Hitherin Yawn

Rest day today! I didn’t do any walking, but I did sit down for a live Hitherin Yawn video chat over Zoom. It was a good opportunity to review the week’s highlights (and lowlights) and answer questions from some of the folks who’ve been following along as I completed my first week on the road….

Slackpacking, in case you don’t know it, is when somebody with a car shuttles your pack from one location to another, so all you’ve got to carry during that stretch is maybe a daypack. And sometimes not even that. Foot travel purists might think it’s a breach of the Backpackers Code to let someone shuttle…

Boy, howdy! Did I ever need a short day today! My feet feel like the shanks’ ponies of the apocalypse. I never get blisters. Not since I started wandering three and a half decades ago. But I’ve got ’em all, now. They’re on the balls of my feet, and on the sides where my Teva…

Today was an awesome day, despite (or because of) the rain. It started when I woke up at first light and found out it hadn’t started raining yet. That was good news: it meant I could walk all day in a misty, drizzling fog, but at least my sleeping bag would stay dry. I packed…

Something good will happen. So long as I keep walking and spinning my little yarns, something good is bound to happen. This story’s got legs, and all I gotta do is tell it often enough, or to the right crowd. Sooner or later, this story is gonna start carrying me. I did a performance today…

Cooler today. I thought the clouds might break up as the morning advanced, but they crowded the sky all day. Rain was in the air, though I never felt more than a few scattered drops here and there. I keep hoping some giant in charge of cloud-wringing gets ahold of them overnight and wrings them…

Day 1 is in the books! I couldn’t have asked for better weather: blue skies, a light, cool breeze, temperatures in the 60s F/18 C. No hills. Light traffic. And a place to stay at the end of the day. Cakewalk, all the way. I did 20 miles without breaking a sweat, practically. I dawdled…

“I’m not prepared for this,” I said, just before hoisting my pack and disappearing into the desert for six days. But I was prepared. I had everything I thought I needed. I had plenty of food and a nifty trail app that would help me find water. I had sunscreen and rain gear and a…

Momentum is building! With 25 days to go before the publication of my novel The Legend of Pedestrio and the beginning of my cross-country walking tour, word is beginning to spread. You can help by inviting friends to follow this  page. The success of both ventures (the book & the tour) will depend on word…

We are not going to talk about age. Okay? I’m not going to ask you how old you are, and I’m not going to tell you how old I am. The reason is simple: calendar age has nothing to do with how old a person is. Age is relative, and how old you are has…