Twig Adventures

HayDay 0: Ramblings

April 3, 2023 kaulua26 Hayduke Trail

This is a long post, to reflect on my preparations and travels prior to the hike. It encompasses several weeks, just to give an idea of how much pre-planning this hike involved. I spent some of the time visiting family and friends in Colorado, which was a good way to acclimate to the at altitude. I had planned to head to Utah sooner, checking out some day hikes as I placed food and water caches with TS. But it was so bloody cold and snowy that I extended my stay in sunny (and kind of warm) CO. I spent the extra days at my friend Jolly Rancher’s home near Westcliffe \ Rosita. I met him on the Colorado Trail in[…]

2023: Introducing the Hayduke T̶r̶a̶i̶l̶ Route

March 10, 2023 kaulua26 Hayduke Trail

See here for my gear list. The Hayduke Route was the mother-of-all hikes in terms of planning and resources. I’d actually been planning it since 2020, but it was a no-go that year, for obvious reasons (COVID). Then for one reason or another, I put it off for another 2 seasons. This was a good thing, because it gave me time to sharpen my desert route-finding and survival skills. During my CDT, AZT, GET, and MRT hikes, I covered vast expanses of Arizona and New Mexico. Though I had yet to take one step in Utah, I finally felt ready for this hike So what is the Hayduke Route? The name “Hayduke” pays homage to the main character in The Monkey[…]

2022 Year In Review

I wanted to do recap of all my hiking in 2022, which is something I should’ve been doing since I started this blog in 2017. Maybe I’ll do some back-posts over the next winter season to cover years 2017-2021. I like collecting stats in one tidy place. Call it ego or whatever, really I just want to keep track of everything for personal reflections. 2022 was a pretty busy year! I thru-hiked one specialty route, the Mogollon Rim Trail (MRT, courtesy of Brett Tucker and Melissa Spencer) and also one official National Scenic Trail, the Pacific Northwest Trail (PNT). These 2 thru-hikes were quite different from each other and afforded a very wide array of habitats, conditions, and experiences. They[…]

2022 ALDHA-West Gathering / Triple Crown Awards

February 28, 2023 kaulua26 Appalachian Trail, Continental Divide Trail, Pacific Crest Trail

Saturday, September 24th, 2022, Keystone, Colorado I just wanted to do a quick post about the 2022 ALDHA-West Gathering. This is an annual event where hikers are honored for having completed the Triple Crown of Hiking: the Appalachian Trail, Continental Divide Trail, and Pacific Crest Trail. I actually completed this trilogy the year prior, but given my Aug-Nov southbound hike of the AT, it was too late to submit my accomplishments for that year. I guess it was meant to be, since having the Gathering in CO aligned perfectly a visit to my home state after the PNT. A hiker friend, Tim Sharp (aka Nine Lives), gave me a ride to and from the event. I only attended one day[…]

CDT/CT Bonus 2022: Grays Peak, Argentine Spine, & Searle and Kokomo Passes to Leadville.

February 9, 2023 kaulua26 Colorado Trail, Continental Divide Trail

September 15-20, Thursday- MondayDay 1: Hermit Gulch TH to Grays and Torreys TH, 6.7 miles, 1600′ gain, Elevation 11,245′Day 2: Grays and Torreys TH to Webster Pass, 17.5 miles, 7100′ gain, 6500′ loss, Elevation 11,500′Day 3: Webster Pass to bench near Blair Witch Trail, just before Breckenridge, 24 miles, 3900′ gain, 6300′ lossDay 4: 5 miles into Breckenridge on the road, then 1 mile outside of Copper Mt ski resort.Day 5: Copper Mt to Tennessee Pass, 22 miles, 4000′ gain, 3700′ lossDay 6: Leadville to Denver via car This is trip report of a hike I did with my friend Suvi, who I first met on the PCT in 2018. This year she was hiking the CDT southbound. My pit-stop[…]

PNT Flip-Flopper’s Guide

December 26, 2022 kaulua26 Pacific Northwest Trail

Breaking Rank by Breaking the Line (Flip-Flop Flilosophy) Everyone knows that a thru-hike is done by following a long trail continuously from end to end, and that there could be no other way, right? (Those most stuck in this mindset might also insist that northbound is the only possible direction…’NOBO or NOGOs’ may want to just stop reading here since the PNT is an east-west trail, which might be too mind-blowing:) Admittedly, a continuous line is usually the most logistically-easy and strategic plan, but also the most instinctual and traditional. Such journeys have their roots in religious pilgrimages, where the whole point is walking an unbroken path to arrive a place of significance, hopefully finding enlightenment along the way. A[…]

PNT Trail Angels & Trail Magic Recognition

December 21, 2022 kaulua26 Pacific Northwest Trail

The PNT was a real joy when it came to Trail Angels and Trail Magic. There’s a pretty amazing network of people dedicated to supporting the trail and hikers. The trail towns are generally small and quaint, with many businesses striking a nice balance between providing for-profit services and being generously giving of their time and amenities. As such, many of the examples I’ve listed below came from kind proprietors and organizations, not just individual Trail Angels. I wanted to recognize these many instances of kindness and support, and also hopefully urge future hikers to patronize the hiker-friendly businesses and organizations. My apologies if I neglected to mention something or someone. I do my very best to list EVERYTHING, even[…]

PNT Route Options

December 20, 2022 kaulua26 Pacific Northwest Trail

My intention for this post is to help future PNT hikers in answering the age-old question: Which way should I go? I’m not saying that anyone has to follow my advice, just explaining why I chose certain options and what I thought of them at the time. Though, there are a few routes that I STRONGLY encourage, either for the wow-factor or to hopefully save a hiker some misery. The PNT is full of ‘alternates,’ so it’s very much a choose-your-own-adventure type trail, similar to the CDT. Recalling that the official trail is depicted as a red line on the Far Out app, alternate routes are usually drawn as a blue line, but sometimes other colors such as purple or[…]

PNT Summary and Stats

December 9, 2022 kaulua26 Pacific Northwest Trail

After having several months to reminisce and go through my daily blogs, I have only warm and fuzzy memories of this hike. Was it my absolute favorite? Well…it seems like every trail becomes my new favorite but it certainly ranks high. Like most long distance trails I’ve done, there were some really incredible days, many that were uneventful and quiet yet still enjoyable, and only a few that weren’t so great. I’m pretty happy walking just about anywhere, so you may want to take my overall impressions with a grain of salt. Certainly some hikers do not enjoy the PNT, mostly I think because of the road walking, bushwhacks, and rough trails. Yet these can also be some of the[…]

PNT Bonus Days: Kulshan

December 8, 2022 kaulua26 Pacific Northwest Trail, Short Hikes

Tuesday-Saturday, August 29th-Sept 3rd, 2022Port Angeles to Port Townsend to Whidbey Island to Sedro-Woolley to Mt. Baker to Mt. Vernon to Seattle12 miles hiked, Gain/loss: 7412′ Thanks for sharing in my adventures on the PNT. If you want more, then here it is… a LOT more. Fair warning, this is an exceptionally long-winded post about my bonus peak bagging adventure, plus the days before and after. I recognize that all my later posts from the PNT were overly long, mainly because I wrote them much later off-trail, with access to a real keyboard. But I also had such a fun and exciting time at the very end, I wanted to capture as many of the details as I could, for[…]

Twig Adventures

My Adventures blog