Weather curveballs, wildfire detours, and other challenges are nothing new for Pacific Crest Trail hikers. But this year brought an unprecedented amount of difficulties for thru-hikers tackling the legendary 2,650-mile route from Mexico to Canada. Record snowpack. Swollen rivers. Raging wildfires in the Pacific Northwest...
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One of our favorite long trails is turning the big 8-0 this month. In honor of this momentous occasion, we asked one of our favorite Appalachian Trail authors, Lafe Low of Best Hikes on the Appalachian Trail: New England, to pen a birthday post. So the Appalachian...
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Without a doubt, the rolling high country of Palomar Mountain in California contains San Diego County’s most picture-perfect mountain scenery. Palomar’s uplands, covered with forests of pine, oak, fir, and cedar, and its gentle valleys, laced with sparkling streams, bring to mind landscapes more commonly...
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July is by far the most popular time to hike on the Pacific Crest Trail in Washington. And for good reason! The weather is great, the meadows show off their vibrant array of wildflowers, and many of the alpine lakes are just getting warm enough to...
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The trails in the Sierra and the PCT are so engrained in our 50 years as guidebook publishers that it's hard to imagine a time before the iconic Pacific Crest Trail weaved its way from Mexico to Canada. Yet Wilderness Press was already a year...
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Every once in a while, there’s a moment in life where a single choice will send you down a profoundly different path. One of these choices happened to me in Spring 2011. I received an unexpected chunk of change, and with all that coin burning...
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Since December of 2014, I have been working on a full revision and update of Jerry Schad’s hiking guide, Afoot and Afield: San Diego County. Part of my revision included hiking every inch of those 1,420 miles to determine what had changed and what was new. From...
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Before there was Cheryl Strayed, there was Catherine Montgomery. In 1926, almost a century before Strayed’s best-selling memoir about her Pacific Crest Trail experience was published, Montgomery came up with the idea of creating a ridgeline track from Canada to Mexico. It seems fitting to pay tribute...
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Packing for long, strenuous day hikes is a balancing act. You don’t want to forget anything critical, but you also don’t want to carry any unnecessary weight. Packing for such a hike at 14,000 feet may seem slightly more stressful than usual. But fear not—the supplies you need...
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You have decided what time of year you want to summit Mount Whitney. You have applied for your permit. You’re growing excited. Now it’s time to start thinking about the task at hand—actually summiting the highest mountain in the Lower 48. Yikes! Hiking 21 miles is...
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