Tag: half hidden

Creek Fire smoke in central Nevada

Flu and The Trail, part 2

This post is an update to my March 16 post, Flu and the Trail. It turns out you can thru-hike during a pandemic, but if you’re not still asking yourself “should I?” and considering your impacts on other people, I hope you’ll keep reading and hear me out. After volunteering several months of my life over several years to help thru-hikers on the PCT, I left with a bad taste in my mouth. I met several burned out trail angels who felt similarly, and noticed quite a few hikers themselves abandoning the trail shaking their heads. Why? Because thru-hikers are generally privileged, and often self-involved and entitled. It’s not exactly “rewarding” work to help people who don’t really need help. Bear with me when I explain how I got here. It is based in experience with hikers, and I have continue reading…

Frigga, Flemish, Floundering

(a cloudy story for you) The man who stalked me on the Hayduke is a meteorologist for the Belgian army. He asked how I understood what I understood about clouds and I told him I read the Cloudspotter’s Guide a couple times. I also look at clouds. I try to make sense of them. I also have a weird sense of barometry through pressure I feel in my ears, believe it or not. My ears ring and hurt me a lot, but the upshot is I’m very very good at predicting rain. This was the fateful day I decided to sorta hike with him for a couple miles and give him a chance. To be “friends.” Our last day, given the next we were going in different directions. It wasn’t a coincidence I was giving him a chance knowing we continue reading…

Disillusionment, Rant

High on Friday morning, using Whitney’s Trail Crest (13,612′) as just… a mountain pass. A way into the Sierra. I wonder now, who does that? If you’re 1.9 miles and only 800 vertical feet from summiting the tallest peak in the lower 48, having those bragging rights and that chest-filling view, why just cross over and run down the other side of the mountain? Why does the chicken cross the road? 21 miles later that day (2 extra, futile miles trying to distance myself from a very large bear), I wondered why even thru hike? And just like that, my entire outlook changed, and my summer plans jackknifed. I think I’m leaving thru-hiking for backpacking. Because they ARE different, and I suspect thru-hiking as a sport has jumped the shark. I saw the same thing happen with cyclocross in Portland continue reading…

Gotta Outnumber Rotten Folks

OK so a little rant about the “sexual harrassment” on the trail. Believe it or not I was at one point relieved at how different things were on the Pacific Crest Trail compared to the Portland Oregon cycling circle jerky community I had come from. In the bike community I tried to have a little half-dressed fun cheering cycling races which I was also RACING IN, and then got called all sorts of names by strangers AND friends. “Whore,” “slut,” “butterface,” “anti-feminist.” OMG. Next thing I knew, after I’d been beaten down into silence, it was a huge trend to cheer races like that. Ahead of my time, I guess. What folks didn’t know is I came from a childhood of grade school bullying about my body, questioning whether I was a boy or a girl, and whether I was continue reading…

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