Day 79 – Pancakes were a bad choice…
Mileage: 27 with 8500′ of elevation gain This morning, I wanted to get breakfast at the cafe as early as possible and then get out of town as quickly as...
Blog
Posts, notes, and longer-form writing.
Day 78 – Lazy Sunday: Part II
Mileage: 26 into Seiad Valley There’s something about Sundays that turns off any productive and motivated parts of my brain and turns me into mush. Last...
Day 77 – Out of the frying pan, into the… snow?
Mileage: 29 out of Etna I woke up early this morning because I had signed up for the 9AM shuttle and I wanted breakfast first. That meant only 5.5 hours...
Day 76 – Etna
Mileage: 28 into Etna for the night (mile 1597) As I described yesterday, the camp spot I woke up in this morning was absolutely dreadful. I could...
Day 75 – Flatland
Mileage: 42 Most nights before I go to sleep, I check the potential mileage and elevation for the next day. Last night, I saw an opportunity. Today was...
Day 74 – Failures
Mileage: 28 I woke up fairly early (6AM) in the Mt. Shasta KOA and was surprised to see most of my neighbors already getting up and leaving. I tho...
Day 73 – Shastafarian
Mileage: 19 to town, then 2 extra to Castella Today’s entire purpose was to pick up a package full of goodies that my mother had sent to Castella. I nee...
Day 72 – Fire on the mountain, run boys run!
Mileage: 34 I woke up in my beautiful streamside campsite and immediately noticed that something was different. The trees were still there, can’t be tha...
Day 71 – Lazy Sunday
Mileage: 15 After yesterday, I deserved a lazy day. Today, that meant sleeping with no alarms. Having gone to bed at 1AM, I slept soundly until the firs...
Day 70 – The Hat Creek Rim Double Marathon
Mileage: Lots. Disclaimer: Lots o’ words for lots o’ hiking Today was the day. Ever since Belden, I’ve been eyeing this stretch as a a fantasy flat sect...
Day 69 – Prepare for liftoff!
Mileage: 23 Today was an easy day to prepare for a high-mileage day tomorrow. After walking around 30 miles every day for a while (except yesterday), a...
Day 68 – A weight off my shoulders
Mileage: 18 to right outside Lassen Volcanic National park because of those pesky little bears (mile 1343). Since I walked so far yesterday, I cou...
Day 67 – Ohhhhh, we’re halfway there!
Mileage: 35 to right outside Chester (mile 1328) I woke up this morning knowing that we had some brutal climbing ahead of us today, so I wasn’t in any p...
Day 66 – Belden
Mileage: 25 through Belden (mile 1284) I woke up around 6AM this morning and sat in my tent for a while before starting the day. I heard either Taylor o...
Day 65 – The Climb
Mileage: 32 After snoozing my alarm a few times this morning, I saw some hikers that I knew pass me, so it was time to get up and start my day. Some peo...
Day 64 – I Like Big Buttes
Mileage: 34 Every time I camp with other hikers, I’m reminded of how early everyone else wakes up. When I was with my group in the Sierras, we did the s...
Day 63 – Well Done
Mileage: 30 into and out of Sierra City (mile 1195) My hiking philosophy is that I like to hike high miles, but I don’t want to let arbitrary mile...
Day 62 – I can see clearly now
Mileage: 28 Today had a pretty spectacular morning where I woke up underneath Squaw’s furthest north lift for the sunrise over the lake. I then pr...
Day 61 – Going Skiing
Mileage: 30 miles to the top of Squaw! I’m camped near one of their chair lifts. It was freezing this morning! I always hate getting out of my war...
Day 60 – Smoke on the water
Mileage: 20 Today was absolutely delightful, and what a coincidence, I ate a whole bag of gummi bears again today. Hmmmm… I started off my morning early...
Day 58 – AYCE?
Mileage: 35 I woke up this morning and did something I haven’t done in ages: ate breakfast. Rudy, the German JMT hiker we had picked up on Forester Pass...
Day 59 – South Lake Hatoe(s)?
Mileage: 24 into South Lake Tahoe I knew I wanted to be in Tahoe for a good portion of the afternoon in order to get some town stuff done and prepare fo...
Day 57 – I can’t bear it anymore…
Mileage: 22 I woke up in my super awesome camp spot and was very excited to get on the road. I was going into “town” today! Kennedy Meadows North, the p...
Day 56 – 1000 Miles!
Mileage: 29. I’m 6 miles from Sonora Pass and Kennedy Meadows North! 🎶 I would walk 500 miles, and I would walk 500 more, to be the man who walked 1000...
Day 55 – Lost in the woods
Mileage: 22 Today was tough. Probably the most physically and mentally taxing day I’ve had on trail. Physically, I think a lot of the difficulties...
Day 54 – A visit to the zoo
Mileage: 30. My first (and hopefully only) 30-mile day in the Sierras. I started today the way any 30-mile day should start: sleeping in and getti...
Day 53 – False Promises
Mileage: 27 trail miles + 1 or 2 more for Red’s Meadow and Devil’s Postpile I woke up feeling pretty jolly because I had walked pretty far yesterday, wa...
Day 52 – I’m slidin’ solo…
Mileage: 26, so I’m 3 miles from Red’s Meadow and Mammoth at mile 903. We knew that today would be tough since we were disbanding the team, and whe...
Day 51 – The Last Hurrah
Mileage: 0 As much as I love sleep, I’m so used to walking up early on trail that I woke up at 6AM and had to wait an hour for breakfast. Apparently, I...
Day 50 – The Race to Vermillion Valley
Mileage: 16 to VVR! Last night, we camped at an abnormally warm lake at above 10,000 feet, so we only had 700 feet of elevation gain to go to get to the...
Day 49 – Evolution
Mileage: 16 We camped right next to Evolution Creek last night, but we were still a few miles away from the official crossing. Evolution Creek, a horrib...
Day 48 – Coming down
Mileage: 16 We’ve been pretty consistently high lately. Every day holds a new snow-covered mountain pass that brings us up and up before forcing us back...
Day 47 – We found the trail!
Mileage: 17 We had another bet last night that said whoever was the latest to being ready to hike beyond 5:30AM would have to buy a milkshake for the re...
Day 46 – Extra Mile Extravaganza!
Mileage: 12 + 3 to look for the ice axe + 1 to go back to talk to Marla + ? for snowy pathfinding I got an early start this morning. Since I...
Day 45 – Inadvertent Swimming
Mileage: 13. We’re at mile 802. Today we finally got back on trail. And it’s the Fourth of July! Hooray! 🎉 🇺🇸🎇 I woke up covered in a layer of morni...
Day 44 – Kearsarge Pass… Again
Mileage: 0 (7 non- trail miles). We are camped at mile 789. Since we took an accidental zero yesterday, we needed to get back to the trail today. That m...
Day 43 – Zero into Independe
Mileage: 0.0 Oops. We didn’t plan to zero in Bishop, but due to how much we needed to do and how late we got to town yesterday, we took it easy and hike...
Day 42 – Kearsarge Pass into Bishop
Mileage: 5 PCT + 7 up and down Kearsarge We camped at a tough creek crossing last night so we could cross it in the morning, so I woke up a bit early an...
Day 41 – Water, water, everywhere
Mileage: 17 miles From talking to other people, we knew that we had three major steam crossings to do before Forester Pass, so we woke up early to get t...
Day 39 – Preparing for Whitney
Mileage: 19 to Crabtree Ranger Station We want to summit Mt. Whitney tomorrow morning, so today’s hike is meant to set us up for an easy hike up to 14,5...
Day 40 – Mt. Whitney
Mileage: 0 (~14 miles up and down Whitney) Today was great. We did zero PCT miles, but had such an awesome time climbing the highest peak in the lower 4...
Day 38 – Back to the mountains
Mileage: 6.5 mile nearo to get back up into the mountains We started the day with a delicious breakfast at Alabama Hills Café before going around town a...
Day 36 – The ascent begins
Mileage: 23 to mile 735 We’re not in the desert anymore!!! Ahhhhhh! What that means is that it was freezing cold when we woke up. Everyone was trying to...
Day 37 – Nearo into Lone Pine
Mileage: 12 to Lone Pine When we started packing our bear canisters at Kennedy Meadows, we began to realize that they don’t hold that much food. As a re...
Day 35 – Pacific Crest Hail?
Mileage: 10 out of Kennedy Meadows My day started with no alarm and no sun shining in my face, so I slept in until about 9AM. I got up, said bye to the...
Day 33 – Diurnal Life
Mileage: 30 Since I completely forgot to sleep yesterday during the day, I was a tired boy last night. I slept like a rock until 9am (LATE 😬) and then...
Day 34 – The Promised Land
Mileage: 9 I woke up super excited this morning because I knew what was in store: KENNEDY MEADOWS!!! The solution to all of my hiking problems (mostly t...
Day 31 – Caffeine, please
Mileage: 32 to Lake Isabella (mile 652) I woke up as usual, at 5:30 PM underneath a bush in the middle of the desert with a lizard playing in my hair, a...
Day 32 – The Summer Solstice
Mileage: 11, since I counted the 15 after midnight this morning in yesterday’s mileage. Camped right before Joshua Tree Spring at mile 663. It’s the lon...
Day 30 – Trying to be nocturnal
Mileage: 36 to Willow Spring Last night, I truly night hiked for the first time. I started at 6 PM and ended at 4 AM after replenishing my water. My bod...
Day 28 – Luck of the Irish
Mileage: 17 to Tehachapi (mile 558) I meant to wake up early, I really did, but it was windy and cold and my body told me that it needed more recovery t...
Day 29 – Night Hiking
Mileage: 26 to just beyond Golden Oaks Spring It’s super hot in the desert. I feel like I’ve written that in every blog post since I started, but I feel...
Day 27 – I’m melting…
Mileage: 33 I started this morning in a typical Mason fashion: snoozing my alarm until the last second. Don’t worry though, I managed to barely catch th...
Day 26 – The Hills Have Flies
Mileage: 30 + 1 mile from Casa de Luna I was originally planning to start night hiking today by leaving The Lunatic Lounge in the middle of the night, b...
Day 24 – Hiker Heaven
Mileage: 18. I didn’t intend to stop at Hiker Heaven for the night, but it’s a great place to be! In Agua Dulce (mile 454) I had camped with about 13 ot...
Day 25 – Hawaiian Shirt Wednesday
Mileage: 24 trail miles + 2 to Casa de Luna The desert is hot. It always has been, but for some reason that hasn’t sunk in for me yet and I decided that...
Day 23 – Back to the wilderness
Mileage: 29 Having spent the last three days off-trail, it felt nice to get back to the outdoors. I ran into a ton of people today, most of whom I...
Days 20, 21, and 22 – Vamos a la playa
Mileage: I guess technically 4. BEEEEEEAAAACH. FOOOOOOOOOOD. FRRRIIIIEENNDDS. When I started hitching on Friday morning, I didn’t have high hopes. I was...
Day 19 – The Road to LA
Mileage: Too many. 37 + a short nap + 3 more to start hitching at 6am. I had hiked a lot of miles yesterday, most of them uphill, but luckily I woke up...
Day 18 – The Golden Arches
Mileage: 29 miles with 7700′ up. For some reason my life on trail is just surviving until I can eat a real meal again. In between those I live snack to...
Day 17 – Desert Heat
Mileage: 25 (mile 335) When I woke up this morning, something was different. It was 6:30 am and I was… warm? I wasn’t using my sleeping bag at all and w...
Day 16 – Swimmin’ Holes
Mileage: 25 miles. Currently camped across the bridge at mile 310. Lately, I haven’t really been looking at my maps or elevation plots to see what’s com...
Day 15 – On the road again…
Mileage: 19 Today was a good day. The sun was shining, the scenery was beautiful, and my body felt rejuvenated after a day and a half off from hiking.&n...
Day 14 – First Zero in Big Bear City
Mileage: 0 So far on this trip, I’ve been hesitant to take a whole day off. I did 14 into Idyllwild and stopped, 9 out of Idyllwild up San Jacinto, and...
Day 9-13 – The Dick Smith Challenge
The Dick Smith Challenge… Oh, how I wish I didn’t know what this was. If only my curiosity in the Idyllwild campground hadn’t drawn me towards that comi...
Day 12 – Feel (and see) the burn
Mileage: My first 30 mile day! With 7,400′ of ascent and 3,000′ of descent. Ouch. Today’s my birthday! That means basically nothing out on the trai...
Day 13 – Unexpected trail magic
Mileage: 10 miles to Highway 18 to hitch into Big Bear (mile 266) As usual on the day I expect to get to town, I woke up early, giddy with exciteme...
Day 11 – Up and Down and Up Again
Mileage: 25 to begin the climb to Big Bear Lake The PCT is a beautiful trail, but it can be frustrating sometimes. There are many times that you know wh...
Day 10 – San Jacinto, Fuller Ridge, and Mile 200
Mileage: 21 PCT miles with a few extra San Jacinto miles thrown in. Woke up at 9000′, hiked to 10800′, and now I’m sleeping at 3300′. Boy oh boy, my leg...
Day 9 – Nearo towards San Jacinto
Mileage: About 9 miles and about 4000 feet of elevation gain I started the day by sleeping in (until 7:30) and getting breakfast with some of the other...
Day 7 – The Quest for a Cheeseburger: Part II
Mileage: 17 + 2 to/from cheeseburger town + 5.5 up towards the fire closure When I woke up this morning, it was freezing cold out and everything was wet...
Day 8 – Do you know the muffin man?
Mileage: 14.6 of the fire closure detour into Idyllwild (mile 179) Today was a nice day. Started out in the mountains, climbed even higher, and ended up...
Day 6 – The Quest for a Cheeseburger: Part I
Mileage: 25 miles out of Warner Springs My goal today was to set myself up well for a home stretch cheeseburger run at Paradise Valley café by tomorrow....
Day 4 – To Julian and Beyond
Mileage: 27.5 miles, currently at mile 91 Day four started off like any normal day: completely alone at 6am in the middle of the desert. I had the equiv...
Day 5 – 100 miles
Mileage: 18 miles to Warner Springs After hiking pretty far last night, it was a short (ha, good joke) 18-mile hike to Warner Springs for my first resup...
Day 3 – Horse Water
Mileage: 24, which felt way better than yesterday. Day three started off nicely with sleeping in, a quick walk into Mt. Laguna, and even a shower (thank...
Day 2 – A long climb to Mt. Laguna
Mileage: 24 (currently 1.9 miles outside Mt. Laguna) Oh boy… Today started early and ended late. In the same way someone convinced me not to push it on...
Day 1 – Campo
Mileage: 15 miles It’s officially begun! I’m currently hiking from Mexico to Canada! Before heading out to Campo, I needed to pick up stove fuel and we...
T-1 Day
AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! I guess I’m done with work at this point, so I get to just focus on hiking now! All of my food shipments are packed and waiting to be m...
Training Hikes – 1 & 2
People always say “Don’t be the guy that has never put up his tent on the first night of the PCT” (aka Reese Witherspoon in Wild), so I decided to do a...
Training Hikes – Day 3
Whew… This one was a doozy. With one week left before starting my hike, I decided to do a pack shakedown/high-mileage hike to see what I could learn, an...
T-1 week until leaving Seattle
A pre-trail update before flying to San Diego and starting the PCT hike north to Canada.