2023-05-31, 05:49 PM
The PCT nobos started long ago but a lot of them are skipping the High Sierra part of the route for now - I read a bunch of their hiking blogs, I guess wishing I were there. The SF Chronicle said "Want to hike the Sierra? Best time will be the second week of August". Which is, coincidently, when we'll be there (I pushed that trip back a bit to let more snow melt). Other trips are Montana (out of Bozeman) in July, and WA (Olympic Peninsula and South Cascades) for much of September.
And spending time on Martha's Vineyard in May and June, before it gets too crowded (we have a small cottage there).
These days I tend to revisit the same places. Is it a rut? I dunno. I have particular lodging and particular rooms I like and I know where to get my groceries on the way to a place that doesn't have good stores. I know lots of the trails but the more you know, the more you can conjure up your own hikes, offtrail in part, and thereby get a lot of solitude. Even going to DV for 30+ years, there are always places I have not seen (nice to get some good hints from folks here for that). So am I in a rut? Well it sure makes dealing with the logistics a lot easier, and I can concentrate on coming up with a good list of possible hikes (in Montana, there are lots of unmarked horse trails that come out of a bunch of dude ranches south of Big Sky, and you can see on the sat images, for example).
Anyway, dealing with variations in annual weather is always an issue, because part of the price of wanting particular accomodations is needing to reserve well in advance. To to avoid paying much more of a car rental than a plane ticket, it's a necessity!
And spending time on Martha's Vineyard in May and June, before it gets too crowded (we have a small cottage there).
These days I tend to revisit the same places. Is it a rut? I dunno. I have particular lodging and particular rooms I like and I know where to get my groceries on the way to a place that doesn't have good stores. I know lots of the trails but the more you know, the more you can conjure up your own hikes, offtrail in part, and thereby get a lot of solitude. Even going to DV for 30+ years, there are always places I have not seen (nice to get some good hints from folks here for that). So am I in a rut? Well it sure makes dealing with the logistics a lot easier, and I can concentrate on coming up with a good list of possible hikes (in Montana, there are lots of unmarked horse trails that come out of a bunch of dude ranches south of Big Sky, and you can see on the sat images, for example).
Anyway, dealing with variations in annual weather is always an issue, because part of the price of wanting particular accomodations is needing to reserve well in advance. To to avoid paying much more of a car rental than a plane ticket, it's a necessity!