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I know, this trip report is really late. I never planned to write one given the length of my hike, but after finally updating my LighterPack, I figured.. why not? 1. TL;DR My trail name is Wind. I mostly solo hike, because I enjoy fastpacking and trail running on thru-hikes. My longest hiking buddy on this trip was another strong hiker around my age, named UglyStik. We crushed miles through the High Sierra in late April, and it was one hell of an adventure. ⠀ NOBO ⠀ Start Date: ⠀March 23rd, 2025 (Southern Terminus) Finish Date: ⠀August 1st, 2025 (Northern Terminus) High Sierra Entry Date: ⠀April 22nd, 2025 (Kennedy Meadows South) High Sierra Exit Date: ⠀May 15, 2025 (Sonora Pass) (We were the first two hikers through) Days: ⠀132 Zeroes: ⠀37 Miles: ⠀2,618.2 Ascent: ⠀508,723 ft Acute Injuries: ⠀2 (R-Ankle Sprains) Illnesses: ⠀0 Continuous hike; no flip-flops. The only skip was 20 miles around the Bridge Fire in Wrightwood. ⠀ SOBO ⠀ Start Date: ⠀August 1st, 2025 (Northern Terminus) Finish Date: ⠀October 30th, 2025 (Southern Terminus) Days: ⠀91 Zeroes: ⠀13 Miles: ⠀2,573.7 Ascent: ⠀464,979 ft Acute Injuries: ⠀1 (L-Anterior Tibialis Tendonitis) Illnesses: ⠀0 Almost Continuous (Skipped 210 miles between Ashland and Castella due to wildfires) ⠀ TOTALS ⠀ Days: ⠀222 Zeroes: ⠀50 Miles: ⠀5,192 Snow Miles: ⠀750 Skipped Miles (Wildfires, etc.): ⠀252 Miles Per Day AVG: ⠀30.2 Ascent: ⠀973,702 ft Nights Cowboy Camped: ⠀23 24HR+ Challenges: ⠀9 Fastest Region: ⠀Washington SOBO 13 Days (41 Miles Per Day AVG) Acute Injuries: ⠀3 Illnesses: ⠀0 ⠀ MEDIA ⠀ Photography Video - 8K HDR ⠀ These photos were graded for HDR. If on mobile, please open the YouTube App for HDR support. SDR will be overexposed. ⠀ LighterPack ⠀ Very Detailed Garmin Stats (I'm a spreadsheet nerd) ⠀ Daily Journal Entries ⠀ 2. MOTIVATIONS & PREPARATIONS My first Pacific Crest Trail thru-hike was actually northbound in 2024, starting April 22nd. I encountered a lot of wildfires on that hike and skipped about 253 miles, notably Mount Adams Wilderness and Glacier Peak Wilderness. I decided to try for a yo-yo in 2025, starting a month earlier than in 2024. I was hoping to avoid wildfires and see the areas I skipped, and have enough time to complete a yo-yo. My milestones were reaching Canada by August, and clear sobo Sierra by mid October. I wanted to do a yo-yo primarily for the physical and mental challenges, and to see the changes in seasons, specifically the contrast from snow to rock in the High Sierra. Honestly, I just wanted to spend a really really long time out in the wilderness on a thru-hike. A thru-hike is always a fresh experience no matter how many times you've hiked it. My second and third times were as enjoyable and unique as my first. I prepared physically through trail running and long hikes between finishing my first PCT and starting my second. Most of the gear I carried was the same from my first PCT, with some fine tuning. I prepared financially by living very frugally at home as a freelance web developer. ⠀ NOBO EARLY SIERRA ENTRY DATE (Late April) ⠀ I planned to enter the High Sierra early. I have previously hiked the JMT six times: 5 JMTs and 1 PCT. I had a lot of experience hiking through snow on the JMT, but only after June. ⠀ There are a few things I dislike about June snow hiking on the JMT: ⠀ Mosquitos Waterlogged trails High water crossings Suncupped snow fields (ankle busting and slow to traverse) Still lots of dirt to require swapping microspikes frequently Lightning storms, especially when you're above the timberline ⠀ My hope was that by entering the High Sierra in late April, I could: ⠀ Have little to no mosquitos TRUE — No mosquitos until Sierra City ⠀ Avoid waterlogged trails TRUE — Not that I kept my feet dry with all the snow ⠀ Have snow bridges and/or low water crossings TRUE — At least until Rancheria Creek ⠀ Avoid suncupped snow fields TRUE — Snow was flat or just beginning to suncup ⠀ Avoid dirt and just wear my microspikes or snowshoes the whole day MOSTLY TRUE — We were still not early enough to avoid all the dirt, and at times we had to swap our snowshoes like every 10 minutes ⠀ Avoid lightning storms TRUE — Never had any lightning in the Sierra range ⠀ Beeline past most of the switchbacks and frozen lakes for faster miles TRUE ⠀ Experience pristine snowscapes I've never seen before on any of my previous JMTs TRUE ⠀ Avalanches were not a concern of mine, given the forecast and past weather. At the time we entered the High Sierra (April 22nd), the last time it dumped snowed was more than a month ago. The snow had enough freeze-thaw cycles to greatly reduce avalanche risk. Of course, there's always a risk depending on how weak the oldest snow was, but far less likely with our 2AM starts (we traversed all high passes in the morning). 3. CONDITIONS & CHALLENGES NOBO SOCAL (Late March/April) ⠀ The overall weather was cool and partly cloudy. It was downright chilly at night in late March. One of my coldest nights was Day 0 at CLEEF in Campo. ⠀ Very low seasonal precipitation resulted in almost no flowing seasonal streams. I recall everything north of Agua Dulce was very dry until Kennedy Meadows South (KMS). However, the colder, cloudier and often misty weather kept water carries moderate, and I never felt dehydrated. ⠀ My Mount San Jacinto ascent was ridiculously windy, like 60 MPH gusts. On two occasions it knocked me flat on my ass with my pack on (the only downside to ultralight lol). The hike to the summit was intense. With the headwind and snow, I don't think I've ever been so sweaty after reaching a summit, but also chilly due to the extreme wind. I ran into Jon the San Jacinto Trail Report guy on my way up. It was funny, because I was actually thinking that morning how cool it would be to run into him knowing how frequently he climbs it, and then I did! ⠀ While descending Mount Jacinto toward Whitewater, in the early morning during heavy winds, I rolled my right ankle and went down hard. I got up, checked myself, and kept hiking. My right ankle was definitely sore. An hour later I somehow did the exact same thing — rolled my right ankle and crashed again to the trail. Come on trekking poles! You're suppose to stop me from doing this! They say once you roll an ankle it becomes more prone to rolling due to weakening, and that seemed to be my case. After hiking the remaining 8 miles to Whitewater, I stayed at a trail angel's place and took my first zero to give my right ankle a whole day of recovery. The first night my right ankle was swollen, but not as bad as I expected. Luckily, after two very restful nights, it fully recovered and I was back on trail. I like to think I have strong ankles at my age that bounce back quickly, I've been hiking and running my extremely rocky local trails for 20+ years. ⠀ Mount Baden-Powell summit was also very snowy, but fortunately not windy. It was a trickier climb than San Jacinto, almost no boot path and I was cutting steps all the way up with my heel. I climbed it with another hiker named Two Shoes. Little did I know at the time, Wrightwood would be the last hiker bubble I would see for months until the sobo crowd in Washington. ⠀ I ran the LA Aqueduct since it's flat, easy, and oh so boring (also ran it in 2024). It's my least favorite area of the PCT, with annoying dogs, sketchy cars and trailers. I feel like I'm in a Breaking Bad desert scene most of the time. Many hikers start hiking the night before to avoid the heat, but I started the day at my usual time around 4AM since I was running it. The weather was cool the whole day. It was my first big day with 42 miles from Hiker Town to Tehachapi in about 12 hours, getting to Barbara's Hiker Hut around 4PM. Speaking of dogs, I encountered 3 loose aggressive white dogs just before the end of the aqueduct. They stopped harassing me as soon as I pulled out my trekking poles and swung at them a few times, but they continued to follow me at a distance for about 5 minutes until losing interest. Keep your trekking poles or pepper spray handy on the aqueduct. I enjoy the wind farm section after the aqueduct, especially the epic Mile 549 Bar & Grill, but the dirt bikers up in the mountains can be iffy, especially if they're riding illegally on the PCT. ⠀ NOBO SIERRA (Late April/May) ⠀ The overall weather was very cold and partly cloudy. The lows were in the 20s or high 10s (°F). Our water was frozen almost every morning. Neither of us filtered water in the Sierra, the water was as pure as it gets. At midday it was often blistering hot from the reflections. We experienced a brief snowstorm between Silver Pass and Mammoth Pass. North of Tuolumne Meadows I encountered more snowing, and rain. ⠀ We acclimatized pretty quickly and had no altitude sickness. Regardless, those first few days climbing out of KMS always hit hard. ⠀ We traversed snow from about 20 miles north of Kennedy Meadows South, until just south of Sierra City. We were hiking through almost continuous snow fields for a little over a month, about 467 miles. We encountered hip-deep postholing conditions between Forester Pass and Mammoth Lakes, with the worst of it during the descent from Kearsarge Pass to Onion Valley Campground. We didn't have our snowshoes yet during that descent, and it was such a minefield we were cackling. I remember both of us postholing one leg to our hip at the same time, and then when I pulled myself out forward I misstepped backwards and the other leg went into the same hole I just got out of, all the while I'm watching my buddy struggle to get out of his own posthole. ⠀ We acquired $60 used snowshoes (MSR Denali Classic) in Bishop at Eastside Sports, but in hindsight we should have carried them since KMS. Despite adding 7lbs to our carry, they were worth their weight in gold. The substantial snow fields before and after Muir Pass were their best test case. They weren't even that postholey, but the soft snow made it 10x more effort to hike those fields without snowshoes (I tried briefly). ⠀ Snow would be hardened from about 2AM until 8AM, then it softened and postholed. We started every day at 1AM or 2AM to get as many hours on hard snow as possible, hiking with microspikes. We wore snowshoes typically between 8AM and 5PM, making camp around 5PM. There was one day, before Muir Pass, where it rained at night and the snow stayed slushy.. so we wore snowshoes from the start that day. We traversed all the high passes in the morning. With this routine we averaged 23 miles per day in the Sierra despite the heavy snow and our 25+ lbs packs. I carried my snowshoes until Mammoth Lakes around May 4th, at that point I felt the postholing wasn't as bad and I would make better mileage without the extra 7 lbs. They were also causing me intense heel pain by Mammoth Pass. Next time I will invest in snow shoes with televators and more comfortable and easily adjustable bindings. ⠀ My two most difficult passes were Forester Pass and Mather Pass. Forester Pass was mainly challenging because of "The Chute". There was no boot path, so we had to really take our time cutting steps to safely get across. After the chute was a giant ice wall before the top, which we got around by scrambling some rocks. Mather Pass was my hardest pass, and probably the most technical and strenuous climb of the whole yo-yo. We went straight up, since the burried switchbacks were more dangerous to follow. Every step was a very careful cut and dig, double and triple checking myself for stability and control. We climbed Mather Pass with a skiing backpacker named Fishbowl, who was backpacking the Sierra High Route. I was envious of his crampons during the climb; he made it look easy. ⠀ We glissaded a lot in the Sierra. I was glissading not just for the long slopes, but to avoid sketchy sidehilling. Picture a trail that wraps around a basin/valley like the Letter U, but under snow it's one long sketchy sidehilling traverse. It was often easier and safer to glissade down into the basin/valley from the start and then hike up the other side to meet the trail. My longest and most fun glissade was Sonora Pass. I was flying down so fast I broke my hip belt buckle.. yeah, make sure you loosen your hip belt before doing a long and fast glissade, the snow pressure build up is no joke. Luckily, I was able to repurpose a dog leash buckle purchased from KMN for my hip belt. ⠀ Creek crossings were mostly easy because of snow bridges or low flow (we were weeks before peak melt). The Rancheria Creek sidehilling and creek crossing were probably the sketchiest. Fuck that sidehilling in particular. In hindsight, I should have attempted that in the afternoon, and not the morning, when the snow was softer and easier to make deeper footholds. ⠀ Shortly after leaving Soda Springs around 2AM, the frame on one of my microspikes snapped. While I felt confident not needing snowshoes anymore, microspikes weren't up for debate. I decided to turn around and hike 15 miles up Red's Meadow Road and return to Mammoth Lakes to buy some Kahtoola Microspikes from one of the outfitters. Just 5 minutes onto my way back, I postholed into a buried blowdown and sprained my right ankle, and cracked one of my carbon trekking poles. I know what you're thinking, "Guess you're wrong about not needing snowshoes?" I still didn't think so, it was just dumb luck with that blowdown buried there and the snow in that spot being soft enough even at 2AM. Ironic — after hundreds of postholes — that was the first to cause me an injury and break a trekking pole. The silver lining was that it happened just outside a major town I could recover at. I limped my way back 15 miles to the Motel 6 in Mammoth Lakes, and fortunately recovered after another 3 nights. I was thoroughly sick of Mammoth Lakes, having spent 7 nights there! At least their Motel 6 was relatively cheap and nice. I resumed the hike from Agnew Meadows. Before the injury I was on pace to catch up to my buddy, UglyStik, who left the day before me. After recovering from the injury, I wouldn't catch up to UglyStik until Donner Pass. ⠀ Early season Sierra resupply logistics are tricky due to closures, particularly between Mammoth Lakes and South Lake Tahoe. Our first resupply was Bishop via Kearsarge Pass, our second was Mammoth Lakes, our third was Kennedy Meadows North, and our fourth was South Lake Tahoe. My fifth was Sierra City, with a lunch stop at Donner Pass Ski Ranch for a hot meal. At Mammoth Lakes we planned resupply contingencies, like having to road walk down to Kennedy Meadows North, or have somebody meet us to resupply (shoutout to OutsideJay). We definitely could not carry food from Mammoth Lakes all the way to South Lake Tahoe. I really lucked out because Sonora Pass opened the day I got there, and an employee was kind enough to give me a ride (shuttles weren't running yet). I was a worthwhile investment considering how many meals and soft serve ice creams I bought. I took 3 zeroes — I was utterly exhausted getting there, and probably the wettest, dirtiet and smelliest I've ever been. I was the second PCTer to KMN. My buddy UglyStik, who arrived at KMN a few days before me, wasn't so lucky.. he had to road walk 10 miles down Sonora Pass to KMN! I felt so sorry for him. Here's the Sierra resuppliers that were closed to us: Vermilion Valley Resort, Muir Trail Ranch, Red's Meadow, Yosemite Valley (via Tioga Pass), Lee Vining (via Tioga Pass), Tuolumne Meadows Store, and the Echo Lake Chalet. ⠀ One of our greatest challenges was navigation without any boot path. From KMS until Donner Pass there was pretty much no boot path but our own. Here's the lowdown for snow navigation: ⠀ You want to follow the red line (FarOut's PCT trail) as close as possible because the trail typically follows the path of least resistant. If you stray from the red line, even just for a few seconds, the exertion to get back to the trail takes time and energy — and that's compounded across the day. It's especially worse if you stray downhill and have to climb back. ⠀ Our struggle was staying as close to the red line as possible, otherwise we were constantly hiking uphill or downhill back to the trail. We could do this by keeping our smartphone in one hand at all times, and turning off the screen lock so the smartphone would stay on constantly and not require interaction. The two problems with this are battery life of the smartphone, and that by having a hand dedicated to the smartphone it meant one less trekking pole, and that meant less balance when traversing the snow, which resulted in more slips and falls (and boy did we slip and fall a lot). ⠀ Some areas didn't require much phone navigation. Daytime hiking was easier of course than nighttime, and open areas were easier to just point ourselves in the direction we needed to go. The valleys before and after the high passes were particularly easy to navigate. The tricky areas were the forested areas and canyons. ⠀ The phone navigation solution was obvious to me very early on, but it took me longer than it should have to fix. I ordered a universal smartphone wristband from Amazon. It let me hold my trekking poles while being able to glance at FarOut frequently to make sure we were near the red line. I still kept my phone screen lock off for the conveinance of not having to interact with my phone, which is tricky with cold fingers, gloves, or a wet screen. That meant I would eat through almost 90% power in a single day, but I was carrying two 10K battery banks in the Sierra and it was never an issue. That wristband was one of the biggest quality-of-life gear changes I made on the whole yo-yo. I eventually upgraded to a QuadLock case & armband (but worn on the wrist), since it allowed me to effortlessly remove my phone from the mount if I wanted to snap photos (the universal mounts are trickier to fit, especially with gloves on). ⠀ While we followed the red line for the most part, there's a lot of opportunities to take alternate routes when hiking the Sierra PCT in the early season. We took a lot of detours and shortcuts when we thought it was safer and more effective. Most notably, hiking over frozen lakes (Rae Lakes, Evolution Lake, Palisade Lake, Dorothy Lake, Lake Virginia, etc.), or going straight up and over a pass and ignoring switchbacks (Forester, Glen, Mather, etc.). Paying attention to contour lines on the map was a must when taking a detour or shortcut, else we found ourselves "cliffed out". Most of the time our reroutes were great. Othertimes.. we had a name for those misadventures: "More Sketchy Shit." ⠀ NOBO NORCAL (May/June) ⠀ The overall weather was mild and clear. Luckily, I escaped NorCal before the 95°+F temps arrived. ⠀ Many snow fields between Sonora Pass and Sierra City, when for the first time after hundreds of miles, we encountered dirt trails that lasted for more than 15 minutes! ⠀ Mosquitos started to appear around Sierra City. Gone with the snow, in with the bugs. ⠀ Absolutely murderous blowdowns before Bucks Lake/Quincy, south of the Middle Fork Feather River bridge. We're talking blowdowns atop blowdowns, many of them sharp and jagged, as we carefully and slowly snaked our way through them for 2 miles. I was bloodied and bruised by the end of it, and my awesome hiking pants for the first time got a couple tears in them. :( ⠀ Overgrowth north of Belden was awful. For a good 5 miles the trail was completely obscured by vegetation and I was glued to my phone for navigation. ⠀ Some sketchy snowy sidehilling until the Oregon border. Specifically: Granite Chief Wilderness, just north of Sierra City, Mushroom Rock area north of Burney Falls, and quite a few areas between Castella and Seiad Valley. Often the sketchy sidehilling could be bypassed by going off trail straight up or down to where the snow becomes less steep or levels out entirely, and then rejoining the trail from the other side. ⠀ Surprisingly, it rained and snowed a lot on the Oregon/CA border at the end of June. My last day in NorCal was very cold and wet. ⠀ I started having repeat blisters. Mostly on my heel and the bottom or sides of my feet. I suspected my shoes were a size too small. ⠀ NOBO OREGON (Late June/early July) ⠀ The overall weather was warm and clear. No snow on the trail in Oregon north of Ollalie Lake. ⠀ I foolishly sent home my microspikes in Ashland, thinking I could do without them in Oregon. I knew Oregon had a heavy snow year, but I figured, "Oregon is flat, so the snow should be easy to traverse." It turns out there's still a lot of tricky/sketchy sidehilling in Oregon, enough to warrant carrying microspikes in June if Oregon is having a high snow year. Specifically: Around Crater Lake, Mount Thielsen, around Diamond Peak Wilderness, Three Sisters, Three Fingered Jack, and Mount Jefferson. I think I had more trouble with the snow in Oregon than I did in the Sierra, but that would not have been the case if I kept my microspikes! My Mount Thielsen traverse was probably the silliest. There was a sketchy sidehilling stretch of snow for about 2 miles, but no real detour around it. About halfway through I looked up toward Mount Thielsen's ridge and could see there was lots of dirt toward the top of the ridge, so I thought, "I'll just climb straight up until the dirt, then go along the ridge, and climb back down to the trail! Probably an easy glissade!" Well, about an hour or so later I did just that, but it involved being cliffed out, lots of loose scree, and downhill scrambling (not glissading) while holding onto branches. Also, it was like 10PM at night. "More Sketchy Shit." ⠀ Mosquitos. My "MVP" gear here was my 1.7oz Montbell EX Light Wind Jacket. Mosquitos can't bite through it, but it's breathable enough to hike in even when it's warm. I would usually just throw it on when I needed to break, before despairing the inexorable hordes of doom that would soon feast upon my mortal flesh. In the future I will bring a pop-up mosquito net tent so I can take breaks in peace. Just kidding. Maybe. ⠀ NOBO WASHINGTON (July) ⠀ The overall weather was warm and clear, until the North Cascades at the end of July, when I encountered a lot of rain. I was briefly in a nasty lightning storm north of Hart's Pass that caused a couple small spot fires (I walked past a smouldering struck tree right off the trail). Fortunately, the rain helped things from getting too out of control before crews arrived. ⠀ Almost no snow on the trail in Washington, except for around Goat Rocks. ⠀ To prepare for my sobo, I went home for a week from Stevens Pass — public transit to Seattle, then FlixBus home in NorCal. After a week, I reversed the commute. No hassles and relatively inexpensive (about $200 roundtrip) compared to a flight. Stevens Pass was the right place for a break, since I didn't want to finish nobo at Hart's Pass and then have to travel back there, given how remote it is. ⠀ I started to do 24hr+ challenges in Washington, just to spice things up and see what my fully trail legged body could do, and I like night hiking. I did 9 challenges total: 2 in nobo Washington, 3 in sobo Washington, 1 in sobo Oregon, 1 in sobo Sierra, and 2 in sobo SoCal. I wanted to start training for ultramarathons after my thru-hike, and I know most 200+ milers involve running all day, so it was good experience for that. ⠀ Section K - As I was nearing Stevens Pass, I kept hearing from sobo hikers how terrible Section K was due to overgrowth and blowdowns. I even saw SAR staging at Stevens Pass, rescuing hikers from Section K. The overgrowth on the switchbacks around Milk Creek were the main issue, particularly on the north side. The vegetation hung over the ridge, and if you stepped onto it expecting the vegetation to arrest your movement, it wouldn't and you would fall down the hill. A lot of hikers were injured that way. As for blowdowns, they were infrequent and large enough that I actually kind of enjoyed traversing them (unlike the blowdown hell before Quincy). ⠀ SOBO WASHINGTON (Early Aug) ⠀ The weather was cold, rainy and cloudy in the North Cascades between the border and Stevens Pass, and it even snowed a bit just south of Stevens Pass. Everything south of Snoqualmie was warm and sunny. ⠀ Section K - I understood sobo hikers' complaints a bit more here. The Milk Creek overgrowth was more tricky going downhill than uphill, because you were more likely to misstep or trip on a root or rock going downhill on the narrow path, and you had to be very careful not to step into the vegetation or you would fall right through. Fortunately, a few trail maintenance volunteers were clearing this brush out for hikers, so it was less dense than when I went northbound. They even left their machetes behind for hikers to assist if they wanted, with a sign that read: "It's dangerous to go alone! Take this." Okay, the sign didn't say that, but it should have. ⠀ Sobo Washington was so much harder than nobo. You don't realize how much easier nobo has it starting in Campo, until you've done both directions. The climbs in Glacier Peak Wilderness just go on forever and ever. ⠀ I started to wear a Size 13 Lone Peak 9, after backpacking in a Size 12 for years. I didn't get a single blister all sobo! ⠀ I foolishly cracked one of my carbon trekking poles just before Oregon, while vaulting over a blowdown. Fortunately, I was able to find an aluminum replacement trekking pole in the hiker box at the Timberline Lodge. ⠀ SOBO OREGON (Mid/Late Aug) ⠀ The overall weather was warm and clear, except for smoke around Sisters due to Flat Fire, and smoke around Shelter Cove due to the Emigrant Fire. ⠀ I somehow got Anterior Tibialis Tendonitis of my left ankle during the long climb from Cascade Locks to the Timberline Lodge — swelling, pain, and crepitus in the tendon below the shin. I believe it was a combination of overuse, cold wet feet from constant rain up to Mount Hood, and overtightened laces pressing on the tendon. It took about a week to heal on trail, but I had to drastically reduce my mileage. I flew through Washington sobo and planned to do the same in Oregon, but instead Oregon was far slower. The delay also caused me to hit wildfires in Oregon and NorCal. This was my only real setback on my yo-yo, so I can't complain too much. Wildfires and injuries are always a roll of the dice. ⠀ SOBO NORCAL (Sep) ⠀ The overall weather was warm and clear. ⠀ Due to the Blue Fire and Root Fire, I skipped about 210 miles between Ashland and Castella. :( ⠀ Trail crews cleaned out the overgrowth north of Belden, the blowdowns south of Quincy, and the blowdowns at the northern boundary of Desolation Wilderness. The differences were night and day. Massive gratitude to everyone involved. ⠀ I sent my resupply box to Truckee instead of Sierra City, for some dumb reason. I was hoping for a quick stop in Truckee, and then hike another 30 miles toward Desolation Wilderness. Getting to Truckee requires a lucky hitch from Donner Pass, and that was luck I wasn't having at 7AM in the morning. Zero traffic on the road. What I did instead: Jogged 4 miles all the way down to Donner Lake (a beautiful jog, though); rented one of the city's electric bicycles; rode 5 miles all the way to the post office and a breakfast joint (the ride was fun, though); ate a hot meal; picked up my package; sorted my food; got another hot meal because I am a hungering void; got rained on due to a sudden storm; miraculously found a trail angel on Facebook willing to give me and another PCT hiker a ride back to the trailhead; got a free city shuttle to go to the trail angel's house (Truckee has some nice public transpo); hanged out for a bit at the trail angel's place; got a ride to the trailhead; gazed at the completely enshrouded mountain while it poured rain and thought to myself, "A hot dinner at the Donner Ski Ranch sounds kind of nice, I will surely get back on the trail after"; eat a great dinner and talk with locals for 2 hours; crash at the Ski Ranch hostel for the night (their showers are awful); hope the storm passed by the morning (it did). The vortex, man. ⠀ SOBO SIERRA (Late Sep/early Oct) ⠀ The overall weather was cold and clear. It rained quite a bit between Sonora Pass and Dorothy Lake, and then again between Mammoth Pass and Bear Creek. ⠀ The first tough High Sierra climb was Benson Pass. Damn, that kicked my ass. Those granite steps sobo are no joke. Donohue Pass was another toughie sobo with its many steps. By Silver Pass I was acclimated and had renewed my JMT trail legs. I crushed miles on the JMT, averaging 36 miles a day. My most passes in one day was 3 (Pinchot/Glen/Forester) at 41.5 miles. ⠀ I originally planned to summit Mount Whitney sobo, after skipping it nobo because of dangerous late April conditions. I camped just a few miles north of Crabtree Meadows, as I was waiting until the morning to determine if I would hike Mount Whitney, or continue toward KMS. Sadly, a few inches of snowfall and icy conditions occurred overnight, and it was too risky to attempt without snow gear. I've summited Mount Whitney a few times before, and I was running low on food anyway, so it was for the best. ⠀ I had a very long food carry from Mammoth Lakes to KMS. I got to KMS with just a quart of trail mix left. Unfortunately the General Store wasn't opening that day, nor was Grumpy's shuttle running anymore, so I road jogged all the way to Grumpy's to have a hot meal, pick up my resupply box, and take a couple nights in their yurt to recover. It was worth it for the meals and hot shower, and they gave me a great rate on the yurt. The Grumpy Burger was probably my tastiest hamburger on the trail, and their fennel pizza is also fantastic. I did have to jog all the way back to the trailhead once I left, because there were zero rides. Seriously, sobo hitching was a lot harder than nobo. ⠀ Some long water carries around Walker Pass in October. At least a couple 20+ mile carries between Walker Pass and Tehachapi if I recall, due to seasonal streams or springs becoming dry (I didn't encounter this nobo). ⠀ SOBO SOCAL (Mid/Late October) ⠀ The overall weather was cool and clear. ⠀ I experienced a very wet and cold rainstorm between Hiker Town and Agua Dulce. I ended up hiking for 24+ hours straight because I didn't feel like making camp under the bitter cold rain. It was one of my coldest days on the yo-yo. The warm shower at Serenity's Oasis was heaven. ⠀ That rainstorm also dumped snow on Mount Baden-Powell. There was still up to 2 feet of snow by the time I got there. I went up and over Mount Baden-Powell, and it was the first time I hiked significant snow since late June. Weirdly, I actually kind of missed hiking in snow. 4. GEAR & DIET For the most part, I was happy with my loadout. I wrote a lot of details on my LighterPack. ⠀ BEAR CAN (Bearikade Weekender) ⠀ The odd one out was obviously my bear can. I carried it for the entire yo-yo. It was my food storage, camp chair, and internal frame for my Wapta 30. The bear can easily slips inside the Wapta 30. It was always amusing to see the reactions of folks when I told them I was carrying a bear can inside my small pack. On my 2024 PCT thru-hike my Wapta 30 was terribly uncomfortable on my shoulders above 15lbs, but when I added my bear can at Tehachapi the pain disappeared because I now had a rigid frame to properly transfer the load to my hips. Only a few years ago I was deadlifting almost 400lbs. Our hips are powerful. My hips do not care about loading 15lbs, but my shoulders and spine most certainly do (and having shoulder issues from past surgeries doesn't help). I wedge my tyvek sheet between the bear can and my back, so I never feel the hard cylinder. If I had a 30L ultralight pack with an internal frame, I'd likely skip the bear can unless required, but the Wapta 30 was otherwise a very comfortable fastpack for me. I used the bear can as a camp chair almost every day. ⠀ DIET ⠀ My trail diet is weird. I am no-cook and no-soak for the convenience. Every hiker I have met has laughed when they hear my diet, understandably. On the trail I mostly carry and eat calorie-dense custom trail mix. It's a bag of Kirkland Trail Mix, mixed with banana chips, sun-dried strawberries, chocolate or yogurt covered almonds/cashews, and granola (peanut butter or coconut). It's a good mix of soluble and non-soluble fiber for balanced digestion, and it's a higher ratio of fats than carbs for long-term energy. I buy the Kirkland trail mix base from Costco, and the rest from Grocery Outlet (which has an amazing nuts and dried fruit section). I store everything in a giant 12" x 16" Smelly Proof Heavy Duty bag, which takes up most the space in my bear can. Yeah, my bear can is just trail mix, at least when it's full (I put gear in my bear can when it starts to get empty). Every morning I pour trail mix from the giant bag into a quart ziplock bag, and snack on that bag throughout the day, pouring it directly into my mouth. It's a fingers-free, utensil-free, wrappers-free diet! No doubt, that sounds like a boring diet, but for me it was delicious and satiating. I never got tired of the taste or had indigestion. It is a lot of sugar, but I was diligent on brushing and flossing everyday, and my post-hike dentist appointment found no problems. It's also a relatively inexpensive diet. I supplemented my nutrition in trail towns, feasting on veggies, meat, and dairy (loads of ice cream). I was hitting a trail town maybe every 2-4 days. 5. HIGHLIGHTS Experiencing the PCT twice across different seasons was incredible, especially the High Sierra with and without snow. ⠀ Experiencing most of the nobo PCT without other hikers was an introvert's dream. No competition for campsites. From Wrightwood to Cascade Locks (about 1,780 miles), the number of PCT hikers I encountered on the trail was under 30. Sobo was very social until I reached NorCal and stopped seeing the last nobo hikers. Sobo was a tight-knit community however; I felt like everyone connected more with each other because there were significantly fewer of us, and the largest groups I saw were 2 or 3. It was a big contrast from my 2024 nobo hike, where blobs of tramilies ignored everyone around them. ⠀ Wildlife sightings were many, but not as varied as my first PCT hike. I hardly saw any snakes. On the other hand, I encountered about 8 black bears nobo, but only 1 sobo. Sadly, I could never get any good photos, because they were hauling ass away from me everytime we met. I know I'm hiker trash, but it's still rude. Also, I have yet to see a single cougar after 3 PCTs. Sigh.. all those night hikes were for naught. So many nights I would spot little eyes reflecting back at me, turn up my headlamp hoping.. but no, just more deer. Speaking of nocturnal animals, my favorite nightly animal was the nightjar. Those little guys love sleeping in the middle of the trail like they're the boss. Real birds don't need the safety of trees or bushes, the fearless nightjar sleeps in the open, daring potential predators to walk right up to them and stare them down for a good 2 seconds before they boldy decide, "actually, imma fly away now." ⠀ No trail magic the entire nobo, which made the trail magic I encountered sobo in Washington and Oregon so much sweeter. Every trail magic went all out. My favorite was at McKenzie Pass: Bacon cheeseburgers, ice cream, and tons of fresh fruit. Sadly, due to the smoke from the Sisters wildfire, they had to leave early, but not before telling me that I could take anything I wanted for the trail (and did I). ⠀ I'm a total foodie on trail, and the PCT has lots of great places to eat. Some of my favorites were: Atomic Cow in Idyllwild, Great Wall (Chinese buffet!) in Tehachapi, Grumpy's in KMS (fantastic burgers and pizzas), Back Alley Bowl & Grill in Bishop (great steaks), Copper Top BBQ in Big Pine, Noodle-Ly in Mammoth Lakes, My Thai Cuisine in South Lake Tahoe, Sierra Country Store in Sierra City (amazing deli/burritos), The Knook in Quincy (deli), Pine Shack Frosty in Chester (32oz milkshakes for $9 and tons of flavors), Taj Indian Cuisine (lunch buffet!) in Ashland, Timberline Lodge (breakfast/lunch buffet!), E-Jae Pak Mor in Seattle (best Thai I've ever had), the sticky buns from the Stehekin Pastry Company, and just about everything from the Mazama Bakery in Mazama (the best bakery on the trail IMO). Unfortunately, the variety of restaurants just off the trail in Washington and Oregon was pretty lacking, and I got really tired of hamburgers and pizza. ⠀ My favorite wilderness areas, parks & forests: ⠀ Glacier Peak Wilderness (North Cascades, WA) Goat Rocks Wilderness (South Cascades, WA) Alpine Lakes Wilderness (Central Cascades, WA) Henry M. Jackson Wilderness (North Cascades, WA) Pasayten Wilderness (North Cascades, WA) Sequoia-Kings Canyon Wilderness (Sierra) John Muir Wilderness (Sierra) Ansel Adams Wilderness (Sierra) Yosemite Wilderness (Sierra) Emigrant Wilderness (Sierra) Mount Hood Wilderness (OR) Granite Chief Wilderness (NorCal) Lassen Volcanic National Park (NorCal) Lassen National Forest (Hat Creek Rim, CA) Shasta-Trinity National Forest (FarNorCal) Tahoe National Forest (NorCal) The undesignated stretch of desert between Bird Springs Rd and Kelso Rd Anza-Borrego Desert State Wilderness & Park (SoCal) 6. CONCLUSION What an unforgettable journey. I mostly accomplished what I set out to do, and it's given me confidence to tackle just about any future thru-hike. I might hike an early season Sierra PCT again someday, it was both more fun and not as stressful as I imagined. Maybe if and when I attempt the GWL or a calendar-year Triple Crown.. This year I am just focusing on trail running and hoping to race a few ultramarathons, and perhaps a sobo PCT LASH from Ashland to Castella in August or September, since I still need to finish those sections up. Well, that's my ridiculously long trip report. Thanks for making it to the end! I hope it was entertaining or enlightening. I'll try to answer any questions and comments below. submitted by /u/velocd to r/Ultralight [link] [comments]

In the fall of 2025, my youngest son who had just turned 19 and I embarked on a Bigfoot expedition deep into the rugged forested mountains surrounding Willow Creek CA . Specifically we had planned to explore the slopes surrounding the original Patterson Video near a dramatic river gorge lined with massive pines , and unnamed creeks and deep dry canyons. We had just basic tools to include the OnX app with offline maps , as well as various written descriptions of the target area. The specific location we were at is off road and the back country was extremely difficult to access. My son and I were challenged every day by the landscape. Our plan was simple , travel light and keep our eyes and ears open . Because this was our first time I the area we had high hopes but no expectations. We set up base camp near fish creek and set out for the next 10 days Into the surrounding back country wilderness without ever seeing another person or trail until we made it back to our truck and drove back down into the river valley and eventually into civilization. The air was cool and the weather was perfect as we wound our way through miles of off-road paths with no one in sight or even a sound of humanity. Large ferns and fallen trees made for slow going and line of sight viewing less than 30 feet in any direction. Our first sign that we were being watched came in the evening of Sept 14 , prior to this we had spent days hiking remote trails, setting up trail cams, and scanning for signs of Bigfoot footprints, tree breaks, or vocalization (tree knocking ) to no avail. The evening of the 14th was different as we went to sleep early in our pop up tent and to be quite frank I was exhausted . I slept through the whole thing except when my wide eyed son excitedly woke me up saying that he had heard while tending the fire what can be only be described as a sound like tongue clicking similar to that from the predator movies coming from above in the pine canopy that surrounded our campsite. The most bizarre moment of the trip for me came around 2:AM the next night . I woke up to go pee and while half asleep and for the moment completely defenseless , staring at the sky while I was relieving myself, I hear what I can only describe as faint whisperingNd grunting sounds coming from the massive pine trees surrounding our camp which was in a small clearing next to a dry creek . I believe like whatever it was wanted me to follow them. The highlight came on a sunny afternoon when we stumbled upon what we believe was a massive Bigfoot turd. It was an enormous, coiled pile of dark, fibrous scat—easily larger than any bear dropping we’d seen—placed prominently on a gravelly forest floor scattered with pine needles and fallen leaves. The composition was rough and textured, almost hairy in appearance, with a few obvious berry seeds or fruit remnants visible. In our opinion, this is suggestive of a diet heavy in vegetation or other forage. For scale, we placed a standard 12-oz can of bubly sparkling water nearby, and the pile dwarfed it completely, spanning several times the can’s length in segmented coils. We documented it from multiple angles, noting how unusually large and human-like in form it appeared compared to typical wildlife scat in the area. While skeptics might argue it could be from a large bear (common in these pine-dominated forests), the sheer size, lack of typical bear scat indicators, and remote location fueled our excitement—this felt like genuine evidence of a massive primate in the region. The rest of the trip was uneventful and we eventually made it back to SoCal 3 days later . Despite no actual physical sighting, I left feeling that I had just scratched the surface of the truth and that the vast wilderness I had set foot in was waiting for me to come back. This is an actual factual account of my own personal experience , the purpose for sharing is that I would like to know if there are others in the Bigfoot community that have similar experiences .All comments welcome. submitted by /u/BobbyDazzler4Liiiife to r/bigfoot [link] [comments]

First | Previous | Next Patreon | Official Subreddit | Series Wiki | Royal Road The Nexus. Just outside of the South-Eastern edge of the North Rythian Forests. Local Time: 1700 Hours. Emma [‘QUEST’ Time Elapsed: 76 Hours. Time Remaining: 92 Hours] [SURVEY PROGRESS… 12.5%. Estimated Time to Completion… 21 Hours. Data Fidelity: Nominal. Network Integrity: Stable. Primary Objective… Pending.] [Crystal Shards… Not found.] [AMETHYST DRAGON… Not found.] “Welp. Progress is progress. But as long as we keep up this pace, we should be on schedule.” I let out a tired sigh, gesturing to a screen that had once again caught Thalmin off guard. Though it wasn’t as if he was still in awe of either the screen itself or battlenet, nor was he surprised by the disappointing lack of progress, no. In fact, this squint… was a reaction I was used to seeing from both friends and family back home. It was a squint of judgement — whether by intention or biological reflexes — at the horrors of my personal preferences. Or to put it more accurately, at a certain screen setting that seemed to be the source of so many grievances — light mode. I’d practically flashbanged Thalmin, because unlike the brightness of the day, the growing evening had since sensitized his eyes to the dark. “I much prefer it when the ink itself is what glows against the natural tones of the parchment.” He mumbled out, my eyes narrowing at the allusions to the existence of a magical dark mode. “I don’t know how you humans do it, though I do know of more than a handful of species who have quite a natural inclination towards the light…” He muttered that latter line out in much the same way he did with the rest of his inside jokes; a trend that I was slowly learning to brush off. “In any case, we should be done with a full sweep of the forest by 1400 hours tomorrow. After which, we’ll have enough intel to dictate our next course of action. Hopefully we’ll find a stray shard by then, but if not… just under two days should be enough to snipe the dragon, no?” “We’d have to track it first, Emma.” Thalmin responded with a sigh. “Yeah, yeah. But that’s what battlenet is for! We have eyes in the sky looking not just at the ground, but the airspace above—” [PRIORITY ALERT! MULTIPLE AERIAL CONTACTS ENTERING THE AO. APPROACH VECTOR CONFIRMED: GRID SECTOR A-1-4-D; NORTHWEST QUADRANT!] My eyes lit up, as did Thalmin’s. All prior thoughts took a backseat to protocol, as operational algorithms drilled into me during drone operator training were immediately brought to the forefront. “Active camo and evasive flight paths, now.” [Acknowledged.] “Defer active ops and initiate threat-range scans.” [Acknowledged. Instructions relayed. Network Integrity: Stable. Redirecting assets. Standby…] The map shifted as the game changed in a matter of seconds. The familiar top-down perspective of the forest was promptly replaced by a panoramic view of the skies immediately in front of the drones, as individual status readouts, flight paths, and flight instrument indicators came to join the collage of tactical displays that had Thalmin’s eyes darting left and right. I couldn’t blame him, though. I had the same reaction despite the false confidence mil-sim titles had instilled in me. That’s why drone operator training took a sizable chunk of basic. The role of Swarm Queen wasn’t inherited but earned. Owing in no small part to the tried and true grind of experience, forged through the accumulation of FPV and C&C hours. The rest was good, old-fashioned neural plasticity, allowing one to get used to perceiving the world beyond the restriction of one’s own two eyes. [Fleet Redirection… complete. New flight paths… mapped. Network Integrity: Stable. Awaiting Orders.] “QSR: Identify contacts.” [Collating… Processing… Confirming… 3 Large Contacts… 12 Light Contacts accompanying in formation.] [TRACK ID: Winged Heavy 1-1, 1-2, 1-3] [TRACK ID: Winged Light 2-1 through 2-12.] “QSR: Signature profile.” [Visual: Winged Heavy 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, inconsistent with AMETHYST DRAGON and other recorded flight-capable species in the WORKING SPECIES REGISTRY. Winged Light 2-1 through 2-12 consistent with Local Aerial Asset: ‘DRAKE RIDER’.] [Thermal: Elevated, inconsistent with known aircraft. Consistent with local mounted air asset analogues.] [Mass/Volume: Large Contacts approx. 5 - 10 metric tons. Smaller Contacts approx. 400 - 700 kilograms.] [Payload: Underbelly Stowage Compartments Noted on Large Contacts. Repositioning for better analysis. Standby… Parsing… Updating visual feed… Analyzing… Design and configuration congruent with cargo/passenger cabins. Summary: Potential personnel and/or equipment transport.] “QSR: Tactical Profile.” [Unable to parse… Insufficient contextual data. Profile is beneath acceptable inference limits.] “QSR: Visual Tactical Readout.” [Winged Light 2-1 through 2-12. Ranged Air-to-Air Assets: > 24 Spears; Ammo Count: 24. > 12 Bows; Ammo Count: Variable, approx. 30. > Melee Arms: 12 Swords. > Armor: Plate Steel. ADDENDUM: Possibly augmented with exotic mana-materials and radiation. Capabilities unknown.] “Maintain current instructions. Continue monitoring.” [Acknowledged.] “Live feed readout. I want to see where this goes.” [Acknowledged.] Our eyes remained glued to the screen as the situation developed surprisingly quickly. The three large contacts simply dropped off their wood-and-steel-reinforced ‘cabins,’ unlatching leather and steel straps before departing without much fanfare. Meanwhile, 8 of the 12 drake riders departed soon after, acting as escorts for their large but lumbering cousins. The initial shock and preliminary concern that hit us eventually died down, especially as the remaining drake riders landed on the forest floor, taking up ‘resting’ positions with their wings flared and their heads tucked. Their two legs eventually folded in on themselves as well, giving them a sort of ‘loaf-like’ shape once their wings too were nestled beneath them. “Must be another group of adventurers.” I offered. “Sym did mention how he encountered a few dead parties in the forest.” “No. These must be men-at-arms, or a proper mercenary company at the very least. No adventurer, no matter how ostentatious, would ever in their right mind charter a greater drake.” Thalmin countered. “Right. Well… that might complicate things then.” I acknowledged with a sigh. “I don’t see anyone resembling a proper noble in the camp, though.” Thalmin offered, as he gestured for me to zoom in on several people down beneath the canopy. “There may be one from the looks of it. But I highly doubt that. No Nexian noble would oversee an operation of a diminutive scale. I’d wager this quest is being led by a few chosen ones, if not more.” The prince shrugged. “Either way, what this means for us is simple — expect slow progress on behalf of these interlopers. But given their numbers and outfitting, we shouldn’t leave anything to chance. You said we had 21 more hours until the forest is fully surveyed, correct?” “Yeah.” I nodded. “Then this changes nothing. Just make haste if you can, Emma. If we are to initiate ‘Plan B,’ as you call it, then we must act swiftly. We cannot allow these interlopers to take the dragon before we can extract what we need from it.” “Right. Okay. I’ll get the drones back in their original flight paths. Though if those drakes ever take flight again, I will have to reconfigure them to more evasive flight patterns, if only to avoid detection.” “Understandable.” Thalmin nodded. However, before he could move on, a question suddenly spawned. “Before—” “I’d like to—” Or more accurately, two questions simultaneously, as the both of us spoke at more or less exactly the same time. Thalmin “You go first.” Emma urged. “This may be a bit of a tangent, so I’d suggest you go first, Emma.” I countered politely. “Trust me, mine’s a tangent as well, so—” “To avoid an endless loop, I will take that offer.” I interjected with a harsh breath, before gesturing to the tablet in front of us. “That entire… exchange. Between your commands and the messages on your artifices, is this how you typically communicate between you and your swarm?” “Yeah.” Emma nodded. “Remember how I changed the scenery in the ZNK-19? This is more or less the same concept, just scaled up.” I narrowed my eyes, pondering a response as I once more leaned into the manaless window. A window… into the eyes and ears of what was frankly a swarm. Thoughts upon thoughts abounded one atop the other, with practical concerns clashing against the shore of intrigue, eroding what was already firm suspicion into outright conspiracy about the nature of Earthrealm. Or more accurately, the nature of their military capabilities. However, in spite of everything, all I allowed out of my mouth was a simple acknowledgement. “I see.” Instead, I took a moment to pause, to ponder, as I watched through the looking glass at the world through the eyes of a swarm queen. Each ‘perspective’ was composited — a mosaic of sights that resembled the world as seen through the eyes of bees, wasps, and any number of oddly eyed insects, their vision as alien as the manaless artifice through which it was relayed. I let out another breath before shifting my perspective back to Emma. “I simply feel the need to ask, as the abilities displayed here seem… seamless, practiced, rehearsed, and dare I say it, second nature. This wasn’t a simple command relayed to a static sightseer. This was the direct control of multiple manaless golems, as seamlessly as if they were an extension of yourself.” “Yeah, well, that’s because it kind of is! As in, mental adaptability is something that’s useful for us. You put someone in charge of a bunch of far-seers in a building, and they eventually come to ‘feel’ as if the building itself is an extension of them, you know? Same goes for helmsmen and ships, pilots and aircraft, and so on and so forth. Drone operators — i.e. most frontline personnel — are trained similarly. We have to integrate seamlessly into battlenet, because a second’s hesitation or delay might be what makes or breaks an engagement.” I took a moment to ponder that, to truly examine the seemingly spiritual connection between the human and their constructs. In a sense, it wasn’t unlike the bond between myself and Emberstride, or the soulstitched or soulbound bonds in many other battlemages, warriors, and knights. Yet as similar as it was, there was still… an unnerving alienness to it. Whatever the case was, I simply acknowledged the swarm queen’s sentiments with a nod before throwing the proverbial talking stick back to her court. “Your turn.” Emma “So, you mentioned chosen ones. I’ve heard this term thrown around a lot, especially at the adventuring guild. But no one’s really… explained it to me. So I've just kinda been going off of context clues and what we’ve learned about gifted commoners so far. Are chosen ones just another, more ‘fancier’ way of saying ‘gifted commoners’ or…?” “Correct, Emma.” Thalmin nodded. “Although, the term ‘chosen one’ is more often synonymous with gifted commoners who enter more martial paths. As opposed to, say, our elf server in the grand dining hall who’s only committed to using his magic for parlor tricks.” “How big of a threat are we talking about here? Because up to this point, I’ve only gone up against mages in challenges and whatnot. A proper fight is something I’ve only encountered once with Mal’tory and that was—” Thalmin snickered, stopping me in my tracks. “What’s so funny?” “If you survived an encounter with a Black-Robed Professor, I doubt you’ll have any issues against a mere Chosen One, Emma.” Thalmin bellowed out confidently, patting me on the shoulder. “Though, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be on our toes, of course. I’ve met many a chosen one who punched well above their weight class — using enchanted weapons and tools as crutch for their magical limitations, seamlessly integrating with them. To the point where the typical commoner might even mistake them for a mage at first glance. Though, typically, once you see a chosen one in action, you’ll know exactly what to expect. Since in the same vein that gifted commoners are ‘gifted’ with a single narrow sliver of magical acumen, so too are chosen ones confined to a very small sliver of magical potential.” “Right.” I nodded, my mind racing through the implications of this newfound intel. “Just so we’re on the same page, supposing there’s a guy who’s able to do fire magic, he’d more or less be locked to just fire magic, right?” “That’s simplifying the matter, but for our purposes, you’ve struck the kobold on the head there, Emma. There are, however, always exceptions to the rule. Such is the case with the jack-of-all-trades. But those are exceptionally rare, and usually only seen in illegitimate offspring between nobles and commoners.” The prince explained bluntly. “Even then, these individuals are still very much orders of magnitude weaker than true mages, but I digress. Suffice it to say, Emma, we’ll be fine.” Thalmin beamed, thumping his chest. “Look who you’ve partnered with, after all.” “Yeah, fair enough, my mercenary prince.” I chuckled. The next few moments were finally punctuated by silence as we watched the camp grow tent by tent. The drones counted at least a hundred or so contacts, and as dusk fully settled, quite a few peculiarities popped up. Most notable among these was the erection of some sort of altar at least half a click from the camp, with offerings wrapped in parchment carefully placed on each pedestal. “Erm… care to fill me in on that, Thalmin?” I pointed. “Oh, that’s just an offering, Emma.” The prince explained casually. To which I could only respond with an accentuated cock of my head. “Elaborate.” “An offering to placate the forest itself, Emma. To ward off potential… negative reactions to what could otherwise be perceived as an incursion of its territory.” I blinked rapidly, cocking my head. “Is that an actual thing, or a superstition?” “You’ve interacted with the forest face-to-face with one of its avatars, have you not, Emma?” The prince countered, as it took a second for my mind to finally register what the prince was getting at. “OH RIGHT! THE WEREBEAST!” I attempted to snap my fingers, only to elicit an unsatisfying motion that puzzled the lupinor. “Right, yeah, I remember now. So that actually was the forest talking through it, then? It never occurred to me to follow up on that, thinking it was just like, the werebeast being all high and mighty about himself.” “The werebeast might’ve merely been the most convenient enforcer at the time, I suppose. Though I can’t say for certain. Frankly, a forest is often an enigmatic force of nature unto itself. With some primitive cultures even going so far as to consider them gods of sorts.” Thalmin shrugged. “Though, given His Eternal Majesty refused to consume them — instead forging some sort of an alliance or some such — I doubt they’re anywhere near the level of deities.” “So what can we expect from the forest?” I immediately shot back, my mind still very much stuck in rapid response and assessment mode. “Are we looking at, like… an immune reaction or something? Vines and tendrils shooting up, moss to consume us whole, sinkholes forming, and slime creatures attacking?” “We’re not facing a druid, Emma.” Thalmin responded with a hefty chuckle. “If anything, we have no need to worry given the makeup of our current party. Forests typically do not target small groups, so long as they do not actively seek out their destruction. Moreover, with you being effectively lifeless in its eyes, there’s even less chance of it targeting us. Indeed, the presence of a far larger, more unsightly group in its Northwest region, will take up much of its attention.” I narrowed my eyes at Thalmin, crossing my arms to make up for the lack of facial expression to convey a certain level of doubt in the prince’s claims. “So… burning a good few acres of forest doesn’t count as actively seeking out its destruction, huh?” I chuckled darkly, alluding to a certain fight against a vorpal chimera. The prince surprisingly didn’t immediately counter this with an excuse or a loophole. Instead, he let out a nervous chuckle, a sly grin forming on his face in short order. “Heh, well… you could say I overlooked the potential consequences of my actions in the heat of the moment.” I placed a hand on the prince’s shoulder, gripping it tightly. “Spoken like a true orbital ordnance officer.” The prince’s brows quirked at this, possibly at the EVI’s attempts to translate the joke, but I counted it as fair game given the inside jokes he’d been leveling at me for the past week. Things wound down after a few more back-and-forths, our eyes still very much monitoring the situation over in the camp from above, until we finally noticed something else that caught our attention. “Huh. That’s a heck of a lot of cheese.” I noted. “I guess they had a run-in with our new friend.” Thalmin smiled brightly. “He’s quite a salesman, so it stands to reason that he must’ve made quite an impression on our interlopers here. Probably sold most of his stock from the looks of it.” “Yeah! Honestly, good for him.” I beamed as I quickly patted the pouch that held the little notebook the kobold had gifted me. I can’t wait to see the upgrades to your cart and wares once we meet again. I thought brightly to myself. Dragon’s Heart Tower, Level 23, Residence 29. Ilphius and Kamil’s Room. Local Time: 1730 Hours Ilphius “Kamil.” I announced firmly, making my presence known with a SLAM of the doors. “It’s time you came out of hiding.” … Yet no answer came. I let out a frustrated sigh, clenching my fists, before unleashing fury in the form of disruption, disorientation, and dispelling magics which would’ve caused even the most stoic of mages to lose their footing. The result was immediate. Though not in the way I’d expected. Yaaaawwwwwnnnnnnnn! A voice strained from within one of the corners of the room as the lazy layabout finally uncloaked, focusing his two beady eyes on me. “I’m guessing your second and final proposal with Lady Airit did not go as planned?” The coward spoke with a lizard-like lisp, as a smug, self-satisfied giggle colored his voice. “At least I had the courage and mental fortitude to take chances.” I rebutted. “At least I exist in the material world.” I continued as I leveled both ire and frustration firmly against the wayward noble. “Yes, yes. Exist you do. Perhaps you should allow me to return to my immaterial world then—” “Stop.” I urged, my voice colored not by desperation, but authority. This did the trick, as the barely present lizard reacted without a second’s hesitation. His instinctive response to authority, true authority, was laid bare to me. “Whilst Lady Airit may lack vision, playing things safe as her master tends to do, I am unwilling to let this opportunity slip us by. This is why I am reassessing the situation, and requesting your cooperation in enacting my plans.” I stated firmly, eliciting a disgusting and debased roll of the lizard’s tongue as he seemed to mock my occasional tongue-flared hiss. “I sssseeeee.” He responded jeeringly before stretching his arms and legs lazily in all directions. “Convince me.” “Excuse me?!” “You heard what I said: convince me. I have no horse in this race, Lady Ilphius. The worst you can do is to interrupt my sleep and scatter my belongings… but it isn’t as if you aren’t already doing that now, are you?” He chuckled derisively, causing my whole body to tense and burn from the inside out. “When my plan succeeds—” “If.” “No, when it does.” I seethed. “When it does succeed… I will be in a better position to retake the peer group’s throne from that wretched merchant. And when that time comes, I will make sure to elevate our group, to push us forward, and to place us in a position where we can challenge the earthrealmer’s group for a position in the house we were robbed of.” … “Sounds quite ambitious…” “Indeed it is.” I acknowledged. “And by ambitious I mean tiresome, Lady Ilphius.” The man yawned. “I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to do this on your own.” “I’ll unmask Teleos Lophime’s secret. I will uncover what it is he’s hiding in the healing wing.” I offered. “Hmm… now you’re speaking my language. Though you’ll have to give me more than just juicy drama to eat up.” Kamil chuckled darkly. “Coin.” I spat out. “Coin, you lazy, whiny, layabout—” “Carte blanche.” He countered. “Whatever spoils we may potentially earn from this escapade, yes.” I pushed forth a secondary counteroffer. To which the man finally relented with a long, drawn-out nod. “What’s your plan?” “I know there must be something that might incriminate the pair. That wretched and tainted avinor is most obviously a beacon of darkness. And the Vunerian? I’ve heard whispers of him slithering off to the libraries for some enigmatic purposes. Our task is to follow these two blighted beasts, and to determine once and for all what devious rule-breaking, or perhaps even law-breaking schemes they may be up to.” “Huh.” Kamil responded simply. “That’s easy enough.” “Indeed, and with your masterful camouflage skills, this will be even more—” “We’ll start tomorrow then. I’m tired from today’s classes.” He yawned once more. “No.” I seethed, grabbing him by the half-transparent arm. “We’re starting today.” The Transgracian Academy for the Magical Arts. The Grand Dining Hall. Local Time: 2000 Hours Ilphius “Ahem.” Kamil interrupted, tugging at my uniform as he did so. “Are you certain the pair are up to anything—” “It’s just dinner, Kamil. Maybe if we trail them after this, we will see just what illicit activities they’re up to.” I intercepted the man’s concerns before he had a chance to fully voice them, as I continued eating, bite by agonizing bite, while maintaining a careful sentry on the pair. “You know you’re only resorting to such passive actions because without Lady Airit or Lady Ladona, you simply don’t have the power to go toe-to-toe against—” “Keep quiet!” Dragon’s Heart Tower, Level 23, Hallway. Local Time: 2200 Hours Ilphius “It’s curfew now. We have to go back.” “I was certain they’d have gone anywhere but back to their room! Are you sure we did not follow phantoms? Or maybe we might have missed their subtle exit through some other—” “Yes, I’m certain, Lady Ilphius. You’re talking to the master of camouflage here.” Kamil responded lazily. “Alright. We’ll just resume our sentry tomorrow.” “And if nothing comes of tomorrow?” He countered. “I have other avenues…” The Next Day The Transgracian Academy for the Magical Arts. The Grand Dining Hall en Route to ???. Local Time: 0900 Hours Ilphius “Still nothing, Lady Ilphius.” “Patience, Kamil! Look! They’re leaving!” “And what makes you think they’re not just heading back to their dormitory?” “Because look—” I pointed urgently at their path. “—they’re taking the main stairwell this time around.” “Which means what exactly?” “They’re headed to the student lounge.” “Oh joy.” Kamil sighed quietly. The Transgracian Academy for the Magical Arts. Student Lounge. Local Time: 1200 Hours Ilphius “And I said, ‘Panned cakes! It should be called panned cakes! For the cakes were made in a pan.’ But my private chef, in their infinite stupidity, refuses to acknowledge this, pushing forth a narrative of pan-cakes instead! Tell me, my dear fellows, are the cakes not panned? For a cake to be a pan-cake, it should somehow resemble a pan or in some way—” “He’s been at this, on the speaker’s chair, for hours now, Lady Ilphius.” Kamil bemoaned. “Are you certain this is what you seek?” “No… but what of the avinor—” “She’s been silently reading a book, sipping tea and eating nuts, occasionally being interrupted by the freaks from the fourth nook only to be rebuked. I’ve kept my other eye on her this entire time.” “Patience. Patience, Kamil. We will have our evidence.” The Transgracian Academy for the Magical Arts. En Route to the Library. Local Time: 1400 Hours. Ilphius “There it is, there it is! We must follow him!” I urged, as we both silently scouted our way forwards, ducking in illusory magics until the Vunerian had entered that most unholy of places. We waited for several minutes more until we made our move, walking across the bridge and then entering the den of unspeakable evils to continue our investigation. Yet upon entry, we were met not by the scurrying of the increasingly pale-blue Vunerian, or any sign of him whatsoever. Instead, what awaited us was a small fox that looked up at both of us expectantly. “State your business! Do you wish to browse or to trade?” The fox questioned before moving up to sniff at the both of us, as if our illusory magics weren’t even there. “Hmm… neither of you seem to have anything to trade. Rather stale, honestly.” “How dare you—” “I’ve heard it much before, yes yes. Grumble and grumble, moan and whine. Let’s skip to the end now, shall we? Are you here to browse or to trade?” We both looked at each other before nodding. “Kamil, you—” “I’ll browse, please.” The man sighed, eliciting a nod from the fox, who simply… vanished the moment I turned to look back. “I’ll keep an eye on the avinor. We’ll meet for dinner.” “Right.” The Transgracian Academy for the Magical Arts. The Grand Dining Hall. Local Time: 1900 Hours Ilphius “Well look who finally decided to show up…” I hissed softly at an exhausted-looking Kamil. “Found anything?” “No. I barely got out of that impossible labyrinth!” He seethed. “The deal’s off, by the way. There’s nothing in it for me. The fun’s over.” He crossed his arms. “And I doubt you found anything interesting about the avinor either.” I moved to speak… but found that I had nothing at all to say. “No, I have not.” I stated plainly. “But I have one final plan to enact…” I offered, garnering the man’s attention. “...what is it this time?” “The pair, they are both here, are they not?” “Yes, they are. What of it?” “This makes for the perfect opportunity to… investigate their den of sin.” “You can’t be serious. You can’t just break into another dorm.” He countered. “Au contraire. I can… and I will. And whatever is in there… I shall have my spoils.” The Nexus. Southeastern Quadrant of the North Rythian Forests. Local Time: 1900 Hours. Emma The relative ‘downtime’ that was the past 26 hours felt a heck of a lot like the fulfillment of one of Aunty Ran’s sayings. A lot of war is a whole load of sitting around doing nothing. Except for the one percent of times where all hell breaks loose and you’re fighting within an inch of your life. You use that 99% to prepare for the 1%. Or at least that’s what they say. I just prayed that we wouldn’t experience the latter half of that anecdote. [‘QUEST’ Time Elapsed: 102 Hours. Time Remaining: 66 Hours] [SURVEY PROGRESS… 100%. Estimated time to Completion… 0 Hours. Data Fidelity: N/A. Network Integrity: N/A. Charging. Primary Objective… Pending.] [Fleet Status: Charging.] [Crystal Shards… Not found.] [AMETHYST DRAGON… Not found.] “Right, do you want the good news or the bad news, Thalmin?” “We’ve been sitting around waiting for your drones to do most of the work. Let’s at least get some good news, Emma.” The prince grumbled. “Right, well, good news! Our interloper friends have not detected our presence, nor our drones. That’s even with their Shatorealmer flying around. Also, the drakes seem to be in hibernate mode or something. They’ve only flown them once, though granted it knocked a good few hours off of our survey time.” “Okay… I’m assuming the bad news is that there’s no stray crystal shard.” Thalmin sighed out. “Correct.” I nodded. “Damnit.” Thalmin cursed. “Well then, it seems like we’ll just have to go dragon hunting now, won’t we?” He managed bravely under a nervous grin. “Once the drones are charged up, I’ll be redirecting survey efforts towards tracking down the amethyst dragon’s lair. Given we have the whole forest mapped out now, it shouldn’t be too long before we narrow down a list of POI’s—” [PRIORITY ALERT! MULTIPLE AERIAL CONTACTS ENTERING THE AO! RANGE… 1400 METERS!] My blood ran cold as I tapped Thalmin on the shoulder, shooting him a look which he could not interpret. Though I wouldn’t need to, because what happened next brought the man up to his feet. “AGHGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!” As a bloodcurdling scream, followed by the unmistakable FWOOOOSH! of fire erupted about a click north of our position. We had only one drone in the air, but that’d have to do. “QSR: Identify contacts.” [Estimated Count: 1 Large Contact] [TRACK ID: AMETHYST DRAGON] I felt my stomach clench as my arm moved to activate the railgun. Though I only did so out of precaution— [Estimated Count: 2 Small Contacts] [TRACK ID: Winged Light 2-1, 2-2.] —because we weren’t alone in this engagement. We didn’t need to watch what was transpiring on the tablet, as the action was close enough that the light foliage of the canopy allowed for a near-unimpeded view of the skies. Two drake riders were attempting desperate sorties against the dragon, as they moved to corral, slash, and even ensnare the dragon with rope, netting, and just about everything but the kitchen sink. This was all in a desperate attempt to save their ground forces from the brunt of the dragon’s fury, as we saw a small group of elves, dwarves, satyrs, kobolds, and even baxi desperately attempting to flee from the dragon’s ire — away from the wall of flames that halted their advance. However, with every advance towards a potential exfil route, the dragon shot out another line of fire, corralling them towards a path of its own design. It was as if the dragon was doing this on purpose, as if it was actively playing with its prey, giving them a false sense of hope of escape… only to snip that thin thread of reprieve away with the unbridled fury of dragonflame. We both watched in silence as this group of mercenaries was eventually boxed in, their last exfil route completely bathed in flames, leaving them in a literal box of fire that only grew closer and closer, with no potential of being put out. Though it wasn’t as if they didn’t try. As one of them — a blue-robed satyr — attempted to spray down the flames with some healthy jets of water, all to the tune of some weak bursts of mana radiation. The dragon, noticing this, flew low and slow, almost hovering in front of the satyr. The bassy BOOMS of its wingbeats shook the air, accelerating the ferocity of the raging inferno, sending even Thalmin’s fur into a shiver and my gut into a knot. Their eyes met, and in what I could only describe as a snort of amethyst embers and soot, it roared. SKREEAAAUUUUUCHHHHHHH!!!! A crackling noise soon followed, sparks haphazardly illuminating the dark of its throat. Then, a subtle ping of a mana radiation spike. Finally, a sudden FWOOOOSH enveloped all auditory channels. … Bright blue dragonflame, orders of magnitude larger than the satyr’s jet of water, vaporized everything it came into contact with… The water— Skkksshhhhhhhh —the foliage— Crackle! Hiss! —and finally, the satyr and his forward scouting party. Their screams were short-lived. But even so, the chorus of guttural bellows and bloodcurdling shrieks echoed into the night, each note and octave searing deep into my core. “Emma—” I heard a distant voice calling. But my body was frozen, my eyes staring blankly at the impressions of boots and hooves rendered into baked clay on the forest floor. “EMMA! We have to move!” Thalmin shouted, breaking through the haze of shock, as he attempted to shake me out of it. I blinked rapidly, staring at his finger as he gestured to the dragon moving to gain altitude, with the two drake riders in hot pursuit. This was our chance to tag and follow it. So without a second thought, I acknowledged Thalmin’s urgings. “Right.” Before quickly turning to the EVI. “EVI. Send the survey drone after it. Observe maximum threat range and stay clear of its sightline." “Query: Specify survey drone.” “The one we currently have in the air! SUR-DRONE03B—” I paused, my heart skipping a beat as I noticed something pop up on my HUD. [SUR-DRONE03… STATUS… CRITICAL DAMAGE… REQUESTING RETRIEVAL AND EXFIL] I craned my head up, following the ping of the lost survey drone, until I was met with the dragon roaring overhead. ROOOOOOOAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR! And while its roar tore across the silence of the night, a familiar red pulse emanated from a crevice on its back — a tiny antenna piercing deep into the empty dark. First | Previous | Next (Author's Note: And there we have it! :D The dragon makes its appearance, alongside a certain missing drone from back during the warehouse explosion! :D I hope you guys enjoy the chapter! :D The next Two Chapters are already up on Patreon if you guys are interested in getting early access to future chapters.) (Author's Note 2: Here's the Updated Map for Emma and Thalmin's progress so far! :D) [If you guys want to help support me and these stories, here's my ko-fi ! And my Patreon for early chapter releases (Chapter 150 and Chapter 151 of this story is already out on there!)] submitted by /u/Jcb112 to r/HFY [link] [comments]

I'm trying to fly with an ez up camping cube and so I want the "sport" model because it packs down smaller than the standard. The only pop-up canopy that collapses small enough to be a checked bag without exceeding the oversized limits, is a straight leg 10x10. Does anyone with a camping cube sport know if the attachment points are long enough to attach to a straight leg canopy? submitted by /u/monkey_crunk to r/camping [link] [comments]

Hello, I go car camping a few times a year and I need a new canopy for the kitchen. I've gone through 2 Ez up canopies and a thunderstorm (specifically the rain) killed them both. Seems like a hard rain kills ez ups. It definitely collected water in the fabric, leading to overloading the frame. Any recommendations for more rain worthy pop up canopies? I know to actively drain them but that doesn't work at 2am. I know how to construct something with a tarp, telescoping poles, and rope but trees aren't always in the right place at campgrounds for that. I very much want a pop up canopy but I'm never buying ez up ever again. Thanks. submitted by /u/BlueWolverine2006 to r/camping [link] [comments]