Every time I drove North on 395, East of the Sierra Nevada mountains I find myself drawn to the jagged peaks and the tall granite spires. Here's a shot from when my brother Kyle was visiting in 2005 (from near Lone Pine).

How could you not want to get into that?
I finally had a proper go at the Sierras this past summer. I carved out a month to backpack most of the length of the range, and started the trek a mere 36 hours after returning from South America. So much for giving myself some time to (a) get ready or (b) relax before jumping into the mountains.
Starting at Walker Pass, I hopped on the Pacific Crest Trail and started heading North on Sunday July 30th, after driving all day Saturday with James (thanks James!). My goal was to hike my way up to Echo Lake, just South of Lake Tahoe, in 30 days. Kramer's wedding was 32 days after my start, and I needed a few days to hitch hike from wherever I finished to Burning Man. That's about 450 miles.
I ended up making it to Ebbet's Pass, 400 PCT miles (and 30 miscellaneous miles) from my starting point. My knees and feet gave me enough trouble that I had to slow up a few days to rest and recuperate.
Here are some random tidbits from the trip:
- Total Miles: 430 (400 PCT Miles + 30 Miscellaneous Adventure Miles)
- Nights spend under the stars (sans tent): 29
- Days of rain: 0
- Days without using soap: 29
- Days before I started smelling myself without trying: 3
- Number of hot showers: 2 (1 in Lone Pine and 1 at Red's Meadows)
- Number of hot baths: 1 (Blarney Hot Springs)
- Number of cold 'baths': A LOT
- Nights I saw a satellite before seeing a shooting star: 17
- Most shooting stars seen in any night: ~40 (August 15th)
- Nights the moon woke me up because I thought it was the sun: 3
- Percentage of mornings where my sleeping bag was frozen: 75%
- Percentage of a lunar cycle observed: 100%
- Days I didn't really hike any trail miles: 5
- Average miles hiked on the days I hiked: ~18
- Most miles hiked in a day: 25
- Average hours hiked each day: 10
- Pounds lost over the course of the trip: 14 (almost 0.5 per day)
- Number of black bears seen jumping through ranch windows: 1 (at Muir Ranch)
I met some fantastic people on the trail: Colm (in real life), Trenton, Annie and Scott, Jenny (and her posse), Tim and his wife Shirely. I also met two families hiking the John Muir Trail together with their collective 5 children. No big deal you think? Well, the kids were 7-11 years old! They were hiking some 200+ miles over the course of 30 days. Now that's not letting children get in the way of what you love to do!
I also had a fantastic time on my own. I would see people almost each day, but almost every encounter was brief because I was hiking upstream so to speak. Most of the traffic I saw was from the JMT and that's typically hiked North to South. In fact, I think I'm still trying to get back into the habit of being social again, even though I've been out of the woods for 5 weeks!
Nothing is as incredible as pushing your body to its limits while immersed in some of the most beautiful terrain on this planet, away from computers, phones, cars, and the everyday noise that so often distracts us from what is really important. No other single experience has had such a profound effect on my state of mind and outlook on life. The challenge is to not forget it all as the noise of everyday life creeps back in.
With that, I'll show off some of the pictures from the hike...
Landscapes
These three need some explaining. The first shows me down next to Thousand Island Lake, with Banner Peak (12,936') in the background. The second one is me on the very top of Banner Peak, with the same lake in the background. The third is also from the summit, but with Yosemite in the background.
Flowers and Trees
When you're on the trail for too long you develop an overactive imagination.

And the biggest surprise was the wild flowers. They were everywhere, and I'd often find myself wading through them as I hiked along the trail.

Critters
My Feet (on day 9 - these aren't the worst ones)
Panoramics
And of course you will find all of my backpacking pictures in the usual place. If you search my gallery for '360', you'll find a handful of 360 degree view movies from various landmarks.






























































































