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If you have trouble with the link, just go here and follow the blog: https://www.backpackthesierra.com/

Pouring rain and foaming boots. Day Six on the Camino: http://wix.to/Lg0pPyd?ref=2_cl

Latest update is day four...still trying to get our hydration right...but we're making progress: https://www.backpackthesierra.com/post/day-four

An update: day one. What it's like to hike in a sauna https://www.backpackthesierra.com/post/day-one

I leave tomorrow morning for Spain, to hike a version of this with my daughter who currently lives in Switzerland. If you are interested in following our progress, I'm going to try to post it all on our website blog. Here's the first entry...

Yep--I'm with the majority here. I eat enough that I don't feel too hungry, but it's a mix of all kinds of foods, includine those freeze dried dinners. I eat healthy the rest of the year, so the time I'm on the trail, I just try to keep myself fed. And hydrated. I agree that elecctrolytes...

Yosemite has finally taken action...

Instant oatmeal with added nuts and a cup of hot chocolate for breakfast. A handfull of cranberries or other dried fruit on the side. Lunches are almost always some kind of crackers (Trisket black pepper, or cheezits--lots of salt and fat!) with salami and a nice hard parmesan cheese for...

Just did another four days in the mountains as a wilderness volunteer--this time in Desolation Wilderness. What fun! Met lots of good people, answered a few questions, did a little hiking, and got to know the hikers and neighbors in a really lovely part of the Sierra. The full blog post...

One suggestion. The weather in the Sierra Nevada in the summer is usually a lot better than the Rockies. We don't get the thurnderstorms every afternoon, and when we do get them, they tend to be short and manageable. And many trailheads are not that far from an aiport (Reno, Fresno, even Las...

I'm just back from a week working on a volunteer trail crew in the Mokelumne Wilderness. The trip into Moraine Lake was organized by the American Hiking Society, and led by staff from the US Forest Service. And it was full of fun, adventure, and damn hard work. We had a mighty hailstorm (and a...

They are still working on the Tioga Pass Road through Yosemite. Thick ice and a damaged road bed is making the process much more difficult than usual. The latest opening of the road in history is July 1. That might change this year.

Weather is cool, and the snow in the Sierra is still plenty deep. Hard to do much hiking there...

High Sierra Quarry, the latest in my series of mysteries set in the High Sierra, is now out! You can find it at the usual places, including bookstores and Amazon, and even in the ranger stations in the Stanislaus National Forest. "When a young woman hiker is reported missing, the Forest Service...

Sonora and Ebbetts Passes are now open--although the raods are narrow channels through tall walls of snow. Still, we're getting closer! Only Tioga Pass, at 10,000 feet in Yosemite, is still closed.

Have you camped in a National Park recently? Recreation.gov has no policies concerning this...

Just an update about these books. The fifth in the series, "High Sierra Quarry," should be out by the endof the month. And I am delighted to be able to announce that the USFS has decided to sell these books at some of the ranger stations in the Sierra--including the Summit Ranger Station near...

California may try to help...Check this out: ktla.com/news/california/california-campsite-reservation-bill-passes-state-assembly/ Credit if you cancel before seven days. And if you don't show on the first night, the whole reservation is cancelled and the site opened up.

As Fossna notes, volunteers can also help out in a variety of ways. Some of our program include issuing wilderness permits, counting visitors on trails, and even answering questions at the trailhead. All of those free up paid staff to take on larger tasks, or supervise crews in the wilderness.

I spend a fair amount of time as a volunteer in the National Forests. Last year, it was about 250 hours. We count those hours because the USFS encourages its staff to develop a volunteer program and use it to increate the amount of work that can get done in the National Forests. The good...