Intro

I am out of free photo space on Wordpress, so I am trying out blogger to see if it plays nice with google photos.

My old blog is here:
http://www.mossreport.wordpress.com

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Mt. Adams Loop Trip, Day 2, Devils Gardens to Camp above Bird Creek Meadows (2018/07/23)

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Even though I only went 7 miles, the day was super challenging. As I lay in my tent at the end of the day, I was so tired and just wanted the sun to go away. The sun had been shining on me since 7am. I left camp at 5:40am. It was nice and cool and there was plenty of light. I was prepared for an entire day of route-finding and solitude as conditions would change from meadow to creek-crossings, trail-less schwacking and clambering across a snowfield or two. The day turned out to be all that and nothing that I could not handle. Mt. Adams shoulder above Devil's Gardens First I had to cross a creek. I determined it was too deep to cross without wet feet so I changed out of my shoes and stepped into the icy water. I found the faint trail through Devil's Gardens and followed this up and up and up a gentle slope to the top of the ridge on the shoulder of Mt. Adams. This immediately crossed over into the Yakima Reservation. This is where I was prepared for the trail to s...
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Oregon's Outback

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I remember sitting in the living room of our Schaumburg, Illinois home reading this National Geographic article about the empty southeast corner of Oregon. It was 1997. Nathan was a handful of months old. We were on the precipice of moving to Seattle, a leap of faith that we may not be capable of now at our wiser ages. The skin on my neck prickled. The haunting photographs and stoic prose by William Least Heat-Moon resonated with the viral wanderlust that infected me in those days. The article described a place empty and lonesome and sere and also dry, harsh, and caustic.  The photos and prose depicted a massive ridge called Steens Mountain, longer than the Rhode Island-Connecticut border, rising over 2 vertical miles on the east face above an alkili plain. It described lakes that appear and disappear with the seasons. It showed empty roads and bullet-ridden signs. I didn't know shit about the West but knew I wanted to be there. Somehow, a few short years, from birth to age 7, a li...
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PCT to White Pass, Day 5, Adams High Camp to 2nd Walupt Tr Jcn (2018/07/26)

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Back on the PCT at the Killeen Tr. Jcn. Today was a fairly leisurely day for a 15mile day. I kept moving all day because there were few views and lots of bugs. I cut the day short when I passed a small lake at about 3:30pm. Ten hours of hiking was long enough and this camp turned out to be one of my favorite camps of the entire trip. The day started out very scenic as I descended from Adams High Camp. Once I completed the steep descent back to the PCT, it was an all day cruise with mostly gentle ups and downs or generally flat terrain. The early morning was entirely in shadow of the trees and mountain. I reached Lava Spring by about 8am. Icy cold water gushes out from beneath a lava flow. People say this is the freshest, cleanest water on the entire PCT. It was quite cold and totally refreshing. Again, I did not pass many northbounders, was only passed by one northbounder, and saw about two dozen southbounders. After Lava Spring, it was about 5 miles or so throug...
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