Blog

August 7, 2017

Day 79 – Pancakes were a bad choice…

Mileage: 27 with 8500′ of elevation gain

This morning, I wanted to get breakfast at the cafe as early as possible and then get out of town as quickly as I could. I have nothing against Seiad Valley, but I wanted to get the massive climb out of the way before it got too hot. As such, I had pack...

August 6, 2017

Day 78 – Lazy Sunday: Part II

Mileage: 26 into Seiad Valley

There’s something about Sundays that turns off any productive and motivated parts of my brain and turns me into mush. Last week, I slept until noon on Sunday. This week, it was only 8AM, but by the time I woke up, the dozen or so people I had camped wit...

August 5, 2017

Day 77 – Out of the frying pan, into the… snow?

Mileage: 29 out of Etna

I woke up early this morning because I had signed up for the 9AM shuttle and I wanted breakfast first. That meant only 5.5 hours of sleep since I stayed up so late, but that’s fine as long as I leave town full. 😋 I rode a much nicer bike over to Bob’s ...

August 4, 2017

Day 76 – Etna

Mileage: 28 into Etna for the night (mile 1597)

As I described yesterday, the camp spot I woke up in this morning was absolutely dreadful. I could not, for the life of me, stay up where I was supposed to be sleeping. Instead, I was sliding further and further down towards the foot of the tent, tangle...

August 3, 2017

Day 75 – Flatland

Mileage: 42

Most nights before I go to sleep, I check the potential mileage and elevation for the next day. Last night, I saw an opportunity. Today was going to be relatively flat, so I could probably so a fairly high-mileage (upper 30s) day pretty easily. Intriguing…

August 2, 2017

Day 74 – Failures

Mileage: 28

I woke up fairly early (6AM) in the Mt. Shasta KOA and was surprised to see most of my neighbors already getting up and leaving. I thought *hikers *were the early birds! I ate a few delicious muffins that my mom sent me (thanks, ma!) and packed up my st...

August 1, 2017

Day 73 – Shastafarian

Mileage: 19 to town, then 2 extra to Castella

Today’s entire purpose was to pick up a package full of goodies that my mother had sent to Castella. I needed to pick up a little food as well, so the gas station package pickup/resupply was my only plan for the day. Maybe I would sleep in Castella at t...

July 31, 2017

Day 72 – Fire on the mountain, run boys run!

Mileage: 34

I woke up in my beautiful streamside campsite and immediately noticed that something was different. The trees were still there, can’t be that… the stream was still flowing, it isn’t that… my body was still sore all over, that’s not it… what was it!? THE...

July 30, 2017

Day 71 – Lazy Sunday

Mileage: 15

After yesterday, I deserved a lazy day. Today, that meant sleeping with no alarms. Having gone to bed at 1AM, I slept soundly until the first group of hikers walked by, and then I started experiencing a pattern. Woke up, saw some hikers, went back to sl...

July 29, 2017

Day 70 – The Hat Creek Rim Double Marathon

Mileage: Lots.

*Disclaimer: *Lots o’ words for lots o’ hiking Today was the day. Ever since Belden, I’ve been eyeing this stretch as a a fantasy flat section in which I can hike 50 miles, but I hadn’t fully decided to actually try it until yesterday. The bear can rest...

July 28, 2017

Day 69 – Prepare for liftoff!

Mileage: 23

Today was an easy day to prepare for a high-mileage day tomorrow. After walking around 30 miles every day for a while (except yesterday), a 23-mile day is a welcome break from high-mileage hiking. I started the morning in standard fashion by accidentall...

July 27, 2017

Day 68 – A weight off my shoulders

Mileage: 18 to right outside Lassen Volcanic National park because of those pesky little bears (mile 1343).

Since I walked so far yesterday, I could wake up late and still make it to town early! Best morning ever! I still woke up at 6:30, but I took my time packing up and wasn’t hiking until 7:15. The 3 miles were uneventful and I made it to the highway to hi...

July 26, 2017

Day 67 – Ohhhhh, we’re halfway there!

Mileage: 35 to right outside Chester (mile 1328)

I woke up this morning knowing that we had some brutal climbing ahead of us today, so I wasn’t in any particular hurry to get started. At 6AM, I sat up and saw multiple people packing up their packs. I was still in my sleeping bag. At 6:15, the first fe...

July 25, 2017

Day 66 – Belden

Mileage: 25 through Belden (mile 1284)

I woke up around 6AM this morning and sat in my tent for a while before starting the day. I heard either Taylor or Jann deflate their sleeping pad, which meant that it was time for the other to wake up. I ignored this signal and continued to lay in my t...

July 24, 2017

Day 65 – The Climb

Mileage: 32

After snoozing my alarm a few times this morning, I saw some hikers that I knew pass me, so it was time to get up and start my day. Some people get up so early! I threw my stuff in my bag, at a huge breakfast of snack foods, and was on my way towards Be...

July 23, 2017

Day 64 – I Like Big Buttes

Mileage: 34

Every time I camp with other hikers, I’m reminded of how early everyone else wakes up. When I was with my group in the Sierras, we did the same thing, but I’ve been waking up super late (9AM) some days while I’m going solo. I woke up to the sound of hik...

July 22, 2017

Day 63 – Well Done

Mileage: 30 into and out of Sierra City (mile 1195)

My hiking philosophy is that I like to hike high miles, but I don’t want to let arbitrary mileage or a deadline dictate what I can or cannot do on trail. This means that instead of focusing on getting in my 30 miles at all costs and becoming a slave to ...

July 21, 2017

Day 62 – I can see clearly now

Mileage: 28

Today had a pretty spectacular morning where I woke up underneath Squaw’s furthest north lift for the sunrise over the lake. I then promptly fell back asleep and woke up when it was sunny. Right out of Squaw, I descended before climbing up to Tinker’s K...

July 20, 2017

Day 61 – Going Skiing

Mileage: 30 miles to the top of Squaw! I’m camped near one of their chair lifts.

It was freezing this morning! I always hate getting out of my warm sleeping bag on cold mornings, so today I didn’t. As a result, I didn’t get started with hiking until 9AM. I also hadn’t slept much the past two nights, so the extra sleep was good for m...

July 19, 2017

Day 60 – Smoke on the water

Mileage: 20

Today was absolutely delightful, and what a coincidence, I ate a whole bag of gummi bears again today. Hmmmm… I started off my morning early with a 7AM breakfast at Driftwood Cafe, where I had the Carolina Connection, an interesting take on biscuits and...

July 18, 2017

Day 58 – AYCE?

Mileage: 35

I woke up this morning and did something I haven’t done in ages: ate breakfast. Rudy, the German JMT hiker we had picked up on Forester Pass, had shown up to VVR with all of his extra food that he didn’t need, including lots of Clif Bars and muesli, whi...

July 18, 2017

Day 59 – South Lake Hatoe(s)?

Mileage: 24 into South Lake Tahoe

I knew I wanted to be in Tahoe for a good portion of the afternoon in order to get some town stuff done and prepare for the sushi feast, so I woke up nice and early to try to be to the highway by 2PM. Initially, it was tiny bit chilly but not too bad, b...

July 17, 2017

Day 57 – I can’t bear it anymore…

Mileage: 22

I woke up in my super awesome camp spot and was very excited to get on the road. I was going into “town” today! Kennedy Meadows North, the promised land 2.0. Since I was camped at 10,500 feet, obviously my first course of action for the day was to go up...

July 16, 2017

Day 56 – 1000 Miles!

Mileage: 29. I’m 6 miles from Sonora Pass and Kennedy Meadows North!

> 🎶 I would walk 500 miles, and I would walk 500 more, to be the man who walked 1000 miles to eat the whole darn store. (I deserve it) 🎶 – The Proclaimers > 🎶 And you know, I’d walk 1000 miles, if I could eat… real foooooood… tonight! 🎶 – Michelle B...

July 15, 2017

Day 55 – Lost in the woods

Mileage: 22

Today was tough. Probably the most physically and mentally taxing day I’ve had on trail. Physically, I think a lot of the difficulties came from yesterday’s mileage. Slipping and sliding on snow and in rivers works a lot of muscles that I haven’t had to...

July 14, 2017

Day 54 – A visit to the zoo

Mileage: 30. My first (and hopefully only) 30-mile day in the Sierras.

I started today the way any 30-mile day should start: sleeping in and getting a late start at 9AM. Once I had fully woken up, I started following the trail down out of the snow. There were a few splits, but I stuck with the glissade path that seemed lik...

July 12, 2017

Day 53 – False Promises

Mileage: 27 trail miles + 1 or 2 more for Red’s Meadow and Devil’s Postpile

I woke up feeling pretty jolly because I had walked pretty far yesterday, was feeling good, and was so close to getting into Mammoth. All I needed to do was walk 3 miles and catch the bus from Red’s Meadow. I didn’t know what time it came, but I was aim...

July 11, 2017

Day 52 – I’m slidin’ solo…

Mileage: 26, so I’m 3 miles from Red’s Meadow and Mammoth at mile 903.

We knew that today would be tough since we were disbanding the team, and when I woke up I heard cuddling noises coming from Savage’s tent. She and Dodger were making the most of their last time together, and when I came back from the bathroom, I jumped ...

July 10, 2017

Day 51 – The Last Hurrah

Mileage: 0

As much as I love sleep, I’m so used to walking up early on trail that I woke up at 6AM and had to wait an hour for breakfast. Apparently, I slept through an obnoxious guitar/screaming duet at midnight last night, which woke up just about everybody. Aft...

July 9, 2017

Day 50 – The Race to Vermillion Valley

Mileage: 16 to VVR!

Last night, we camped at an abnormally warm lake at above 10,000 feet, so we only had 700 feet of elevation gain to go to get to the top of Selden Pass. We got an early start so that we could get to the pass and Bear Creek early, which also meant that I...

July 8, 2017

Day 49 – Evolution

Mileage: 16

We camped right next to Evolution Creek last night, but we were still a few miles away from the official crossing. Evolution Creek, a horribly named behemoth of a river, is one of the more difficult river crossings on the PCT due to how wide, fast, and ...

July 7, 2017

Day 48 – Coming down

Mileage: 16

We’ve been pretty consistently high lately. Every day holds a new snow-covered mountain pass that brings us up and up before forcing us back down to the lowlands. Today was no different, with Muir Pass in our sights and miles and miles of snow to slog t...

July 6, 2017

Day 47 – We found the trail!

Mileage: 17

We had another bet last night that said whoever was the latest to being ready to hike beyond 5:30AM would have to buy a milkshake for the rest of the group. I had slept until 5:10 but I really didn’t want to lose, so I ran around and threw everything in...

July 5, 2017

Day 46 – Extra Mile Extravaganza!

Mileage: 12 + 3 to look for the ice axe + 1 to go back to talk to Marla + ? for snowy pathfinding

Extra miles climbing down and then back up… Twice. I got an early start this morning. Since I felt partially responsible for Marla’s ice axe situation, I figured that the least I could do was go back down to the river to see if I could find it in the lo...

July 4, 2017

Day 45 – Inadvertent Swimming

Mileage: 13. We’re at mile 802.

Today we finally got back on trail. And it’s the Fourth of July! Hooray! 🎉 🇺🇸🎇 I woke up covered in a layer of morning dew, which is a really terrible way to wake up at 5AM at 10,000 feet. Brrrrrr. I didn’t want to get up and deal with the ridiculou...

July 3, 2017

Day 44 – Kearsarge Pass… Again

Mileage: 0 (7 non-trail miles). We are camped at mile 789.

Since we took an accidental zero yesterday, we needed to get back to the trail today. That meant hitching out of Independence and hiking Kearsarge again. Yay for uphills! 🎉 It’s Fourth of July weekend, so we figured a hitch wouldn’t be too hard, but it...

July 3, 2017

Day 43 – Zero into Independe

Mileage: 0.0

Oops. We didn’t plan to zero in Bishop, but due to how much we needed to do and how late we got to town yesterday, we took it easy and hiked zero miles today. I was a sleepy boy this morning, so I woke up to give Savage my laundry and then slept in unti...

July 2, 2017

Day 42 – Kearsarge Pass into Bishop

Mileage: 5 PCT + 7 up and down Kearsarge

We camped at a tough creek crossing last night so we could cross it in the morning, so I woke up a bit early and scouted out our possible options. The creek was fast and heavy and the weren’t many great options, so the primary option was a log above a p...

July 1, 2017

Day 41 – Water, water, everywhere

Mileage: 17 miles

From talking to other people, we knew that we had three major steam crossings to do before Forester Pass, so we woke up early to get to them before the sun started to melt the snow to feed the streams. We got some nice views as the sun was rising, but w...

June 29, 2017

Day 39 – Preparing for Whitney

Mileage: 19 to Crabtree Ranger Station

We want to summit Mt. Whitney tomorrow morning, so today’s hike is meant to set us up for an easy hike up to 14,500 feet. Ha. Since we only needed to go 19 miles today, we woke up fairly late and were mozying around for the better part of the morning. W...

June 29, 2017

Day 40 – Mt. Whitney

Mileage: 0 (~14 miles up and down Whitney)

Today was great. We did zero PCT miles, but had such an awesome time climbing the highest peak in the lower 48 states and hanging out with other hikers that it was totally worth it. We decided not to sunrise summit Whitney because it would be our first ...

June 27, 2017

Day 38 – Back to the mountains

Mileage: 6.5 mile nearo to get back up into the mountains

We started the day with a delicious breakfast at Alabama Hills Café before going around town and finishing up our town chores. Soon we would be heading back out to the trail to start our adventure in the snow and mountains. I went to the laundromat for ...

June 26, 2017

Day 36 – The ascent begins

Mileage: 23 to mile 735

We’re not in the desert anymore!!! Ahhhhhh! What that means is that it was freezing cold when we woke up. Everyone was trying to get moving by 5:30, so we were up early for the start of our alpine hiking. We spent the first few miles getting used to the...

June 26, 2017

Day 37 – Nearo into Lone Pine

Mileage: 12 to Lone Pine

When we started packing our bear canisters at Kennedy Meadows, we began to realize that they don’t hold that much food. As a result, our plan has been to go to Lone Pine to resupply, which will also give me a chance to get some new shoes! Hooray! 🎉 We ...

June 25, 2017

Day 35 – Pacific Crest Hail?

Mileage: 10 out of Kennedy Meadows

My day started with no alarm and no sun shining in my face, so I slept in until about 9AM. I got up, said bye to the trail angels we had hung out with last night, then started my town chores. I did my laundry, took a shower, charged everything, hydrated...

June 23, 2017

Day 33 – Diurnal Life

Mileage: 30

Since I completely forgot to sleep yesterday during the day, I was a tired boy last night. I slept like a rock until 9am (LATE 😬) and then hit the trail towards Kennedy Meadows, hoping that my sleep schedule switch wasn’t a huge mistake. In the first f...

June 23, 2017

Day 34 – The Promised Land

Mileage: 9

I woke up super excited this morning because I knew what was in store: KENNEDY MEADOWS!!! The solution to all of my hiking problems (mostly the desert) was within reach, so I set off early to get into town for some breakfast. The landscape was still pro...

June 21, 2017

Day 31 – Caffeine, please

Mileage: 32 to Lake Isabella (mile 652)

I woke up as usual, at 5:30 PM underneath a bush in the middle of the desert with a lizard playing in my hair, and knew it was time for a night hike! I had learned from my mistakes in the past few days, so I had slept at a water source (Willow Spring) a...

June 21, 2017

Day 32 – The Summer Solstice

Mileage: 11, since I counted the 15 after midnight this morning in yesterday’s mileage. Camped right before Joshua Tree Spring at mile 663.

It’s the longest day of the year! Hooray! 🎉🎈🎉 That also means that the thing I’ve been hiding from for the past three days is going to be out for the longest of any day of the year. ☀️😓🌵 I caught the 7:30 AM (actually around 8:00) bus into Lake Isa...

June 20, 2017

Day 30 – Trying to be nocturnal

Mileage: 36 to Willow Spring

Last night, I truly night hiked for the first time. I started at 6 PM and ended at 4 AM after replenishing my water. My body was pretty exhausted during the later portions of the hike, but otherwise, it was great! Instead of 100°+, it was only 75°, whic...

June 18, 2017

Day 28 – Luck of the Irish

Mileage: 17 to Tehachapi (mile 558)

I meant to wake up early, I really did, but it was windy and cold and my body told me that it needed more recovery time from the 87 trail miles I’ve put in over the past 3 days. As a result, rather than early morning hiking to the top of a big hill, I g...

June 18, 2017

Day 29 – Night Hiking

Mileage: 26 to just beyond Golden Oaks Spring

It’s super hot in the desert. I feel like I’ve written that in every blog post since I started, but I feel the need to reiterate. So. Hot. I generally can handle it pretty well and just turn into a giant puddle of sweat, but it’s getting to the point wh...

June 17, 2017

Day 27 – I’m melting…

Mileage: 33

I started this morning in a typical Mason fashion: snoozing my alarm until the last second. Don’t worry though, I managed to barely catch the moment the sun peeked over the horizon. Success! Everyone knew today was going to be hot, because we were losin...

June 16, 2017

Day 26 – The Hills Have Flies

Mileage: 30 + 1 mile from Casa de Luna

I was originally planning to start night hiking today by leaving The Lunatic Lounge in the middle of the night, but Terry, the lovely woman who runs it, promised pancakes in the morning. I can’t say no to food, so I slept in until 6:30 and had a huge br...

June 14, 2017

Day 24 – Hiker Heaven

Mileage: 18. I didn’t intend to stop at Hiker Heaven for the night, but it’s a great place to be! In Agua Dulce (mile 454)

I had camped with about 13 other people last night at a ranger station, but I slept in a tiny bit and everyone was gone when I woke up at 7! The early bird gets the worm I guess. My only plan for the day was to get to Hiker Heaven to pick up my boxes, b...

June 14, 2017

Day 25 – Hawaiian Shirt Wednesday

Mileage: 24 trail miles + 2 to Casa de Luna

The desert is hot. It always has been, but for some reason that hasn’t sunk in for me yet and I decided that breakfast in town until 9 AM was a good idea. It WAS a good idea and I got a delicious breakfast with some people, but that meant that I got to ...

June 13, 2017

Day 23 – Back to the wilderness

Mileage: 29

Having spent the last three days off-trail, it felt nice to get back to the outdoors. I ran into a ton of people today, most of whom I had never seen before, but I ran into a few old friends who had caught up too! The hiking wasn’t too eventful today an...

June 12, 2017

Days 20, 21, and 22 – Vamos a la playa

Mileage: I guess technically 4.

BEEEEEEAAAACH. FOOOOOOOOOOD. FRRRIIIIEENNDDS. When I started hitching on Friday morning, I didn’t have high hopes. I was almost immediately proved wrong when the first car I saw picked me up and drive me to LA. Awesome! Thanks Michelle! Turns out she ha...

June 9, 2017

Day 19 – The Road to LA

Mileage: Too many. 37 + a short nap + 3 more to start hitching at 6am.

I had hiked a lot of miles yesterday, most of them uphill, but luckily I woke up feeling pretty good. I could definitely feel the 29 miles, but I wasn’t hurting anywhere specific. Today was going to be more of the same, so I needed an early start to rea...

June 8, 2017

Day 18 – The Golden Arches

Mileage: 29 miles with 7700′ up.

For some reason my life on trail is just surviving until I can eat a real meal again. In between those I live snack to snack. McDonald’s is my reason for hiking today. See it? See it!? I had hiked pretty close to Cajon Pass so that I could get some McDo...

June 7, 2017

Day 17 – Desert Heat

Mileage: 25 (mile 335)

When I woke up this morning, something was different. It was 6:30 am and I was… warm? I wasn’t using my sleeping bag at all and was completely fine with just my liner. That should have been a red flag, but I ate some breakfast, packed up my stuff, and t...

June 6, 2017

Day 16 – Swimmin’ Holes

Mileage: 25 miles. Currently camped across the bridge at mile 310.

Lately, I haven’t really been looking at my maps or elevation plots to see what’s coming up. I know the general tend is down and I check the water report to make sure there are sources nearby, but I think it’s easier on morale if I don’t know what’s goi...

June 5, 2017

Day 15 – On the road again…

Mileage: 19

Today was a good day. The sun was shining, the scenery was beautiful, and my body felt rejuvenated after a day and a half off from hiking. I got a slightly later start than I would have liked (11 am), but it wasn’t too hot and the terrain was pretty mel...

June 4, 2017

Day 14 – First Zero in Big Bear City

Mileage: 0

So far on this trip, I’ve been hesitant to take a whole day off. I did 14 into Idyllwild and stopped, 9 out of Idyllwild up San Jacinto, and 10 into Big Bear city yesterday, but never a full day of zero hiking. That changed today and it was wonderful. I...

June 4, 2017

Day 9-13 – The Dick Smith Challenge

The Dick Smith Challenge… Oh, how I wish I didn’t know what this was. If only my curiosity in the Idyllwild campground hadn’t drawn me towards that comi...

June 2, 2017

Day 12 – Feel (and see) the burn

Mileage: My first 30 mile day! With 7,400′ of ascent and 3,000′ of descent. Ouch.

Today’s my birthday! That means basically nothing out on the trail, but it meant that I got to eat all of my good food today. Like a Snickers for breakfast! Oh man was it delicious. The first half of my day can only be described as hell. It was awful. I...

June 2, 2017

Day 13 – Unexpected trail magic

Mileage: 10 miles to Highway 18 to hitch into Big Bear (mile 266)

As usual on the day I expect to get to town, I woke up early, giddy with excitement for the cheeseburger(s?) to come. It was absolutely freezing (~40°, so yeah, Mr. Scientist, not really freezing) when I woke up, so I REAAAALLY didn’t want to get out of...

June 1, 2017

Day 11 – Up and Down and Up Again

Mileage: 25 to begin the climb to Big Bear Lake

The PCT is a beautiful trail, but it can be frustrating sometimes. There are many times that you know which direction you should be going but the trail planners had a different idea in mind. Oftentimes, that idea is “Hey, instead of going around this, l...

May 31, 2017

Day 10 – San Jacinto, Fuller Ridge, and Mile 200

Mileage: 21 PCT miles with a few extra San Jacinto miles thrown in. Woke up at 9000′, hiked to 10800′, and now I’m sleeping at 3300′. Boy oh boy, my legs are going to hurt tomorrow.

If you read my last post, you’ll know that I intended to wake up for the sunrise at the peak of San Jacinto. With sunrise at 5:32 am and a 3.5 mile hike up 2000 feet, I needed to wake up at 3 am to make it in time. I DID wake up at 3 am, but a lethal co...

May 30, 2017

Day 9 – Nearo towards San Jacinto

Mileage: About 9 miles and about 4000 feet of elevation gain

I started the day by sleeping in (until 7:30) and getting breakfast with some of the other hikers at a place called The Red Kettle. Delicious breakfast quesadillas and burritos all around! My one main goal for the day was to stay off my feet to let them...

May 28, 2017

Day 7 – The Quest for a Cheeseburger: Part II

Mileage: 17 + 2 to/from cheeseburger town + 5.5 up towards the fire closure

When I woke up this morning, it was freezing cold out and everything was wet. I don’t know if it lightly rained or if this was morning dew, but whatever it was got my sleeping bag and tent pretty wet. I was then forced to towel off pretty much everythin...

May 28, 2017

Day 8 – Do you know the muffin man?

Mileage: 14.6 of the fire closure detour into Idyllwild (mile 179)

Today was a nice day. Started out in the mountains, climbed even higher, and ended up in town. Turns out that almost everyone I know skipped the fire closure and went straight to town, so they all showed up once I got here. Fun! 🎉 The fire closure hike...

May 27, 2017

Day 6 – The Quest for a Cheeseburger: Part I

Mileage: 25 miles out of Warner Springs

My goal today was to set myself up well for a home stretch cheeseburger run at Paradise Valley café by tomorrow. As the burger is 42 miles from Warner Springs, I did a lot of walking today. I stopped at Mike’s Place this afternoon for a couple hours of ...

May 25, 2017

Day 4 – To Julian and Beyond

Mileage: 27.5 miles, currently at mile 91

Day four started off like any normal day: completely alone at 6am in the middle of the desert. I had the equivalent of a penthouse suite campsite with all the amenities though, so life was good. I needed to do a quick 13 mile hike to get to the highway,...

May 25, 2017

Day 5 – 100 miles

Mileage: 18 miles to Warner Springs

After hiking pretty far last night, it was a short (ha, good joke) 18-mile hike to Warner Springs for my first resupply! Along the way, I hit mile 100! As I expected, people had marked the trail to let me know: And had marked it again in a different spot.

May 24, 2017

Day 3 – Horse Water

Mileage: 24, which felt way better than yesterday.

Day three started off nicely with sleeping in, a quick walk into Mt. Laguna, and even a shower (thanks kind stranger that left quarters in the shower)! I topped off the morning with a bit of Silverado beef chili/quice and hit the trail out of town at ar...

May 23, 2017

Day 2 – A long climb to Mt. Laguna

Mileage: 24 (currently 1.9 miles outside Mt. Laguna)

Oh boy… Today started early and ended late. In the same way someone convinced me not to push it on day one, someone else convinced me to push it on day two. I spoke to two girls that said they were trying to hit Mt. Laguna today, so I figured I could do...

May 22, 2017

Day 1 – Campo

Mileage: 15 miles

It’s officially begun! I’m currently hiking from Mexico to Canada! Before heading out to Campo, I needed to pick up stove fuel and we decided to have a proper breakfast, so things got started later than I would have liked. I got to the wall at 12:30, st...

May 21, 2017

T-1 Day

AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! I guess I’m done with work at this point, so I get to just focus on hiking now! All of my food shipments are packed and waiting to be m...

May 21, 2017

Training Hikes – 1 & 2

People always say “Don’t be the guy that has never put up his tent on the first night of the PCT” (aka Reese Witherspoon in Wild), so I decided to do a...

May 21, 2017

Training Hikes – Day 3

Whew… This one was a doozy. With one week left before starting my hike, I decided to do a pack shakedown/high-mileage hike to see what I could learn, an...

May 12, 2017

T-1 week until leaving Seattle

A pre-trail update before flying to San Diego and starting the PCT hike north to Canada.