kaulua26

2025 Pacific Crest Trail Days: Back to Cascade Locks

December 12, 2025 kaulua26 Pacific Crest Trail

PCT Days, Thursday-Saturday, Aug 14th-16th, Cascade Locks OR. Day 1, Thursday Aug 14th: Trail Angel and friend Otzi (Randy), who I stayed with while I was hiking the San Diego Trans County Trail, reached out to say he could give me a ride to Trail Days this year. He was driving all the way from San Diego, and even offered to pick me up at Shelter Cove. But I figured I could easily hitch to Eugene instead, saving him a 3 hour side trip. So in the morning, 2 other hikers and I posted up at the highway, thumbs pointed west. It took a surprising hour and a half to catch a ride, but I was in no hurry since[…]

2025 SOBO PCT Days 25-34: Cascade Locks to Shelter Cove Oregon

December 11, 2025 kaulua26 Pacific Crest Trail

Day 25, Monday, Aug 4th, 2025, 0600-2100. Cascade Locks & Eagle Creek. 8 mi, start at Bridge of the Gods WA to Skoonichuk Falls, Eagle Creek alt, OR, 1600’up\1000’down, elevation 670′. I had no problems stealth camping overnight and slipped out of my spot just before dawn. I walked down to the Carson General Store and waited a bit for it to open at 7 am. The employees were very friendly and I found some nice resupply items there, along with great coffee. I love buying from these small, local stores. Best of all, while sipping my coffee at the picnic Table 1 outside, I got to meet the Carson Coffee Social Club, consisting of Michael, Bob, and Maynard. These 3[…]

2025 SOBO PCT Days 16-24: The 2nd Half of WA

December 9, 2025 kaulua26 Pacific Crest Trail

Day 16, Saturday, July 26th, 2025, 0610-1830. Trail Magic. 25 mi to 1\2 mi south of Tacoma Pass, mm 289, 6060’up\5830’down, elevation 3830′. I really enjoyed my fresh-picked blueberries with my breakfast. It was an uneventful morning as I passed by Mirror Lake. There were tons of weekend campers and all I could think of was how many of them must be pooping too near the lake. I saw one kid with a trowel in hand, off to look for a spot to lay down his treasure. The trail was fairly busy through the morning, not surprising for a weekend with great weather. I caught up to and passed Foggy. I figured he was going to be way ahead of me,[…]

2025 SOBO PCT Days 7-15: Stehekin to Snoqualmie

December 3, 2025 kaulua26 Pacific Crest Trail

Day 7: Thursday, July 17th, 2025, 0900-1900. Stehekin Bakery21 miles to Miners Cabin trail junction, mm 101.6, 6050’up\2170’down, elevation 5500′. It was a peaceful night in the woods. I’m pretty sure no one ever knew I was there, just off the road in my camo tent. I love stealth camping, especially when it earns me such an advantage. Due to my strategic planning, I arrived at the bakery by 6 am. If you aren’t already in the know, the Stehekin bakery is one of the top 5 highlights of the entire PCT. The owner, Cragg Courtney, was already inside getting ready and invited me in to grab a coffee, use the bathroom and charge electronics. He was so kind and we[…]

2025 SOBO PCT Days 0-6: Ross Lake to Canada to Stehekin:

December 2, 2025 kaulua26 Pacific Crest Trail, Pacific Northwest Trail

Since I previously published daily blogs for my 2018 SOBO PCT thru-hike, I decided to take a bit of a break my second time around. Earlier in 2025, I posted weekly to bi-weekly summaries after my PCT desert section hike, and so I continued taking notes in this format over the summer. Here are my accounts, derived from those notes, plus pictures. I edited some of the days to be pretty detailed and lengthy for my own memories’ sake, while other days are more in note format…sorry for the inconsistency. Additionally, just as I started the PCT southbound for the second time, my episode on Backpacker Radio (The Trek) came out. I did the interview with Chaunce and Zack in[…]

Pacific Crest Trail 2025, Round 2

July 8, 2025 kaulua26 Desert Winter Thru Hike, Pacific Crest Trail

This summer I hope to complete the remaining 3 sections that I have left in hiking the PCT a 2nd time. This has been a goal since my first thru-hike in 2018. Initially, I envisioned that I would thru-hike the entire trail again, but over time, the goal morphed into completing the trail as a series of section hikes. This was mainly because in 2023, I hiked nearly all of the Northern California section as a way of connecting the Oregon Coast and Bigfoot Trails to the Tahoe Rim Trail. After that stint, I couldn’t really see myself hiking NoCal a 3rd time (it’s my least favorite section), thus my focus shifted to just completing the remaining sections in the[…]

DWTH, SDTCT & PCT Desert Section Summary & Stats

June 27, 2025 kaulua26 Desert Winter Thru Hike, Pacific Crest Trail

Like my 2023 PCBCRT hike, my Desert Winter Thru Hike ended up being the sum of multiple parts, a conglomeration of 3 different long-distance trails/routes. It’s difficult to summarize such a segmented journey, so I’ve attempted to break some of the data into distinct parts to cover each trail, but also lumped some of the information together. At the core, I’m proud to say that I hiked from the outskirts of Tucson, connecting footsteps from the Arizona Trail to the Pacific Crest Trail, plus also my footsteps along the PCT to the San Diego Trans County Trail, and all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Note that I didn’t hike continuously from east to west, which allowed for a complete[…]

DWTH PCT Days 26-39: Acton to Kennedy Meadows South

June 19, 2025 kaulua26 Desert Winter Thru Hike, Pacific Crest Trail

This is the continuation of my Desert PCT section hike, the final post of 3, notes for each day… Day 26, Sunday, April 20th, 1000-2000 13 miles to just outside Agua Dulce, Mm 457.4, 2250/1570, Elevation 2950′ Leisurely morning, took it slow packing. Visited other grocery store in town, higher-end but fair prices and quality stuff. Discount bin had good bars and PB. Large sandwich to go was bomb! Ate half and packed out other half. Met friendly guy and asked him for a ride out of town. Miykael was guitarist playing classic rock, tight red pants, yellow high tops, and rod Stewart shirt. I love all these characters I meet hitching! He’d just bought a newish van to travel and[…]

DWTH PCT Days 14-25: Whitewater Preserve to Acton

June 18, 2025 kaulua26 Desert Winter Thru Hike, Pacific Crest Trail

This is the continuation of my Desert PCT section hike, notes for each day… Day 14, Tuesday, April 8th, 0700-1900 22 miles, Whitewater Preserve to Mission Springs Trail Camp, Mm 240, 6700/1120 down. Elevation 7900′. Camp so awesome. Rocks falling all night. Western screech owl. Bighorns peering over ledge in morning, played Bocce ball using boulders and tents. Passed day hikers, perhaps even some migrants along river in morning, then Ludo, French guy I’d been hopscotching for several days. Climb over small pass from Whitewater valley to Mission Creek. Then fun began hiking up the large wash, trail segments washed away from 2023 Hurricane Hillary for long stretches. Just like hiking the DWTH, so I was right at home. Others not[…]

DWTH PCT Days 1-13: Mexico Border/Campo to Whitewater Preserve

June 18, 2025 kaulua26 Desert Winter Thru Hike, Pacific Crest Trail

I’ll start by explaining that this PCT section hike was somewhat spontaneous and unplanned. Which is not to say that it wasn’t in the back of my mind for many months, well before I even started the Desert Winter Thru-Hike in January. The deal was that if I made it all the way to San Diego and still felt good, I’d continue on with the PCT. My main objective was to connect my footsteps from the SDTCT to my DWTH finish at Whitewater preserve, about 155 miles in total. Ultimately, this concluded a continuous footpath from the outskirts of Tucson, AZ to San Diego, CA, a distance of nearly 1100 miles. My 2nd objective was to complete another section of[…]

Author: kaulua26