Category: Uncategorized

Warner Springs – Saturday, March 28 I arrived in Warner Springs today. Three days ahead of schedule. That wasn’t part of the plan. But then again, very little about this trail seems to care much about plans. And I’m beginning to understand that might be the point. Sharon Heads Home Sharon left at 7:00 a.m.,…

Sunday – End of First Zero Day, Mount Laguna We drove into CLEEF (Camp Lockett Event & Equestrian Facility – the overnight starting point and orientation center for PCT hikers in Campo, CA) at sunset on Tuesday, just catching the tail end of the evening orientation. It was polished, practiced, and oddly comforting. Paul and…

March 17, 2026 We are leaving in ten minutes. The packs are staged. The house is quiet in that strange, suspended way that only happens right before something begins. Not anticipation exactly. Not nerves. More like a narrowing of the world down to what matters and what does not. This last week did not go…

It is March 1st. Seventeen days and a wake-up. The walking has increased now to two dog-walks a day. Not heroic distances – just the steady rhythm of movement. The neighborhood loop in the morning. The same loop again later in the afternoon. A mile and a half each time, pack on, dog trotting along…

15 February About a month out from Campo now. That feels strange to write. For the last year the hike has lived mostly in spreadsheets, maps, gear piles, and long conversations at the kitchen table. Now it has started to become physical. The bag is packed. The miles are starting to show up in the…

It’s February 1. The headlines are loud. They always are. The world feels like it is stretching and creaking under strain – geopolitics, markets wobbling, alliances fraying, culture wars reheating themselves every election cycle. It feels like something is building pressure. You can sense it, even if you cannot name it yet. But that is…

January 15: Logistics, Grounding, and the Long View Today is January 15, and something has shifted. Not dramatically – no cinematic breakthrough – but enough that the pieces feel more organized. My thinking is clearer. Preparations are moving from abstract intention into actual systems. That alone feels like progress. The most important preparation has nothing…

I’ve known about the Pacific Crest Trail for as long as I can remember. Growing up in Seattle, it was simply part of the background radiation of outdoor life, something that existed in the same mental category as topo maps and trailhead signs. It never held much mystique for me. I was raised looking up,…

This starts before the trail. I’m writing this before I’ve stepped onto the Pacific Crest Trail, before a permit is secured, before a start date is locked in. That’s intentional. Preparation is part of the journey, and pretending otherwise turns a long walk into a performance instead of a process. On paper, the outline is…