procrastination/anticipation

April 4, 2014April 7, 2014 / carrot quinn / 28 Comments

Anxiety on top of anxiety. I fly south to San Diego from Portland in three weeks, and all of my irrational fears about the trail (something is going to go horribly wrong, the trail is going to turn into a wall of fire, western civilization is going to collapse into a police state RIGHT when … Continue reading procrastination/anticipation

happy everything

March 21, 2014 / carrot quinn / 6 Comments

The PCTA interviewed me for their blog! I've never been interviewed before so I was very long-winded b/c I was excited. The PCTA website is beautiful! and you should hang out there all the time. They have a great aggregator of trail journals- there are SO MANY trail journals you could start to read. Young … Continue reading happy everything

My public service announcement to the PCT class of 2014

March 5, 2014March 6, 2014 / carrot quinn / 37 Comments

To everyone who's hiking the trail this year: I know you guys are really busy right now, and you're really excited. You've got homemade bars to vacuum pack and gear spreadsheets to make. You haven't yet found the perfect windshirt (what is a windshirt, anyway?) and your permits have yet to come in the mail. … Continue reading My public service announcement to the PCT class of 2014

Food on the PCT

February 10, 2014February 10, 2014 / carrot quinn / 19 Comments

I've been meaning for a while to write a piece on the things I ate on the PCT. Food is an important trail subject and a highly subjective one- our relationship with food changes continuously and our tastes and fancies come and go like the wind. Here, I am the subject, with my fussy gut … Continue reading Food on the PCT

After the trail: November in 1,357 words

January 16, 2014January 17, 2014 / carrot quinn / 3 Comments

(I've switched to past tense. It's getting wild up in here!) I went south; I sold my trailer to a woman on craigslist, put many of my possessions on the curb (before, everything I owned could fit in my trailer, now it fit in the back of a borrowed sedan) gathered my dogs and drove … Continue reading After the trail: November in 1,357 words

After the trail: The return of the existential despair

January 12, 2014January 13, 2014 / carrot quinn / 22 Comments

When I wake in the morning I sit up in bed and stare out the big window at the backyard. Outside the rain is coming down, hard, the wind lashing the trees. It's the same storm that, a few hundred miles north, is dumping feet and feet of snow in the Northern Cascades. The storm … Continue reading After the trail: The return of the existential despair

After the trail: Home and other abstract concepts

January 8, 2014January 8, 2014 / carrot quinn / 3 Comments

September 25 I wake in the night when my calves seize up and I jerk from my sleeping bag and stretch them in the dark room, trying to stop the cramp. I've been getting charlie horses every night for the last few weeks and now I'm still getting them, even though I'm no longer on … Continue reading After the trail: Home and other abstract concepts

After the trail: Hitching back into the US

January 5, 2014January 6, 2014 / carrot quinn / 10 Comments

(Note: If you're new here and you'd like to receive an email alert every time I post something new, please click the "subscribe via email" button at the top of the page and enter your email. And welcome!) September 24 I wake at 6:30, tangled in the scratchy comforter, hotel room walls washed in pale … Continue reading After the trail: Hitching back into the US