Robert Francisco

Just dropped Rolling Thunder off at Amtrak. What a great two weeks.
Our last day on the trail was perfect as we hiked through Jefferson Park which is undoubtedly one of the nicest pieces of the entire Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail. The weather was perfectly tranquil, the snow navigation was tricky, the [...]

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Rock pile lake to past Russel Creek
18.8 Miles
If all goes well tomorrow, I will have walked an unbroken line between Mexico and Canada. I like that- as I never liked the asterisk of having thru-hiked “but” missed 63 miles due to fire closure. I wanted to hike every mile of this trail and it “may” [...]

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Big Lake Youth Camp to Rock pile Lake
19.3 miles
That was hard! I am exhausted. We are camped at Rock pile Lake and amazingly the lake still has ice on the far side. This is really a beautiful place and I am glad we pushed on in order to camp here. We likely crossed [...]

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I got an email form a friend who had talked to Liz and learned we were divorcing because of “mutual” desire. I was flipping ticked when I read that as in my view there was nothing mutual about it. At first I thought I was mad at Liz because I felt she mis-characterized [...]

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Hanging out this morning before heading south back over Glen pass. The mosquitoes are out in force and as I write this I have 20 of them buzzing between my eyes and the paper I am writing on. It is an interesting exercise to be calm and simply let them buzz, but it is [...]

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Charlotte Lake: along the PCT
Beautiful morning in the Sierra Nevada. Air temperature dropped into the high 30’s last evening and sleeping in the fetal position felt so warm and secure. The Nutcrackers are going wild as they have found our camp and begging from us is likely easier than foraging for their own [...]

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Atop Kearsarge pass along the PCT
I am go-BIG and I am a recovering thru-hiker.  Almost exactly one year ago today, I was in this exact spot as I hiked from Mexico to Canada along the PCT.  They say a thru-hike will change your life-I know that to be true from personal experience.  What they don’t [...]

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Skamania Lodge, WA
I decided to have a late breakfast and found myself at the Skamania lodge brunch. I was thinking some oatmeal or maybe a muffin. Instead I am gaining much unneeded weight as I feast on eggs benedict, salmon hash, Alaskan King Crab, and a ridiculous assortment of other foods presented under [...]

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Ventura Blvd, Los Angeles
The contrast is obviously striking. Driving down Interstate 5 and the LA basin with it’s +10 million people is about as far away for the PCT and the North Cascades as one can get. Near the cities core I saw an advertisement that read “Got Asphalt”. Apparently the hardscape [...]

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Destination: Sacramento (home)
Starting Location: Manning Park Resort
Manning Park Resort to Sacramento
Found Dirty Bird & Numskull as we checked out of Manning Park Resort. And while they were still full of hiker stink Liz agreed to provide a ride to Seattle as long as we kept the windows down.
Crossing the border was interesting. No ID [...]

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