As anyone wishing to hike the Pacific Crest Trail will quickly learn, the disorganization of useful resources is quite abysmal (especially for those with no long-distance hiking experience or previous knowledge of the PCT). It is difficult to know which sources of information are reliable, which
PCT Progress Report II: The Sierra
The last 28 days have been spent making up for those first forty spent enduring the desert. The Sierra is nothing short of fucking incredible (profanity is necessary here to accurately convey the degree of incredibleness). After getting super high for so many days in a row, it is hard to imagine
The Many Names Of The Pacific Crest Trail
So how long is the Pacific Crest Trail (a question that should be included in the FAQ, but isn't because nobody asks it). Well, the "official" length of the trail can fall anywhere between 2,600 and 2,700 depending on your source, but most thru-hikers go with the 2,660 number (that's miles - see
PCT Progress Report I: The Desert
Seven-hundred miles of Pacific Crest Trail and the California desert are now behind me. I now sit at the legendary Kennedy Meadows with the Sierra and a state of perpetual highness await me in the distance. But before we discuss my entry into bear country, let us take a look back at some of
The Thru-Hiker Superiority Complex
You just hiked 30 mi / 48 km and now, inside your sleeping bag an hour past sunset, you study your maps and find a river 26 mi / 42 km further up the trail from your current campsite. This is where you will camp tomorrow; it will be glorious. You drift off to sleep imagining the spectacular
Sawyer MINI Water Filter Review
As you will quickly learn on-trail and in the wilderness, whether through your conversations with other hikers or through divine intervention, water (and its level of purity) is a very serious issue. After your backpack, tent, and sleeping bag, your water purification system ranks highly on the
Tent Envy – Why Bigger Isn’t Better
Look at all these people. Chairs, cots, two-burner stoves, coolers, tents large enough to walk around in. To walk around in!? Are you kidding me?! I am currently camped at a particularly nice "campground" that resembles more of a "bring-your-own-room hotel". We have got ourselves flushable
Mountain Hardwear SuperMegaUL 1 Tent Review
NOTE: The SuperMegaUL 1 has been discontinued and replaced by the Mountain Hardwear Ghost UL 1. Tents: portable fabric homes for hippies, hobos, and hikers. Commonly employed outdoors for use whilst "camping" a tent can be a person's best friend and nightly escape from the elements (or a terrible