The other day I noticed someone crowd-funded a movie about the Hayduke Trail. (Reading what I just wrote made me puke in my mouth.) Actually, it’s worse. let me rephrase that: someone crowd-funded a movie about his hike of the Hayduke Trail. I suffered through the movie, then I wrote my thoughts in a 1-star review:
TLDR I have removed public access to my Hayduke maps because I’m done making it easier for people to enjoy exploitative hikes of that Trail.
(a cloudy story for you) The man who stalked me on the Hayduke is a meteorologist for the Belgian army. He asked how I understood what I understood about clouds and I told him I read the Cloudspotter’s Guide a couple times. I also look at clouds. I try to make sense of them. I also have a weird sense of barometry through pressure I feel in my ears, believe it or not. My ears ring and hurt me a lot, but the upshot is I’m very very good at predicting rain. This was the fateful day I decided to sorta hike with him for a couple miles and give him a chance. To be “friends.” Our last day, given… continue reading
High on Friday morning, using Whitney’s Trail Crest (13,612′) as just… a mountain pass. A way into the Sierra. I wonder now, who does that? If you’re 1.9 miles and only 800 vertical feet from summiting the tallest peak in the lower 48, having those bragging rights and that chest-filling view, why just cross over and run down the other side of the mountain? Why does the chicken cross the road? 21 miles later that day (2 extra, futile miles trying to distance myself from a very large bear), I wondered why even thru hike? And just like that, my entire outlook changed, and my summer plans jackknifed. I think I’m leaving thru-hiking for backpacking. Because they ARE different, and… continue reading
OK so a little rant about the “sexual harrassment” on the trail. Believe it or not I was at one point relieved at how different things were on the Pacific Crest Trail compared to the Portland Oregon cycling circle jerky community I had come from. In the bike community I tried to have a little half-dressed fun cheering cycling races which I was also RACING IN, and then got called all sorts of names by strangers AND friends. “Whore,” “slut,” “butterface,” “anti-feminist.” OMG. Next thing I knew, after I’d been beaten down into silence, it was a huge trend to cheer races like that. Ahead of my time, I guess. What folks didn’t know is I came from a childhood… continue reading