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 Mexico-California border to the Washington-Canada border. Personally, I lost 43 pounds over the course of...
read moreHiking 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 as those first few days can be, why make it even more difficult? Rain increases the chances of not...
read moreSkywalker 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 the way we can all make it even more jolly for you today is to go out and purchase his entertaining...
read moreGetting High: The Annapurna Circuit in Nepal
What is the best way for the average person to see the world’s greatest mountain range–the Himalayas? Fortunately, there is now a good answer. The Annapurna Circuit in Nepal is the most popular footpath in Asia. Its genius lies in its design. Trekkers wind their way around and along some of the world’s greatest peaks, ultimately getting near 18,000 feet, without ever having to do any ‘technical climbing’. This Circuit is widely considered one of the world’s great treks, and mortals from all around the world...
read moreSkywalker 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 anything but an aesthetically pleasing thru-hike; nonetheless, it was as intoxicating of an extended...
read moreAppalachian Trail Kickoff Sees Record Turnout
The Appalachian Trail Kickoff at Amicalola Falls, Georgia saw a record turnout this weekend. First, let me say thank you to Lauretta Dean for doing such a boffo job at arranging the whole weekend, as well as inviting me to speak. But much more importantly, this event–which is just a few years old–has now become one of the marquee events in the hiking community, along with Trail Days in Damascus, Virginia (May 17-19) and the Pacific Crest Trail Kickoff. There were seminars on various topics relevant to the thru-hiking class of...
read moreStranded Hiker Rescued on Appalachian Trail (Did She Start too Early?)
You may have seen my tweets and posts relating to ‘Beware the Ides of March’. I was referring to those thru-hiker candidates on the Appalachian Trail who begin in March. To be sure, this has its advantages. If you’re a hiker of modest strength, this gives you an extra month to make it all the way to Mount Katahdin in northern Maine. But the perils of bad–even dangerous–weather loom. Yesterday a hiker was rescued off Unaka Mountain in Tennesee, after getting caught in a snowstorm. She was trying to make it to the...
read morePaperback Sales of Hiking Books Increase (vis-a-vis) Kindle Sales as Hiking Season Approaches
“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 e-reader customer, versus a paperback customer. My guess, though, is that the e-reader is more likely to...
read moreSnow Levels on the Pacific Crest Trail are Lower than Normal.
. 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 the most intrepid of hikers. Snow can turn a hike into something more approaching mountaineering....
read moreAfrican-Americans and Hispanics are Vastly Underrepresented on America’s Hiking Trails
“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 represented in terms of region, gender, religion, sexual orientation, age, income levels, etc. But there...
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