PCT Episode 13 - Reading Kerouac in the Smoky Woods

[@papafoster16]

So Close Jack! Brimming with anticipation!!!

[@ishaysachs514]

"To me, a mountain is a Buddha. Think of the patience. Hundreds of thousands of years just sittin there being perfectly perfectly silent. Like praying for all living creatures in that silence and just waitin for us to stop all our frettin and foolin." Loved that sequence so badly. awesome stuff. The mountains always give me this mythological-spiritual sensation. I strongly remember the walk towards Mt Shasta for example. Seeing him for days if not weeks in the distance. perceiving him as a breathing entity, beyond a naturalistic ontology. and walking slowly towards him as if we are walking towards a sacred tample. A pilgrimage. Also holy shit that is some crazy fire footage. I was just a day ahead if i remember right. blazed through glacier peak to run away from this fire. then waited for salvation in Stehekin. I'm wandering for how long a continuous thru hike of the PCT will be feasible.

[@caitlin.hardee]

Love the uncanny Dharma Bums revelations. Kerouac was also a fire lookout for a short spell up on Desolation Peak in the North Cascades :)) love it when great writers love all these mountain ranges we're still cherishing all these years later. Muir and Kerouac and Abbey and all the rest... - familiar faces again! awww miss all these folks - ackkkkk tent mouse attack!! felt really lucky not to have any invade my Duplex. tent-chewing lil bastards - great music selection and edits - faaackkk that fire footage is nuts. I had the heavy smoke after Stevens but didn't see anything like that, damn. Must have been crazy to have been caught up in an active evac when you just went for resupply and whatnot. Props on having the presence of mind to keep documenting! - ooh ya hiking in an N95, love to have that sweat pooling around my chin lol. Truly a heinous couple days - truly was glorious after the rain came, ahhhh - marmot television 😍

[@CaptainJackHikes]

There may be more Kerouac serendipity to come 😉 - I thought I would get thru mouse free ... but alas, I was raided - Dude, I thought I was escaping the fires by heading west... then woke up in a new fire. It was an intense 24 hour detour... but gave me more perspective on what these situations are like for local residents. Truly wild. - A lot of folks tapped out on that smoky Glacier Peak section... and I don't blame them. But I know we shared the same level of wild-eyed, hare-brained determination by that point... kind of scary to imagine what it would've taken for us to turn around (flames on trail... ?)

[@lauriewiedeman2556]

Your marmot narration had me laughing out loud 😂 Thank you!

[@CaptainJackHikes]

Haha, I'm glad. Sometimes I was like "is this really happening?" ... these fur balls lettin their freak flags fly!

[@majholderer9137]

oh jack

[@CaptainJackHikes]

So crazy. Was Stevens to Stehekin clear for you?

[@rkdavis70]

Loved this episode. "Are you guys dating?" 😂.

[@CaptainJackHikes]

Haha, I'm still on the fence. That may just be their relationship dynamic... half sweet half aggressive.