Tromp Blog

Pump Track Generation

The West Side Pump Track is Santa Cruz's newest city park.

Santa Cruz pump tracks are breeding a bunch of skilled and friendly young riders.

The Many Veils of Pinto Lake

A veil of tule reeds have encircled Pinto Lake for hundreds of years.

A murder, a discovery, a holy visitation and 400 years of history.

The Truth About Whale Rescues

Want to watch more whale-rescue videos? Donate today to the Monterey Bay-based Whale Entanglement Team.

by Doug Ross

Don’t Know Anything: Seven Days of Ventana Zen

View from the bath house at the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center.

A journey to the Tassajara Zen Mountain Monastery, the Esselen 'Hand' shelters, and the heart of the dharma in the Ventana Wilderness

A Bouquet of Nature at Russian Ridge

Tidy tips are recognized by their white outer edges.

A "Bouquet of Flowers" hike at Russian Ridge includes spring wildflowers, birds, butterflies and all the best parts of nature.

Footdown Showdown

How slow can you go without putting your .... yeah, you get it. Hilltromper photo.

A hilarious tournament at the 2015 SC Mountain Bike Festival not of races or big air, but of the finer, subtler arts of mountain biking—the kind of pointless activity people just instinctively practice when they're on their bikes and killing time.

Wild Coast Whomp

Mad genius Gary Hogue with his George Greenough-inspired designs at the Wild Coast Whomp .

It is early in the morning of a cold spring day at Waddell Beach near the Santa Cruz-San Mateo County Line. The waves are marginal. The wind is already beginning to whip and snap the coast. And thanks to long overdue upwelling, the water is skull-cracking cold. Heinous conditions for a surf event, but this isn’t really a surf event. It’s the Wild Coast Whomp.

Pumped at the Pump Track

A bunch of smiling PVHS kids at the pump track. There is no pump track in South County. Not yet. Dave Robinson photo.

Tawn Kennedy of Greenways to School has organized a group of eleven students from Pajaro Valley High School to ride the City of Santa Cruz’s pump track on the Westside. The goal is obvious: We all want the kids in South County to have more riding opportunities.

The Outdoor Poet: David Allen Sullivan

The Santa Cruz resident and editor of the Porter Gulch Review meets a fellow creature on a morning run.

The Kindness of Other Creatures

Miller in his element: entertaining a crowd of young ladies. Photo courtesy Lindsay Overton.

Can a horse sense human pain? In the case of Miller, one of the equine citizens of Henry Cowell State Park, it seems the answer is yes.

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