Down down down, dropping 6000 feet off Fuller Ridge into the heat of the desert. Spectacular views, and a bit arduous.

Really great day hiking. Until the snow traverses.

Short day, with afternoon idling in Idyllwild. Burger. Pizza.

Sluggish to start, then a day in the scrub. Not a particularly thrilling day

My favorite day of hiking so far, following a creek up a wooded canyon, then a high traverse across remote mountains, ending up at Trail Angel Mike's.

A wonderfully scenic and easy downhill day, leaving the desert for the pretty oak grasslands around Warner Springs. And blisters :-(

A wonderful day. A visit from Chris and a friends family. A hearty meal in Julian. A great walk through a cactus garden. Plus a boa and a rattlesnake.

A long day of hiking down into the desert

A good walk today, putting the scenic in PCT. And my gear get shaken down by Pillsbury.

A pretty walk at first, than a climb up towards Mt Laguna.

Started the PCT today. A pleasant but long walk from the southern terminus at the Mexican border, north 20 miles to Lake Morena County Park (bonus: milkshake, hot showers)

I finish packing and wrap things up at home.

I spend a few hours mucking around and loading GPS waypoints onto my Garmin

The eating plan is coming together

A random smattering of preparation to-do-list

A quick look forward.

23000 calories in a can

It's two weeks before I start walking. What's my day-by-day to-do list look like?

Today I spent the morning making my final pack list--discarding the unnecessary items, eliminating all the alternatives, weighing the primary selections on the kitchen scale, then stuffing the Chosen Items in their colored stuff sacks or Ziploc bags.

Blogging on the PCT: what's the appropriate level?

A final rough plan for resupply

I changed out my tent today... for one that's heavier.

It's an incredibly poor snow year. I'm moving the start of my PCT walk up 13 days to March 17th.

Backpack, sleeping bag, tent: the old gear I used to use, and the new gear coming along with me this year

We headed up to the west side of Joshua Tree yesterday--there's a nice 6 1/2 mile loop hike just out of the west entrance, winding through those odd rockpiles Joshua tree is known for, walking through some sandy washes, and shaking down some new gear for my PCT walk next month.