Leaving Stevenson, I was determined to not have to walk back to the Bridge of the Gods. Sure, I had walked in from there, but I had been desperate, exhausted, and soaked to the bone. I was no longer any of those things. Two days of rest had done me Read more
I awoke along the shoreline of Ginette Lake to the shrill bugling of a medium sized bull elk and the low grumbling of my stomach. Yep. I definitely shouldn’t have eaten those old biscuits and gravy. But, I had eaten them, and now I just needed to persevere through the Read more
As I entered the trees, I realized how wet it truly was out there. Sure, the quick jaunt down the road, between the hotel and the trailhead (a distance of less than half a mile), had been misty, with thin sheets of cold wetness wafting over me as each car Read more
As the noise of Highway 2 faded behind me, I made my way up the hill, crisscrossing ski runs and passing under numerous chairlifts as I climbed. Far below, I could see the ski lodge and highway, nestled deep in the valley. It was a familiar sight. Almost exactly one Read more
Climbing quickly, through the muggy, midmorning air of the low-elevation forest, I was quickly drenched in sweat. Dust and leaves and spiderwebs clung to my face and hands and legs as I pushed through the underbrush. Normally, I would be annoyed by a trail in this condition, but I tried Read more
As I made my way down, across the wide, grassy slopes covered in the soft greens and yellows of the first signs of fall, I examined the trail before me. This was the same path on which I had walked well over a thousand miles, from the Mexican border to Read more
The hike north from Tuolumne Meadows brought a subtle but noticeable change in scenery. Gone were the magnificent, sharply pointed peaks and ridges of the southern and central Sierra, as well as the towering granite domes and cliffs of Yosemite Valley. Instead, the landscape undulated softly across shallow, wooded valleys Read more
Making my way back down Mammoth Pass Trail to the PCT, I contemplated several things. The first and foremost thing on my mind was my foot. It hurt. A lot. It almost seemed as if a couple days in town of less walking and smoother surfaces had made it even Read more
Waking up in the morning, I felt invincible. It was going to be a good day. Laying my clothes out in the sun to finish drying, I went about my morning routine, and was returning from digging a cathole when I spotted a marmot gnawing on my shirt. Now, it’s Read more
The Sierra is a magnificently beautiful mountain range in its own right, but the sharp contrast between the mountains and the surrounding desert valleys result in a sense of magnitude and scale that is difficult to describe. Lone Pine sits at 3,727 feet above sea level, on the floor of Read more