Trailjournals

I started a Trailjournals journal for my PCT hike. I'm realizing now that it won't be as good as posting my updates here. When I post them here, I can set it up so that the system automatically emails the post to my mother. Trailjournals lacks those sorts of features.

Also, I was able to show my posts from here on my other web site last year using a PHP script. The HTML that blogger creates is well-formed. The HTML that Trailjournals produces is circa 1997 tag soup. There is no way to style the dates or headings because there are none. Just HTML attributes and font tags. It's a mess. I can still embed it, but it is sucky.

I wish I hadn't started the Trailjournals journal now. I will have to post my entries in both places in order to have all the features I want.

Ultraheavy gear for sale

I'm selling a bunch of stuff on Craigslist. Most of it is old backpacking gear. Is it ethical for an ultralight backpacker to sell ultraheavy gear?

Maybe it is if someone has no gear.

Sun glasses and indecision

I got some Sport Eyz sunglasses. They are just plastic with some foam padding and a cord with a cord lock. No frames. They seem pretty good. Best thing is I can wear my reading glasses underneath. The problem is how to carry them. I can't just fold them and stuff them in a pocket or prop them on my head. They fit rolled up in a small container I have. They come rolled up in an even smaller container, but it seems too small to put them in there again.

I'm having a hard time making up my mind about part of my trip to hike to the PCT from Santa Barbara. A friend of mine suggests hiking through Alder Creek and up Piru Creek. It looks like such a long way. And I've heard that Alder Creek trail is pretty much not there anymore. It would be so exhausting. But then I'd be south of Pyramid Lake and able to hike up Fish Canyon from there after a long roadwalk. Meanwhile, I'm thinking I bet I could find that darn Bailey Trail and accomplish the same thing--getting to the south end of Pyramid Lake and thus to Fish Canyon. If I couldn't find the Bailey Trail, then I could always hike out to Hardluck and then follow all those long roads, hiking frontage roads and then Highway 138 all the way to Hikertown. Not appealing, but at least I can find the way.

I don't know what I should do. Attempt finding a trail that's been abandoned, a trail that Tony and I could barely see on our preview, but was indeed there, a trail that is visible on Google maps satellite view. Or, hike along a river that would get my feet wet and have me climbing over rocks and boulders without a trail for over 10 miles, the only chance to change my mind being to hike whatever progress I made forward in reverse, something I am sure I would be loathe to do. Do they release water from Pyramid Lake into Piru creek? Would I be flooded out while I was trying to sleep?

And I haven't even seen Fish Canyon. But my friend says he's hiked it many times, so it must be ok.

I'm leaning toward finding the Bailey trail through sheer determination. After finding trails all last week, I think I've gotten pretty good at it.

I wish it was time to go. I need a job, something to do!