At mile 730.9. Hiked 24.2 miles today.  Here is where I woke up this morning. That’s right, I camped on a footbridge over one of the Kern rivers. I had left KM at 6:30 pm the day before and hiked into the dark. Last mile was dark  and I used headlamp and played music out of my IPhone speakers to scare away those spooky animals that stalk around in the dark. Really, it just keeps my wild imagination of those beasts of the dark in check. Near the end of...

At mile 681.5. Hiked 22.1 miles today. Last night I laid under a sky full of stars and. gazed at Orion, Cygnus, the Milky Way, and even the small cluster Pleiades. In the early morning, I awoke for a few minutes and quickly counted 7 falling stars. The trail was good. Now I remember how much I like the desert. I just hate carrying so much water. Jack rabbits were huge and loved to hop high. A lot of climbing around a valley that went for miles when it looked like I...

At mile 706.7. Hiked 25.2 PCT miles plus 0.8 miles to store and back. The sky was so blue. Gone are the smoky days in Washington.  It was a great day to hike in the high desert. The trail gradually climbed up through ever higher hills above a drainage; progressing in a sensible direction. It felt good when I topped out at 8008 feet, an elevation I hadn’t seen for a very long time. Above is a dead tree at 8008 feet. The landscape was open and appeared to have...