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10 Miles Day Hiking Humphreys Peak Trail in Arizona | The Humphreys Peak Trail, located just north of the city of Flagstaff, Arizona, is one of the most popular hiking trails in the entire state. At 12,633 feet, the summit of Mt. Humphreys marks the highest point in all of Arizona. Be sure to put this hike on your bucket list! Happy Hiking! | shedreamsofalpine.com
Read MoreField Testing the PackPillow Backpacking Pillow | If you're looking for a new solution to sleep comfort when you are out backpacking, there is a new lightweight option on the market called the PackPillow. I took the product with me on a backpacking trip and give you a detailed gear review and my overall opinion of the product in my field tested report. Come see if it is a good fit for you! | shedreamsofalpine.com
Read More7 Tips to Hiking & Summiting Your First Fourteener | Some consider climbing a 14er one of the ultimate hiking achievements, and there are over 96 total 14,000 ft. peaks in the United States! In this post I review planning, training, and 7 tips to set yourself up for a successful summit of a 14er mountain. With a bit of planning and training, you'll reach heights you never thought were imaginable! | shedreamsofalpine.com
Read More10 Mile Day Hike Up Powers Peak in Kernville, California | Kernville and the Lake Isabella area are more widely know for their white water rafting on the Kern River, however don't miss out on hiking Powers Peak which has amazing views of Lake Isabella and is a great winter hike in Southern California, and be sure to grab a beer afterwards at Kern River Brewing Company, only a few minutes from the trailhead. Happy Hiking! | shedreamsofalpine.com
Read More13 Mile Day Hike Up Telescope Peak in Death Valley National Park | Telescope Peak is the tallest mountain in Death Valley National Park. It has beautiful views of Badwater Basin and the Sierra Nevada Mountains. We have created a detailed trip report for a successful summit up Telescope Peak, easily accomplished in a day. You won't regret doing this hike! It's beautiful! | shedreamsofalpine.com
Read MoreA Weekend in Death Valley - Visit the Racetrack, Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, and Badwater Basin | If you only have a weekend to explore and adventure outdoors in Death Valley National Park in California check out this ultimate weekend itinerary! Be sure to visit the desert sand dunes at sunset for a magical way to end your day! There are plenty of options for camping, RV, and lodging accomodations. I absolutely love Death Valley and I am positive you will too with this weekend guide! | shedreamsofalpine.com
Read More3 Delicious & Boozy Warm Winter Drinks to Make on Your Next Outdoor Adventure | Winter is here, and that’s no excuse to stop going into the mountains and exploring the outdoors! Stay warm with 3 of our favorite warm boozy winter drink recipes that we love to pack up with our Stanley flask and thermos and enjoy at the our favorite campsite or at the top of our favorite peak. These drinks are easy to make, portable, and delicious! Stay warm this winter my friends and have fun in the mountains! | shedreamsofalpine.com
Read MoreAs we begin to transition into the winter season here in California, I was searching my brain for good "between-season" weekend or day trips that we have gone on recently. Contrary to popular belief (at least with my family), I'm not always outside exploring. I wish I could be, but life is never perfect (big sigh, but what is perfect anyways?). The past month and a half I have been traveling every weekend, which just drains me since we have so many new projects going on + a full time job. On top of that, not all those traveling weekends were outdoors, and since I am really excited about "Bishop Climbing Season" (ha!) I have been spending quite a bit of time out there too, but I'm sure my readers can only handle so many "This is why Bishop California is Awesome" posts.. or maybe I'm wrong? I certainly know I could subscribe to a blog about Bishop Climbing! However, sometimes it's nice not to travel every weekend. For weekends like that, we tend to go on "day trips" which usually includes anything within a 1-2 hour driving range.
Read MoreIt's funny when you plan out a backpacking trip, you search the internet for details to make an overall plan and trip itinerary. You get your daily mileage and ascent all scheduled out, and you start to think that only bad weather can throw a wrench in your plan. However, over time, I've learned that I should always anticipate about +/- 5 extra miles to what I read online. That was definitely the case with this trail from Lyell Canyon to Devil's Postpile. All my research (reading online trip reports) led me to believe this trail would be about 31 miles and only 4,100 feet of total gain, and so that seemed like an easy 10 miles per day trip. We were slightly surprised when we found that the trail was actually about 38 miles and 5,000' of gain, and had to make up some extra miles in day 2 and day 3. It still was an excellent trip, and very doable in 3 days.
Read MoreMy friend, Ashima, and I decided in 2017 we would try to hike at least one peak together a month this year (starting in February). I am going a little out of order here because we did a peak in February, but this blog post is about our recent hike in the San Gabriel Mountains on a route called Bastards Ridge. It's been snowing like crazy everywhere in California, so we've generally been avoiding the Sierras. This has left us mostly with lower elevation peaks near the coast.
Read MoreI bet you were thinking I'd have given up on my training experiment by now (using the methods and program described by the book Training for the New Alpinism). Although I missed a couple of planned days here and there, I mostly stuck to my 8 week transition period plan. Woo hoo! And shame on you for not believing in me.
Read MoreI’m finding that, more often than not, things do not always go according to plan. Plans formulate, chaos intervenes and then the plans change. This isn’t always a bad thing though; sometimes I enjoy how things turn out differently than planned.
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