Pacific Crest Trail
Grouse Hill on the West Rim Trail in Crater Lake NP Near Mile 1835.7 to 1865.4. We were woken up by some inexperienced day campers returning to their tent site. I couldn’t make out everything that was going on, but I did here one guy ask, “didn’t you...
Pacific Crest Trail
Detour from PCT mile 1802 to 1836.7. Bedazzled, Tramper, and I woke up at 5:30 in our improvised camp. We had only gotten 4.4 miles into the detour before we gave up on road walking. This morning, we got back on that road. Excited? We were not, but we were looking...
Pacific Crest Trail
Mile 1779 to 1802 + detour toward highway 62. I awoke on the edge of a misty meadow amidst a forest as old as our country, perhaps even older. The trees stood by silently and the sun still hid below the horizon. I slowly put on damp clothes and packed away my damp...
Pacific Crest Trail
Mile 1748.2 to 1779. The days are starting to get noticeably shorter, and it is now dark at our usual wake up time of 5:30. As my alarm went off, I struggled to find my watch. I had been in a deep sleep and was a little groggy. When I finally got it to turn off, I...
Pacific Crest Trail
Mile 1716 to 1748.2. Bedazzled’s and my stay in Ashland, Oregon turned out to be one of our best town stops yet. Besides being a funky college town that is known for its months long Shakespeare Festival, it was home to some of the friendliest and most helpful...
Pacific Crest Trail
Mile 1690 to 1716. As we gazed at the night sky, just .2 miles over the border into Oregon, we saw two shooting stars. The Perseid Meteor Shower was going on, and we were lucky enough to be in an area with dark skies. We both made secret wishes and fell asleep with...
Pacific Crest Trail
Mile 1658 to 1690. From searing sun and dry creek beds to ranging rivers and snow covered mountains, California presented it’s fair share of challenges. I started at the Mexican border with blue skies overhead and prickly pear cacti at foot making my way north....
Pacific Crest Trail
Mile 1629.9 to 1658. As I lay in my tent with the rain pitter-pattering outside and occasional thunder rolling off in the distance, I couldn’t help but recall the podcast I listened to earlier in the day. It was the August 8th edition of The Daily, which is...
Pacific Crest Trail
Mile 1599.6 to 1629.9. We left our ridge top camp in the moon’s glow and started walking down the rocky trail. Somehow we walked by the 1,600 mile marker in the darkness or perhaps there was never one to see in the first place. We are in the Marble Mountain...
Pacific Crest Trail
Mile 1524 to 1554. A soft pitter-patter on my tent awoke me in the middle of the night. In the background, I could hear the snores of Big Daddy rumbling like some Industrial Revolution machinery. I put in my ear plugs and went back to sleep. When I awoke next, it was...
Pacific Crest Trail
Mile 1502 to 1524. I woke up not to the sound of my alarm, but to the sound of silence. I looked at my watch 6:00. We overslept. We started to pack up and went to get out our breakfast. Then we remembered. It was day one of resupply roulette. Our enthusiasm for...
Pacific Crest Trail
Town day in Shasta. A few days back when Bedazzled and I were bored while walking through yet another forested slope in Northern California, I brought up the idea of buying each other’s resupply in Shasta. It would be a sort of game. We would buy unappetizing...
