San Diego Hills and Grassland Trails

[Judy Hamilton]

I discovered this lovely place to hike. Supposedly the home of mountain lions, bobcats, rattlesnakes and coyotes. The cautions
to take when one meets a mountain lion is
do not turn your back or crouch down
make noise, wave your arms
make yourself look bigger while slowly backing away

i have given this a great deal of thought and decided on the
opening the umbrella, to make myself appear larger:basic03

What do you think of this?? should I choose a brighter color??

anyway, I have just begun to explore this area.
It has potential to be a great place to hike

[Judy Hamilton]

a few more then that's all folks

[Jonathan Long]

Judy,

How do you set your "White balance"?

The images look very warm in tone.

Jon

[Judy Hamilton]

HI Jon
the white balance was set for taking baby photos
i had it set on flash:basic04
have tried to cool some of these a bit with adding blue
to the photo

Thanks for your critique
this will be a great place to practice practice practice

Judy

[Dave McClung]

I discovered this lovely place to hike. Supposedly the home of mountain lions, bobcats, rattlesnakes and coyotes. The cautions
to take when one meets a mountain lion is
do not turn your back or crouch down
make noise, wave your arms
make yourself look bigger while slowly backing away

i have given this a great deal of thought and decided on the
opening the umbrella, to make myself appear larger:basic03

What do you think of this?? should I choose a brighter color??

anyway, I have just begun to explore this area.
It has potential to be a great place to hike

Judy

I have read the same advice concerning mountain lions. It is based on the assumption that a mountain lion who is approaching a human must think that the human is food. The objective is to convince the lion you aren't food.

In my opinion, that situation is rare. At least, I have no personal knowledge of that kind if attack.

Here is my list of things to do to protect yourself from wild animals:

1. Don't intentionally approach a wild animal. Many people who are hurt by wild animals intentionally approached the animal.

2. Never, ever take a pet into areas where their are wild animals. Montain lions love to eat dogs. Many people who are injured by montain lions are trying to protect their dogs.

3. Be extra cautious when wild animals have babies with them. Most wild animals become aggressive in the defense of their babies. If you spot a moutain lion, a bear, a mountain goat, a deer or a moose with off spring, give them extra room. If you find yourself between an animal mother and her off spring the smart thing to do is run away from the off spring as fast as you can.

4. If confronted, be prepared to fight. That is one of the reasons I carry hiking poles. Use the pole like a spear -- not like a sword. I have never had to fight off an animal, but I believe I could.

5. If you carry pepper spray, save it for aggessive humans. Don't allow a wild animal to get close enough to spray.

6. If you are threatened by a wild animal, access why the animal is aggessive. If the animal seems agressive without a reason and is foaming at the mouth, suspect rabies. If you are approached by an animal that you suspect has rabies, but prepared to fight it to the death. I still think the best option is to run as fast as you can and try to get to shelter. Inside a car is a good place to be.

[Dave McClung]

Judy

I have read the same advice concerning mountain lions. It is based on the assumption that a mountain lion who is approaching a human must think that the human is food. The objective is to convince the lion you aren't food.

In my opinion, that situation is rare. At least, I have no personal knowledge of that kind if attack.

Here is my list of things to do to protect yourself from wild animals:

1. Don't intentionally approach a wild animal. Many people who are hurt by wild animals intentionally approached the animal.

2. Never, ever take a pet into areas where their are wild animals. Montain lions love to eat dogs. Many people who are injured by montain lions are trying to protect their dogs.

3. Be extra cautious when wild animals have babies with them. Most wild animals become aggressive in the defense of their babies. If you spot a moutain lion, a bear, a mountain goat, a deer or a moose with off spring, give them extra room. If you find yourself between an animal mother and her off spring the smart thing to do is run away from the off spring as fast as you can.

4. If confronted, be prepared to fight. That is one of the reasons I carry hiking poles. Use the pole like a spear -- not like a sword. I have never had to fight off an animal, but I believe I could.

5. If you carry pepper spray, save it for aggessive humans. Don't allow a wild animal to get close enough to spray.

6. If you are threatened by a wild animal, access why the animal is aggessive. If the animal seems agressive without a reason and is foaming at the mouth, suspect rabies. If you are approached by an animal that you suspect has rabies, but prepared to fight it to the death. I still think the best option is to run as fast as you can and try to get to shelter. Inside a car is a good place to be.



I forgot one thing -- be sure to get a picture or no one will believe you.

[John Kennedy]

[QUOTE=Dave McClung;199300]
I forgot one thing -- be sure to get a picture or no one will believe you.[/QUOTE


Yeah. Otherwise we'll think we're reading some tale by Wes Smith.

[John Kennedy]

Judy -

Looks like you've been walking around somewhere in eastern San Diego county. That area has some of the most broken, highly inaccessible country around. That's one of the reasons fires in the area have been so difficult to deal with.

San Diego is a huge city. Lots of people. But start heading east and you transition from urban/suburban to remote and wild in a hurry. It doens't really take very long to get out of town.

[Judy Hamilton]

Judy -

Looks like you've been walking around somewhere in eastern San Diego county. That area has some of the most broken, highly inaccessible country around. That's one of the reasons fires in the area have been so difficult to deal with.

San Diego is a huge city. Lots of people. But start heading east and you transition from urban/suburban to remote and wild in a hurry. It doens't really take very long to get out of town.

I was out away from homes and shops, east of Mission Valley..however John I need a place to hike that does not cost a ton of gas to reach. Others have encouraged me to check out Julian, and Alpine, which I will, but due to the 45 or so minute drive, this will probably not be where I can hike on a daily basis...and the more remote, the less people. All of the signs read , do not hike alone. As there are few to none persons for me to hike with, my options are slim, so I do hike alone. At the same time there usually are people around (not many) some are hiking, others are riding mountain bikes

[Judy Hamilton]

I forgot one thing -- be sure to get a picture or no one will believe you.

by this time Dave you know me well enough to not discount any
interesting thing that happens in the course of my day,
even on a oh-hum day..:basic02

thanks for the advice with the mountain lions. My sister and I hiked in the
hills east of Martinez last year with her two large dogs. She was ever
watchful for animals of prey. I was
the oblivious hiker. Now I know enough to not hike with the dogs

[Jim Franklin]

Be careful, Judy, I want to read your book. Go ahead a write it, you may be able to retire on the proceeds.

[Susan Unger]

Here are some of my pics from San Diego.

My white balance on my camera I think is messed up so the boat pic doesn't look right. It was also hazy that day too. I took it from Coronado Island looking toward Pt Loma Penninsula. I was able to be on the base there thanx to my uncle, a retired corpsman.

The Mt Miguel pic was taken from Mt Helix.

The last two are from Balboa Park.

[Susan Unger]

Here's another pic from SD. It is taken from PETCO park after the padres/cubs game. It is Coronado Bridge at night.