Little Package Blog

Mr. Bill
2015.05.06
Latergram, Pacific Crest Trail
OH MY GAWD I LOVE THIS GUY! Mr Bill usually sleeps under the table, so when I saw hikers in his spot he countered “I’ll just sleep in my car.” No way, he gets a bed tonight. Mr Bill has been trail angel-ing since 1997 but more interestingly he’s been collecting data from trail registers and log books that long. He’s a trail historian with an uncanny knack for remembering names and dates. He knows if you’ve been bad or good and he knows if you’ve thru-hiked. He also has the most *incredible* sense of humor and infectious laugh.

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Windy Whitewater
2015.05.04
Latergram, My VW Westfalia, Pacific Crest Trail
Scenes from Ziggy and The Bear’s place on the Pacific Crest Trail, featuring Chief Pete, wind, Honey Badger, Billy Goat and Dutch Claire cleaning up the trash bin, and a bunch of hikers siesta-ing. May 1 we were 230 hikers over the 5/1/2014 hiker count, but yesterday we were only 120 hikers over the 5/1/2014 count. There is either a vortex south of here or the dropout rate is astounding this year. Wouldn’t be surprising given the drought, heat , and last weekend’s storm.

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Billy Goat
Hiking, Latergram
Look who I lured into the Pine House Café and Tavern for a salad! The Billy Goat! He’s done 25,000 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail and is out for a stroll before heading to Wisconsin to walk the Ice Age Trail. I had him sign my Billy Goat trucker hat, then he let me drive him through Anza Borrego to Whitewater (complete with a momentary Vanagon breakdown). We had a nice chat about what it’s like to not be able to hike when you’ve made a life out of hiking. Heavy stuff. An honor to have some of this man’s time, and his thoughts.

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Jam
2015.04.27
Latergram, Pacific Crest Trail
Hiker Benjamin “The Sheik” leads an a cappella Beach Boys bear vault and stick percussive jam while attempting to light a cigarette with a burning pine cone. Happy Little Trees whittles a stick in the foreground left. The guy hom-hom-ing – Bradley – is hiking barefoot, and the man to his left – Nude Dude – is often found naked and does a brilliant but unsettling free flow jam himself. I found this lot to be particularly weird, and that’s saying a lot on the Pacific Crest Trail. Today was the busiest day with hikers at mile 42 yet for the 2015 season. (Postscript: Someone wrote another book about the PCT and included this scene, and me, in it. I found it fascinating how what I said […]

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Handmade Bike Caps!
2015.03.07
Cycling Caps, Sewing
Mr. Joe brought it to my attention via Instagram that he has been busy making cycling caps from the sewing pattern I offer. He has added in a few touches that I thought were super worthy of sharing. As you can see, Mr. Joe took an awesome Star Wars print and put it under the bill of his cap. He LOVES Star Wars. Who doesn’t? I think I see a Star Wars cycling caps enterprise in Mr. Joe’s future. I know when I was making caps, I took many orders from customers wanting specific fabric prints. Those were always the most fun caps to make. When I quit making caps a lot of people were disappointed, so I left behind my sewing pattern in the hopes they […]

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