Southern Oregon fall is cold clear nights and days of fire-yellow big-leaf maples wrapped in fog and the grounding reassuring rhythms of harvest; living and working in the dirt on a friend's farm and sleeping each night in my camper van floating in deep starry blackness, buried beneath the old zero-degree sleeping bag from my … Continue reading Wherein I try and catch you up on everything

I finished the Continental Divide Trail two weeks ago. The last two weeks have been super hectic for me- the job and housing situation I had set up for after the trail fell apart, there was lots of shuffling from one place to another while I bought a vehicle/tried to figure out my life, and … Continue reading Continental Divide Trail 2015: Afterword

September 14 Mileage: 35.5 2,590 miles hiked It's not as cold as I thought it would be, camped next to this stream with the wind, and I actually sleep pretty well. I wake up at six in the dark, and blearily boil water for tea as the sun lightens, still wrapped in my sleeping bag. … Continue reading CDT day 133: fin

September 13 Mileage: 24.5 2,554.5 miles hiked I have all sorts of crazy dreams but sleep ok then wake up, eat salami sandwiches while watching the sun rise, start to hike and then promptly sit on a rock to get some things done online that I forgot to get done because suddenly I have service. … Continue reading CDT day 132: we all have our vices

September 12 Mileage: 8.5 2,530 miles hiked I barely sleep in that special hotel-room way, everything being too cold/hot/loud/quiet/unnatural seeming and animated from within by electricity, like a big machine. How am I supposed to sleep inside a big machine? The charm of town wears off a soon as I am no longer hungry. Get … Continue reading CDT day 131: 2 Feral 4 Town

September 11 Mileage: 5.5 2,521.5 miles hiked Today feels like a holiday. I get to eat! Eat! I am ecstatic as I walk to the highway in the warm morning sun. I stop to chat with all the bow hunters on horseback, looking for elk. What a wonderful world! I've been hitching for ten minutes … Continue reading CDT day 130: Pagosa Springs

September 10 Mileage: 29 2,516 miles hiked The wind goes all night long, flapping the walls of my tent. The rustling sounds like a million things and my imagination goes crazy as I drift off, alone on the high dark ridge. I'll be just about asleep and then- rustle rustle rustle! Bears? Deer? Coyotes? No, … Continue reading CDT day 129: no longer grossed out by anything

September 9 Mileage: 24 2,487 miles hiked Ah, sleeping on a slant, curled on my side so I don't roll down the hill. I'm awake more than I'm asleep, or was I just dreaming? First thing in the morning the CDT cuts cross-country over a broad, icy meadow and there are four stream crossings in … Continue reading CDT day 128: a felt cowboy hat and some whisky

September 8 Mileage: 23.5 2,463 miles hiked I'm almost, but not quite warm enough, and I toss and turn- but then at some point in the night the condensation on my tarp freezes, adding an extra bit of insulation, and I sleep like a baby. I wake tired. Tea and breakfast and the sunrise, melting … Continue reading Day 127: The Weminuche Wilderness

September 7 Mileage: 27.5 2,439.5 miles hiked It's hard to leave the yurt in the morning. Outside the high-altitude world of the San Juan mountains is windy and cold and the still-warm woodstove begs to have another fire built inside. If I had enough food, and if I hadn't just bought my plane ticket home … Continue reading CDT day 126: Staying high in the San Juans