The Desert

I woke up and it wasn’t cold, a novelty. As we hiked the valley between the San Jacinto mountains and Whitewater preserve, we got our first taste of real desert heat. The bridge of the I10 ...

Goodbye San Jacinto mountains! the desert beckoned us down and out of the shade of the towering trees, back into the searing sun. The descent was arduous and endless. My muscles ached and my feet were ...

Even though saying goodbye is an inevitable part of any journey, it still stung leaving so many friends behind. Due to how the trail is structured, it was possible to get to Idyllwild in two ways. the ...

Back to town! Idyllwild was the place this time. Based on the name, Coyote and I had expected the place to be populated by elves living in houses in giant trees. Upon arriving, there were neither ...

So tired. What an eventful day. We left the sandy desert behind for now and headed up into the san jacinto mountains, the first real test of endurance on this journey. Records were broken today: our ...

The first really hot day. We walked alone for most of it, trying to bear the heat. I feel my hiker legs are coming on slowly but surely. Pushing up and downhill today felt great, the smell of dry pine ...

Detachment, that is what i thought of today. one of the key characteristics of the trail so far. Detached from news from the outside world, breaking and trivial, from family and friends and from the ...

The terrain has changed once again. Instead of cacti and low, thorny bushes, the ground here is more grassy, with higher tree growth and sand dunes always present on the horizon. We ran into the ...

A new record! 22 miles (35 km) in a day! I’ve come to realize the trail is a continuous procession of new and old faces, but rarely those you expect. Due to water source locations, we decided to ...