In January, we brought you Dean Karnazes, Jonny Moseley, and Gary Fisher. Now, Weekend Sherpa catches up with Bay Area superstars Levi Leipheimer, Gary Erickson, and Tim Bluhm for more inside tips on NorCal's best places to hike and bike.
Tim BluhmOccupation: Lead singer, Mother Hips/mountain guide
Home: Outer Sunset, San Francisco
Activities: Climbing, backpacking, surfing
Favorite destinations: Thousand Island Lake, Lands End
Tim Bluhm pursues his passions for a living. Equal parts Neil Young and John Muir, the much beloved frontman for the country-rockin' Mother Hips has shared stages across the nation with folks like Johnny Cash, Wilco, and the Black Crowes. When he's not entertaining SRO crowds, you can find him in the Sierra Nevada: the humble and soft-spoken star spends summer months leading trips for Southern Yosemite Mountain Guides (SYMG). His favorite spot in the High Sierra is the John Muir Trail's Thousand Island Lake. The lake is set in the Ansel Adams Wilderness just below Banner Peak's dramatic glacier-clad slopes. Scrambling around Thousand Island's nearby terrain at 10,000 feet, you'll also spot the rugged spires of the Minarets, the San Joaquin River basin, and the 13,143-foot Mount Ritter. When Bluhm comes down from the mountains, he often walks the wind-blown, ocean-fresh Lands End Coastal Trail in San Francisco, a 3-mile (round trip) excursion along the bluffs by the Sutro Baths and past the Legion of Honor museum.
TIP: Bluhm's next local tour date—a side gig with Jackie Greene as one half of The Skinny Singers—is at the Independent in San Francisco on September 13. You can catch Bluhm with the Mother Hips on September 21 and 22 at Mill Valley's Sweetwater Saloon. For more information on Bluhm and the Mother Hips, visit www.timbluhm.com or www.motherhips.com. To learn more about SYMG, including how to join Bluhm's High Sierra Singer-Songwriters' Workshop, visit www.symg.com.
Directions to Thousand Island Lake: The lake is easiest to reach from Agnew Meadows Campground near Mammoth Lakes via a two-day (20 mile) backpacking trip. From Agnew Meadows, go 11 miles on Shadow Lake/River Trail and the John Muir Trail to Thousand Island Lake. To return, take the High Trail and Pacific Crest Trail back to Agnew Meadows. A free wilderness permit is required and can be picked up at the Mammoth Lakes Welcome Center, 2510 Main St.; 760-924-5500.
Gary EricksonOccupation: Clif Bar founder/owner
Home: Napa
Activities: Biking, skiing, climbing
Favorite destinations: Wine country, Sierra Nevada
"I was lucky to grow up in the Bay Area," says Clif Bar founder, Gary Erickson. "I've never found another place that has as much diversity in culture, food, music, and sport, which is why we feel like it's a perfect place for the Clif Bar headquarters." Though running his socially and environmentally scrupulous energy bar company (named after his dad) consumes a lot of time, Erickson still finds ways to play outside. Among his favorite activities? "Both Nordic and alpine skiing," says Erickson, "and in the summer, backpacking is right up there as well. My wife, Kit, and I love the Sierra Nevada." But Erickson's first love will always be cycling. "We moved up to Napa several years ago and I've been exploring the area on my bike ever since. Just north of the Napa Valley is a great place to ride—quiet country roads and beautiful views." Erickson favors the Apricot Clif Bar for long rides, but when he's done, he reaches for a different kind of carb. "Unless I'm dehydrated," he says, "I like to relax on my deck with a cold one; Anchor Steam is my No. 1 choice."
Directions: For a great ride north of Napa Valley, start in Middletown and follow Big Canyon Road, Loch Lomond Road, and Highway 175 on a 30-mile loop through rolling hills and tranquil vineyards. After the ride, grab a cold one at Mount St. Helena Brewing Co., 21167 Calistoga Road, Middletown; 707-987-2106. Click here for a map of the vicinity.
Levi LeipheimerOccupation: Professional cyclist
Home: Santa Rosa
Activities: Cycling, cycling, and cycling
Favorite destinations: Coleman Valley Road, Tour de France podium
During the penultimate stage of last month's Tour de France, Levi Leipheimer pedaled to first place in one of the fastest individual time trials ever recorded in the race, earning him a place in the company of American cycling greats Greg Lemond and Lance Armstrong. The trial also solidified his third-place finish in the overall competition, landing him on the podium. The Santa Rosa resident's off-season training consists of wife, Odessa, pacing him around Sonoma County by way of moped. "I love riding along the Sonoma coast," Leipheimer says. His favorite ride? "Highway 1 between Bodega and Jenner, especially Coleman Valley Road." (See Levi's Loop below.) You'll encounter grueling climbs and fast descents on this road—which was also featured in stage 1 of this year's Amgen Tour of California professional cycling road race—but the ridgeline riding provides spectacular views of both the wine country and the Sonoma coast, making the hard work well worth your while. And you might spot Levi and Odessa, who will be working hard to parlay his '07 success into an overall win at the 2008 Tour de France.
LEVI'S LOOP: Want to pedal like a champion? From the town of Graton off Highway 116, follow these directions: take Green Valley Road west, turn left onto Harrison Grade, go through the town of Occidental. Then take Coleman Valley Road to Highway 1 and go south on Highway 1. In Bodega Bay take Bay Hill Road, which goes back to Highway 1. Turn left on Bodega Highway, left on Joy Road, right on Bitner Road, back through Occidental. Head back to Graton on Occidental Road. Click here for a map of the vicinity.
Patagonia has teamed up with Weekend Sherpa to talk about initiatives they support, activities they love, and clothes they dig.
Yvon Chouinard, founder and owner of Patagonia Inc.
Yvon Chouinard climbs, surfs, kayaks, fly-fishes and donates his erstwhile undies to the environment. He went green before Kermit the Frog was born and plans to make Patagonia a fully recyclable company by 2010. He believes strongly in the M.B.A. business theory: Management By Absence, meaning you won't find him in a 14th-floor boardroom hocking PowerPoint presentations to glossy sets of eyeballs. He'd rather be fly-fishing in Wyoming. Maybe it's the off-the-beaten-path location of San Francisco's Patagonia that makes it his favorite retail store, or maybe it's just the rekindled memories of taking employees to the Marin Headlands for work seminars among the trees, near the ocean, and at quiet campsites. After more than three decades, Yvon still owns Patagonia Inc., and still infuses the company with his passions, from encouraging staffers to go surfing to making meticulously earth-friendly clothes. That's the Patagonia way.
To learn more about Yvon, pick up a copy of his memoir, Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman, at any of these Patagonia stores:
Patagonia San Francisco, 770 North Point St., San Francisco; 415-771-2050.
Patagonia Palo Alto, 525 Alma St., Palo Alto; 650-329-8556.
Patagonia Outlet Santa Cruz, 415 River St. #C, Santa Cruz; 831-423-1776.
Miss a week? Click here to see an archive of Patagonia's 12 Weeks of Summer