Little Package Blog

Angels Landed
2016.12.10
Hayduke, Hiking, Latergram
I’m 39 years old (surprise!) and I’ve never felt so scared, overwhelmed, or uncertain about the future as I do today. Something is very, very wrong with the U.S government. I’m going to sign off Insnagram for now because I have more important things to do with my time. You all know where to find me (no, not on FB) and you know I like you, and your grams. But it’s time to make a plan. Besos from my winter bunker. 😘😘😘 #latergram from June in Zion, from when I still felt on top of the world (looking a little tired from having just hiked 800 miles to get there).

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Bikini Cross – Where it All Started
2016.12.04
Bikes, Latergram
Some people thought this was un-feminist of me, not classy, etc. The rest of us were just having a real good time. Wage FUN, Portland! #sscxwc, much latergram 2007 (photo via @unnskyldmeg, credit @cxmagazine) This was a time I was working on becoming less shy and consciously forcing myself out of my shell by doing things only confident women would do (so I thought). This was a time when I got much better at not giving so many fucks. It wasn’t about attention like I’m sure many confused or jealous people thought, it was about personal growth and making fun. And yet, several years after MANY photos were taken that cold October day, an online bike publication decided to host a caption contest with one of the […]

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Dead Battery
2016.12.02
Latergram, My VW Westfalia
I recruited strange (but charitable) men all day yesterday to jump start my van four separate times (so I could stop for gas and to pee) 300 miles down I-5, thanks to a mystery short. I’ll be spending my cold morning at a rest stop, ass hanging out while I’m under my dash trying to find said mystery short. The starter battery is fine*. What was really fun was when my van almost took flight and the dash lit up like a UFO console when I simply tried to turn on my headlights yesterday evening, at 100km/hr (that’s a Vanagon’s best top speed). The engine literally cut out when I tried to turn on my lights. At speed. Damn rain. Damn leaky windshield seals. People actually romanticise […]

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Vive la révolution
2016.11.15
Latergram, My VW Westfalia
You can’t see me. . . . . . . . (Windshield seal leaks) . . . . . . . Last night while reading in the dark to the sound of rain, I remembered/realized it’s not a race war, but a class war that should be firing up. Some of these people ruling the country make more money each year than the bottom 40% of us combined. The poor are paralyzed with poverty and easily convinced to hate each other. There is no middle class. Let’s stop buying their bullshit and allowing them to pit us against each other. Vive la révolution! #chiefpete . . . . . . . If you’re smart (or want to be smarter) and like reading, I highly recommend buying Sarah […]

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Bagby
2016.10.29
Hiking, Latergram
Three hot springs in three days while driving from Lone Pine to Portland. Amazingly I had tubs to myself at all three. Funny that Bagby ends up being one of my favorites of all my soaks this season, given it was also one of my first in the 90s and I’ve been so there many times. It’s just so damn quaint, and soooooo damn hot. As hot as you want it to be. Hiking in through clouds of other hikers’ clove cigarette smoke really brought back memories of Portland in the 90s and hiking out in the pitch dark brought back memories of wild good times past out there with folks like Monika B and Patrick P. (Especially since folks have doused some trees along the way […]

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Hot Creek
2016.10.25
Latergram
Saw some hot springs on the map between Mammoth and Lake Crowley, and thought I’d check them out. Mmmmm… I’ll take a pass, Hot Creek is INFERNAL 🔥 Hey Mammoth people, where am I supposed to go? Camping out on BLM tonight in the van but I want a soak in the morning! Might hit Travertine later tomorrow… If you have never read about the Long Valley Caldera I recommend checking it out. “The system in the Long Valley Caldera is recharged primarily from snowmelt in the highlands around the western and southern rims of the caldera. The meltwater infiltrates to depths of a few kilometers (or miles), where some is heated to at least 430 °F (220 °C) by hot rock near the Inyo craters. The […]

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Scorpion Scare
2016.10.20
Latergram, My VW Westfalia
144 miles on my new 2.2L Wasserboxer engine – so far, so good! Stopped in the gas station in Independence on 395 and this really caught my eye. I call it immersion therapy for “scorpion-phobia.” (Arachnophobia to be precise, since scorpions are arachnids, but I’m not scared at all of spiders.) I made a tag for the “Scorpion incident:” puppys scorpion sting This 3D postcard calls this scorpion an Arizona bark scorpion but I know better. Of course I might be wrong, but of >1500 types of scorpion, I think this is a regular Arizona Desert Scorpion – the kind you HOPE you get stung by (instead of the awful, tiny Bark Scorpion) if you’re going to get stung at all. Don’t. Oh hey all you scorpios […]

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Upside-down on Whitney
2016.10.13
Latergram
14,500 feet upside down. It was a really cold night last night at Iceberg lake, one of those nights where you have to pee so bad but don’t dare crawl outside the sleeping bag because it was so hard to stop shivering when you first got in. I tore my emergency blanket to bits trying to keep it wrapped tight around me! Today was my first Mount Whitney summit via the mountaineers route, which was definitely challenging. I’m very impressed with how many people attempt it because it involves so much fearlessness and fitness. It was very cold and windy at the summit and so a handstand was the obvious choice of pose. Numb hands, numb feet, dressed like a dork trying to stay warm, but happy […]

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