Not all conditioning hikes are created equally...

Most weekends you'll find me trying to charge up some hill with the Santa Barbara Sierra Club. With only a few months until Kilimanjaro, I try to hit the trail every chance I get. You can always find an interesting bunch of people assembling for a Sierra Club hike, and the hikes range from mild to wild. This weekend, the hike was definitely one I'll never forget.

A few months ago in mid November, a fire began at the Tea Garden in the hills of Montecito. The Tea Garden, also referred to as the Tea House, has a long and fascinating history. All of the lore associated with the Tea Garden is located on private property, yet over the years many have hiked in, including the now infamous group of Santa Barbara City College students.

On Sunday morning, Keith Schofield and his wife opened the gates and took us on a very special hike through their property. This was by far the largest Sierra Club group I'd ever seen. Once inside the gate, it was easy to see why so many people came out.

Keith Schofield and Robert Bernstein greet us at
the gate next to the old gatehouse on East Mountain Drive.


















While there is a winding paved road on the property that leads up to the top of the Tea Garden, it wouldn't be a hike with Keith without some unexpected detour off the path.




















Along the way, remnants of an elaborate water garden were pointed out. The gardens were originally designed and built by Henry and Ellen Bothin nearly 100 years ago.

A historical account of the property can be found here:
Mar Y Cel




















Keith is not only familiar with the history of the property, he was also able to provide a wealth of details to explain how the elaborate system of waterfalls were designed to fill numerous reservoirs on the property.

Here you can see Tony using a set of old pillars as a stair case to a hidden amphitheater.




























There are several sets of these pillars on the property. At one time, they held large concrete clam shells which utilized a gravity system to direct cascading waterfalls down to various gardens below. Tony's friend Diane Soini manages the Sierra Club hike list on her Santa Barbara Hikes website.


First glimpse of the lower
amphitheater...

Upper amphitheater seating
with Keith about to lead us up
a steep stairwell.

Once we reached the top of the gardens roughly 30 minutes above the amphitheater, we were greeted by Shalimar Judy Luciano. She graciously provided tea and cookies for us - a real tea party at the Tea Garden!

Shalimar gave us all a thoughtful lesson about tea and told us the amazing story of the tea we almost missed due to the Tea Fire back in November. At that time, she had acquired a special lot of Mariage Frères tea from Paris and was expecting the shipment to arrive right as residents and shop owners were being evacuated. Imagine her surprise when she called her daughters to remind them to be there to accept the shipment only to find out that they were in the process of being evacuated.

Shalimar and her daughters have a health and body care store named Rituals on Coast Village Road where one can find a variety of unique gifts for tea aficionados. The address is 1277 Coast Village Road, Montecito, CA.

For those interested in a history of tea, Shalimar highly recommends Liquid Jade by Beatrice Hohenegger. Click the book image to jump to the author's website:

After tea time, Keith took us on the last leg of the hike up to the top of the property. After a total of 1,350 feet in elevation gain, the push to the top was not for the faint of heart.

Of course the view from the very top was well worth it:


On the way back down, we passed by the Tea Garden arch way, now empty with only the faintest hint of Parisian tea lingering in the air. What a fantastic hike! Special thanks to everyone that made this possible.

More gear? Yes... more.

So yes, I know I promised a post about the route I'm taking to the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro, but first I have to say a few words about a stellar deal I found in the gear department. Not too long ago, I bought quite the pile of Patagonia gear down in Ventura at their flagship store. They were having a big sale, but since then I've been crawling the web for even deeper discounts on my favorite items because the grad student life isn't exactly a lucrative one. With giant search strings to find specific items, I came across gearsamples.com. Wow!! Most items are 50% off and they primarily carry Arc'Teryx, Icebreaker, Patagonia, prAna, Timbuck2, and Chaco.











So what's a gear sample? These are the pieces that the sales representatives take to the stores. The good folks at gearsamples.com acquire these pieces and then sell them on their website at prices that beat out every other gear vendor I've found.

Now before you go rushing over there, I might just break your heart with the following information: sizes are definitely limited. This is a function of the way things work in the retail clothing industry. Samples are typically made in only one size for women and only one size for men.






In the case of Patagonia, that size is 8 or medium for women, and medium for men. With Icebreaker, you can get size small for women and size large for men. There really is something for everyone.

If you've never heard of Chaco brand shoes, they are pretty amazing. They come with built in insoles that remind me of superfeet. Unfortunately the sample size is way too small for me. If you know any gals that wear a size 7, or guys that wear a size 10, gearsamples.com has you covered!

I placed an order on Thursday night and everything arrived today - only 4 days later. It helps that they're based on the west coast somewhere, but speed also comes with good ol' USPS Priority Mail. While everyone around here seems to love the big brown UPS truck, I've found them to be slow as molasses.

When I tore into my package, I found the pieces inside exactly as they were listed on the website. They're brand new without tags, and they're absolutely not irregulars. At the bottom of the receipt that came in the package I found a little hand written thank you note from the owners. Three cheers for gearsamples.com!