New shoes

beavertail prickly pear by Jeremysea on Sketchfab For the past week Kristi and I have seen over a hundred of these beautiful cacti in full bloom. The Beavertail prickly pear cactus, scientifically known as Opuntia basilaris, is a species of cactus native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. It is a member of…

When researching the PCT there wasn’t much said online about the section in Oregon. Once we started getting within a couple hundred miles of the state, most of the talk was that Oregon is “flat & fast” – almost like a brief buffer between the spectacular scenery of Northern California and Washington. There’s even an…

Over the past couple days we’ve been walking through Oregon’s Three Sisters Wilderness and I have fallen in love with the area. In my head I affectionately refer to it as “Oregon’s Lake District,” specifically the roughly 50 miles between Odell Lake to Elk lake, miles 1907-1953 on the PCT. Over these miles we have…

It’s been two weeks after ending our 2023 Pacific Crest Trail journey and I am still processing what I learned and how I’m feeling. The five months of walking were absolutely wonderful, but were layered with a lot of happiness, pain, realizations, and moments of joy. I was surprised by the complex feelings I had…

Since we spend so much of our time walking and thinking about food, it’s quite the treat when the trail provides us with a little snack. There’s usually not a lot of calories to be found from foraging (especially when foraging in a sustainable way), but today (August 22) we feasted on huckleberries. For almost…