Staying on Solid Ground

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Back when I was one of the cool kids, a group of us would meet after Tuesday track practices for dinner, usually pizza at Luigi’s in Golden Hill or Thai at Saffron off Washington Street. One of the guys was always planning a big hike with the goal of covering every bit of ground in a book he'd bought several years before. He mentioned that if I wanted to be a trail runner, then I had to own this book too because there was nothing else like it. He promised it would make me want to get into the wildnerness more often, and he was right.

So I got a copy of that book and another with selections aimed at trail runners, both by a guy named Jerry Schad. To this day, they are the most opened and earmarked of all the books on my shelves. A community college professor by day, Schad wrote extensively of the most popular and the little known trails surrounding just about every open space in the county and beyond.

Then today I found this article in our local paper about the author fighting cancer. It doesn’t look good. So I wanted to take a minute to (a) recommend his book to any active San Diegan who doesn’t already own it and (b) thank him for the countless hikes and memories made possible because of his books and the inspiration they provide.

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