The Desert

Over the past 40 days and 40 nights I have been recording short clips of the trail to help capture the general feel of the trail. The terrain is wildly varied and can change with small differences in elevation, aspect of the slope, and of course in close proximity to water.

Below is a recording I stitched together from these first 40 days. It runs 15 minutes but it can be enjoyed in short segments, a quick scroll, and if you have time, streamed to a television for best effect.

At the bottom of the Trek page you can find a link to stats from our trip. These include a summary of mileage, our upcoming plans, activity data, and number of unique species we have spotted along the trail.

Our current estimate is 176 unique plants, animals, and mushrooms since starting the trail on May 6. There are a few ways to view these observations

You can toggle between the different views from the banner at the top of the page but here are individual links. I am getting help from someone to upload photos so there are some mistaken IDs, and in some instances not enough info for species-level identification. This list is still reasonably accurate.

We are logging these observations in iNaturalist, a website/app for logging observations of many forms of life all over the world. If you have ever wondered what a particular plant is, or what birds can be found in your area (for instance), you can learn these things more easily through iNaturalist than almost any guidebook. Poke around on the website and if you have questions feel free to ask.

Pro Membership

Get the data serious foragers use to find more mushrooms

Free members get soil temps, precipitation, and ecoregion data. Pro unlocks the layers that help you narrow down exactly where to look.

  • Historical burn perimeters — find morel habitat fast
  • Timber harvest boundaries across OR & WA
  • Detailed foraging area summaries with conditions
  • Offline maps in the Forayz iOS app

Similar Posts

  • Campo to Cabazon CA

    Day 17 we walked 4 miles to I-10 and caught an Uber to Cabazon, CA for a nice relaxing day eating, hydrating, and resting our legs. Now at 6pm we are headed back to the trail to walk another 10 miles during the cooler part of the day.  The video above is composed of about…

  • New shoes

    73 days, 920 miles I just retired my first pair or trail shoes and replaced them with the same model Brooks Caldera 6 Pro Membership Get the data serious foragers use to find more mushrooms Free members get soil temps, precipitation, and ecoregion data. Pro unlocks the layers that help you narrow down exactly where…

  • Hiker Food

    A collection of things one might take on the trail. We’re still experimenting but here are some of the things we have carried, or have seen friends carry. We are probably burning 4000 – 5000 calories per day so we can basically eat whatever we want. The challenge is keeping up with the amount of…

  • Entropy: Final trail days

    As we approach our final days on the trail our gear and bodies are starting to show the wear and tear of nearly five months of walking. In just the past week… The inner baffles in Jeremy’s sleeping pad started breaking and mine has a slow leak which has led to some interesting sleeping positions…