Japhy Ryder

12 Gifts For Hikers, Day 6

By |December 17th, 2014|12 Gifts, 2014 posts, Bigfoot Trail, Current, Japhy Ryder|Comments Off on 12 Gifts For Hikers, Day 6

12 Days of Trail Gifts For Under $50
Gift 6: Snack Attack
Good trail snacks never stick around long enough to reach their expiration dates, and most hikers would rather eat a delicious bar than some granola thingy they can find in the store down the street. I have a secret bar stash that I draw from to keep me fueled on weekend trips, and I love finding tasty bars in my christmas stocking to replenish the cache. Below you will find a list of some of my favorite bars, and a little movie of Adam having a snack attack during a hot day on our Japhy Ryder Route hike in 2011.

1) Huppy Bars are yummy and nutritious bars created by my friend Lyndsay Hupp in Flagstaff. These bars have mostly organic ingredients & spirulina to get your greens in the backcountry. There are 5 excellent flavors, Coconut Date Ginger and Chocolate Berry Love are two favorites. Huppy Bar has a Bundle Of Yum holiday pack that I hope finds it’s way into my stocking this season.
2) Nut butter single serve packets. Not much beats the protein punch you can get from nut butters, and there are some absolutely delicious options in little packets these days. One of my favorite nut butters is Wild Friends Vanilla Espresso Almond Butter.
3)Picky Bars make delicious bars here in Bend, OR. The texture & flavor of these bars are great, and they are really good for you.

4)Honey Stinger makes all kinds of honey based treats, but their protein bars are really something special. There is not much better than sinking my teeth into a 20g Mint Chocolate Honey Stinger when I get the 10am snack attack. The chocolate coating can get a bit […]

Stoking adventure fire: 5 books to get you through winter

By |December 10th, 2014|2014 posts, AT, Current, Japhy Ryder, PCT|Comments Off on Stoking adventure fire: 5 books to get you through winter

Last week up at the mountain it rained on top of a beautiful fresh pile of 11 inches of fluffy powder. When I went to bed I had been excited to get up, gear up, and head up to Mt. Bachelor for my first day of the ski season. Reading the report in the morning dashed my hopes- all that beautiful snow was now encrusted by a lens of heavy snow.

The snow mess meant that instead of having a wonderful morning of playing in the mountains I was going to have to turn my focus back to the endless ruble pile of my own personal life maintenance. Adam and I recently returned home from a few months of work down in the Mojave, and we have stacks of mail to sort, a yard to clean up, firewood to split, map sets to edit, a kitchen remodel to plan, huge lists of projects to sew, build, create … The to do list is huge and overwhelming.

Distractions under these circumstances are welcome. I need reminders that adventures and free time exist. Following an adventure or two, watching movies about hiking, and reading books about fresh air and freedom are my remedy for feeling overwhelmed. Below I have listed 5 of my favorite books to help stoke your expedition fire and stave off the winter blues. Happy armchair adventures!

5 adventure books to get you through winter:

Rowing to Latitude, Jill Fredston

I discovered this book years before I started thru-hiking, and it planted some kind of seed that wouldn’t die. This book helped me realize that people do crazy sounding adventures- like rowing around Alaska- year after year. Jill and her husband, Doug, treat their summer adventures just as […]

Half Way on the Japhy Ryder Route- Tahoe!

By |August 16th, 2011|Current, Japhy Ryder|Comments Off on Half Way on the Japhy Ryder Route- Tahoe!

Over the past month Adam & I hiked from the Lost Coast across the Yolla Bollies, biked through the Central Valley, walked up the South Fork of the Yuba & down the PCT to the Tahoe Rim Trail. We are currently on a week long break from the Ryder Route to shuttle trucks, cache food, and for Adam to attend a friend’s wedding. Soon we will head back up to Mt. Rose and resume our hike south to Whitney & Death Valley. 500 down, 500 to go!

So far the hike has been breathtaking in the terrain and views. There has been many challenges, like following trails that haven’t been maintained for years,  dodging pot fields under blackhawk helicopters, or figuring out how much water to carry into the unknown. Huge climbs & descents have become part of our daily rhythm and California has shown us much of her wild variety- from cool redwood forests to sunbaked chaparral coated hillsides and finally to the open granite slabs and gnarled pines of the high sierra.

I hope to post a full description of the route and our experiences once we finish the route. Adam has created a Facebook page for the Japhy Ryder on which you can see our frequent updates & posts.