Skywalker Lauds Pacific Crest Trail Documentary, ‘Tell it on the Mountain’

The highest compliment I can pay to the recently released Pacific Crest Trail documentary, Tell it on the Mountain, is that it ruined my life. What? Well, okay. It may not have ruined my whole life, but it sure has clouded my intermediate term future. I had already done the Appalachian Trail and Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), followed by Europe’s most popular footpath, the Camino de Santiago, and the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal. So I had...

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Why Pacific Crest Trail Thru-Hikers So Often Choose to Repeat

It happens so often, it almost qualifies as a phenomenon. There must be a reason for it. “I’m thru-hiking the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail) again this year,” I frequently read on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. And remember–we’re not talking about repeating a round of golf or seeing a movie a second time. The Pacific Crest Trail is a 2,663 mile hike through the desert and high mountains all the way from the...

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Hiking in the Rain is An Existential Part of Appalachian Trail Thru-Hiking Challenge

I just saw a post of a friend from Amicalola Falls, where the approach trail to the Appalachian Trail begins. “Starting in the rain,” he wrote. “Hey,” I wrote back, “we fair-weathered hikers time our entry onto the trail.” I was being half-droll and half-serious. To be sure, given how early it still is in the hiking season, I would wait until good weather was forecast for a few days before beginning. As tough...

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Skywalker Wishes Happy Birthday to Dennis Blanchard–Author of Three Hundred Zeroes

“Feliz cumpleano (Happy Birthday),” to Dennis Blanchard, author of Three Hundred Zeroes and enthusiastic program director for the very active Appalachian Trail Club of Florida. Heck, this is a big day for Dennis. Not only is it his 65th birthday (Hey Dennis, you can hike year-round just on a Social Security check!), but also St. Patrick’s Day. Surely somebody as chronically fun and upbeat as you has some Irish in them. And...

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Skywalker Finally Realizes Renowned Appalachian Trail Personality–Baltimore Jack–Is a Good Guy

You get off to good and bad beginnings with your fellow humanoids. My initial contact with the well-known Appalachian Trail (AT) personality, ‘Baltimore Jack’, was of the decidedly rocky variety. While there was probably plenty of blame to go around, I want to take my share of the culpability. I first met Baltimore Jack in 2005 at the AT hiker hostel at Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania. I was in the process of rooting out what was...

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