the stars. We want to get them out there, and we’ll try and give those children an overnight hands-on outdoors-learning experience that may change a life. If you’d like more information on ‘Learning out on the Trail’, either as a volunteer or want to experience the program for yourself, please e-mail Scott, manager of the Foundation’s program.

Callaway Golf makes its mark

Hats off to Callaway Golf, who spent a very hot Saturday morning working on the Trail this month. Utilizing the value of the Trail as a team-building exercise, 28 Callaway staff moved earth, carried boulders of huge sizes and prepared a number of French drains. Sadly no putting greens were built, but the Trail certainly got that little bit closer to completion! Click here for more information and photos of Callaway Golf at work.

If a team building event out on the Trail would be of interest to your company, please e-mail Kristen.

Another geocaching challenge!

Fabulous co-sponsors of the Foundation’s Geocaching Challenge, Magellan, appreciated we’d come up with such a terrific concept, they launched their own geocaching treasure hunt. But this time it’s a summer-long contest with 32 treasures hidden in 25 states. First finders in Magellan’s GPS Treasure Hunt could win a Magellan SporTrak Color GPS or a weekend getaway for two. Register to play here, where new clues are posted each week about the location’s treasures. The contest ends on Labor Day!

Foundation’s Geocaching Challenge!

And the DeepOutdoors Sea to Sea Trail Foundation Geocaching Challenge is still alive and well! To date, Ruscal, Team Gecko and Swiss Hunter are the first to have completed the entire Challenge – your commemorative certificates are on their way! Click here for more details.

New page on the Web site

Coming in from outside San Diego County, California or even the US? Or do you live locally and want someone to share the Trail with? Or, like many of us, need someone to call you up and say, “I’ll be there in ten minutes – we’re going for a ride!"? Then this is the page for you. Introducing finding a ‘Trail Pal’! If you’ve got a message to post, just e-mail it and we’ll put it on the site.

Trail goodies

Here’s the perfect opportunity to show you care in your support for the Foundation and the Trail, and to tell the world you’ve been out there. For your very own Foundation T-shirts, travel mug, coffee mug, Trail baseball cap and bumper sticker, just click here.

Updated Trail maps

With the trusty help of dedicated volunteers, we’re now offering marked-up USGS topo maps of the Trail as it currently stands. Courtesy of Philip Erdelsky, we’ve maps from the Pacific Ocean to Wildcat Canyon Road. Click here to see them. Philip is regularly adding maps to the site, so keep an eye out for his updates.

Trail Events 2003

We have so many events running to date, there’s too many to list here. Click here to check them all out.

Book now for OE2003 events

Book now for our Outdoors Education 2003 events for middle school children, to be held along the Trail and looking at environmental issues facing San Diego County. For all information on the events, click here. Our OE2003 events now have a very cool flyer – if you’d like copies to distribute at a middle school near you, please e-mail Kristen. NB. Please note that the July 22 event at the Kumeyaay-Ipai Interpretive Center has been moved to October 18; and the September 14 Los Penasquitos Lagoon event has moved to October 26.

Make your own Trail maps!

Want to customize your own maps of the Trail? Well, now you can. We’ve partnered with MapCard and MyTopo to bring you the latest nationwide US Geological Survey topographic maps and aerial photos, lake contour data, road and highway overlays, public land survey data, and an impressive suite of annotation tools. In fact, the editors at Backpacker magazine awarded MapCard its Editors’ Choice Award for Best New Product of 2003, saying, “The best one-stop map shop we’ve seen is as close as your home computer." MapCard offers subscribers the ability to customize, save and print unlimited topos and air photos. With this link, you can take a free 24-hour test drive. The site has a terrific set of annotation tools enabling you to draw trails, insert text, mark waypoints from their GPS device, etc. on your own map. Try it out by clicking here. For an example of a customized MapCard map, check out the map here. And if you subscribe to MapCard and MyTopo from the Foundation’s Web site, you help support the Foundation.

Sign up to the Foundation’s eScrip Program!

As another way of raising money for the Foundation’s education program, we’re thrilled we’ve been accepted into the national eScrip Program. Many of you, especially those with school-aged children, may be already familiar with eScrip. eScrip’s a hassle-free way for non-profits such as the San Diego Sea to Sea Trail Foundation that support children’s programs to raise funds through everyday purchases made at eScrip merchants.

eScrip and over 150 merchant partners have created a system that rewards customer loyalty by contributing a percentage of purchases to your chosen group. You shop the way you like to shop (grocery shopping, buying clothes, travel and entertainment). It’s simple, safe and convenient; all you need to do is register your grocery club card and debit/credit card(s). It’s also simple to register:
• Log on to http://www.escrip.com/ and go to ‘sign up’ (orange bar at the top), or e-mail Kristen for details.
• Designate the Foundation to receive contributions. Our Group ID is #150734477.
• Register your grocery club card from a participating merchant, your Chevron card and your debit/credit cards.

And that’s it! Visit eScrip merchants to shop and earn. It’s automatic! For more information, just click here.

Sign up as a Friend of the Foundation for 2003

To assist us in our ongoing mission, join up as a Friend of the Foundation, by clicking here and helping us make it all happen! And don’t forget to check out our valued Supporters page.

Adopt a Tree out on the Trail!

Adopting a tree – a native California Oak or Sycamore – along the route of the San Diego Sea to Sea Trail is a gift for a 1,000 years. Not only is it a wonderful gift for someone close to you, or even for yourself, but it is an excellent way to help support the building and maintenance of the Trail. And importantly it helps preserve and add to the Trail’s native habitats. All for $100.

Adopting a tree is easy. We do all the work for you, working with the agencies along the Trail to identify the planting sites, order the five-gallon trees, plant and care for the planting sites. And for your support, we’ll send you or your loved ones, a certificate of their adoption. For more information, just click here. 

Traveling?

If so, try Orbitz.com. Just click here and then click on the Orbitz button. Every time you make a travel reservation of any sort, the Foundation receives a commission. That means more of the San Diego Sea to Sea Trail can be built and maintained for your enjoyment, and more of its environmental and historical treasures can be preserved for future generations.

Schools Community Service Credit

If you know of anyone who needs to collect credits for their community service projects, then we may be just the right project for them. We’ve got lots of opportunities for students to join us on Trail Work Days in the weekends. And if there’s an entire group or class who would like to get out on the Trail working as a team, we can arrange a workday just for them, any day of the week. The teams will by fully supervised by Rangers (as are all our workdays), and it’s a great outdoors experience! Our Volunteer Program Application Form can be found by clicking here, and includes a section specifically for California Schools Community Service Credit. Please e-mail Kristen for further information.

Did you know?

From 1941-1945, commercial fishermen used the Salton Sea to supply mullet for coastal fish markets after German submarines made ocean fishing hazardous.

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