Who: Just me!
What: Backpacking
When: 8/18/18-8/23/18
Where: Inyo NF / Sequoia / Kings Canyon NP
Mileage: 52.5 miles (40.5 on trail plus 12 XC)
Elevation gain/loss: +14,800ft/-14,800ft
More photos: here
CalTopo: here

Just before the semester began, I headed out to the eastern Sierra on a 5 night trip near the JMT along Forester Pass. My goal was to see Junction Pass, which is the route the John Muir Trail took to cross the imposing east-west ridgeline that now marks the boundary between Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. I wanted to hike the remnants of the old JMT, explore Center Basin, and cross over Shepherd’s and Forester Passes, two that I had seen from afar on previous trips but not been over. I accomplished all this and more on this trip, which included 2 cross-country plus 4 high trail passes in 6 days, as well as hours upon hours of solitude on the cross-country bits, plus a decent but not off-putting amount of socialization on the JMT/PCT.

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Who: Me & Jesse
What: Backpacking
When: 8/17/17-8/19/17
Where: Grand Teton National Park
Mileage: 29 miles
Elevation gain/loss: +5,150ft/-8,550ft
More photos: here
CalTopo: here

My sister’s family, my parents, and I headed to the Tetons for the Great American Eclipse of 2017. The whole trip was incredible (my god, being in totality is… it’s just… wow.. maybe more on that in another post) and one of the highlights was hiking a piece of the Teton Crest Trail with my brother in law. The trail follows alongside the Teton crest just to the west, and gives hikers a seldom-seen view of the Tetons, which are much more commonly viewed from the east. We witnessed the most incredible, unbelievable wildflower blooms I’ve ever seen. Two-thousand seventeen was a banner year for wildflowers, with superblooms propagating from desert floors in the spring to mountain meadows in the summer, and I was lucky to find myself thigh deep in fields of flowers on more than one occasion, including this trip.

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Who: Just me!
What: Backpacking
When: 7/21/16-7/24/16
Where: Ansel Adams & John Muir Wilderness
Mileage: 39 miles
Elevation gain/loss: +8,500ft/-6,900ft
More photos: here
CalTopo: here

Driving through the Sierra on my way home after spending a few weeks at the Park City Mathematics Institute, I couldn’t not stop for a short trip. This solo three-nighter was a mix of glorious solitude and frustrating crowds, complete with my back country hot spring and 36 hours without seeing people before picking up the highway that is the JMT/PCT.

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Who: Just me!
What: Backpacking
When: 6/26/18-6/30/18
Where: Sequoia National Park
Mileage: 38 miles
Elevation gain/loss: +10,900ft/-10,900ft
More photos: here

This summer I’m doing quite a few trips with people who haven’t backpacked before in an attempt to do a bit of outdoorsy mentorship and in hopes of propagating an understanding of both Leave No Trace principles and general backpacking etiquette. I had permits for the classic Rae Lakes Loop for this week, but when one person misjudged dates and another wasn’t sure they were in shape enough, I decided to cancel that trip and take a chance to go off on a harder solo trip. I’d been wanting to explore the Tablelands ever since a trip to Moose Lake in 2014, and this seemed like just the time. I planned a relatively easy route with short off-trail days since this would be the first time I was trying to connect ends of a loop off-trail by myself. I got incredibly lucky with perfect weather, an incredible wildflower bloom, and not too many mosquitos yet. Unfortunately, I had Smash Mouth’s All Star in my head the entire time.

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Who: Just me!
What: Backpacking
When: 7/15/16-7/17/16
Where: High Uintas Wilderness
Mileage: 27 miles
Elevation gain/loss: +4,100ft/-4,100ft
More photos: here

I visited Park City Mathematics Institute (Princeton’s temporary IAS outpost in Utah) for three weeks in 2016 and took advantage of the weekends of my visit as an opportunity to explore the local mountains. I took two short trips, a 20 hour overnighter to Silver Glance in the Wasatch and this two nighter to Amethyst Basin and Middle Basin in the High Uintas Wilderness. I thought about doing a section of the Highline Trail, but I couldn’t make the logistics work with my limited days and transportation. Amethyst and Middle Basins provided beautiful alpine lakes and sculpted mountains, but I was a bit disappointed by the beetle-decimated forest, plethora of people, and more ‘skeeters than I’d ever encountered. Still, the beauty of the region was sublime, and it was glorious to see cliffs and ridges carved of rock other than the granite I’m so used to in the Sierra.

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Who: J and me
What: Road trip! Almost 1200 miles of driving O_o
When: 3/24/16-3/27/16
Where: Antelope Valley, Mojave NP, and Rainbow Basin
More photos: here

With 2016 shaping up to be a superbloom year but my academic-life time off coming a few weeks off the peak for Death Valley, J and I decided to take a road trip to the Mojave desert. Did you know that Mojave National Preserve has taller sand dunes than Death Valley and more Joshua Trees than Joshua Tree? Yeah well you’re welcome.

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