Category: Hiking

H Y O H
2016.03.05
Latergram, Pacific Crest Trail
This probably looks like a boring rural snapshot but if you’re a Pacific Crest Trail hiker or are following the Sierra storms or just a hiker, it’s kind of a big deal. The storms have officially hit. It’s on! The winds are gusting. Let’s have FOURTEEN INCHES!!! Oh yeah and Independence now has a nascent organic / health food shop and cafe with salads, pizza and sandwiches and they know hikers are coming and are trying to be ready for them. They have beer, fruit, and Newmans O’s, too. It’s that yellow building right there.

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HMG backpack
2015.12.30
Hiking, Latergram
*** UPDATE – I DON’T LIKE THIS PACK AFTERALL. It gave me a rash and was too delicate. BACK TO ULA!! *** I feel like a total traitor to ULA but this is my new pack. It’s so sexy I couldn’t resist. In fact, I once dated a guy pretty much because he owned this pack. (And went after another super hot HMG owner this summer 💋💋💋) As you can see I’ve already added some custom mods at the sewing machine. Stoked for big 2016 hikes and other stuff! Interesting footnote is this pack ended up doing the route I picked it for: Hayduke, but on someone else’s back: Dan’s. Funny thing is, I have never met Dan, neither when I sold him the pack (online), nor […]

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Leave No Trace in Advertising
2015.12.08
Hiking, Pacific Crest Trail
I’ve been shopping for new gear for 2016 and something is bugging me… So here’s my call out to manufacturers and users of tents and sleeping bags and camp stoves and other camping gear. All outdoor folk who love nature. (Hopefully that includes you.) Stop advertising gear with images that clearly violate the Leave No Trace ethic. Stop glamorizing these violations. Instead, set great examples of people camping using LNT principles. Dude. What are you talking about?! More specifically, I’m talking about images of camps set up right on the sides of lakes. They’re so pretty, but they’re so… wrong. Please stop posting photographs of tents pitched less than 200 feet from idyllic lakes. Less than 100 feet from lakes. Less than 50 feet from lakes! What’s […]

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SHR Talus Report
2015.12.03
Sierra High Route
I wouldn’t say I had too many surprises this summer on the Sierra High Route (SHR). I was fairly lucky with weather, I had warm gear, almost enough food, and navigation worked out well. I only had two death-defying falls. One thing stands out about this hike and that thing is exceptional amounts of talus. Now that I think about it, talus caused both of my falls while hiking the SHR (fall #1, fall #2). Talus, Talus, Talus So much talus. Talus fields. More talus than you can shake a stick at. Talus coming out your ears. Talus rainbows. Talus, talus, talus. Wait–what is talus? ta·lus: a sloping mass of rock fragments at the foot of a cliff. Photographs of High Sierra talus will help give you […]

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Taboose Pass to Highway 395 “Bonus Miles”
2015.11.28
Hiking, Sierra High Route
Abram – the mysterious fellow I met on my L2H hike in October – introduced me to the wonderful concept of “bonus miles.” We’re lucky enough as it is to be out hiking, right? Thus, any extra miles hiked to get here or there that aren’t on the itinerary are “bonus miles.” Bonus Miles Photos and Video These are shots from the bonus miles tagged to the end of my Sierra High Route trek, getting down off Taboose Pass and back to Lone Pine. This involved getting picked up by a trucker, which was a very cool first for me. I was done with my epic Sierra High Route hike at around 1pm October 21st, but I was still deep in the Sierra. A matter of note […]

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Sierra High Route Part 1: Roads End to Taboose Pass
2015.11.26
Hiking, Sierra High Route
October 19 – Road’s End to Granite Basin This 35-mile bit of the SHR took me 5 days (an extra day to hike 20 miles to the trailhead, and an extra day to hike 10+ miles out). On the afternoon of October 19th, I made it to Road’s End. I had already covered ten miles in the morning; here are the next ten. Going up Copper Creek Trail made for one of the more difficult days I’ve had on trail. It was a gorgeous, groomed trail, even after angry storms blew through the week before. But this trail is straight up. From 5036 feet at the trailhead to of something like that to the 10,347 feet at the Granite Basin lip – that’s 5312 feet in under […]

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A Walk from Onion Valley to Road’s End
2015.11.05
Hiking, Pacific Crest Trail, Sierra High Route
In the middle of October, after having finished an amazing L2H hike with two great guys (Bulldozer and Abram), I was looking at wrapping up my season and heading back to Portland to spend the holidays with my mother. But it was driving me crazy that I hadn’t finished my Sierra High Route hike. I walked around Mt. Williamson, summiting two 14ers to compensate, and I made some excuses, but still it was driving me crazy when I wasn’t trying to put it out of my mind. I’m not sure I’d feel right if I didn’t complete the SHR in one season as I intended. LoveNote showed up in Lone Pine and planted the seed again, a few days later. When I told her my excuses, she […]

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