When Sean Jansen is passionate about a cause, he raises awareness for it the best way he knows how: hiking.
Earlier this month, after learning about the critically endangered Southern California steelhead trout native to San Juan and San Mateo Creeks, the San Clemente native grabbed his hiking poles and took off from T-Street, starting a nearly 1,200 mile, 86-day hike up the Southern California coast, including through Laguna Beach.
“My entire childhood, I did not know that these fish existed,” Jansen said. “Once I discovered that they lived in this creek, I started researching them, and found out that they live all throughout Southern California. Not only that, they’re critically endangered. I figured out the system where I could walk the entire coastline in Southern California, connecting all these rivers where they meet the sea, then I could walk the mountains back down where these rivers start their life and create like a giant loop around these rivers.”…