After walking 2350 miles in 155 days, my time on the PCT for this year has come to an end. With multiple fires near the trail and border in the North Cascades and in Manning Park in BC, I had to get off trail 60 miles before the terminus at […]
Snoqualmie Pass to Stevens Pass
The weather in this stretch was the defining factor for our mood. We started with temperatures in the 40s and rain, mist, and fog that drenched us on night one. We finished with temperatures in the high 70s with bluebird sky and night time weather warmer than the high on […]
White Pass to Snoqualmie Pass
We left White Pass mid-afternoon after a fantastic lunch provided by my Mom and Dad, and had a nice leisurely 6 mile afternoon. Sitting in camp that night, we realized that if we did ~22 miles every day rather than our planned 20, we could get into Snoqualmie Pass Wednesday […]
Cascade Locks to White Pass
Washington is here at last! I’ve been looking forward to getting to WA for hundreds, if not thousands of miles, and being back in my home state so close to the end has been wonderful. However, it’s been a tough section of trail, and the rocks, roots, and steep climbs […]
Oregon!
Oregon was a wild adventure, full of twists and unexpected turns. Unfortunately, I only hiked 200 of the 450 miles in Oregon due to fire and logistics – I’m hoping to come back and finish up those sections later this year or next year. Most of the missed section is […]
Mount Shasta to Medford – Escaping the McKinney Fire
I’m writing this sitting in Medford, OR after escaping the McKinney Fire during its explosive first night, when it grew from 300 acres to 18,000. We saw the fire around 4:30 the night before, and it looked pretty small and a good distance away. There were several aircraft working the […]
Chester to Mount Shasta
This section had a lot of milestones in it. We worked our way around Mount Lassen, and are finally north of the Dixie fire. We traversed Hat Creek Rim, one of the most notorious waterless stretches on the PCT. We also explored Subway Cave, a fantastic lava tube just north […]
Truckee to Chester – The Dixie Fire Part 1
Going from Truckee to Chester has brought me through two intermediate towns, Sierra City and Quincy. It is also brought me through a good chunk of the Dixie fire, a mega fire that hit Northern California last year. I also passed the halfway point on the PCT and now, geologically […]
The Desert – A Retrospective
I’m writing this in the Sierra, one of the most spectacular places I’ve ever been. More on that in other posts. However, I’ve been asked several questions along the lines of “did you like the desert”, and wanted to make a quick retrospective post on the entire desert section. For […]
Reds Meadow to Sonora Pass – The Good, The Bad, and The Mosquito
The Reds Meadow to Sonora Pass section of the PCT primarily goes through the Yosemite National Park wilderness area, but does not go through the valley itself. You also briefly go through the Hoover wilderness and the Ansel Adams wilderness. As you may have guessed by the Clint Eastwood title, […]