California – Twig Adventures

2025 Summer/Fall Summary & Stats, Year In Review

(Scroll to the bottom for a listing of links to all my posts) I respect those that can summarize their yearly recaps into beautiful and tidy video reels on social media, but I’m unfortunately not one of them. I can just barely manage static images, words and numbers…in essence, boring old Luddite stuff. That’s just me, I guess. Even still, I was overwhelmed trying to fit this year into a blog post, but here goes… I’ll start with the figures from my Garmin watch, which says I took a F*#!-ton of steps! My 4,471.8 estimated miles were based on these step counts, thus include every day life movements, not just hiking. But in totaling my hiking miles for the year[…]

2025 Sierra High Route Days 17-22: Bishop Pass to Mammoth

December 29, 2025 kaulua26 Pacific Crest Trail, Sierra High Route

Day 17: Bishop Pass Again, Friday, Sep 19th, 2025, 1530-1920. 10 mi to Bishop Pass trail, elevation 9690′. 2320\2450. I woke feeling very ready to get back on trail. The zero was good, especially since the mountains got hammered with rain during this time. The weather forecast still had flood warnings in effect for Yosemite through the end of the day. What a change from the week before, when the warnings were due to the fire, smoke and bad air quality. Some new hikers checked into the hostel mid-morning, telling very soggy, cold stories about their mis-adventures in the high country the past 2 days. Mt Whitney even got several inches of snow. There was a chance of rain for[…]

2025 Sierra High Route Days 10-16: Bishop Pass to South Kennedy Meadows

December 26, 2025 kaulua26 Pacific Crest Trail, Sierra High Route

Day 10: Back in the swing of things over Bishop Pass, Thursday, Sep 11th, 2025, 1400-1700. 7 mi over Bishop Pass and into Dusy Basin, elevation 11,320′. It was a slow start to the day, as I was dragging my feet in town. I planned to hitch to the Bishop Pass trailhead, then hike south following parts of the SHR, the PCT and Southern Sierra High Route, eventually ending in Kennedy Meadows South. On a positive note, the smoke did diminish overnight, so it seemed like I could proceed. But the forecast called for some more thunderstorms over the next few days…always a worry when I’m hiking almost entirely above treeline. I busied myself with chores all morning, as I’d[…]

2025 Sierra High Route Days 7-9: Past the Ritter Range to Reds Meadow / Bishop

December 23, 2025 kaulua26 Pacific Crest Trail, Sierra High Route

Day 7: Back on the SHR, Sunday, Sep 7th, 2025, 0700-1800.15.5 mi to Bench Canyon, elevation 9,670′. It was a really slow start this morning, given my huge day before, plus 2 late nights of hiking in a row. The first thing I noticed was the smell of smoke, then was pretty astonished to see the sky, or rather the lack there of. A heavy layer of smoke filled the valley overnight. When planning this next leg in Tuolumne Meadows 2 days prior, I’d contemplated saving Half Dome for this morning. Thank goodness I pushed hard and made it to the top the day before! I did get some cool pictures of the eerie red sunrise over Merced lake in[…]

2025 Sierra High Route Day 6: A Side Trip To Half Dome

December 19, 2025 kaulua26 Pacific Crest Trail, Sierra High Route

Saturday, Sep 6th, 2025, 0640-2030.28.5 mi to top of Half Dome, then backtrack to Echo Creek, elevation 7,040′. I had a lot of miles and goals planned for this day, so I got cracking at it early and as fast as I could. Basically, this entire day was a side trip to Half Dome, planned spur of the moment and having nothing to do with the SHR. But it was a hoot and well worth the 26 extra miles. I woke to my coldest morning yet, with a thermometer reading of 32 F. As soon as I entered some meadows, the temperature dropped even more and frost coated the grass. I warmed up going over Tuolumne Pass after just a[…]

2025 Sierra High Route Days 0-5: Sonora Pass to Tuolumne Meadows

December 18, 2025 kaulua26 Pacific Crest Trail, Sierra High Route, Yosemite High Route

Days 0, August 25-31st: I skipped the PCT NoCal section since I already hiked most of it a 2nd time in 2023 (along with the Oregon Coast Trail, part of the Bigfoot Trail, and entire Tahoe Rim Trail). I spent nearly a week with trail friends Scott and Alan, both of whom helped me out tremendously on past hikes of the Pacific Coast Bigfoot Crest Rim Trail and Desert Winter Thru-hike. I stayed with Alan in Sacramento for about 4 days. He was so kind to host me, let me borrow his bear canister for the Sierra and provide his address for a box of supplies I shipped from home. I received paper maps of the high routes, new Salomon[…]

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 Arizona Trail, Desert Winter Thru Hike, Pacific Crest Trail, San Diego Trans County Trail

(Scroll to the bottom for a listing of links for all my DWTH posts, see this link for the rest of my 2025 PCT hike) 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[…]

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[…]

Tag: California