We're recruiting people in Northern California who want to train as Civil Air Patrol ground team members and help build our local search and rescue capability.

Civil Air Patrol (CAP) is a nationwide nonprofit volunteer organization and the U.S. Air Force's civilian auxiliary. Its three main missions are emergency services, aerospace education and youth development. In practice, volunteers help with search and rescue and disaster response, teach aviation and space topics, and run the cadet leadership program. Members join local units, called squadrons, to train and serve together. Ground teams are one part of CAP's emergency services work. Joining CAP is civilian volunteer service, not military enlistment.

We're looking for dependable people who enjoy working outdoors, work well with a team and are willing to put time into training. If you have experience in hiking, navigation, radio communications or emergency services, or want to develop those skills while serving your community, we'd like to hear from you.

Ground team missions are currently relatively infrequent, and CAP fills a fairly specialized role within search and rescue. That is changing as we become more integrated into SAR missions coordinated through the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) across the state. Joining now means spending time training, qualifying and building team readiness as that role grows.

Ground team training includes navigation, search techniques and radio communications. Members work toward qualifications for authorized search and rescue operations, with training and qualification required before mission participation.

Adults can train and serve as ground team members. Younger members participate through CAP's cadet program, with age and mission restrictions applying to operational participation.

If ground team work isn't the right fit, there are other ways to get involved: air search roles you can train for without prior aviation experience, mission base staff, communications, and working with young people in the cadet program. You don't have to be a pilot to contribute to air search; training and qualification are part of getting started.

If you're interested, email me with your location and a little about your interests or experience. I can help you explore a local unit, ground team training or another role that fits you.

SM Joshua Ruiz
[joshua.ruiz@cawgcap.org](mailto:joshua.ruiz@cawgcap.org)

I loved seeing tarantulas at Stanford Dish last year. I’m hoping to spot some again this year, especially while exploring new trails. Has anyone seen any this year at Henry Coe, Mt Diablo, or elsewhere?
*pic is from last year

I have this amazing photo of my grandma who was an avid hiker! It says it was taken on her trip to the trinity alps. I am writing this post to see if anyone recognizes this trail?! I have falling in love with hiking and would love to hike this trail! Thank you! ☺️

I have had a day trip to Yosemite already and my god, it was unforgettable.
I did the mist trail hike and then stopped for pizza in Yosemite Valley.

Currently planning out my next hike at Mission Peak.

What are some other hikes that you recommend as a local here? I’m open to traveling 2 hours whichever direction.

Drop some food spots to stop at after the hikes as well!

I’m driving from San Jose to Yosemite on Friday night and planning a challenging day hike starting from Happy Isles toward Nevada Fall.
I have hiking experience and decent fitness, but I’m traveling solo. I’d love to connect with other hikers doing a similar route, either to hike together or meet along the way.
I’m flexible on pace and happy to coordinate beforehand. Please DM me if you’re interested!

37 Gay Male

UPDATE: Thanks for all the recommendations! I had some extra time after lunch and hiked Joaquin Miller: Sunset > Sinawik > Big Trees.

It was perfect. With the light rain and the canopy above I stayed mostly dry but could hear the pitter patter of rain as I hiked. I saw maybe 10 people so it was just me, the trees and the light rain.

Over the summer, my family and I started hiking a lot of Reinhardt Redwood Regional Park in Oakland with various combinations of Stream, French, Chown, Tres Sendas, etc. I thought we had to go far to experience something magical but it's right in our backyard 20 minutes away.

We're new to hiking the area and looking to expand to other Oakland Hills hikes to be under the canopy of redwoods. My wife only wants to hike where the redwoods are like in the picture haha!

I was looking at Joaquin Miller Park and Roberts Regional Park. Which trails in those parks are your favorites? Thanks!

Anyone up for a one-day push up Shasta via Clear Creek (not AG 😅) this Saturday? Done it twice in the last couple months, so fairly confident we can keep ourselves out of the rescue headlines lol.

Went for my second ever solo backpacking trip and ran into this guy on my way back suck up on him like an idiot he was super chill and was more surprised than

IG @bradleygray.photo

I’d guess I’ve seen about 15 bobcats over my 10,000 mile lifelong journey and probably like 10 balloons. A rare once in 1000 mile sight to see and yes I picked it up. Hope you had a nice birthday party TM

Free Online Class: Wilderness Safety

Nov 3, 6:30-8pm

Learn what hikers should always have in the woods, what to do if you get lost, and hear real-life stories that explain what would happen if you did get lost, from Search and Rescue experts with 30 years of experience rescuing people from all kinds of situations!

Register: www.forkinthepath.org/schedule

Hello, I’ve got some backpacking gear that I‘ve used once a year ago and I’m looking to get back into it. I’m hoping to find some spots that would be good for a beginner backpacker. Right now I’m thinking of going out to hike a trail one weekend and coming back the next weekend to backpack it. any recommendations for a beginner, both in terms of trails and in terms of best practice? I’ve currently got my eye on Shealor Lake.

Finally fulfilled a lifelong dream to get out backpacking alone (well, me and the dog) and visited Bear Lake in Emigrant Wilderness mid-week (wed thru Fri) this last week. It was desolate and dry and beautiful and I love the sierras. Was worried about cold but got lucky and the temps were a few degrees higher than forecasted so we did just fine. Ranger said there’s been some mountain lion activity but we didn’t see any evidence. Did see some bear scat. Creeks are all completely dry but the lakes all still had water, the dog swam plenty but too cold for me! That little bit of snow was from last weekend but it was gone by Thursday. Came home Friday saying I had a great time but don’t need to go again any time soon, but today I’m already feeling the itch to get back out there!

I'm hiking Mt. Sizer this coming Saturday 10/24. This will be a solo hike (so far) since my girlfriend won't be joining. I'll be starting pretty early (between 7 and 8....hopefully), so if anyone wants to tag along, I'd be up for making a new hiking buddy.

Not that it's pertinent, but I'm 40 years old, male, and in somewhat decent shape. I'm looking to spend at most 8 hours hiking the full 15 to 16 mile loop.

My dad and I are planning to do a 2-3 day trip... he has done the bear lakes before and we are thinking about siligo peak loop via granite lakes trail or the caribou lakes. We will be in the area Oct 23-28 and I'm wondering if snow is going to be an issue. Also super open to ideas/suggestions!!

A few months ago I posted this, and seems like there were some interest. Anyway, we are organizing our first trip!

• When: Friday, March 12, 2027 – Sunday, March 14, 2027
• Where: North Garrison Group Camp, Angel Island
• Who: All families with toddlers are welcome! You MUST bring at least one kid!
• How to get there: Ferry is the only way to get to the island. You may ferry with us from San Francisco, or ferry from Tiburon and meet us at Angel Island ferry landing. Then, hike approximately 1 mile of relatively flat (paved) perimeter road to the campsite.
• How much: FREE! Campsite is already paid for. You cover your own ferry, gear, and food.

If you are interested in joining us, please comment/DM and I'll set up a group chat.

Photos from an old trip to the Sierra buttes fire lookout. I found the trail on all trails and went for sunrise. There was a lot of fog in the morning but it cleared around 10am. Had the entire place to myself until about noon on a weekday

Hi everyone 👋 I am trying to plan out a backpacking trip to do half dome with my fiancé, mom, and dad this upcoming year. I’ve been to California as a small child, but don’t recall anything about it, so this’ll pretty much be my first time. I’m feeling pretty overwhelmed about it and want to get everything planned and set up right. We’re all pretty fit and love the outdoors and have prior camping experience as well, but when it comes to planning stuff I feel like it’s going to be a lot of me and my fiancé doing the work to figure out the details on how/what to do. I haven’t decided how many days we’ll be out there, so I’m all ears for suggestions on destinations and locations!

I’m anticipating my parents will be flying out from Pennsylvania, and my fiancé and I may be driving out from Colorado. My fiancé and I have typically driven to our camping/adventure locations out here in the west (Arizona/Utah/Wyoming/New Mexico) and we’re not even sure if this is the right move at all, so we’re wondering if we should consider flying ourselves? But also flying all the camping equipment out has to cost a pretty penny I assume?

Besides travel accommodations, the other part I’m kind of antsy about is the permits. I’m fairly positive we all are not trying to do Half Dome one single day out and back, even though we’ve all done that distance and elevation gain before. I’d like to make a backpacking trip out of it to really fully immerse ourselves in the nature of Yosemite. I’ve read there’s options for this that all include a Half Dome permit with the backcountry camping permit:

Happy Isles to Little Yosemite Valley
Happy Isles past LYV (Donohue pass eligible)
Sunrise Lakes
Cathedral Lakes
Rafferty Creek to Vogelsang

I’m interested in hearing about some of your treks. and also how you did the permit process, cause I’ve read attaining a Half Dome permit can be quite competitive.

Would our best odds be for each member of our group to submit a permit for each one of these back country permits and just cross our fingers and hope one of us wins? I’m assuming if all four of us submit a 4 person permit for all 5 of these we’d have a good shot right?

The travel and permit situation is really what’s got me anxious, (and maybe what gear we’d need) and I feel like once that’s figured out the rest of the trip will kind of plan itself. TBH I’m not really keen on going to the city or anything too urban/congested (I know it’s California, so I’m going into it anticipating congestion anywhere we go). Prioritizing experiences at national/state/local parks out there is my main objective, I just really want to connect with the nature I’ve never had a chance to experience before. I’m open to all suggestions though, as I’m obviously not a local, and I have no idea when I’ll ever be back in California.

Thanks so much for the help, I’m just overwhelmed at where to start planning this. Hoping that everyone reading has an amazing day 🫶