Twig Adventures

Tag: thru-hiking

Florida Keys Yo-Yo, Part 2: Backpacking Key West To Key Largo. Days 11-12.

Short Hikes

Day 11: Sunday February 1, 2026. Distance: 20 Miles to Tavenier, picked up by Monica to camp in backyard. The big story of this day was the wind chill. I weathered the night pretty well inside my tent, but I did get pretty chilly by the early morning. My 50 degree quilt was just barely enough to cut it, mainly because I would guess it actually dropped below 50. The wind gusts barely touched me but I was a little worried about tree branches falling on me…but at least they were small. I packed quickly, wearing all my clothes for the walk. I made coffee and breakfast inside the toilet building, scaring the ranger when he popped in to check[…]

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Florida Keys Yo-Yo, Part 2: Backpacking Key West To Key Largo. Days 9-10.

Short Hikes

Day 9: Friday 30, 2026. Distance: 20 miles to Grassy Key/Curry Hammock State Park. I got an early start, leaving my campsite in the dark. A few rain droplets had woken me and I wanted to get packed before it became heavy. I sure didn’t get to enjoy the state park much, but even if I had hung around for a few hours in the morning, it wouldn’t have been fun. It started drizzling as soon as I started walking and didn’t let up for hours. Walking on the pathway in the rain was no problem, since I had my umbrella. But after 3 miles, I came to the 7 mile bridge and was forced to stop. I’d wanted to[…]

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Florida Keys Yo-Yo, Part 2: Backpacking Key West To Key Largo. Days 7-8.

Short Hikes

Day 7: Wednesday 28, 2026. Distance: 14 miles to Saddlebunch Keys. I began my hike of the Florida Keys Overseas Heritage Trail this day. I woke early, intending to slack-pack some miles before Monica arrived with my car. I stashed all my gear inside my kayak and carted it over to the trailer storage area. The nice folks at Boyds let me keep it there for the morning, which was kind of them. I set out on foot, turning east instead of west, as first I wanted to visit the naval air station on Boca Chica. I hoped to register to camp at Sigsbee campground, which was situated on one of the nearby bases. They’d recently opened it to veterans[…]

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Florida Keys Yo-Yo, Part 1: Kayaking Key Largo To Key West. Days 5-6.

Short Hikes

Day 5: Monday January 26, 2026. Distance: 23 miles to Jumping Bridge, Lower Sugarloaf Key. Stops: Bahia Honda SP, Big Munson Island, Key Lois…Monkey island! Despite everything being wet, I was up before the sun, packing like mad as soon as I left my tent because the no-see-ums were absolutely destroying me. I guess these islands have their own self-defense mechanisms to repel intruders. I shoved off in the dark, eager to paddle fast to rid myself of the evil wings and teeth. It was also crucial to get an early start this day, as I needed to beat a winter front. I wished I’d had more time to enjoy Molasses Key, but at least was very content with my[…]

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Florida Keys Yo-Yo, Part 1: Kayaking Key Largo To Key West. Days 3-4.

Short Hikes

Day 3: Saturday January 24, 2026. Distance: 20 miles to near Duck key. Stops: Anne’s Beach-toilet/shower/replenish water, Long Key–lunch/replenish water, paddle through interior canals of Duck Key. I got on the water much earlier this day (7 am), as I knew I had a long way to paddle. After just a bit, I stopped at Anne’s beach to replenish my drinking water. I also enjoyed a luke-warm beach shower and bathroom break. Thankfully there are numerous beach parks with these nice amenities throughout the keys, making logistics easy. I paddled on along the causeway for a bit, then made the crossing to Long Key. I stopped to check out some remote beaches and was sad to see just how much[…]

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Florida Keys Yo-Yo, Part 1: Kayaking Key Largo To Key West. Intro and Days 1-2.

Short Hikes

In early January 2026, I was recapping my 2025 adventures, longing once again for the outdoors. For the past 5 years, I’d begun my hiking season earlier and earlier, to the extent that I started my Desert Winter Thru Hike at the end of January, nearly 1 year prior. While I didn’t really want to repeat a 1500 mile winter thru-hike again this year, a mini staycation / thru-hike seemed like the perfect way to satisfy my immediate wanderlust. So I began studying the logistics of hiking the Florida Keys Overseas Heritage Trail, which lies conveniently in my backyard. Pretty quickly, I added more ambitious plans to also paddle my sea kayak to Key West, making it a paddling /[…]

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2025 Summer/Fall Summary & Stats, Year In Review

Desert Winter Thru Hike, Pacific Crest Trail, Pacific Northwest Trail, San Diego Trans County Trail, Sierra High Route, Yosemite High Route

(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[…]

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

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[…]

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

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[…]

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

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[…]

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