100hikes.com

Resolving to hike 100 times by 2010.

Progress Report (December 17th)

Dec 17

Posted by Kolby in much ado about nothing | View Comments

This is a progress report for December 17th, 2009:

It has been a crazy month! Not only am I coming down on the final few hikes, but I covered a lot of distance since the last progress report (on November 17th). It has been 226 days since I began this project on May 5th. Since my last update, I traveled to South America for an enjoyable exploratory journey through Chile and Bolivia. While down south, I had a medical emergency (I’m OK now) which caused me to go a weekend without a hike, the first time this has happened since starting this project. I was bummed, but my health is, of course, more important than a hike.

While in South America, I completed seven amazing hikes. I ran from a homeless camp in Santiago, Chile for hike #84, I slogged through 4-6 inches of mud for hike #87, I climbed a snow-covered active volcano for hike #88, and explored the ruins of an ancient Andean civilization for hike #90. For my 34th birthday, I spent the day hiking along the shores of Lake Titicaca (Hike #89). I camped in one of my favorite spots on this planet: Isle del Sol (Island of the Sun). I had been there five years ago and was very happy to make the return trip. The two-day hike was 15.5 miles, just shy of my longest trek for this project.

More info after the graph…

So the moment is near! I’ve got 14 days left in the year to hike the remaining 7 hikes. I’ve scheduled out the hikes and I’m pretty confident I’ll be able to do them all. I’ve worked out a “plan b” and “plan c” just in case one or more of the final hikes falls through for some reason and I need to reschedule before December 31st.

My final hike will be on the afternoon of Wednesday, December 30th. I’ve chosen the location of the 100th hike. In fact, I chose the location back in May: Echo Mountain in Altadena, CA. I did this trail for my first hike, then again on hike #25, I missed the opportunity for hike #50 (due to the Station Fire), but completed it as planned for hike #75. It seems appropriate that I end this project where it all began.

Before I complete the milestone 100th hike, I’ll be passing another milestone: my 400th mile. I completed hike #93 this morning, bringing my total mileage to 393.3, averaging 4.2 miles a hike. Here’s a breakdown of my mileage. (Click on a bar to find out more info):

As far as my blogging, I’ve fallen waaay behind, and I apologize for that. It’s time consuming to edit the photos, post the GPS data, edit the videos, and write up the details of the hike. The good news is that I’ll have more free time to do all of this in the new year, after I’ve completed the hiking aspect of this project. I’m excited to show you all of the wonderful things I’ve seen over the past 6 months! For those of you who are following my Tweets, I’ve started to post photos from the remaining hikes – a sneak preview of what’s to come on this blog.

So don’t go anywhere in 2010 – there’s still a lot to be seen in the new year!

Here’s some numbers to ponder:

  • Number of hikes completed: 93
  • Number of days into project: 226
  • Number of miles hiked: 393.3 miles
  • Longest hike: 15.9 miles (Hike #48 – San Gorgonio Mountain)
  • Hardest hike: Hike #21 (Telescope Peak, Death Valley)
  • Furthest hike from home: Hike #86 (Villarrica, Chile – 5,864 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.

  • Number of members: 57 (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)

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Hiking Santa

Nov 17

Posted by Kolby in much ado about nothing | View Comments

I just received this hiking Santa Christmas ornament as an early birthday present from my parents. I love it!

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Progress Report (November 17th)

Nov 17

Posted by Kolby in much ado about nothing | View Comments

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)

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TracksAndTrails Interview

Nov 11

Posted by Kolby in much ado about nothing | View Comments

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.

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Chile & Bolivia 2009!

Nov 9

Posted by Kolby in much ado about nothing | View Comments

Hiking Isle del Sol, Bolivia on Lake Titicaca

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.

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The Death of a Guide

Nov 2

Posted by Kolby in motivation | View Comments

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.

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Hike 36 – Lava River Cave

Oct 27

Posted by Kolby in hikes | View Comments

This hike was spelunk-tastic!

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This photo is a 10-second exposure. There is no natural or artificial light in this cave that isnt brought in by a visitor. The trail of light below my feet is from someone scooting by while holding a lantern all-the-while I am doing my best impression of a statue.

Getting tired of hiking through vegetation? Or hiking in places where you can see the sky? Or hiking where you can see anything at all? Then visit the Lava River Caves State Park! Located within (literally) the Newberry National Volcanic Monument is a lava tube, or a cave created by lava that once flowed through here eons ago.  My last hike (hike #35) ended at a nice café in Bend, where I read the local newspaper and watched people go about their day.  The paper had a full-page article on the caves of the area, suggesting to readers to take the journey below ground where sunlight never shines and stalagmites spend eternity trying to touch stalactites.  You had me at “below,” Bend Bulletin. You had me at “below.”

My parents and I arrived at the Lava River Cave entrance early in the afternoon. It was a scorcher of a day, with temperatures reaching into the 90s. But the cave is always a cool 30-40 degrees, no matter if it’s a broiling summer day or there’s 4 feet of winter snow on the ground. If you’ve ever gone into a walk-in freezer on a summer day, you know how we felt entering the cave. In less than 100 yards of hiking, the temperature dropped 50 degrees.

Mom and Dad rented a gas lantern to light our way, making our expedition more like those in the 19th century.  Some of the lanterns looked like they were first used in those days, having probably been bumped and dropped countless times.  I came prepared with my headlamp.  It would malfunction from time to time on this hike, showing me exactly how dark it can get in this cave.

We didn’t have the cave to ourselves. There were many families throughout the cave, sometimes causing a backup – especially at the cave entrance where there are many narrow steps to navigate. Once inside a bit, the cave opens up to a large winding tube, very much shaped like a subway tunnel or the innards of a space slug like in Empire Strike’s Back. The ground is dirt and stone, smoothed from over 60 years of visitors. My parents told me that I had been here as a kid in the winter, but I have no recollection of it.

After a half mile or so, the cave ceiling seems to become closer and closer. Actually, the cave is the same size, but the fine volcanic sand on the floor is getting deeper, bringing us closer to the ceiling. By 3/4ths of a mile, I have to hunch over in order to continue. My parents decide to call it a day when the tunnel is no longer big enough for a compact car to drive through. But I have become obsessed on seeing the end of the tunnel and continue on alone.

I am now the biggest person in this section of the cave, for all of their adult-sized parents have left their height-restricted children to continue on. From time to time I’d pass a parent covered in sand with look in their eyes like they’ve just spent the last half hour exploring the inside of a coffin. I continued on.

Soon I was the only one in the cave,  the muffled echoes of children on my tail. Although the cave is still about 6-7 feet wide, it’s only 3 feet tall. My knees and hands are freezing from crawling through the damp sand. From time to time, I’d enter a small room, where the ceiling was just high enough for me to walk awkwardly for 15-20 feet before having to crawl again. Each time, the rooms would become smaller and I’d think the next section would be the end. But it kept going and going until the next access point was quite possibly no bigger than my girth. It looked similar to a hole dug by a dog under a fence. I couldn’t see beyond, but I knew the next room was a short crawl away. I studied the hole leading into the next room for just long enough to picture myself getting stuck and having some kids to try in vain to pull me out before they turned around and left. I could hear the conversations when they rejoined their parents:

“How was the rest of the journey, Billy?”
“It was totally cool until some fat man got stuck in the cave and we had to turn around.”

I turned around, content at leaving the rest of the tunnel for those with smaller frames.

Thoughts about the hike:

  1. They only have a certain number of oil lanterns for rent (until 4pm daily), so if they’re all checked out, you need to wait in line for the next one to be returned. I suggest bringing your own flashlight or headlamp to save some time.
  2. With such low clearance along the trail, a baseball hat might be good for protecting the noggin’, but wear it backwards so you can see the low-hanging rocks before bumping into them.
  3. On my way out, I followed a family. I laughed when I heard the young boy of the clan explain to his parents how small the last section was: “Only a breakfast sausage could fit in there!”
  4. From the opening of the cave to the furthest excavated part of the tunnel is 5,200 feet, or just short of a mile. I included the walk from the parking lot to the cave in order to make this a 2-mile RT hike.
  5. This cave is closed every year from October 15th to May 1st to protect the western big-eared bats who hibernate in the cave through the winter. Any disturbances during this time might awaken them, causing them to use the limited supply of stored fat, resulting in a decline of the species.

Resources:

  1. Newberry National Volcanic Monument
  2. The Bend Bulletin: Tube Rocks
  3. Lava River Cave Trail

Hike #36 Trip GPS Stats:

  • Date of hike: July 22nd, 2009
  • Location: Newberry National Volcanic Monument, outside of Sunriver, Oregon
  • Length: 2 miles
  • Duration: 2 hours, 4 minutes
  • Average speed: n/a
  • Altitude at start: 4,500 feet
  • Altitude min.max: 4,350/4,500 feet

Video:

Since it is impossible to capture GPS data while in a cave, I’ve drawn out a rough trail route for this hike using walkjogrun.net.

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Rough sketch of the cave location

Photos:

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Mom & Dad sitting on a natural bench within the cave. This is a 10-second exposure.

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Another long exposure shot. What looks like a glowing snake with thousands of legs is just two spelunkers holding a lantern.

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A wider area of the tunnel. Two lanterns were used by visitors to unknowingly light this long-exposure photo.

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Progress Report (October 26th)

Oct 27

Posted by Kolby in Uncategorized | View Comments

This is a progress report for October 26th, 2009:

It’s been 171 days since I began this project on May 5th. Since then, I have hiked every weekend, in three states, and just shy of 300 miles of trails. They hardest part of this project is finding the determination to get to the trailhead. Since my last report (35 days ago), I have hiked 13 times. I would have hoped to hike more than that but a few incidents kept me from the trail. First of all, the closure of the Angeles National Forest – my back yard – due to the Station Fire had me traveling out of my area to get onto a trail. (They reopened the foothill trails at the beginning of October.) Secondly, I strained my ankle on hike #62, which lead to a 7-day rest without any hiking. I’m about 90% recovered as of today, but still 2-3 hikes behind schedule.

I’ve got 65 days to hike 30 more times to reach my goal. In mid November, 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 as before. Despite the distance 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 is more than twice that number. I’ve hiked 298.5 miles in 70 hikes, averaging 4.3 miles a hike. 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: 70
  • Number of days into project: 171
  • Number of miles hiked: 298.5 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: 48 (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)
    • Chris (5 hikes: #6, 21, 42, 44 & 63)
    • Melanie (5 hikes: #5, 13, 26, 29 & 40)
    • Samantha (4 hikes: #18, 21, 39 & 42)

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The Mail Bag: Photography

Oct 21

Posted by Kolby in much ado about nothing | View Comments

Welcome to The Mail Bag! This new ongoing series is dedicated to answering your questions about 100hikes.com, my hiking, or hiking/backpacking in general. The question was submitted by Ann, who asked:

I love the pictures you take on the hike. Would you mind sharing what type of camera you use? Do you do a lot of editing later?

Thanks for the question, Ann! Here’s my video answer, recorded while hiking #66 in the Las Trampas Regional Wilderness in central California last weekend:

Here is more information on the things I discussed in the video:

You might recall that I once used another camera for this site. For all videos and most photos taken on hikes #1-44, I used a Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS.  But I replaced it with the 990 when it died.

Canon PowerShot 1100 IS

Canon PowerShot 1100 IS

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100Hikes On A Map

Oct 21

Posted by Kolby in much ado about nothing | View Comments

I’m a big fan of maps. I’d be aiming for a specialized degree in cartography right now if given the patience and the scholarship (neither of which I have). When I was a teen, along with collecting stamps, baseball cards, and comic books, I had a proud collection of National Geographic Magazines and their maps. With a magnifying glass and a heap of imagination, I would explore every detail of a map. When Google Maps launched their “terrain” overlay in November 2007, I found myself scrolling around the maps, looking for cool places to explore just as I once did years ago. Recently, I’ve been tinkering around with the technical side of Google Maps and have created a few maps I can call my own. I’ve mapped out all of the hikes I’ve done so far for 100hikes.com and placed them on the Google Maps interface. The functionality still needs some work, but I hope you find the map useful in planning your own adventure. More information below the screen capture.

I have created the following maps:

At this point, the interactivity of the map is minimal. Hover over the small icons to see the hike number and location. Until I make it more interactive, refer to the Hike List for links to the individual hikes.

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