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Sometimes the real adventures on the trail come before or after the trail, as was the case for me after the Pioneer Mail to Warner Springs section of the Pacific Crest Trail I walked gosh, just two weeks ago.

I don't have as many pictures for this section as I did for the last one, but I think it'll be worth it, so please come along and take a look see. 

I'll begin with where I left off, at Warner Springs, a lovely end-point for the first section of the trail, about 110 miles north of the Mexican border.

Here's what the trail looks like just 1/4 of a mile from the PCT Stop N' Shop at the Warner Springs Community Resource Center (which is open for a month during the thru-hikers season).  

On Saturday eve, I had a pleasant post-trail dinner of bread and salami, dried fruit and a little left-over rum. Repacked, put everything in my little truck, turned the key and — nada. No response. Maybe because I left the lights on for three and a half days. 

So suggests the probabilistic outlook from NOAA:   Doesn't look so good for SoCal, unfortunately. From Matt Weiser at the Sacramento Bee. John Fleck at the Albuquerque Journal suggests reporters watching 6-10 outlooks for rain are drought-obsessed. Weiser cheerfully admits it (on Twitter). 

It's a little shocking to see experts turn aganst modern society, but it happens:  Regarding smartphones, a NYTimes op-ed — Your Phone vs. Your Heart — argued that smartphones can alter our lives on a genetic level, for cryin' out loud.  The human body — and thereby our human potential — is far more plasticContinue reading “Experts: Smartphones and sugarsaltfat are changing us”

"To walk across the country is to fall in love with mankind." So argues Ken Ilgunas, the first walker quoted in a NYTimes news analysis about walking as a spiritual quest (by Kate Murphy). Story looks at a number of examples, the anthropology ("a limnal realm outside of and yet proximal to society"), the possibleContinue reading “To walk across the country is to fall in love with mankind”

From a typically first-rate NYTimes magazine story by Pulitzer winner Michael Moss:  In 2011, The New England Journal of Medicine published a study that shed new light on America’s weight gain. The subjects — 120,877 women and men — were all professionals in the health field, and were likely to be more conscious about nutrition,Continue reading “The suburban form of crack — the potato chip”