Tag: lnt

Leave No Trace (LNT) is a set of outdoor ethics promoting conservation in the outdoors. LNT is essentially seven principles:

  1. Plan ahead and prepare
  2. Travel and camp on durable surfaces
  3. Dispose of waste properly
  4. Leave what you find
  5. Minimize campfire impacts
  6. Respect wildlife
  7. Be considerate of other visitors

Beautiful, Economic, and Private WordPress image Management
2026.01.07
WordPress Plugins
When you’re uploading images to WordPress, WordPress is going to make some changes to your file before it is stored in the WordPress media library. Namely, it is going to resize, smush, and scrape the image for data stored in EXIF. Then WordPress is going to “generate thumbnails.” Most people are not aware this is being done quietly in the background. Naturally they are confused why their images look differently on their WordPress site to how they look on the camera or desktop. A file is a file is a file, right? Nope. WordPress has wrested some control here. While trying to keep things “sane” for us, they inadvertently create insanity. Below are some helpful suggestions for taking back control over what WordPress can do to your […]

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A Code comment is not a Sentence
2022.04.01
WordPress Plugins
Full stop. Does anyone remember the guy who floated around Portland, Oregon in the 1990s with a salmon effigy on his head? The “Save the Salmon” guy? I do. I once had a conversation with him which started at the Lloyd Center MAX stop and carried on until he got off under the Burnside Bridge. That day his point was clear: if everyone stopped towing around the added weight of license plate frames, the cumulative savings in tailpipe gases would save salmon. His message was so simple it was elegant. He had chosen to tackle an enormous problem with a small, approachable solution. Assuming people have common hand tools and the desire to help fish and other living things (such as themselves), they would gladly take part. […]

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The Curse is Lifted
2020.09.06
Hiking, Latergram
In 2013 I started an annual tradition of sleeping on top of the tallest mountain. I don’t know why, but year after year I went up. Pressure built to go up again the next year, and so on. These extended 14er summits were not easy for the obvious reasons, but almost every time it ended up being harder than hard because of surprises at the top. 2013: I had no idea what I was doing. It was very hard to get up that strange hill, especially since the notorious PCT clown Guino had dosed me with 200mg caffeine that morning (I’m caffeine-free). But it turned out to be bizarre and romantic, with a sunset and a sunrise akin to something you’d see on Star Trek. Kitten, King […]

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Flu and the Trail
2020.03.16
Hayduke, Hiking, Pacific Crest Trail
We’re now at least a couple months into the surreal shitshow called “COVID-19” (a coronavirus). I’ve spent the past week and a half-sequestered very remotely, not just because of the misanthropy I’ve felt more and more while scanning the news and social media, but to enjoy the wild, help build an off-grid house, and perhaps survive (and help others survive) the pandemic I’ve been warning friends about since I was a nurse in Portland in the oughties. This type of thing was bound to happen, and it’s too bad more people aren’t more prepared. (That said, not many of us have the resources to be prepared.) While cutting wood, plastering, and painting over the past week, various unrelated COVID-19 impacts have come to mind. Having gotten more […]

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My Gatekeeping, Continued
2020.03.04
Hayduke, Opinion
So as to not seem like I’ve got my head completely up my ass, I’m going to address a blog post shared with me by a climber friend of mine. She, blessed with nice melanin, mentioned it with a hard wink as if to say… “consider it carefully, Caroline.” I’m trying. In June 2018, the Center for Outdoor Ethics issued its first guidance on social media by urging people to “avoid tagging (or geotagging) specific locations. Instead, tag a general location such as a state or region, if any at all.” We disagree. We invite all public land owners to experience and fall in love with local, state and national parks, national forests and wilderness areas—and here’s why you should too. We don’t care whether you are […]

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Where trails come from, where they go…
2020.01.21
Hayduke, Hiking
I subscribe to Wired Magazine in digital form, where I learn all sorts of neat things each day. This morning I spent over an hour watching a video produced by Wired, where an astrophysicist explains gravity to five people, ranging from beginner to expert. What a brilliant way of teaching/learning a topic, by helping someone realize how much they don’t know, and expanding on a concept bit-by-bit over an hour. (I was about at the grade-schooler’s level of understanding, haha. How far can you follow the concept? By expert level, my mind was blown.) This afternoon, an opinion piece popped into the Wired newsletter. It’s right up my alley. If you’ve been reading my blog lately, you probably know I’ve been subjecting readers to an achingly long […]

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Rock or Wood?
2019.12.15
Hiking
I just spent a couple of gloriously mild days in Life Valley, canyoneering and hiking, conversing with and admiring a lot of rock. The Valley also had quite a bit of water in it due to some recent storms, but this time of year the plants and animals have retreated and it’s time for the rock to shine. And there’s a lot of rock. The Valley’s valleys, as they show (or don’t show) themselves from the car, are enshrouded, modest, and less-than-tantalizing by reputation. If one is brave and stupid enough to venture too far from the road on foot and with rope, they open in dizzying, hypnotic displays of color and texture, enfolding you. It’s not so much that they threaten to keep you against your […]

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Nature : Museum
2019.10.01
Hiking, Opinion, Pacific Crest Trail
Discussing my latest backpacking trip with my guy, I came up with an analogy which I like very much, and which seems original and enlightening. I compared modern wilderness visits with museum visits of the recent past (pre-2010). My first memories of museums were of the Anchorage Museum as a young teen, then the Louvre and Musée D’Orsay, and the Met in NYC and Mutter Museum in Philly as an older teen. Even if relatively brief, I treasure those visits for several reasons. Be they small or petty reasons it doesn’t matter, the memories are large as a very deep breath. Memories of carefully-curated open space and light, surprises of color and subtle hushed sounds. Photos were disallowed and so I would stare without blinking in an […]

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Dear PCT Class of 2019
2019.04.01
Hiking, Opinion, Pacific Crest Trail
I’m getting ready to go on a hike of my own, but I wanted to drop you a note to let you know it’s still snowing in the High Sierra. My 2017 blog post “Dear PCT Class of 2017” with tips about snow travel and whatnot definitely, definitely applies, since we got more snow (* see footnotes) this year than we did overwinter 2016/2017. I spent the winter shoveling, plowing, skiing, and snowshoeing in the Sierra, and I’ll tell you what: nobody who knows anything about avalanches or snow conditions (in brief, they suck) is going back there behind the Crest right now. I hope you read my 2017 letter and do all the other research and preparation you can, and don’t rush a thing. There are […]

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Colorado River Trip Out
2018.02.28
Hayduke, Latergram
Sometimes when I tell people my stories I fear they think I’m lying. But I don’t need to lie, it’s just chronic bonkers over here. Feb 23 I got off the Colorado River after a 20-day float. It’s taken a couple days to get home and I still don’t have my feet under me BECAUSE (here’s where it gets good)… On the first night out (incidentally at Lower Jackass beach) I lost my tent, beloved handmade down sleeping bag, Thermarest Neoair, iPhone, wallet, all of my casual clothes, and about $500 more worth of gear to the River in a sudden wind storm. I was seconds late to my tent, only to find stakes still in the ground and the tent floating, pitched perfectly, down the middle […]

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GSENM
2017.12.05
Hayduke, Latergram
I knew the “president” would reverse the National Monuments so I’m not surprised. But I still feel like I’ve been punched. I’ve spent a little time walking in both the monuments he decimated, mostly GSENM (about 2-3 weeks total, living out of a backpack). I’ve grown to see why the lands were protected and why so many locals protest. 50-mile Mountain (second picture) sits atop one of the largest remaining coal deposits in the world. As you climb around it you will find gorgeous black coal just squeezing out of the ground. You also find many long roads not on the map – built illegally by prospectors. In 1994 before Clinton signed GSENM into federal protection, a Dutch coal mining company (Andalex) was trying to figure out […]

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How to Avoid the Crypto on the Arches Slickrock Route
2017.11.29
Hayduke
Nic Barth has published some fairly loose GPS tracks for his “alternates” or shortcuts on the Hayduke. Some of them might be worth looking into. Myself having hiked the route back and forth more than twice, I frankly don’t think you’ll be missing out if you ignore Barth’s KMZ/GPS input entirely. If you want to miss out, his alts are in fact generous shortcuts. Barth’s “Arches Slickrock” route is popular. I see scenic advantages to both the Slickrock route and the official Hayduke route. Unfortunately publishing the “Slickrock” route opened the door for significant negative environmental impact. Some people have tried to tell me they have hiked it without killing cryptobiotic soil but they are 101% full of shit. There is no way to hike this route […]

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Grand Canyon Bison
2017.10.04
Hayduke, Latergram
Learn more about the GCNP bison plan, and possible lethal culling, here. I felt a little guilty rousing these giants from their sand baths. After all, they became a part of me overnight after I gave up on finding clean water and drank a broth of their poop from a drying-up spring gone foul. It was a bad water day from the start. Despite some other hikers offering to leave me behind half a gallon of jug water, I walked out of my way to a spring and filled up 3L to last me to the next spring (which later turned out to be dry). When I got to the jug it reeked of mold and despite attempts to flavor it with Mio, it still was moldy […]

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Hashtagging
2017.08.16
Latergram, My VW Westfalia
I’ve noticed the Star Wars window sun shade seems to be popular amidst Westy owners traveling the Owens Valley this summer! The bling peace sign grill emblem is more unique to Chief Pete, though. Takes guts! Hey… If you’re going to hash tag delicate places such as hidden away hot springs, please also consider PICKING UP YOUR TRASH and WRITING LETTERS TO YOUR REPRESENTATIVES to ensure they stay protected. Heck, pick up other people’s trash. I just spent two mornings doing it! Hashtagging is causing a real impact on previously quiet places. This place I stayed last night was crowded and littered. People are ignoring signs meant to protect restoration areas and private land. It wouldn’t be surprising if the area gets closed to the public soon. […]

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Hiking the Lonesome Miner Trail – Part 2
2017.05.11
Hiking, Lonesome Miner Trail, Opinion
(Continued from part 1) I started hiking the Lonesome Miner Trail in late March – a bit too early this year, it turned out. 2017 is a BIG snow year. It was cold and there was still snow up there in places. Because the trail is so steep, the snow and ice really were not in my favor for crossing certain areas safely (e.g. not accidentally sliding down the mountain). Also, much of the trail is on the north faces and in the shade, so it was COLD. I decided to come back and finish after letting the trail thaw over the month of April. Returning – May 1 2017 Glory be! Flowers are blooming in the Inyo foothills and as it turns out, up high too! […]

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