Dan's walk on Offa's Dyke
In August of 2009, I will hike Offa's Dyke, an ancient wall marking the land border of Wales. There should be lots of historic and prehistoric sites along the 177 mile path.
Dan's walk on Offa's Dyke
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After visiting Florida on Christmas break during 2004, I became fascinated with the ecosystems there, which differ substantially from most of the other places I've hiked. In southern Florida, one can see interesting wildlife several times per hour, as compared to perhaps a few times a day elsewhere in the United States. I decided I'd like to see a lot more of Florida, so I hiked the Florida National Scenic Trail all the way up the peninsula in January and February of 2006. I'll hike some of the panhandle later. See all the details here. |
To me, the perfect hiking trail crosses some number of different ecosystems. If the geology changes in the course of a hike, then, as a consequence, the plant types will change, and so will the animals. And then, you'll see a lot of neat stuff during a hike. So a little after graduating from college, I decided to hike across my home county of San Diego, and perhaps all the way to Canada on the Pacific Crest Trail. For the next dozen years, I dreamed of hiking the full 2650 mile length. The trail covers the three western states of Washington, Oregon, and California, between the Mexican and Canadian borders. I hiked various portions of it over the years, but I quit my job to hike every inch of it in 2003. I started April 8th at the Mexico - U.S. border near Campo California. I hoped to get through the Southern California deserts while the weather was still cool, but I blew it with my early start and got caught in a bunch of snow and ice storms in the Southern California mountain ranges. Other than that, I had a great time. I wanted to hike every inch, but I had to skip couple of forest fires. See the adventures and misadventures through the links below!
Trip Log for April 2003 Trip Log for May 2003 Trip Log for June 2003 Trip Log for July 2003 Trip Log for August 2003 Trip Log for September 2003 Trip Log for October 2003
Here is some how to advice from my 2003 PCT hike.
"How To" Stories
In 1998 I was living in Washington State, and hiked most of that state's PCT. Here are some pictures of some of those trips:
Washington Pacific Crest Trail Hike
Cumberland Island hikes Pinhoti Trail Hike Silver Comet & Chief Ladiga Trails Hike Stories From Other Hikes 
Bonne Terre Mine, (Missouri) SCUBA Trip 
Charleston, South Carolina SCUBA Trip Blue Grotto & Devil's Den Caverns (Florida)SCUBA Trip Pelham, Alabama Quarry SCUBA Trip Key Largo, Florida SCUBA Trip 
Green River Utah Kayak Trip Okefenokee Swamp Kayak Trips
Helping D. M. Therrell High School build a robot (Panthera Robotica) in 2007.
Another D. M. Therrell High School robot in 2008.
In keeping with my ideal of hiking in the most beautiful and interesting places possible, I have a few ideas for future long distance hikes. The trail I'd most like to walk is the 3100 mile Continental Divide Trail. It should have outstanding views, ecosystems from desert through scrub, grassland, forest, alpine, and more, lots of wildlife and desolation, ...sounds perfect to me. Next on the list would be walking from Land's End to John O'Groats in the
United Kingdom, about 1000 miles. The prime attraction on this trail would be all of the historic structures, canals, etcetera. There are multiple trail routes, so I'll have to do a lot of research to pick the right one. I'll be hiking the Offa's Dyke in 2009, shown at right in blue, so I'll have a better idea how this works. Running a distant third, there's a trail that runs the length of the north and south islands of New Zealand, the 1500 mile Te Araroa Trail. New Zealand has many unique animals, and beautiful green rolling hills. I lived and went to school in Auckland, New Zealand, for about 6 months when I was 13. The Camino de Santiago is a system of pilgrimage routes from just about anywhere in Europe to Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain. People have been making this pilgrimage for the last thousand years to visit the remains of Saint James. There are other long trails that cross the Continental Divide, like the 700 mile Grand Enchantment Trail and the 500 mile Colorado Trail, and I wouldn't mind hiking the PCT again either, so there's no shortage of good paths to keep me busy. Or maybe a long kayak trip...