9/5/17 3 miles 118 miles hiked The night is perfectly still with a bright silver dollar moon, almost full, whose glory I witness when I wake in the dark to string up my mosquito net. I lie awake for a while, watching the moonshadows move on the tarp and experiencing deep wonderment at the magic … Continue reading KCHBR Day 12: More or less an on-trail zero

9/4/17 11 miles 115 miles hiked total We're a ship. We're a ship that's lost on the black, stormy sea, and we're being tossed around by the waves. I'm sitting up in my sleeping bag in the pitch black gripping one side of the tarp with all my might and Kodak is gripping the other … Continue reading KCHBR Day 11: Katherine Motherf*ckin Cook

9/3/17 10 miles 104 miles hiked total I sleep late- I guess I needed it? And we don't start hiking until 8:15. I am deeply superstitious about starting hiking after 8, as in my experience this means that one is totally fucked, as far as miles goes. Oh well, I guess I'll see how today … Continue reading KCHBR Day 10: Kings Kaweah tablelands

9/2/17 4 miles 94 miles hiked total I wake at six and make gf df mac n' cheese on the tile floor of the motel shower, because it's the only place in the room where I can use my alcohol stove without setting anything on fire. I eat the entire pot and, thus stuffed with … Continue reading KCHBR Day 9: Out of the valley, back to the cool mtns

9/1/17 zero miles I wake too early (again) in our nice stealth spot in the forest below the gas station and we pack up and sit outside in the cold as the morning warms looking at our phones until the doors open and we buy two hot cups of coffee and eat the bananas and … Continue reading KCHBR day 8: zero in Visalia

8/31/17 20 miles 90 miles hiked total I dream about my father (he disappeared when I was four, I hitch-hiked to Alaska and found him when I was twenty, he was neither interesting nor kind/wanted nothing to do with me, it was awkward, are we supposed to be similar to/feel some connection to our blood … Continue reading KCHBR day 7: all trails to Lodgepole

8/30/17 12 miles 70 miles hiked total At four a.m. sheet lightning breaks the dark in half and rain rattles the tarp and I drift in and out until dawn, when the storm has mellowed to a light drizzle. Everything is packed away wet and we drop cross-country down more nice granite ramps to a … Continue reading KCHBR day 6: Roads End

8/29/17 15 miles 58 miles hiked total It's warm, pleasant and still down at six thousand feet, where we're camped and I wake at five and lay there, waiting for Kodak to wake. It's pretty hard not to just wake up your hiking partner when you're up before dawn feeling shot full of electricity ready … Continue reading KCHBR day 5: where cliffs were outlawed long ago

8/28 8 miles 43 miles hiked total All night the wind gusts and flutters the tarp but I sleep amazingly in this otherwordly peaceful land and in the morning we eat smushed bars and Kodak lets me drink some of his pourover coffee and we fold everything away, as one does, me with all my … Continue reading KCHBR day 4: Skurka’s little game

8/27 7 miles 35 miles hiked total I wake off and on all night, my dreams mixing with the milky way spinning above me until it's dawn, and I'm heating water for tea and smacking my frozen shoes against each other in an effort to loosen them. . Our first project this morning is to … Continue reading KCHBR day three: it never really doesn’t go