Category: Trail Journal

As we leave Sierra City, it’s clear we’re in a different world now. It’s not completely clear where the “High Sierra” ends and “Northern California” begins on the PCT, but, if I had to pick a place, this is probably it. Suddenly we’re in different terrain: huge chunks of these woods have been logged, which…

For nearly the past month, we’ve had spectacular weather on the trail. It’s been sunny nearly every day, and the worst days were cloudy or had a tiny bit of sprinkle. This is not usual for the High Sierra, where afternoon thundershowers are almost more the rule than the exception. We’ve been delighted, however, as…

I know it might sound silly, but the fact that we crossed I–80 this morning seems like a big deal to me. It’s kind of crazy walking underneath an interstate — in what looks like a drainage tunnel, to boot — and realize that if we just got on that road (erm, with a car,…

Well, there isn’t any snow out here, either — but, otherwise, we sure could’ve done a lot of skiing today. As we move north along Lake Tahoe, we keep passing steep, bare ski runs, stationary chairlifts, “Danger — Ski Area Ends Here!” signs, and so forth. They’re all pretty bizarre things to actually hike through…

It’s amazing how fast crowds disappear. We woke up this morning by a mountain lake, camped right next to three Russians and with easily a half-dozen tents within a couple of hundred feet. Yet this evening, we’re camped all by ourselves, and we saw almost nobody today. In the space of twenty-four hours, it seems…

It’s the Fourth of July, and we’re in Desolation Wilderness, right by Lake Tahoe. Desolation is one of the most popular places to camp in the entire Sierra — and this is probably the single most popular weekend of the year to do it. This all means we are not alone, and not alone in…

Around midday today, Bucket and I were sitting underneath a gazebo of sorts in a park in Reno, waiting for our clothes to dry. (We’d sprayed them with Permethrin, an insect repellent, and it takes them a couple of hours to dry.) We had our clothes spread out around us, and our backpacks with us.…

We caught our first glimpse of Lake Tahoe as we came over a rise in the trail in the early afternoon, lurking as a giant blue blur in the distance. Even from far away, I felt a happy familiarity: here we are, back in a place I’ve been to many times…but this time, we’ve hiked…

I’ll never forget where I was when… I heard the Supreme Court made marriage equality the rule across the land. (A moment I found deeply moving…justice and equality!) I was standing on top of a mountain about forty miles south of Lake Tahoe, looking across into a distant valley, wondering if maybe this meant there’d…

We don’t leave California for another 640 miles yet, but today it felt like we were in a completely different country. There may be a severe drought in most of the state, but everything we saw today was lush, lush, lush. Ever since we dropped below 10,000 feet soon after leaving Sonora Pass, the hills…

If there’s one well-kept secret on the trail so far, it’s Sonora Pass. This intersection of the PCT with CA–108 — one of several beautiful, two-lane highways through the Sierras — is absolutely gorgeous, incredibly accessible, and seemingly known about by almost nobody. For any Californians reading, if you want an amazing day hike or…

We awoke with a start this morning, just before six A.M., to our tent shuddering. I thought maybe one of the side poles had fallen over, but, peering out from underneath, everything looked intact. Then we heard a noise like a bear can falling over. There, about fifty feet away, was a juvenile black bear,…

Maybe you think you’ve seen lots of mosquitoes before. If you’ve been to Alaska or northern Minnesota at the right times, maybe you have. But, otherwise…the experience we’ve been having the past couple of days is probably unlike any other you’ve had before. Imagine great clouds of mosquitoes, hovering above the trail, just waiting for…

We continued pressing north through Yosemite today, making our way through some surprisingly — and impressively — strenuous hiking. I’m honestly not sure whether it just feels strenuous because there are fewer Big Goals to conquer (like all of the high passes from earlier), or if it really is just that difficult. Although our ascents…

We didn’t get to fully appreciate Glen Aulin until this morning, as we were leaving. We left by going through the main camp — something we bypassed on our way in last night — and oh, man, is it ever amazing. It’s not so much for the facilities as it is that you wake up…

Today we launched ourselves back out onto new trail, leaving behind all we knew of the John Muir Trail for all those points Further North. It’s exciting to be onwards to new things. (Oh, and in case I didn’t mention it: since yesterday midday, we’re now in Yosemite National Park…which, judging by the crowds here,…

This is the longest day of the entire year. (It’s also Hike Naked Day, but that’s another subject.) I’ve always been highly sensitive to sunlight — I love being out in it, need lots of natural light even when indoors, and rue the decreasing daylight hours in fall. Every winter, I think: next year, I…

For nearly the entire length of the John Muir Trail, the PCT is coincident with it — in other words, the two trails follow the same path. But for fourteen miles, the two diverge. Today was the day we encountered that path, and, because we’d already done the JMT, we decided to take the PCT…