Adam and I began hiking last Wednesday out at Cape Mendocino after my Mom dropped us off at an oceanfront ranch. We hopped a fence & crawled under a bunch of alders to gain the beach, then headed south down the lost coast. Now we are here in Garberville, day 6, sore but stoked. This week we will head to the Yolla Bolly Mountains via a long road walk. So far so good! For more pics & words about our journey check out the Japhy Ryder Route page on Facebook!
Every spring and fall I head to the Mojave Desert where I work as a Tortoise Biologist. I monitor construction, conduct surveys, and help move tortoises out of harm’s way. Sometimes I watched giant trucks to make sure they didn’t run over tortoises for 10-14 hours a day while wearing steal-toed boots and a hardhat, other times I get to walk survey transects for days on end. My coworkers and I get to find all kinds of strange and awesome things like an angel food pan on a post with marbles in it, burrowing owl nests, a human skeleton on Friday the13th, and a Gila Monster during a hail storm!
The San Francisco Examiner just ran a “personal best” story about my triple crown and what it’s like to return home to a busy city… San Francisco was a little overwhelming after being alone for almost 7 months! Coming home after such a long time gone was really wonderful though, and it is a treat to share my adventure with people back in the Bay!
Read it here…
“Ultralight backpacker traverses nation, completes triple crown”
Also, Freefall, an awesome hiker who runs the Distance Backpacker blog did an interviewed me in January. Here is a link to that, and you should check out his awesome journals while you are there!
Question and Answer with Sage Clegg
Snow is so beautiful. It is so dynamic. I love how it changes everything, coating creeks, boulders, hillsides, transforming them into wintery lumps. It clings to branches, rimes over tree trunks, blows into cornices, crumbles and slides in avalanches, develops sun crusts, wind crusts, runnels, and hoar. It can be powdery bliss, crusty crud, swooshy corn, and about a billion other things, and it can be all those things at once, changing throughout the day, minute to minute. You can go from skittering over ice to sinking into feathery fluff simply by entering a shadow or dipping around a bend. Snow has sparked a deep fuse of curiosity in me, and I have decided to spend as much time playing in it as possible. The only hang up is that I do not know how to move through it with grace and style yet- but don’t worry, at least I have a smile on my face as I fall repeatedly.
For the past couple of winters I have been spending as much time as possible (at least a few weeks…) up in Tahoe trying to teach myself how to telemark ski. I call this my Most Unskilled Ski Bum In The World Project. I will never be a shredder, I will never go off 50 foot jumps or learn to do a back flip. I will never learn to huck cliffs or fling myself off cornices. In short, I will never be an amazing skier, but I have found a ticket to consistent bliss. I like the whole process- from sticking skins onto my skis, hauling myself up a slope, sliding down into my first turn and inevitable face plant, all the way duck walking […]
