Columns

A mom’s farewell

Laurie Sontag is a Gilroy writer who wishes parenthood had come with an instruction manual.
Laurie Sontag
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In June 2001, I wrote my first column for this paper. I started writing because I had become a parent and for the first time in my life I had become intimately acquainted with midnight barf-a-thons. There was also this strange, tiny person in the house who told me “no” all [...]

Coe Park’s Steer Ridge

Ron Erskine is a local outdoors columnist and avid hiker.
Ron Erskine
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As the Jim Donnelley Trail gently lifted me above Hunting Hollow, I was grateful to the volunteers at Henry Coe State Park who toiled to build it. Every other path up Steer Ridge is a direct assault up the silly steep slopes that enclose the hollow. Warm morning light dappled [...]

A pillar of strength

Emanuel Lee is an avid runner and the Sports Editor for the Hollister Free Lance.
Emanuel Lee
Growing up I always found it odd when I heard my friends and their parents say to each other, “I love you.” From the time I was born and through my teenage years, my mom never said those words to me. She didn’t have to. If I’ve learned anything over the years, it’s [...]

Coe overnight outing

Ron Erskine is a local outdoors columnist and avid hiker.
Ron Erskine
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The best thing about Henry Coe State Park is also the most challenging thing. It’s big … really big. Imagine a wild area so vast it could swallow up three San Franciscos. Suppose this huge area had only two year-round entrances that barely pierce its boundary, and there, the [...]

Fitness at home

Emanuel Lee is an avid runner and the Sports Editor for the Hollister Free Lance.
Emanuel Lee
You don’t need to have a membership to a health club to get fit. This can be done in your own house or apartment complex. Whether it’s a pool, treadmill, elliptical, stair master, rower and strength-training equipment—or all of the above—getting fit within the comforts [...]

Quality fuel

Emanuel Lee is an avid runner and the Sports Editor for the Hollister Free Lance.
Emanuel Lee
When it comes to weight loss and optimum health, carbohydrates are not your enemy. Why? Carbs are converted into glucose in the body, giving you energy. Carbs are the preferred fuel source for the brain and body, and they’re vital for exercise-goers, especially long-distance [...]

Hikers’ training camp

Ron Erskine is a local outdoors columnist and avid hiker.
Ron Erskine
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Preparations for this summer’s Snow Valley Peak Challenge are well underway. This will be the fifth summer that local hikers have joined me on a quest to hike to the top of a Sierra peak. On July 15, we will follow a portion of the Tahoe Rim Trail for a 12 mile round trip hike [...]

Estate Vines

Bev Stenehjem is a wine columnist for South Valley Magazine and is the author of the Wineries of Santa Clara Valley, Arcadia Publishing. Bev also promotes the Wineries of Santa Clara Valley association on Facebook and Twitter. Reach her at [email protected].
Bev Stenehjem
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At the tail end of our long rainy season the Santa Clara Wine Trail was covered in acres of bright yellow mustard and verdant green hills. I turned off on Redwood Retreat Road, toward Fernwood Cellars—and enjoyed the beauty of mossy trees and swollen streams rushing by. I [...]

Amazing Views on the Trail

Ron Erskine is a local outdoors columnist and avid hiker.
Ron Erskine
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Russian Ridge is a crown jewel among the open space preserves strung along Skyline Boulevard atop the San Francisco Peninsula hills. From the preserve parking lot at the top of Page Mill Road, hikers on the Ridge Trail are quickly rewarded with amazing views: the Pacific Ocean, [...]

State of mind

Cheryl Huguenor is the program director at Live Oak Adult Day Services in Gilroy. For more information visit liveoakadultdaycare.org.
Cheryl Huguenor
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When I started working here at Live Oak Adult Day Services, I was in my 30s, and I was often the youngest person in the room. When I would melodramatically lament that I was about to turn 38 or 40 years old, the seniors here would laugh and say, “You’re so young. You’re [...]
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