This summer, I’ve been watching “Man Vs. Wild” on Discovery. The show’s premise is simple: drop host Bear Grylls in the middle of nowhere with only a knife, canteen, and flint, and see if he can make it out alive. Over the show’s first two seasons, Bear has found himself stranded on a tropical island, lost in the Amazon rain forest, and wandering the glaciers of northern Iceland.

As a viewer, it’s enjoyable enough simply to visit these (and many more) challenging environments—but what makes the show positively irresistible is the unique combination of Bear’s personality, resourcefulness, and determination, plus his insistence on absolute authenticity.

On the first show I saw, Bear demonstrated how to survive falling through ice into water in the wild. Equipped with little more than a jacket and a base layer, he jumped onto thin ice and broke through into icy water. He did this on day two, when he was already hungry and tired, with several more days and nights of hard travel ahead to get back to civilization.

Needless to say, Bear regularly places himself in situations where the average fit adult would simply perish. Watching how he gets himself out is often surprising and always entertaining. We quickly learn that survival is a technique: from simple tips like following rivers downstream to find civilization, to more advanced strategies like trapping animals for food and building shelter and fire from scratch.

Backcountry travelers will find “Man Vs. Wild” a relentlessly informative source of information on what to do when things go wrong in the wild. If you haven’t been watching, check it out. New episodes of Man Vs. Wild air Friday nights on Discovery Channel.

For all you city dwellers out there, here’s a fine Southern California day hike: Sandstone Peak via the Mishe Mokwa trail.

Sandstone Peak is the highest point in the Santa Monica Mountains (about an hour north of the city). You won’t get altitude sickness at the top, but you will find exceptional views of the nearby Pacific Ocean and Los Angeles Basin. Despite the quick drive, the region is surprisingly remote, and the geology quite interesting. Just beware the heat—it is Summer, so avoid hiking at midday.

The Los Angeles Times ran a story on the restoration of the Owens River this past weekend. Via the Department of Water of Power (DWP), Los Angeles began buying much of the farmland in Owens Valley in the early Twentieth Century. Then, in 1913, the DWP abruptly diverted the Lower Owens River into the Los Angeles Aqueduct, turning the fertile Owens Valley farmland into the dust bowl-desert it is today—and utterly destroying Owens Lake.

Owens Valley residents and DWP have been in a long, contentious fight ever since.

As part of a legal settlement, DWP began pumping water back into the lower Owens River in December—the largest river restoration project ever attempted in the West. DWP pumps the water back into the Aqueduct before it gets to Owens Lake (another story entirely), but the river is showing signs of coming back to life.

It’s hard to imagine what might have been had Owens Valley’s water stayed put. A green paradise on the flanks of the Eastern Sierra? Or (as Galen Rowell is said to have speculated) another Bakersfield? In any case, it’s nice to see at least a little progress made in reversing the incredible ecological damage done to Owens Valley by the DWP’s infamous turn-of-the-century water-grab.