Heads up: If you’ll be at SF Art Book Fair on Saturday, July 20th, and want to meet up with me (Amelia) reply to this email and say hey!
Since I last wrote, Adam and I hiked in the Sierras for 600+ miles, on the Pacific Crest Trail from Tehachapi to Truckee. We took Amtrak to skip around that section last year during our PCT hike, since it was covered with tons of snow. We wanted more of a frolic through the granite and lakes rather than a hike-at-night-to-avoid-postholing mountaineering trip that was the scene last summer. This year’s conditions were solidly in the frolic category — we barely needed the ice axe and micro-spikes for the high passes, and had great weather besides some heat-wave induced hail & thunderstorms.
It was amazing, beautiful country. I love the rhythms of hiking all day, the simplicity of sleep-food-water-electrolytes-views, the conversations with other hikers. And the flowers! And lots of spicy ramen and granola bars and eating as many vegetables as we could, when we got to towns to resupply.
Also! I had zero blisters the entire time!? Because the Sierras has so much elevation change and a lot of it is above 10k feet, we took it slow (for us, for a thru-hike), going 17-22 miles a day usually, and taking more rest days than on prior hikes. I think that helped, and also really having our shoe/foot care systems dialed in now. (A future blog post!)
I took some notes on creative projects in a tiny journal along the way, and made some videos and photos of pika and ground squirrels for reference for a comic in the works. But mostly it was a thinking and not-thinking-at-all time. Refilling the well of inspiration and visuals and energy. And just enjoying the mountains and being outside moving all day.
Reading Recs
Although I brought a kindle, I was usually so tired by the time we’d put up the tent and had dinner that I barely read the past month and a half. (Also, we usually fell asleep at 9pm!!) But here are a few recs:
The Great Displacement by Jake Bittle, about climate migration in the US, really spoke to me. Esp. recommend if you liked McPhee’s The Control of Nature or Kolbert’s The Sixth Extinction.
I reread The Peripheral, published 2014 and it still holds up.
Enjoyed reading Bee Wilson’s The Secret of Cooking — love a readable cookbook!
Also, if you missed it, Adam wrote about our hike last year, along with lots of pictures of lichen, in Lichens of the Pacific Crest.
That’s all for now! Hope you are staying cool.
—Amelia
P.S. —Reminder: If you’ll be at SF Art Book Fair on Saturday, July 20th, and want to meet up with me (Amelia) reply to this email and say hey!