Washington Wonderland

Leaving Bend after our brief reprieve was trickier than anticipated. With fires in Oregon pushing hikers up the trail buses filled up in record time and trail angels were inundated with requests for shuttles. We eventually snagged a pricey Lyft to get us to a trail head past the Lionshead fire closure, and were able […]

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, […]

The Trail Provides

Out of all the fascinating terms, slogans and phrases we picked up while hiking the Appalachian Trail- admittedly “the trail provides” is not one I ever used. Even I found it a bit on the hokey side, and I go for more of the hippie dippie stuff than IPA! But I might be coming around […]

It’s all fun and games, till someone loses a bag

As it usually goes, hiking out of Mount Shasta meant a decent climb to get back onto the trail. With it being 100 miles till the traditional hopping off point for the next town our food bags were big. Not knowing if the “hiker hunger” would kick in or how our daily mileage would increase […]

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 […]

We’re Not At Sea Level Anymore

After an assortment of flights, buses, and Lyfts we made our way from bright and sunny (and flat) Florida to bright and sunny Burney, California. While not exactly the mid-point of the trail it was close, and just past where the Dixie Fire had closed off sections of the PCT last year. This made it […]

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 […]

PCT Prepping

The Pacific Crest Trail is roughly 2,650 miles long and stretches from the border of Mexico and California to the border of Washington and Canada. While hiking the AT was great preparation and experience, it will be a different trail in terms of logistics, weather, and water sources. Once we finished the Appalachian Trail in […]