Happy Anniversary!

On November 11, 2010 I started a blog adkinla.blogspot.com. I did it partly to tie me back to the East Coast of which I was leaving and to give myself a forum to talk about my new experiences of hiking in LA.

Then, on November 26, 2010, I went on my first "hike" around the LA River with my family. I blogged about it, of course, and that started my great adventure into online writing.

Over the last year, I have written 80 posts on a variety of topics (although it seems one of the most popular ones was my Cotton=Death? diatribe that still has em in stitches in the Ukraine).

Here are some facts from the previous year:

I went on 30 hikes.
The hikes ranged from Ventura County to San Diego County, with Los Angeles and San Bernandino Counties thrown in for good measure.
The longest hike was 14 miles, the shortest was about a mile and change. My sweetspot seems to be about 6-8 miles but I want to push the outer limits of the upper range so I feel more comfortable with 10.
Favorite Hike: Devil's Chair in the Antelope Valley. Great, great hike.
Least Favorite: Placerita Canyon, the hard way. Now, I like challenges but I don't like sprint down miles of trail because the bugs and trying to bite the hell out of ya. Nature is nature, no question but not looking to replicate this hike anytime soon.

So what have I learned from a year of blogging? 1, Its tough to enjoy the trip sometimes when you know you are writing a trip report. It is a constant struggle of mine but because of point 2) this blog forces me to get out in the outdoors, for which, I am extremely grateful. I lead a rather standard office lifestyle and getting out into the big wide world every weekend, in part, to write something for this blog is a great motivator and really gets me back in touch with nature. 3) I never would have hiked with people from Twitter if it wasn't for this blog and it is pretty cool that I have. The Internet is a great tool to meet people with similar interests and writing about SoCal Hiking has lead to many plans with SoCal hikers and hopefully long time friendships.

Finally, while this is a celebration of 1 year, I want to thank you, the reader for coming here for the first time, sometimes or all the time. I love writing and I also love being read and your pageviews and comments mean a lot to me and I am forever grateful.

To close things up, here are a few of my favorite shots over the last year.