Spring has sprung!

It caught me a bit off guard that today, March 20, is the first day of Spring. The first day of Spring is March 21 in most years, and I have traditionally launched my books on March 21 to celebrate the beginning of one of my favorite seasons for hiking. There is so much to love about Spring: new beginnings, new growth, lots of new wildflowers, and the sense of renewal that comes with the season.

During my last post from a couple weeks ago, I wrote about having a revelatory experience after taking an edible, and coming up with a new digital model. I am shifting to digital publications from this point on, though I will still keep my two most recent books (PDX Hiking 365 and Extraordinary Oregon!) in print. On that note: keep an eye out for a big sale I am having on my physical books starting at the beginning of next month. But I am much more excited to share my next project with you!

I am launching a new series of E-Books for the beginning of Spring. The first two guides are The Ten Best Hikes in the Portland Metro Area and Wildflower Hikes of the Eastern Gorge. While some of the writing is adapted from my previous guidebooks, almost everything else in these guidebooks is new. Most of the hikes have been completely re-written, and there are new hikes in each guide that I’ve never shared before. Each guide is also fully in color, with brand-new maps, links to the trailheads on Google maps, links to my GPS tracks on GaiaGPS, and links to wildflower guides to help you identify the flowers you will see along the way. Here is a sample from my Portland guide:

And here’s a sample from my Gorge guide:

I am releasing them in PDF format so that anyone can use them, whether you’re using the guides on your phone, your tablet, your computer, or your E-Book Reader. I am working on making them work in the Kindle format, but I’m still not quite there. If you want to help me test my documents, please let me know!

Another guide, Ten Best Waterfall Hikes in the Gorge, will follow in a few weeks. I will release my two summer mini-guides, one for Mount Hood and another for Majestic Mount Jefferson, at the end of May. I can’t wait to share all of this with you.

You can buy your copy of my E-Book minis at this link. I am very excited about this journey to begin publishing in a digital format, and while I am sure there will be some challenges along the way, I feel very strongly that this is the best way to move forward with my business. I appreciate everyone who loves what I do and has supported me along the way, and I cannot wait to share more projects with you as the year goes on.

Thank you again!

This weekend marks the start of Spring Break. Every year I try to do something fun during the break, which usually means going camping somewhere. Last year we went to Bishop, California to spend a few days with Wendy’s family and check out the Owens Valley. Here’s a photo of the White Mountains from Bishop:

We managed to sneak a hike in, into the Owens River Gorge just outside of Bishop. This was a really cool hike, even though this canyon tends to be mostly the domain of rock climbers. Even though we were not really equipped for a true hike as we weren’t able to take most of our hiking gear and the Ten Essentials with us on the trip, it still felt like a nice hike. I really liked the Bishop area and I look forward to visiting again and again over the years. What a neat place to live!

This year, I am visiting my family in Illinois. Most years when I go back to Illinois, I visit the Chicago area and then head downstate to spend a week or so in Yates City, where my brother, my parents and extended family live. This year I thought it might be fun to go somewhere I haven’t been in a long time, so I decided to plan a trip to Carbondale for the whole family. Carbondale is one of the largest cities in southern Illinois, and the location of Southern Illinois University, home of the Salukis. Both my brother and stepdad went to SIU, so it will be something of a homecoming for them both.

I haven’t been to Carbondale since I was in college. At the end of my first senior year (the first of three!), my and a couple friends (hi Casey and Chelsea!) piled into a car and drove down to Carbondale to see Wilco play a free show in the parking lot in front of the SIU arena. I took lots of photos that day. Here’s a photo I took of Wilco during their set:

Wilco being a taping friendly band, there is even an audio recording of the show that I have listened to many times, because it was a great show with a great setlist. That evening, we wandered up to the village of Makanda to see a group called the Woodbox Gang. I was 21, so I may have had a few drinks that evening. But still: two shows in one day! The next day we were planning on going hiking but it was pouring rain outside, so we stayed in and made a huge batch of spaghetti with my friend’s friend we were staying with. Then we drove up to Champaign-Urbana to go see The Flaming Lips, which was another incredible show. I took a photo that night that sums it up best:

That was quite the weekend.

ANYWAY, I haven’t been to Carbondale in a very long time. The last time I got to hike down in that area was when I backpacked a section of the River to River Trail when I was a sophomore in college. Yes, you can backpack in Illinois - and it’s beautiful down there.

We won’t be doing any hiking on this trip most likely, but we will be visiting both Giant City State Park and Garden of the Gods, two of the most beautiful and memorable places in southern Illinois. We’re going to visit a winery or two, and take in the best of what southern Illinois has to offer. I am excited! I’ll be sure to report back about this trip sometime very soon.

I decided to do something very different this time and take the train home. I have taken the Empire Builder from from Chicago to Portland and vice versa many times, but not since the pandemic. Once upon a time I took the Empire Builder regularly to travel to and from the Midwest. This was due both to my love of trains, but also my hatred of flying.

Here’s a picture of me in Havre, Montana, on a day in which it was 36 below zero. I’ll never forget that my nostrils froze and my lungs began to hurt the second I stepped off the train. Less than five minutes later, I was back on the train and warming up again:

Here’s another favorite photo from the Empire Builder, of a spectacular sunrise across rural North Dakota from the summer of 2010:

I am hoping for some beautiful big sky sunrises and sunsets this time around as well. As the train does not have a functional WiFi signal, I will also have the chance to read and write for the 56 hours or so I will be on the train between Carbondale and Portland. I know there are lots of you out there who would shudder at the thought of being on a train for that long, but I love train travel with its inconveniences and slow pace. I have the time, and I’m looking forward to using it. I’ve got lots of other projects to work on right now as well, so I’m glad to have some time just for me while the train works its way across North Dakota and Montana. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Before I go, how about some eye candy to close this post:

Bring on spring, and spring hiking! If you’re interested in joining me, you know where to find me. As always, thank you for reading. I’ll see you on the other side!