Pioneer Basin & Golden Lake via Mono Pass — July 2026
Three days over Mono Pass with Ariel and Atlas: a beginner-friendly basecamp at Golden Lake, a mosquito-swarmed push into Pioneer Basin, and 10/10 barefoot grass.
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Split Mountain —John Muir Wilderness — June 2026
A non-technical Sierra 14er with a burly approach: Red Lake to the summit of Split Mountain, with route notes and conditions.
Patagonia 2024
This is certainly one of the trips of my lifetime. I am blessed and grateful to have pulled something like this off. Looking back through…
Bear Lakes Basin w/ Mt. Julius Caesar— John Muir Wilderness — July 2025
Granite Park to Italy Pass, up Julius Caesar, then over Dancing Bear Pass into Bear Lakes Basin under Seven Gables.
Mount Sill via North Couloir — John Muir Wilderness — June 2025
A June snow climb of the North Couloir to the summit of Mt. Sill, deep in the Palisades Crest.
The Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne — Yosemite NP — Oct 2024
Point-to-point down the Tuolumne past Waterwheel Falls, from the Meadows to White Wolf.
Mt. Langley — Inyo NF — August 2024
One big day on Langley: a training-run summit push with big mileage and bigger views.
Yosemite Valley to Tuolumne Meadows, via Vogelsang Pass and Lyell Fork — Yosemite NP — MDW 2021
Valley to Meadows the scenic way — Half Dome, the upper Merced, Vogelsang Pass, and Lyell Canyon.
The Brewer Loop — Kings Canyon NP — July 2020
In March of 2020 I began reading “Up and Down California”, which is William Brewer’s journal from his time as the 2nd-in-Command of the…
Evolution Valley Butterfly Loop— Kings Canyon NP — August 2020
Over Lamarck Col to a Darwin Bench basecamp — one day looping Evolution Valley, the next McGee Lakes and Evolution Basin.
Base Camp Butterly Loop: Shot by Michael Faso on Film (Kings Canyon NP)
Base Camp Butterly Loop: Shot by Michael Faso on Film — August 2020, Kings Canyon NP
Tahoe Rim Trail (TRT) Section Hike — Big Meadow to Eagle Lake— Memorial Day Weekend 2020
This hike would be my first multi-day backpacking trip of the year, and more importantly, my first wilderness adventure in a post-Covid…
Central & Northern Kings Canyon — August 2019
After I completed the southern half of the Big SEKI Loop, I still had a bunch of time on my hands, so I decided I wanted to do the…
The Circle of Solitude (sort of)— Late-July/Early-August 2019
The Circle of Solitude is a large 70ish mile loop in Kings Canyon National Park. It touches the northern tip of Sequoia for a bit, but…
Tuolumne Meadows to Yosemite Valley, via Sunrise Lakes and Clouds Rest — October 2018
This is a relatively short, 3 day hike that I did with a special group of guys. There were 4 of us, and we planned to hike from Tuolumne…
The High Sierra Trail and The Kaweah Basin — July 2018
Off the High Sierra Trail and into the Kaweah — one of the most remote basins in the Sierra.
Havasupai Falls: March 2018
Blue-green water in the desert: the hike into Havasupai and its famous falls.
December 20th, 2016: Ending another chapter
Writing from: The same Starbucks in Joshua Tree that I wrote from last time.
December 15th, 2016: Oh Joshua Tree…
Writing from: A Starbucks in Joshua Tree. Not very interesting, but nice to have an internet day as I’m feeling a bit under the weather.
December 12th, 2016: Back to California
Writing from: Jumbo Rock Campground. December is peak season for J Tree…unbelievably different from our last few days as they’ve been…
December 10th, 2016: Catching up my journal.
Writing from: The Mojave National Preserve. Now this is really the middle of no-where. I think this may be the most remote I’ve ever felt…
Arches and Canyonlands National Park + Monument Valley
Mojave National Preserve and Joshua Tree
The southwestern desert requires an attention to detail. What it lacks in grandeur that you see in the Colorado Plateau area or mountains…
