Sunset on the Pacific Crest Trail quest

Gillian Larson ready to ride on her Pacific Crest quest

Pacific Crest Quest

Green Acres

Green Acres

It was a lovely, sunny morning in the meadow where we camped the night before; there was even a cabin/shelter at the campsite, but I still chose to sleep in my tent (sometimes those old structures are pretty infested with mice!). This day's ride was a beautiful 21 miles to the trailhead in Pine. We dropped quickly off of a mesa and then rode along its base for several miles. I even quite literally stumbled upon a newborn elk calf! It was lying just on the side of the trail at

Help and Hinder

Help and Hinder

This was the last day of our section of trail, which took us to the trailhead where my truck and trailer were waiting. It was another dull day view-wise, but we had some interesting challenges, like getting water from a huge tank and crossing Highway 77. Unlike the PCT, much of the AZT runs through rangeland and pastures or fairly near "civilization" in one form or another. That's been a good thing in terms of the access to water; I've pretty much come to the conclusion tha

Critters for Company

Critters for Company

It was very appropriate, after spending the night at the Gila River, that one of the first things I saw the next day on the trail was a Gila monster! It was a very beautiful specimen, with brilliant markings, and not camera-shy at all! He let me get up-close and personal with the pictures. The views on the trail the rest of the day were not as impressive and we did a long 32 miles. The morning was scorching hot while the late afternoon felt like we were in a wind tunnel. T

Gila River

Gila River

I had a truly awesome day on the trail today. I started with the horses at the Picket Post trailhead and rode to the Gila river. The whole way there I was on the lookout for the guys in the non-profit organization Heroes and Horses that I met the day before while out caching supplies for this next section. This is group dedicated to helping veterans through a program of wilderness riding. I had been following their "500 Mile Project" on social media for several months an

Snakes and Downed Trees

Snakes and Downed Trees

Today was another long day and consisted of snakes and downed trees. I saw one kingsnake and two rattlesnakes along the way. I lost count of how many down trees, some of which I had to use my saw on to clear dead branches out of the way before the horses could cross them. But nothing was too challenging, so that was a relief. I did miss a turn-off while in Saguaro National Park so that added an extra three miles to what was supposed to be a 26 mile day, and we didn't get to

Kendall Katwalk

Kendall Katwalk

Today ended with one of the most famous and spectacular sections of the PCT, the Kendall Katwalk, just before we reached Snoqualamie Pass. (And yes, that's a thin thread of trail that you see blasted into the side of the sheer granite cliff!) But before we got there, we had a lot of other adventures along the trail. It began with another sunny and beautiful morning, and we had only about a dozen more fallen trees as we left camp that we had to deal with before the trail beca

Agnew Meadow (and llamas!)

Agnew Meadow (and llamas!)

I rode into the Mammoth area today, and had a marvelous welcome at Agnew Meadow from the pack station managers there. My mother had called Red's Meadow earlier in the week to check on whether I would be allowed to stay overnight at the pack station, and they extended an open invitation for the corrals at either place. I stopped briefly at Red's Meadow on the way in, but I really wanted to make the extra miles so that the next day's ride wouldn't be too long, and I opted to

Does eat oats . . . and cinches!

Does eat oats . . . and cinches!

Another fairly easy day of only 20 miles as we crossed Mather Pass, but it ended with a very funny and strange encounter with a determined deer. We started with a glorious clear day of sunshine as we began the climb up toward the pass itself. At the top we paused to take in the beautiful view before heading down the steep other side, which is named the Golden Staircase. The Golden Staircase descends from Mather Pass into a valley filled with lots of lovely meadows. As I sai

Over Forrester and Glenn

Over Forrester and Glenn

Today was a big day, as I rode over two big Sierra passes, including the highest point of the PCT, Forrester Pass, which tops out around 14,000 ft. I believe we were some of the first stock over these passes this year, and I was very grateful that they were almost entirely free of snow--certainly none that caused us any trouble--so my strategy of skipping this and heading north to ride elsewhere and then coming back for the Sierra section is paying off at last. Because of t

Waiting for the shoe to drop (literally)

Waiting for the shoe to drop (literally)

The day started off well as we passed some beautiful scenery, including pretty Toad Lake. But it quickly took a bad turn when Takoda lost a front shoe. Probably it got battered by yesterday's rocky trail, however the way it came off all at once and taking a big chunk of hoof along with it also seemed to indicate that he stepped on it with a hind foot or caught it in a crevice as we were walking today. In any case, I looked back and all the sudden saw that he had no shoe.

A bear in the woods

A bear in the woods

One of the great advantages of riding on the PCT is that I am able to see a lot more wildlife than I think the average hiker gets a glimpse of. That's simply because I can look at the scenery more. Whenever I'm walking--which is quite a bit of the time, usually 5-10 miles a day--I realize that I have to concentrate on where I'm putting my feet, and so I don't have the luxury of just gazing around me. And many of the hikers that I encounter are also wearing earbuds, listenin

Cook and Green

Cook and Green

I rode north out of Seiad Valley today and headed for Cook and Green Pass, where a little spring bubbles out of the hillside in an otherwise dry section. We camped among the trees there, and I spent a bit of an anxious night because Shyla had been walking gingerly the last little ways. She had banged a hind leg on a tree (we struggled with LOTS of downed trees!) and I was concerned that she had hurt herself but hoped that a night's rest would help her feel better. I went t

Southbound from Silverwood

Southbound from Silverwood

After the tough trip over San Jacinto, the horses deserved a bit of a break, and there was some necessary preparation to be done before the horses head into Oregon and Washington (and Canada!) later on in the journey. Horses that travel between states are required to have a negative Coggins test, which declares them free of equine infectious anemia, and it was also time for their spring vaccinations; in addition, I wanted to have the vet provide health certificates for possib

Rattlesnakes

Rattlesnakes

After Shyla and I spent our night camping alone on the trail between Warner Springs and Idyllwild, I continued on toward Highway 74, where we would have to road walk the rest of the way into Idyllwild due to the closure of part of the PCT resulting from a fire in 2013. Just before I got to the highway, I saw two different rattlesnakes on the trail. This small juvenile was almost perfectly camouflaged on a rock. While this much larger adult rattled and hissed to show its disa

Horned Lizard

The wild life

The wild life

Often it feels like a never-ending grind to get up each morning and ride, trying to make a little more progress in the goal of completing the trail, with every day presently new challenges--and if nothing else then some long, seat-numbing hours in the saddle until I can finally fall exhausted into my tent at the end of it, most of the time well after dark and with only a short time to sleep before I do it all over again. Definitely not a very exciting life we lead out here on

Bighorn sheep

Bighorn sheep

After reaching the border on Monday, Takoda and I still had to backtrack on the same trail along Ross Lake, and we didn't return to our camp until almost 1:00 a.m. due to the difficult state of that part of the trail, with Takoda once again having to make like a gazelle as he hopped over downed trees. I've decided that jumping is Takoda's strength (unlike Shyla, who hates to jump, but is a champion walker who can churn out the miles hour after hour and never seems to get tir

Horse's eye view . . .

This is actually an old section of the trail (part of the ride from Scissors Crossing to Barrel Springs) back when I was in Southern California, but it gives you an idea of what the trail looks like at times. We're riding along the spine of a ridge, with quite a view of the landscape below (and there's a pretty funny moment at the end, when I'm trying to figure out how to turn off the camera--I was obviously at the beginning of my learning curve back then!) #wildlifeonthetra

First Oregon snake

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