“I can’t believe it,” I have often exclaimed to friends. I sell two or three times as many units on Kindle as I do paperbacks. For a technophobe like myself, that is amazing. But heck, the logic of e-books is overwhelming. The customer pays approximately 30% of the price, the author makes more, and so does poor Jeff Bezos of Amazon. Win-win-win. And the customer gets it right away. I have yet to see any statistics on an...

. Snow LSnow levels on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) are one of the key variables of a thru-hike on the Pacific Crest Trail. All winter, potential thru-hikers follow various websites trying to get an indication of how much snow there is the current year compared to normal. Well, I have some good news: the California Department of Water Resources reports that snow levels are running about 80% of normal amounts. That is very good news for all but...

“America’s hiking trails cast the widest possible net in terms of its participants,” I wrote in Skywalker–Highs and Lows on the Pacific Crest Trail. An astounding, but true, statistic is that between 3,000,000 and 4,000, 000 hikers per year step foot on the Appalachian Trail, for hikes of varying length and duration. That is all indeed good news. For the most part, the Appalachian and Pacific Crest Trails are widely...

“Dude, you should try some olive oil,” hiker after hiker commented to me. “Why olive oil?” “Because it has the highest amount of calories for its weight of any food.” Calorie vs. weight. In summation, that is one of the direct challenges that the majority of thru-hikers will face on the two great national scenic trails, the Appalachian Trail (AT) and Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). For those of you who have read my...

 I am currently reading, ‘The Power of Now’ by Eckhart Tolle. Many of you have probably read this bestseller by the expat German author. Tolle consistently harps on the need to rid ourselves of the ‘tyranny of the mind’, and focus instead on the glory of the present moment. What does he mean? And what about all the misfortunes we have suffered in the past and problems we face in the future. Tolle mentions peace, love,...