Washington to CANADA!!

October 3, 2016

Walking over The Bridge of The Gods- Washington, here we come!

View of Thunder Island from the Bridge of the Gods, with all of the tents still set up from the PCT Days festival.

Mt. Adams

BIG ASS glacier on Mt. Adams

"Excellent Lava Spring"- the purest water on trail

Jedi Goat walking into Goat Rocks Wilderness... I'm home!

Mt. Rainier

We hit the Knife's Edge on a perfect, clear day

The closest we got to Mt.Rainier

Turnip Toes having a very bad day!

Turnip Toes having a very GOOD day!

Carrying that extra pine cone just in case...?

HUCKLEBERRIES!!

Stehekin- the last trail town before Canada!

Roasting leftover pieces of cinnamon buns from the amazing Stehekin Bakery over the fire

Coffee Bar set up for hikers at Rainy Pass, THANKS Support Droid

68 MILES TO GO!!

Dope ass Mushroom... Definitely edible.

Pasayten Wilderness... Spectacular

No Words

Some people carried whiskey to celebrate at the terminus, we carried Oreos and goat milk.

How to truly end the trail- cut off all your hikertrash hair.

FIN

Oregon to Washington

September 8, 2016

So many bars!!

Fields of Southern Oregon

Crater Lake

Fire that started as we hiked alongside Crater Lake

This is where we leave my Dad, I couldn't ask for a more beautiful setting. It's hard to say goodbye- hiking with my father for a month through Northern California & Oregon has been the experience of a lifetime. I will miss him dearly.

Just you and me, Turnip Toes

Three Sisters

Lava Rocks

AHHH more bars

Crux Brewery, Bend Oregon

Ponch Bro, missin his Bro

Cabin at Olallie Lake

Timerline Lodge

HERE'S JOHNNY!

Mt Hood

Eagle Creek

Tunnel Falls

Bridge of the Gods

Thunder Island

READY FOR WASHINGTON!

Mammoth to Oregon

August 16, 2016

Welcome dad and Molly (Turnip Toes) to the trail.

Here we start together at Reds Meadow

Devil's Post Pile, sweet rock formation

Kearsarge to Mammoth

July 1, 2016

This has been the most beautiful section of trail thus far, truly awe-inspiring. As this section nears to an end I am losing my friend and companion, monkey feet, to the big bad city, and real life work. But I gain my father and girlfriend whom I can't wait to hike with. I am going to let most of these pictures speak for themselves.

Our friends who are a day ahead left us a note in the hut

taking a boat back to the trail across Edison lake

After once we got to mammoth we rented a car grabbed two 30 racks, 60 dogs and head up to Tuolomne Meadows for some trail magic.

Then headed down into Yosemite Valley to check it out

Walker Pass to Kearsarge Pass

July 1, 2016

The past two weeks have been completely crazy, we experienced everything from forest fires to the Sierra Nevadas: Kennedy Meadows, up and down (and up and down!) Whitney, over Forrester Pass, and out through Kearsarge Pass. I'm sorry for the delay on this post it's been hard to keep up with this, I'll do my best to remember what has been happening!

Camping at Walker Pass before walking one of our last days in the desert, we had to carry 19 miles worth of water, hopefully we don't have to do that again!

We got an early 4AM start on our long, hot day. While taking a rest a few mile back from the picture below I mentioned to SPF, "wow dude that's a gross looking cloud" he replies joking, "yeah looks like a biological attack"

We walked on a few miles further and came upon this view from a ridge. A raging forest fire just over the next ridge. We are about 17 miles in and nearly out of water. so we have no choice but to head toward the fire to replenish our supply. We walk on to reach water about 3 miles ahead. At the water we meet a large collection of people all debating on what course of action to take. While at the top of the ridge I saw a house at the base in the valley with an old dirt road leading down to it, which a few other people saw as well. The consensus is to bushwhack our way to the dirt road and bail off the trail to get away from the fire, which we later learn we were a mere 11 miles from its origin point.

Well we all make it out safe and sound, just to find a locked gate and barbed wire fence preventing its retreat. Although I'm not sure what the point of a locked gate is with half a barrel pin hinge. Just lifted the gate off its hinge and we were home free... Sort of

So we managed to get out of the woods and away from the fire, but we were still left with the problem that the fire was blocking our way to Kennedy Meadows. All roads were closed, and obviously including the trail. We managed to hitch to the middle of nowhere in the desert on a 115 degree day. After roasting in the desert, and a very awkward encounter with a closed ghost town museum, we finally managed a hitch to Inyokern. Where we met two amazing trail Angels that took us into their home, fed us dinner, gave us a place to hide from the desert sun, a place to sleep, breakfast, and amazingly a ride all the way to Kennedy Meadows.

This is the view from the car of the fire damage.

Woo hoo, we finally made it to the infamous Kennedy Meadows. Food, beer, fun, and games.

And now we are leaving, High Seirras here we come!

There they are waaay in the distance.

River wars...

Bad ass birds nests under this bridge.

Gonna lay down my burdens, down by the river side...

Chicken Spring Lake

First of many many river crossings

Getting closer...

Crabtree meadows at the base of Mt. Whitney... Best toilet on the pct, all the glory of the out doors without the squatting.

Sunset from Crabtree Meadows

So we woke up at 3am to begin the 5.5 hour hike up seven and a half miles to the top of Whitney.

Guitar Lake

Great success!! We made it to the highest point in the continental United States.

Look really close at that first line on top

The crew... Boo boo, Big Mike (formally known as Trooper), Jedi Goat (me), Monkey Feet, and SPF (sweet princess fabio)

YEAH BOY

Next day at breakfast

Ok here we go, day after Whitney and time to climb to the the highest point on the pct, forester pass, oh jmt you relentless bitch.

There it is the acclaimed sketchiest part of the Seirras, and there we are kicking its ass.

And off

Oh Sierra sunset I shall not get bored of thee!

HI-YAH

Go monkey feet

Top of Kearsarge Pass

Wow, what an adventure, but we finally made it, straight through those mountains is the town of Independance.

Wrightwood to Tehachapi

May 25, 2016

We had two great days in the Wrightwood cabin, but then it was time to start climbing. Our first day out of Wrightwood we monstered up the 9000' peak of Baden Powel.

There was still a bit of snow up there, but luckily we found a friend to help cut steps into the ice with his axe.

We made it to the top of Baden Powel to find this awesome dude who set up a traveling art exhibition- which he carried up using all homemade gear.

Way to go, man! He's bringing art to the masses (or at least the adventurous ones.)

This tree, could like go on forever...Man

Coming down from the mountain we found ourselves getting lost in this extremely thick fog.

Another trail closure! There have been so many already. I am not road walking 5 miles in this fog on the tight, winding, mountain roads!

We are alive, we made it to mile 400, Whoo!!! Although, I might be getting over these 100 mile marker stones....

Ok, ok, I must say that when I started I was totally against cowboy camping. I like my tent and my space, where I feel safe and secure. However, I have come around to it and realized that it's really not so bad- it's actually pretty fun. It saves a lot of time with tent set-up and breakdown. Not for every night, but fun once in a while for sure.

We made it to Acton KOA campground, time for a family feast... CHINESE!!!

Hiker Heaven here we come!

Made it to Hiker Heaven, next stop LA.

Monkey Feet's new gloves, ready for those cold Seirra nights.

A car to a train to a bus. 2 1/2 hours later and we made to to Santa Monica.

BEACH... I haven't seen this much water for a month...

Real dinner, real cocktails, I love it. I feel so at home.

YES PLEASE !!!

And with that our trail vacation draws to an end, back to Hiker Heaven... Life is hard.

First day back on the trail, I came across this huge gopher snake that was chillin' in the middle of the trail. I waited a few minutes to let the guy behind me know to watch out for the snake in the trail. This dude walks up, and is like, "oh cool, do you mind if I pick it up?" Obviously, I said hell yeah! He goes ahead and picks it up and starts playing with it, it was not playing back. This is a big, mean snake. It obviously wanted to bite the shit out of him. Well done. snake handler.

Next day we hiked into Casa De Luna, aka Hippy Daycare. They serve taco salad every night for dinner and cinnamon pancakes every morning for breakfast. Not bad at all!

Come take a journey with me into the forest of Casa de Luna

What an awesome day, we went in and didn't come out till breakfast the next day.

Monkey Feet Incorporated, breakfast meeting.

PCT class of 2016

Monkey Feet trying to catch a hitch out of Casa de Luna...

short answer... fail

Monkey feet and I decided to extend our day and hike into the night, the night shot I took below is from when we got to camp at midnight guided by the light of the moon, it was a beautiful night.

Stopped in Hiker Town for dinner, then the Governor and I push on for another night hike through the flat desert with a nearly full moon. Another awesome night.

Amazing trail magic, apples and oranges... So fresh

more wind turbines, and gorgeous landscape

TEHACHAPI!! We made it.. our first night we had the opportunity to sleep in a teepee. We didn't pass it up. We will take a few days here, there are about a hundred people at Kennedy Meadows waiting for snow to melt. We are not in a rush.

5/6/2016 Big Bear to Wrightwood

May 7, 2016

Well, we made it to Big Bear Lake where we took two zero days to avoid some oncoming weather.

Here's the trail fam chillin' in our cabin to escape the snowy weather.

Welcome to The Goblet of Fire, yeah that's right- Harry Potter time. — Welcome to The Goblet of Fire, yeah that's right- Harry Potter time.

The day improved, and I went for a bike ride to check out the town with The Governor, Dad, and SPF (Sweet Princess Fabio)

Oh jeez, The Governor has WAY too much food, 8 pounds of cliff bars alone... Maybe time to send some ahead!

We started off on towards Wrightwood with 8 days of food, our longest stretch yet. The first day was a beautiful clear day.

My first day walking who should I stumble upon, but the speed demon above, just chillin' out and taking in this spectacular view of Big Bear Lake

We camped out that night and learned our lesson... You can't wait out the weather because it will catch up with you.

Day 2 woke up to snow, Zpacks PonchBros UNITE!

What a glorious rock ....#phallicrocksofthepct

After a snowy, rainy day, we all enjoyed a fire and the weather started to clear up.

Here goes day 3, a bridge in the woods... Whats at the end of the bridge???

FRIENDS! And bathrooms to the left and who knows what to the right...

Oh I know... 30' cliff jump at mile 299... Yes, please!

Jumping boys... I swear The Governor jumped, I just don't have a picture of it.

We find some weird stuff in the woods...

We ended day 3 at amazing hot springs in the middle of nowhere. I think we will take a half day here tomorrow...

Made it about 12 miles this afternoon but the campsite wasn't large enough for all 7 of us with our tents, so cowboy camping it is... Hope the weather holds!

We have added to our group of misfit hiker trash! Meet Skittles (the shirtless guy in the middle)

I got my final trail name this night, I am pleased to introduce myself, the man behind the camera, as Jedi Goat.

Left to right: SPF, Skittles, The Governor, Monkey Feet, Jellybean, and Trooper... Dad went on ahead we will see him soon — Left to right:
SPF, Skittles, The Governor, Monkey Feet, Jellybean, and Trooper... Dad went on ahead we will see him soon

SOOOO much water, haven't seen this much water in a long time, Silver Lake is huge.

Made it to Silver Lake on the fifth day, seemed like a nice opportunity for a lounge on the beach and a quick dip. Too bad I had to leave here with 7 liters of water...

Camp, people might be getting bored of my picture taking...

Guess I should hand someone else the camera?

Ok we are on our way to Cajon Pass... Day 6

Woo only 2296 more miles to Canada, 12% down

Really? McDonalds definitely paid for this sign, to prey on starving hikers.

More trains, these things are amazing they are carrying about 40 cars or double stacked shipping containers,  super efficient — More trains, these things are amazing they are carrying about 40 cars or double stacked shipping containers, super efficient

Right down there, we just crossed the San Andreas fault line.

Day 7 we shot for a campsite 2-5 miles from the road, easy day- just 12-15 miles and a 3500' climb

Where am I... Did I just enter the zombie apocalypse?

Well the weather wasn't worth it, and the crew wasn't feeling up to it, so we said screw it. We made it a 17 mile day and hiked out, and rented our cabin for an extra night. Thank you Stu, for a good deal on the cabin and picking us up from the trail head!

The Trail continues to amaze and inspire me every day, from the blazing hot dry desert to snowy high elevation forest in a matter of miles. High winds, hot springs, lakes, and cacti. I am so thankful to be out here and hanging out with such an amazing group of people. I can't wait to see what adventures await us ahead.

4/27/16 San Jacinto

April 27, 2016

A few days ago we hiked up San Jacinto mountain. It was somewhat funny to be at a 10,800 foot elevation (surrounded by snow), and look down at the desert floor. We camped that night at around 8000 feet and woke up in a cloudy hail storm. It was too cold to eat, so we just packed up as quickly as we and ran down the mountain to warm up. Finally we got down to 3000 feet and were able to set up camp. However, low and behold, another hail storm with gale force winds hit us. We ended up holding our tents together by hand most of the night. Thankfully, by luck and some feats of human engineering, everyone's tents made it to morning.

The next day we hiked out to Ziggy and the Bear, where we were able to hitch a ride up to Big Bear Lake.

Hiking through snow- I didn't think we'd be doing this till the Sierras! — Hiking through snow- I didn't think we'd be doing this till the Sierras!

Made IT!!  And finally a group photo... — Made IT!! And finally a group photo...

So this is snow...and that is the desert. If you look closely you can see a wind farm. — So this is snow...and that is the desert. If you look closely you can see a wind farm.

Slack packed the last 1/4 mile to the top... Felt amazing!

At the 200 mile marker!

Holy Shit, a rusty pipe!! Why?? Because Guthook says so...

Ziggy and the Bear... Pasta time. Are we ever going to get out of here? — Ziggy and the Bear... Pasta time.
Are we ever going to get out of here?

4/23/16 Idyllwild

April 23, 2016

The trail has been amazing, both beautiful and fun. But it's no doubt taxing on the body, the first day on the trail I got a blister on my right heel, it hurt to the point that I was limping and compensating with my left leg. This turned out to do far more damage to my left knee than I had anticipated, It had been slowing me down on the trail but with the suppose of some new friends we made it to idyllwild (mile 151), which is where I'm writing from now.

Made it to Julian, camping on Carmen's porch with 19 people, the most she has ever had.

Holy Shit thank you Mike the trail magic, burgers and beer!

Made it to Paradice Cafe... Beer for breakfast. What, we're hikers we can do what we want.

Who wouldn't pick up this crew of cuties

Day 2 and 3

April 14, 2016

Drying out tents after the storm last night

4/11/16 First Day on the PCT

April 14, 2016

What a day, we had to make it 20 miles to our first water source, the day started out spectacular but took a turn for the worse as a thunder storm rolled in. It hurt and we were tired but we made it.

Here it comes, downpour for the rest of the day

4/11/16 Starting The PCT

April 14, 2016

Here we go, first day on the trail starting out beautiful.

Thanks to Scout and Frodo who picked us up from the airport, gave us a place to sleep, sold us fuel, made ud breakfast, and drove all of us to the southern terminus to start the Pacific Crest Trail.

Touching the border of Mexico. So I guess there is already a wall...

1/24/2016

January 24, 2016

Today is Sunday the 24th of January. It just snowed about two and half feet in Brooklyn, so it seems like the ideal time to start my PCT blog. I have been dreaming about this trip for the last three years, but there has always been something getting in the way of my plans. Eventually, I've realized, that there will never be the perfect moment to drop everything and do such an intense trip. If it's something you really want, you need to just commit and make it happen, NO MORE WAITING. My start date is April 10th.

It's been a long, daunting and difficult task to figure out all of the gear, mail drops, resupplies, permits... and anything else I will need that I haven't thought of. I'm a total gear junkie, which has (surprisingly) not been great for planning a semi-ultra light thru-hike. I have spent countless hours obsessing over every piece of gear on my list, and still have not made decisions on many of the most important things. For example, my backpack and sleeping bag. Probably the two most important things one needs while hiking. I am counting every ounce, and constantly talking myself into (and out of!) gadgets both on and off my list. Hopefully this gets easier and I get this task over with sooner rather than later!