Little Package Blog

Backpacking the Kokopelli Trail – Part 2
2019.04.16
Hiking
Return to Backpacking the Kokopelli Trail – Part 1 Day 5 – Ups and Downs April 13. Trigger warning: Skip the next two paragraphs if you hate annoying conservationist chatter… about cows. Depending on who you ask, our public lands are littered with hundreds of thousands of cattle, or free range beef just “grows on trees.” In Utah there is one cow for every four people, so you’re bound to run into them in the woods. Often ranchers take government subsidies to pay very little money to graze their stock on our public lands, which sometimes even includes National Parks! They become millionaires off our backs, then sell us a product that isn’t necessarily good for us, whether ethically or whether it contains ecoli or whether it […]

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Backpacking the Kokopelli Trail – Part 1
Bikes, Hiking
In the spring of 2019, I solo backpacked (self-supported) from Loma, Colorado to Moab, Utah on the Kokopelli Trail. Given it was a relatively high snow year and the wet weather forecast, this was sorta dumb. But I was determined to hike “the entire Colorado Plateau” after a geologist friend asked about the Hayduke. He was driving me to Vegas so I could pick up a rental car in 2016, just before the first time I hiked it. He seemed to challenge me when he said: “Why would the Hayduke not cover the entire Plateau?” I am not sure he was exactly throwing down that gauntlet, but that’s how I took it, and even after having hiked the Hayduke twice, once in each direction, I decided to […]

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Life is a Fairytale
2019.04.15
Hiking, Latergram
People really die taking selfies like this. But from what I was told, this little 6-day, 140-mile jaunt from Loma, Colorado to Moab, Utah could kill me – no water, then cold and snow and ghoulies, oh my! It was a very uncomfortable hike because of foul weather causing me to shiver the nights through, and time constraints forcing me to walk big miles out the gate, but it was also one of my favorite walks. The Colorado Plateau mystifies me. Wait? What? How? Utah has such incredible hidden wonders (and disasters). This long trail took me right back to my mountain bikey roots and made me wonder – if I got back on the saddle, would I still “have it?” Lord knows I can hardly walk […]

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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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Frigga, Flemish, Floundering
2018.12.02
Hayduke, Hiking
(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 […]

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PDF Watermarking Limitations, explained
2018.11.05
WordPress Plugins
Update March 2020: PDF Stamper (a separate plugin from Waterwoo PDF Premium) now allows PDF owners to keep their PDFs exactly as they are, but add a stamp. PDF Stamp is a drop-in plugin and requires users also purchase SetaPDF-Stamper software to install alongside it. Learn more here. WaterWoo is magic, but it does have its limitations. And one particular limitation has been disappointing customers, and frustrating us, for years. We'd like to explain. First of all, let's explain how WaterWoo works. In a nutshell, WaterWoo works by first reading a PDF into memory, then spitting it back out onto the page with watermarks rolled in. If the parser (FPDI or TCPDI) which reads the PDF does not read all the PDF, or cannot read certain PDF […]

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Annual Whitney Debaucle: 2018 Edition
2018.09.22
Hiking, Pacific Crest Trail
This story is about this year’s weird ass annual Whitney hike. I’ve been sleeping on top of Whitney every year for six years now, and each year it seems to get worse. This year I made a loop, planning to go in over Baxter Pass and out via the Mountaineer’s Route on Whitney. It didn’t happen that way. Something happened on top of Whitney that turned the whole trip into a skidmark. The story starts off a little slow, but stick with it. It ends with poop and helicopters, which always liven a story. The way in I actually walked to Rae Lakes all the way from the center of Independence. WHO DOES THAT? Me. I do that. I’m not afraid to walk a lot of “bonus […]

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Living at Frenchies: Getting There
2018.09.09
Hiking, Lonesome Miner Trail, Opinion
Or – that one time I drank my urine. Between August 22 and September 6 I lived deep in the Inyo Mountains in an old mining cabin near the ghost town of Beveridge. This was an experiment in backpacking vs. thru-hiking. I’d realized that thru-hiking was a bit of a rat race, and decided to try an extreme version of backpacking. The difference? Backpackers tend to walk much shorter distances and often spend more time at camps. Backpackers had time to draw and read and sit around; thru-hikers do not. I wanted what they had. My plan was to hike in 12 miles to an extremely remote ghost town, and spend at least two weeks holed up at that cabin. I actually started my backpacking trip on […]

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Hayduke Trail Maps & Resources
2018.07.22
Hayduke, Hiking
Maps First of all, the obvious, a disclaimer:PLEASE BE AWARE THAT ANY INFORMATION YOU MAY FIND AT LITTLE-PACKAGE.COM MAY BE INACCURATE, MISLEADING OR DANGEROUS. 1) Caltopo map of all Hayduke sections, with notes, separable and exportable: These tracks were carefully retraced and will provide decent distance and elevation profiles, in case you need that data. The track stays in wash beds and on trail/road when available. Very few short sections are actual bushwhacks where you will need advanced route-finding skills. Very much of the trail can be short-cutted using well-established desire paths (game trails, use paths, etc), but the GPS tracks I’ve made stick to washes these shortcuts typically avoid. There are several reliable water sources not mentioned elsewhere, and other notes, and so it is worth […]

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Disillusionment, Rant
2018.05.29
Hiking, Latergram
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 […]

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Gotta Outnumber Rotten Folks
2018.05.01
Hiking, Pacific Crest Trail
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, […]

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Tiger’s got stripes
2018.04.15
Hiking, Latergram
I want to be back there badly but it’s sorta a dumb idea still… So I purposely took less than enough gear up today so I’d be forced to turn back. Been working my ass off since Feb 24 trying to recover from the huge loss of STUFF in the Grand Canyon, plus get ready for Uncle Sam. The other day I couldn’t find my bikini and when I realized it’s also in the Colorado River I almost cried. I thought the list of things I lost was done, so that struck me. Yesterday I looked for my Western style button-down and realized…it’s in the River. Yep. Oh well. It’s still surprising though HOW MUCH Iost. I’m almost back on top and looking forward to being back […]

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New flooring for Chief Pete
2018.04.05
My VW Westfalia
In March, I undertook installing the 9-piece Vanagon carpet set I purchased from Sew Fine in January. Even though new carpet was a must for sanitary and health reasons, I was really nervous about this change for a few reasons. I was scared of what I would find under the carpet, and I was not sure how well the carpet would fit. Also, I was disappointed with the quality of the carpet when it arrived. I almost returned it because it felt cheap and I can’t see it lasting in a vehicle application. As I’ve seen stated elsewhere on the Internet, the replacement carpet available for Vanagons is nowhere as nice as the original. I’ve also heard it said by install pros who use Sew Fine that […]

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My Space
2018.04.04
Latergram, My VW Westfalia
The owner of that Astro approached me yesterday afternoon, two full pails of water on his shoulders. His first words weren’t hello, they were, “do you know how to find water here? It’s right across the road in that stream.” He was so proud of himself. That stream, I thought… you mean Lone Pine Creek? The water coming off the highest peak in the continental USA? OK. So he continued to tell me he’s owned 7 VW vans but none like mine and now he feels like he’s won the lottery, he has AT and 15″ wheels. “You still only have 14 inch wheels?” (Yeah but I have a 14 gallon water tank.) He then started to brag about his cellular data plan, and so I asked […]

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Colorado River: 1, Me: 0
2018.03.05
Hayduke
It was funny that just as I got back to Flagstaff after a 20-day float of the Colorado River, and was scrambling to get home after having lost my iPhone and wallet in the River, that I discovered I was chosen to write for the Listserve. The Listserve is your chance to write an email to a million people. I’ve been a member of the Listserve for several years, and while frankly I don’t read all the emails, the ones I do read are charming and provide perspective for the day. I wondered when I would be chosen, but really I wondered if I’d already been chosen and missed my “You’ve won the Listserve!” email. I almost missed the “You’ve won the Listserve!” email. With 72 hours […]

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