The Sierra must be seen to be fully believed. And Yosemite is the beating heart of that Sierra. Of the more than 4 million annual visitors to Yosemite National Park, the vast majority never leave Yosemite Valley, however. With highlights known the world over—El Capitan, Half Dome, Yosemite Falls, Glacier Point—you can hardly blame them.
Search Results for: sandals
O Coffee, Where Art Thou?
Discombobulated. No, too strong. Confused. Not exactly. “I feel foggy headed,” says Ace, succinctly serving up the answer to my internal question as we sit down at a brief early morning break to remove our wind shirts. The question: what exactly is going on with my brain this morning?
Triple Crown
One final night came and went, and the stars that had thrust aside the evening clouds dissolved into the gray light of morning. I rolled over and lit the stove for coffee before closing my eyes for a few more minutes thinking how, in spite of this being our last day on trail, it felt no different than any of the others.
Winter Wonderland
Come morning, it was the lulls between the wind I noticed most. Only seconds in length, they were still a new feature in the storm that had blanketed our little camp with 6 inches of snow and relentlessly buffeted our tarps with wind throughout the night. They also pointed to the last gasps of the storm as the sun supplanted the clouds even though the temperature had risen at best into the 20s.
Rookie Perspective #4: Marias Pass, the WetzWalds and Mt. Man’s Trailside Chat
We did it. We finished the Montana miles we set out to having arrived at Marias Pass on 9/4 (the same day as Mt. Man’s birthday). Quick aside: Can you believe it? He’s finally 40! It’s about time.
This is Where I Leave You
Everyone learns differently. Myself? I've always been more visual than auditory, which made a brief time this morning all the more interesting as I became transfixed by the bugling of the resident elk herd. Unmoved by our presence in their valley last night, we awoke to find them sprawled across the high alpine meadows just beneath the Divide, happily grazing away and calling to one another.
Sierra in the Rockies
Dryness: the ultimate luxury. Something you often only truly appreciate in its absence. Such has it been the past several mornings, waking to gear that all had a superficial dampness to it. Not the kind of moisture you'd expect from rain, but the kind that comes with the settling of cool damp air overnight. Not enough to condense, just enough to give everything that feeling of unpleasant clamminess.
The Great Range
I wasn’t always this soft. Age and a career in front of a computer has a way of doing that, slowly obscuring who we really are underneath. Some people go to church to be renewed. I come here.
Roots
Nearly one year ago, I arrived at an unassuming stripe of cleared forest that would never have been identifiable as an international border had it not been for the small silver obelisk marking precisely that. A few feet away, a collection of square wooden posts also declared this the end of a Pacific Crest Trail adventure that had begun 2,650 miles and…
O Canada
It began like any other day: morning coffee from the warmth of my sleeping bag followed by deflating and rolling up my sleeping pad, and stuffing my few belongings one by one into my pack before emerging from my tent to take it down once more. The only difference was the air of finality that surrounded each of the mundane daily tasks.
Confessions of a Chacoholic
I love Chacos. True story: I own 8 pairs of them. Two pairs hiked the Appalachian Trail, two have hiked the John Muir Trail and the Wonderland Trail twice, and three have now hiked the Pacific Crest Trail. Combined they've been my companions for well north of 5,000 trail miles. The 8th pair? I got married to my best friend in those.
Lake Tahoe Blue
Since yesterday morning, the PCT has coincided with the Tahoe Rim Trail, a loop that circumnavigates Lake Tahoe in the mountains high above. Surprisingly, there have only been pocket glimpses of the lake itself, but each time it appears its sapphire waters are unmistakable. I've resolved to dub the shade of its water "Lake Tahoe blue".
Christmas in June
A mid-year Christmas occurred on the side of the road this morning, just after 9am outside the Tuolumne Meadows post office. When I showed my ID, the man behind the counter was happy to unload the five boxes with the same unintelligible last name written on them.
Memory
Every break spot. Every campsite. Every creekside where we stopped for water and every place we stood to admire the view. I remember them all with such vividness and clarity that it's as if my hike of the JMT with my best friend last year had happened just moments ago. Even in memory, Emily surrounds me.
Additions and Subtractions
Five boxes. That's what awaited me this morning when I filed into the Kennedy Meadows General store this morning and put my name on the list for mail pickup. The relief of all of them arriving without issue soon morphed into a pseudo-Christmas-morning unwrapping of each.
Zero Day
Ah, the "zero" day, a.k.a., a day off. Since we arrived in Idyllwild a day early, we'll actually be taking a double zero and the timing couldn't be better. Idyllwild is a town filled with hiker-friendly people and we spent most of the day truly relaxing--Epsom salt foot baths, doing a puzzle on the deck…
Gear
Gear. Other than perhaps food, it’s every hiker’s favorite topic of conversation. Sonnets have been written about less. Much of what is written about gear today focuses solely on finding the lightest possible items, with little (if any) discussion of the skills required to use that gear safely and effectively. I’m certainly an evangelist for...
The Birches
What a day! Very short on miles, but with a mere 10 miles between Abol Bridge and the final campsite tonight in Baxter State Park at the foot of Katahdin, we had plenty of time to enjoy the sights along the way and soak in another beautiful day in the Maine wilderness.
Bromley Mt.
The trio rolls on, but not until after a late start due to last night's feasting festivities preceded by a day of long miles. The three of us hitched into Manchester Center for more eating and a resupply, but ended up hanging around into the afternoon, shortening our day to a very nice relaxing one. It's cozy to be in this enclosed hut for a night with thunderstorms predicted.
Port Clinton
After yesterday's continuous downpour, a 3-mile stretch of today's trail had turned into a river with several long stretches over about 1.5 miles having standing water about a foot or more deep. Good thing sandals dry fast! Nothing to see, but fast miles into town for a shower and feasting at the Port Clinton Hotel. Great food, but not hiker friendly by any means.
Tumbling Run
This day did not get off to a good start. Just Aussie and I in the shelter last night, so we started walking together in the morning until suddenly I smashed my big toe into a small stump hidden beneath weeds right alongside the trail. It was the first real casualty since hiking in sandals for 300+ miles…
Thunder Hill
Getting warmer, getting sweatier, getting oh so smellier. Well, feet survived yesterday's 20-miler with my new hiking sandals and they felt pretty good today. Shin splint was a bit better behaved too, though much of the day was spent doing long stretches of ascent and that doesn't seem to aggravate it as much.
Cove Mt.
Well, the weather was absolutely perfect hiking weather today and the terrain was easy to boot. Hiked the day with Skyline and Sundance as we passed the first of our many future crossings with the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Fullhardt Knob
Many meaningless PUDs this morning, but time passed quickly walking with Skyline and Sundance as we told each other riddles on our walk into Daleville, VA for a resupply--a process that I've quickly come to despise having to do.