Trail Report: Our new newsletter about San Diego County’s outdoors, from hiking reporter Maura Fox

by Maura Fox

Welcome to the San Diego Trail Report, a new weekly newsletter I’m writing to celebrate San Diego’s outdoors.

I’m Maura Fox, the Union-Tribune’s communities and hiking reporter and author of the Hike of the Week column. As a lifelong San Diegan and outdoor enthusiast, it’s a dream to bring my love of spending time in nature to my hometown newspaper.

My work is a big part of my life, as is hiking, but you can also find me regularly performing at a local improv theater and wandering around my neighborhood, stopping at every Little Free Library I see.

This newsletter is something I’m incredibly stoked about. Each week, I’ll share my latest hike, plus our latest and favorite stories about wildlife, outdoor access and moments of adventure. Sign up to get it in your inbox first every Friday morning.

Now, let’s get into it.

This week, we’re heading to the Laguna Mountains, where I recently had, by my standards, a perfect day. It included a camping trip, a hike up Garnet Peak and a slice of pie.

Slices of apple mountain berry and apple pie awaited after the hike. (Maura Fox / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Garnet Peak is an ideal route to fit into a day or weekend spent in the mountains. It offers big views of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and even far-off peaks to the north like San Jacinto, but it’s a simple out-and-back that can be done in a short amount of time, clocking in at a little over 2 miles roundtrip.

I’m not often trying to race off a mountain. But on this day, I had my heart set on getting a slice of apple mountain berry pie in Julian on my way back to San Diego. I knew it would be the capstone to a charming weekend camping within the black oak and conifer forests of the Laguna Mountains.

Before I could head off the mountain’s peak, I ran into a couple visiting San Diego from North Carolina. Their awe of our region and its diverse landscapes was infectious, and as I looked to the hazy pink desert below and the rolling hills around me, I felt myself fill with pride at this place we call home.

Smiling, I trotted down the trail, in pursuit of pie.

You can read more about my adventure in today’s Hike of the Week — and about 101 more of them I’ve previously written about (can you believe it?) in our recent roundup of all of my weekly hikes in San Diego County, if you want to explore the archives.

Plus, check out more stories from across the region, including one about a Carlsbad habitat restoration project for a rare migratory bird, and beyond the region, like one about a plan to preserve land in New Mexico where Georgia O’Keeffe painted some of her most famous works. This one is especially close to my heart, since I lived in Santa Fe for two years in my mid-20s and fell in love with the Southwest and its sprawling skies.

As ever, my inbox is open for suggestions for my next hiking column or news story. You can reach me at maura.fox@sduniontribune.com.

Until next week, happy hiking.

—Maura