Category Archives: California Gear

California Gear, Outside Gear, Camping Gear

Parks and Recreation Magazine

California Parks and Wreck

tv the big distraction

step 1. kill your television
step 2. get outside, everyday
step 3. sleep overnight, under the stars

For those who may be still trapped in TV-Land, welcome to Total Escape, a dedicated web site all about the “real world” of wilderness and non-fiction, California style.

parksrectv

Before I started my web business people would suggest to me that I need to write a book. So I naturally chose the world wide web. Now decades later, they are still asking the same question. “Why don’t you write a book on this stuff?”

I say “I did, it’s online. On the internet already. Go look.”
Puzzled, they would turn away to gaze at their device.

Total Escape was created in the web 1.0 days (1996), so I could easily keep track of my many travels, the awesome destinations, my recommendations, my travel logs, zillons of photographs, camping trips, the back roads, signs, maps, GPS, all of it. I worked my day job doing 3D & then moonlighted starting this small web biz. My biggest draw to the internet format at first was being able to update outdoor info instantly. Secondly, it was the ability to work from anywhere with a phone line. (56k anyone?)

No toxic inks, no newspaper. No glossy mag. No waste. Just free digital energy about outdoor destinations, transferred across the cyber waves, just for you the avid Escaper.

park magazine

Then came the buy-out offers and seasonal magazine ideas from sources in San Diego. By late 2003, none had solidified. Several print magazines did however mention totalescape.com in a few articles, which resulted in some nice traffic spikes. Eternally grateful for the early on-lookers and participants!

Quite personally, I had already had my share of smelly inks, papers & paints in art college. Working in a computer career field, I was fully aware of the web in the early 1990’s. I was ready for the computer age & the internet. Eager in fact! Ready to make that leap from graphics & print concepts over to web windows was all I thought about for years.

I did not want to print anything; waste anything. I wanted my biz to be state of the art, futuristic – so here I am, 26 years later. WOW!

Thousands of photos, hundreds of destinations, all local to California. All by itself, Total Escape is a Parks and Recreation Magazine online – and always updating.

DanaMite
Total Escape – California, Off the Beaten Path
totalescape.com

California Outside Blog

California A to Z

AtoZsmalltowns

California Photos
flickr.com/photos/danamite/sets/

propanecampfire
Stupid idea #544967 – the propane campfire
Shouldn’t we be looking up at the stars?

secluded camps

ranger

Parks & Forests

Wilderness List

califrepublic

California Google Maps

Rent Camping Gear

Camp Gear Rental / Camping Equipment Rental /

Outdoor Equipment Rentals

Backpacks

recreational equipment

California Camping Rentals: Outdoor gear rentals in California are more common in big cities with large retailers and harder to find in specific, small towns on the back roads. Plan ahead trying to rent gear. Recreation destinations such as Joshua Tree, Mammoth & Bishop might have rental shops, but finding a rental store in an unfamiliar area could be ‘just chancing it’.

Be sure, before you go.

DanaMite has revised this handy list for your wilderness vacation planning, recreational equipment and rental needs.

2020 UPDATE: Recently deleted 4 shops on this page, so don’t be surprised if more gear rental shops vanish.

RENTAL SHOPS specific to California

major retail chain:

REI rents gearREI rents gear!

hiker

independent rental shops in small town Cali:

(listed from south to north)

Stone Equipment Rental (Bishop) 760-873-7907
MammothGear.com (Mammoth Lakes)
Yosemite Equipment Rentals (Yosemite Valley)
Sierra Nevada Adventure Company (Gold Country)
MountainSportsChico.com (Chico)
TheFifthSeason.com (Shasta)
Humboldt State Rentals (Arcata)

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California gear rentals

RENTAL SHOPS online

There are many reason people rent gear. Tourists or vacationers passing through, wanting to experience a non-hotel night outdoors; Beginner backpackers wanting to try out equipment before committing to a big purchase; College students on an impromptu road trip; Novice cross country snow skiers;  Doggy now packs in his own food & water too.

A new concept now being delivered is online gear rental, from camping to fly fishing. Seriously. They can ship you quality rental gear, and you can use it, test it, review it, all hands-on, out in the field. These 2 players in the West both ship nationwide. Imagine what else the web will rent in the future?

viewfromtent

Shop Total Escape

support this site: 

shop online with the links below and help keep this web site alive

maps, books, gear
outdoor person gift list

outdoor person gift

Over the decades Total Escape has seen many affiliate programs dissolve, but Amazon has always held true, which is why we still link to them. Follow links to the new shop pages!

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Baja California Maps
totalescape.net/shop/baja-california-maps/

Big Bear Maps
totalescape.net/shop/big-bear-trail-map/

Big Sur Maps
totalescape.net/shop/big-sur-maps/

Borrego Maps
totalescape.net/shop/anza-borrego-desert-map/

California Backpacks
totalescape.net/shop/outdoor-gear/backpacks/

California Maps & Atlas
totalescape.net/shop/state-atlas-maps/

California Tackle & Fishing
totalescape.net/shop/outdoor-gear/tackle/

Camp Batteries
totalescape.net/shop/outdoor-gear/camp-battery/

Camp Chair
totalescape.net/shop/outdoor-gear/camping-chairs/

Camp Tents
totalescape.net/shop/outdoor-gear/tents/

Camp Gadgets
totalescape.net/shop/outdoor-gear/camp-tools/gadgets/

Camp Kitchen
totalescape.net/shop/outdoor-gear/camp-kitchen/

Camp Lighting
totalescape.net/shop/outdoor-gear/camp-lights/

Camp Soaps
totalescape.net/shop/outdoor-gear/camp-soap/

Camp Storage
totalescape.net/shop/outdoor-gear/camp-storage/

Camp Tools
totalescape.net/shop/outdoor-gear/camp-tools/

Camp Water
totalescape.net/shop/outdoor-gear/camp-water/

Camping w/ Bears
totalescape.net/shop/outdoor-gear/bears/

Camping Coolers
totalescape.net/shop/outdoor-gear/coolers/

Camping Stoves
totalescape.net/shop/outdoor-gear/camping-stoves/

Camping Tables
totalescape.net/shop/outdoor-gear/camp-tables/

Coleman Gear

GPS Units
totalescape.net/shop/map-gear/gps-units/

Outdoor Books for California
totalescape.net/shop/

Outdoor Radios
totalescape.net/shop/outdoor-gear/outdoor-radios/

Sleeping Bags
totalescape.net/shop/outdoor-gear/sleeping-bags/

Wilderness Maps
totalescape.net/shop/wilderness-maps/

Gear for Outdoors