A Welcome Respite

Having hiked 1150 miles of the PCT this year, with all the breathtaking views and arduous terrain, with the life giving mountain streams and the verdant abundance of tenacious life, with the quirky trail towns and colorful characters also walking the earth, we humbly decided to rest our weary bodies and head back home to […]

Smokey West Coast

Hiking through Washington has been an interesting challenge. The terrain is tough, though beautiful; cold, wet mornings thaw into steamy afternoons as we crunch out more miles. Then there is all the smoke. As of a few days ago, there were 94 wildfires on the West coast, mostly started by lightning in the abundantly dry […]

More Washington wonders

We are half way up Washington state, just about 900 trail miles into our journey; so a third of the trail, or over two million steps, have seen our footprints impressed into the dust. We are eager for the northern half of Washington, though we are learning that it promises a remote and rugged environment […]

A good month for Washington state

As we delve deeper into Washington state, almost 800 trail miles in, I think about some of the differences I notice between people on and off trail. Maybe it’s the relative scarcity of passers by, but when passing a stranger on trail, we always make eye contact and say a friendly hello or something. Contrast […]

Organic Oregon

Taking a well earned day and a half off from the PCT here in Bend, OR, we are having to weigh all our options while off trail. We have covered 590 glorious miles of California and Oregon terrain and amazingly, neither Iron Maiden nor myself have fallen down yet. We’d fallen at least a dozen […]

Surrounded by sublime beauty

After our ten day healing sessions off trail, it was nice to kick up some more dirt and dust as we plodded south from Ashland, Oregon. Bright cloudless skies greeted us most every morning amid both natural open terrain and previous fire burn areas. Our legs and feet were finally starting to realize that yes, […]

Views abound

Week two on the PCT offered boundless views and exposed elevated landscapes. The heat returned with a fury and we are thankful to have brought a good sun hat and a long sleeve Sun shirt with hood. Our cool damp bandannas are never bored. We strive to hike in the cooler mornings, often waking up […]

And, we’re off!

We’re finally on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), after years of reading about it and researching gear and logistics, we are soaking in this awesome beauty. We deviated slightly from our original plans by starting two days early, on Alyssa’s birthday June 11th, and also starting eight miles south as a nice guy named Rick […]

A good year for a walk

Alyssa and I are going to attempt to thru hike the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) this year. While most thru-hikers start at the Mexican border and try to reach Canada 2650 trail miles up in one season, we will be starting in northern California at mile 1419 – McArther-Burney Falls State Park (about half way […]