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San Antonio Week—Biking to the Missions

I recently read that San Antonio’s River Walk was the 14th most visited site in America, more popular than the Grand Canyon or Waikiki Beach in Honolulu. That doesn’t surprise me. Take the steps down to this soothing river, shaded by tall cypress, oaks, and willows and you feel transported to a tropical setting just below the busy downtown streets. In fact the River Walk has been such a smashing success that the city has been on a decade-long expansion to create a 13-mile linear park both north and south of downtown. With the 2009 opening of the Museum Reach, the River Walk doubled in length as it expanded north to the San Antonio Museum of Art and the emerging Pearl neighborhood (an upcoming blog). Even more exciting is the 10.2-mile long Mission Reach, south of the city, expected to be complete by November 2013. Yet, don’t wait another year to try this beauty strip. Phase I and II of the Mission Reach are already done, so you can rent a bike downtown and ride to one of my favorite sites in the city, the early 18th century missions, now a national historic park.
 
Last night I had Abel’s Bicycle Shop deliver a bike, helmet, lock, and detailed bike map to my downtown hotel, the Home 2 Suites by Hilton on Navarro Street. For the cost of $30 a day, Abel’s will also pick the bike up at your hotel when your riding day is done. This morning, I woke up early and veered onto South Alamo Street, where a bike lane led me to the Blue Star Contemporary Art Center. Next to this huge former warehouse, now hosting galleries and artists work space, is an entrance to the Mission Reach bike trail. It was a gorgeous morning as I headed south, peering at the numerous green herons, egrets, and families of ducks. When it warmed up, the turtles arrived to sunbathe on upturned logs on the river. Workers were busy restoring some of the 400 acres of river and six pedestrian bridges that will be added when the Mission Reach is finished. This being April, sunflowers and purple wildflowers were in bloom. 
 
At Mission Road, I turned right and visited the first of two Spanish colonial missions, Concepción, built in 1731.  The crumbling lime stone exterior, which leads to a still operable church, is incredibly photogenic, especially with the early morning sunshine pouring down. I continued on Mission Road another 3 miles to reach the largest mission, San José, known for its popular Mariachi Mass each Sunday. At its height, the missions would hold close to 300 people, working as a church, farm, and ranch. Franciscan friars gathered the native population, converted them to Catholicism, and taught them to live like Spaniards. At Mission San José, you can still see the small living quarters that surround the square layout. Inside the stone walls, overlooking the green and the church, the setting is serene.  When I had my fill, I simply retraced my steps back to the paved bike trail and took my time returning to downtown. 
 

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Top 5 Mountain Climbs in the Northeast, Mount Monadnock, New Hampshire

May and June are my favorite times to climb the peaks in New England and upstate New York before the mosquitoes and masses start to arrive in the high peak months of summer. This week, I’m going to divulge my top five mountain climbs. First up, Mount Monadnock.

For many New England children, their first mountain climb is up that broad-shouldered peak Henry David Thoreau called a “sublime mass.” Just over the border of Massachusetts in southern New Hampshire, Monadnock is less than a two-hour drive from Boston. Its accessibility and locale, smack dab in the center of New England, has made it the second most popular mountain ascent in the world (averaging about 130,000 climbers a year). Only Mt. Fuji in Japan has more foot traffic.

Head up the White Dot trail, one of the steepest ascents to the peak, but also one that rewards with you with incredible vistas in a very short time. Above tree-line, the forest recedes to form open ledges covered with low-lying shrubs like mountain cranberry bushes. This gives you ample opportunity to rest and peer down at the Currier and Ives setting below—a soft blanket of treetops, small towns with their requisite white steeples, a smattering of lakes and ponds, and farms that fan out to anonymous ridges. 

Soon you’ll reach the 3,165-foot summit, where Thoreau watched in dismay as his fellow mid-19th century trampers inscribed their names in rock. This didn’t stop him from writing in large letters atop the biggest boulder “H.D.T. Ate Gorp Here, 1860.”  I’m joking, but you can see many other names clearly marked like “T.S. Spaulding, 1853.”

Spend the night at the Monadnock Inn, whose century-old porch is the perfect place to rest those weary legs. 
 

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Introducing Hopper

In my last column for Men’s Journal on the latest indispensible travel apps, I didn’t have the space to mention one app I recently came across. Called Hopper, the app analyzes data to tell you when is the best time to purchase tickets for a particular flight. For example, I just looked into a flight to Croatia and it told me that there’s no rush to purchase the flight in late April. In fact, they told me the price might drop in the next couple weeks. We shall see. In a recent press release by the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA), they mentioned that booking a flight on Friday, not the weekend, is when rates are usually the cheapest. Also, George Hobica, the founder of Airfarewatchdog.com, recently noted in a New York Times story that Google Flight Search is “by far the best way to find a low airfare.” Use all these strategies the next time you book a flight. 

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Play Outdoors with the AMC This Winter

It might be getting a bit nippy this time of year in Maine, but that shouldn’t stop you from being immersed in the spectacular mountain beauty of the 100-Mile Wilderness Trail. The Appalachian Mountain Club is fortunate to house three of their backcountry lodges in this section of the state, all classic sporting camps that have been revamped and are rearing up for a busy winter season of cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. Choose to do a self-guided ski trip between the lodges or sign up for one of their guided excursions, like the lodge-to-lodge cross-country ski jaunt from Little Lyford to Gorman Chairback the weekend of January 22-24. There’s also a guided snowshoe lodge-to-lodge the following weekend and a winter sampler over MLK Weekend. 
 
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Drive the Sea-to-Sky Highway…in Your Own Lamborghini

The drive to Whistler from Vancouver is on one of the most breathtaking stretches of roadway in North America, the Sea-to-Sky Highway. The drive heads north away from the ocean high into old-growth forest. Just outside Squamish, you can see rock climbers scurry up the cliffs and spot the white dome atop 8,787-foot Mount Garibaldi. Then you pass two impressive waterfalls, Shannon and Brandywine, before making a final ascent to the lofty peaks of Whistler. I always love taking this route on the open-air compartment of the Rocky Mountaineer’s “Whistler Sea-to-Sky Climb.” But next time I might have to take the train down after first driving to Whistler in a Lamborghini. Scenic Rush, a Vancouver-based tour company that started in 2014, offers four exotic driving experiences ranging in price from $495 to $1,295 CAD per person. The 3.5-hour Sea to Sky Experience also includes the opportunity to take the Sea to Sky Gondola in Squamish or a helicopter tour above the alpine peaks of the Coast Mountain Range. Be sure to spend a night or two in Whistler to try the longest zipline in North America, take the spectacular Peak 2 Peak Gondola over a 2.5-mile span from Whistler to Blackcomb, and try the summer bobsled.  
 
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Top Music in 2013, Beyond the Obvious

Like I do every year, I listened to every cut on the best songs and album lists from NPR, New York Times, Boston Globe, others. 2013 was another stellar year for music, and I’m not simply talking about the debut of Lorde or the latest release from Vampire Weekend, albums that you’re well aware of. I like to find that rare gem that falls below the radar. Take, for example, this beauty from Brooklyn’s Son Lux, which was released in late October. Yes, I already have tickets to his show at Boston’s ICA on March 21st. I love the sensualized sound of Rhye in “The Fall,” the soulful Billy Holiday-like jazz singing of Cecile Mclorin Salvant in “Womanchild,” the mesmerizing electronica of Rudimental’s “Spoons,” and the highly original “Magical Boy” by DJ Koze. “When I’m climbing lemon trees of feeling…” Robotic, yet hypnotic. Another song I love to play again and again is “Retrograde” by James Blake. Remarkably, he’s up for a Grammy for Best New Artist this coming Sunday. I hope they let him play my favorite, “The Wilhelm Scream.”

 
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Writing Esoterica

I was guest lecturing at Emerson College in Boston last night when a student asked me how I take notes when I’m out there in the wild, backpacking, canoeing, mountain biking, etc..? It’s actually a very good question. I used to carry a microcassette recorder until I went on a backpacking trip through the Mojave Desert for Men’s Journal magazine. On day three of that trek, I reached down for my recorder and saw that the tape had melted in the sweltering heat. I never liked transcribing notes upon my return, so I switched to writing in a CVS-bought notepad that fits easily into the one of the four pockets on my canvas shorts. That also has its problems. It sometimes gets wet from rain, water, or sweat and I can’t read my notes. Other times I simply lose  the notebook. When I returned from a biking trip to Prince Edward Island for Canadian Geographic, I couldn’t find my notebook anywhere. After freaking out, I wrote the story from memory and called the people I interviewed to confirm their quotes were correct. The magazine loved the piece. It just goes to show you that your memory works far better than you can possibly imagine. In fact, I still remember the waves of nausea I felt the first night of that Mojave Desert trek after hiking 15 miles in the heat and carrying a 50-pound pack. Freeze-dried noodles was not exactly my idea of comfort food, but my body craved carbs so I ate every last morsel.
 

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