Online publication focuses on recreation
WILDERNESS Chris Carrico isn’t one for close quarters when it comes to the outdoors, at least not when it’s unexpected.
The Santa Monica resident and self-professed nature lover went on a hiking excursion with his fiancé in early January, a trip that included an overnight stay at a campground in Carpinteria that he had just reserved.
“We ended up at a five-by-five (foot) camp site and backed up to a railroad track,” Carrico said on Friday. “It was miserable.
Carrico attributes the mishap to the lack of information about the campground on the Web site through which he made the reservations. It is precisely the type of scenario that Carrico hopes other outdoor enthusiasts will be able to avoid through his new online publication, Boa Magazine.
The east coast native co-founded the site with fiancé Mariah Hedrick in January, hoping to give nature junkies a reliable resource through which they could find information and reviews on activities such as hiking and fishing.
“We are both outdoor enthusiasts and love to camp and fish and hike... and whenever we would research places online, we would run into a dead end,” Carrico said. “We really couldn’t find detailed information about a lot of these places.”
It’s a sentiment with which some local outdoorsman agree, finding that a good online resource can be hard to come by.
“I’m not originally from Southern California so when I moved here, the Internet was easiest,” Bart Forman, a West L.A. resident who jogs and hikes weekly, said while shopping at REI on Friday. “Some Web sites I’ve used haven’t been up-to-date with burn severity.”
Ryan Hill, who works at the Wilderness Therapy Program and hikes year round, said he frequently refers to Trails.com, a fee-based online site, or relies on word of mouth.
“I’ve seen a lot of Web sites, and most are too random to be useful,” Hill said.
“When people go hiking in Temescal Canyon and pay and find it’s crowded, they might not know that right down the street, there is a free trail head that nobody knows about,” — Hedrick said
Boa magazine is solely operated by Carrico and Hedrick, who dually fill the roles of owners and staff writers, visiting various Southern California locales and producing the copy on the site.
The site is divided into six sections — camping, beaches & hiking, fishing, “the extreme,” getaways and family-friendly excursions — appealing to nearly every type of outdoorsman, from casual to avid.
“When we write a story, we talk about the facilities, the cool spots, the people, the rangers,” Carrico said.
While Carrico doesn’t consider himself an expert on the subject, he has been an enthusiast since the age of 3 when the New England native learned to ski. By the age of 5, Carrico was fishing and addicted to the outdoors.
Moving to California in 1994 was a dream come true.
“Within two hours, you can be deep-sea fishing, skiing and hiking at the beach,” Carrico said. “You can pretty much do anything within two hours [in a car].”
Born and raised in Santa Monica, Hedrick proudly claims to know the hidden treasures of the recreational areas near her hometown, including little-known trails in the Santa Monica Mountains. It is first-hand experience and personal touch that readers might find at Boa Magazine that might not otherwise be available through other sources.
More than 100 members have registered for the free magazine since its launch in January and the site has generated approximately 10,000 page views since then, Carrico estimates. About 30 articles, ranging from camp sites in the Santa Monica Mountains to sports fishing at the Redondo Beach Pier, have been written. Articles are usually posted every week.
Carrico has some success in the online magazine business — in 2004, he co-founded Modern Mom magazine, which is now in the hands of his ex-wife. Before going into the online business, Carrico worked for 15 years in the public relations industry, starting his own firm in 1996.
Through Boa Magazine, Carrico also hopes to be able to convert the reluctant anti-outdoors type who have written off spending any time with Mother Nature, teaching them that hiking or fishing doesn’t have to be a grueling experience.
“I want them to understand it’s not difficult like ‘Man vs. Wild,’” Carrico said of the Discovery Channel series in which the host is left to fend for himself in the wilderness. “With proper equipment, tents and sleeping bags, it’s a whole lot of fun and we’re doing everything we can to at least encourage them to give it a shot.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 16, 2008. Read the original PDF.