I just received this hiking Santa Christmas ornament as an early birthday present from my parents. I love it!
Archive for November, 2009
Hiking Santa
Nov 17
This is a progress report for November 17th, 2009:
It’s been 192 days since I began this project on May 5th. Since then, I have hiked every weekend, in three states, and more than 300 miles of trails. They hardest part of this project is finding the determination to get to the trailhead – especially on weekday mornings. Since my last report (on October 26th), I have gone on 13 hikes – half of those hikes were done in a single weekend.
In order to reach my goal of 100 hikes by December 31st, I’ve got to do 17 more hikes. I’m confident I’ll be able to do it – especially after last weekend. I went to the Mojave National Preserve and was somehow able to have the energy to complete six hikes in 48 hours. I’m currently two hikes ahead of schedule!
On Thursday, I’ll be leaving on a 22-day backpacking trip to South America where I hope to do a lot of hiking. However, I don’t think I’ll be adding any more hikes under my belt than if I stayed at home. Confused? Let me explain: The last time I was in South America, I hiked over 80 miles in three weeks, but those 80 miles were accomplished on just three hikes. I’ve already started to plan some of my hikes for this trip, and they’ll most likely be multi-day backpacking journeys, just as my previous trip. Despite the long distances of the hikes and the strong desire to change the game to my advantage, I am resolute in keeping to my rules. One hike, no matter how long, equals one hike. It wouldn’t be right to accomplish this goal and say that my “100 hikes” were actually less than 100.
Although an “official” 100hikes.com hike needs to be at least two miles in length, my average still stays over twice that number. I’ve hiked 338.5 miles in 83 hikes, averaging 4.1 miles a hike. If I keep this average, I might break 400 miles by the end of the year. (Maybe that will be a goal-within-a-goal I should aim for?) Here’s a breakdown of my mileage. (Click on a bar to find out more info):
Here’s some numbers to ponder:
- Number of hikes completed: 83
- Number of days into project: 192
- Number of miles hiked: 338.5 miles
- Longest hike: 15.9 miles (Hike #48 – San Gorgonio Mountain)
- Hardest hike: Hike #21 (Telescope Peak, Death Valley)
- Furthest hike from home: Hike #38 (Terrebonne, Oregon – 851 miles from Arcadia, CA)
If you hike with me, you become a prestigious respected member of the “100 Hikes Club.” Although this past month had a lot of solo hikes, I did have a few new members join the club as well as a few old ones up their hiking numbers.
- Number of members: 53 (and three dogs)
- Top 5 ranking members:
- Dad (9 hikes: #30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 & 38)
- Mom (7 hikes: #30, 31, 33, 34, 36, 37 & 38)
- Melanie (6 hikes: #5, 13, 26, 29, 40 & 74)
- Chris (5 hikes: #6, 21, 42, 44 & 63)
Three-way tie for third:
- Samantha (4 hikes: #18, 21, 39 & 42)
- Bob (4 hikes: #28, 72, 73, 75)
- Sharon (4 hikes: #22, 23, 25 & 76)
TracksAndTrails Interview
Nov 11
Not long ago, Canadian adventurer and blogger Clayton Kessler requested to interview me for his site, TracksAndTrails.ca. I humbly obliged. Here’s a snippet:
Can you share any unique encounters with wild animals?
In 2001, I was camping by myself in California’s San Gorgonio Wilderness and was attacked by a bear. At two o’clock in the morning, I woke up to hear something sniffing around outside my one-man tent. A moment later, my tent was shaking violently from side to side… while I was in it! I yelled and the attacker scampered away back into the woods, each heavy footstep bring down my heart rate. When I couldn’t hear any more footsteps, I turned in my tent to notice that the bear had made two perfect crescent-shaped bite marks in my tent’s rain fly just above my neck. Needless to say, I had a hard time going back to sleep. I hold no grudges towards bears and have encountered many since without incident.
You can read the full interview over at TracksAndTrails.ca.
Chile & Bolivia 2009!
Nov 9
Hiking Isle del Sol, Bolivia on Lake Titicaca
In just ten days, I will be departing for South America to spend three weeks exploring the wonders of Chilé and Bolivia! I’m excited to see northern Chile for the first time and looking forward to re-visiting Bolivia, especially the Lake Titicaca area (above).
I know it has been a while since I’ve blogged on this site, mostly because I’ve been busy hiking. but when I begin my trip, I hope to find time to submit blog entries over at my main site, kolbykirk.com. If I don’t have a moment to take a break from the trip to blog, I’ll definitely post a few write up’s after my return in December, both about my trip in general (over at kolbykirk.com) and, more specifically, about my hikes (here at 100hikes.com). If I don’t have time to blog, I’ll most likely just submit tweets. You can follow me on my other Twitter account (user: kahunna), where I imagine I’ll be sending more frequent updates than my 100hikes Twitter. (Yeah, yeah, I know – I have a big web footprint.)
I’ll write up a progress report before I go, which will give you a little more info about this upcoming backpacking adventure. Will I be hiking more or less on this trip? You might be surprised to hear the answer.
The Death of a Guide
Nov 2
Whom do you rely on most for advice on where to hike? A friend? A website? If you’re an avid hiker like me, you probably have a shelf full of various hiking books to help you out. Living in California, there are countless choices for books to look through for advice, but one author stands out more than any other on my shelf: Ron Adkison.
Ron Adkison is the author of over a dozen books on hiking in the west, all under the FalconGuides name. He thoroughly researched each hike by trekking the trail – sometimes more than once – and has accumulated more than 12,000 trail miles in his 50 years of life. I’ve appreciated the detail he adds into each hike description, such as water availability, which topo maps to use, and if any fees or permits are necessary. His descriptions are straight-forward and easy to understand, even without the well-drawn maps included with all hikes.
It was this appreciation for his detail that lead me to try to contact him recently. I had just hiked with two friends into the Arrastre Canyon in the San Bernardino Mountains in search of the “Champion Joshua Tree,” the largest Joshua Tree in the world. As far as I know, Ron Adkison is the only author to write about hiking in this area of the mountains, located just northwest of Big Bear Lake, California. I wanted to contact him to inform him of the unfortunate news that the impressive yucca had fallen but to thank him for introducing me to the unique landscape found on the hike. But when searching for a way to contact him online, I learned of even more disheartening news than the fallen tree: The exceptional hiking author had recently died.
The last chapter of his life took place in mid-September of this year, on a warm autumn Sunday in Grand Junction, Colorado. I cannot find the cause for his death online, but for a man who hiked 1,000 miles the previous year, I’m willing to bet he was on a trail, doing something he loved. His obituary was printed in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin.
Ron Adkison seems to let his books speak for himself. He didn’t have many public appearances or interviews, from what I can gather. All I really know about the man is from the short section in his books, which all say about the same thing. In one of his most recently published works, Hiking Grand Canyon National Park (2nd Edition – 2006), the short blurb in the back of the book states that he “began his outdoor explorations in Southern California at age six.” Others have said more about Ron than Ron has, it appears. A web search for him showed that his guidebooks were highly respected by other authors and he’s mentioned in dozens of publications other than his own, including Backpacker Magazine and Lonely Planet.
The FalconGuides website shows that Ron Adkison was working on two books scheduled to be released in May of next year: Best Easy Day Hikes Grand Canyon National Park, 3rd Edition (ISBN: 0-7627-5527-X) and Best Easy Day Hikes Book and Map Pack: Grand Canyon National Park (ISBN: 0-7627-5971-2). It is not known if the books were complete enough to be released, but nevertheless, Adkison’s well-written books will be out there, continuing to offer interesting hikes to readers like me.
Ron Adkison. Remember the name the next time you’re out hiking. He might very well be the man who pointed you to this trail.