In a few days I’ll be heading to Campo, California to start the Pacific Crest Trail, beginning a long walk from the Mexico to Canada.

I’ll be joined again for this hike by my niece, “Sparky,” who I hiked with in 2023 on the Appalachian Trail.

Pace Setter, now Mrs. Blevins, is going to be supporting and visiting me a few times as I head northbound, but she has adventures in her plans for this summer as well.

As you may know, April is a long-time reading and writing specialist. Her focus for the past few years has been tutoring children with dyslexia.

Last fall, she was invited to work as a reading coach this summer Camp Spring Creek in the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina. The camp is highly regarded for using the Orton-Gillingman method of instruction, April’s specialty!

At camp, she’ll have her own private suite, complete with her own office for one-on-one tutoring sessions. Students stay for six weeks so the camp has a ton of outdoor activities – including BACKPACKING and HIKING! April is thrilled at the mix of two of her passions in one job.

When April decided to take the position, she suggested that since she would be gone this summer that I should thru-hike the PCT. We worked out the details to hurricane-proof our home, Avemar, and now we have a plan! We’ll both be in the mountains and hiking!

I am not going to post full YouTube videos on this hike like we did on the AT last year but I do plan on recording a short YouTube Short ever day. I will also keep sharing the “One Year Ago Today” notes from the 2025 Appalachian Trail thru-hike.

Finally, both for this article and because I won’t be staring at a computer screen programming an app anymore, the Hiker Trash app is ready for the Apple Store for iPhones and the Google Play store for Android!

If you are a through hiker on long trails or would like to log your day-hikes, join the tramily and download the app. If you just want to follow along as I log my daily miles for this 2600 mile through-hike, click here to see my progress in your web browser.

Happy Trails!

Uncle Bill

Here is the link to download the Hiker Trash for your iPhone.

Please send feedback using: Hiker Trash App Support Site if you find bugs!

The new version of Hiker Trash is live and ready for testing on Android devices. Since it’s not on the Play Store yet, you’ll need to “sideload” it.

Please send feedback using the link at the bottom of this page because I don’t have a physical Android device to test, only a simulator. Thanks!

1. Visit: https://HikerTrash.app

2. Click: Request Early Access

3. Install: Follow the instruction to download the link from Google Drive.

Send bug reports or feedback using the Support page on the Hiker Trash website.

The Hiker Trash app was launched tonight! I need your boots on the ground to test it.

Next month, I’m heading off to hike the PCT. But, before I lose cell service and get swallowed by the trail, I need to make sure this app is completely bug-free and ready for the public App Store for iPhones and Android devices.

The first 250 users will get the exclusive “Original Hiker Trash” birthday icon on their profile and an award on their lifetime analytics page.

What is Hiker Trash?

If you’re an avid hiker, this is the digital multi-tool you’ve been waiting for. It’s designed to help you:

• Track your daily mileage and build a permanent resume of your past and planned hikes.

• Keep tabs on your friends using the live map and the Tramily Dashboard.

• Build your lifetime hiking resume.

Who I’m Looking For

I need feedback from the entire hiking community. Whether you are a past or present Thru-hiker, a LASHer, a Section Hiker, or a Day-hiker, your input is critical.

How to Get The Hiker Trash App

🍎 For iOS Users:

1. Visit the Hiker Trash website to download the app!

🤖 For Android Users:
I’ve been heavily focused on the iOS build, so Android testers will be my true early adopters!

• Visit the Hiker Trash website for the secure Google Drive link to download the Android version directly to your phone.

Help me squash these final bugs before I hit the PCT.

See you on the trail!

It’s Car Photography Week. To see more car photos visit:
https://randomcapture.substack.com/p/carweek

For years, we both had show alerts set for Jon Batiste and Trombone Shorty.

April’s Jon Batiste alert hit first and she bought us tickets as a Valentine’s Day present. They were performing TOGETHER!

Last night at The Hangar, the stars finally aligned. Seeing them headline the 2026 Montreux Jazz Festival in Coconut Grove was spiritual.

I’ve been shooting concerts since Crosby, Stills & Nash–yes, the concert where Neil Young surprised everyone with the encore performance–at The Mothership in '86.

This shot from my iPhone last night is easily in my Top 5 concert shots from the past 39 years.

If you aren't listening to these two, you’re missing out!

One year ago today—February 13, 2025—April and I passed under the stone arch at Georgia’s Amicalola Falls State Park. It was the first step of a seven-month Appalachian Trail thru-hike that would eventually lead us to the summit of Mt. Katahdin in Maine.

Why did we start in February when most hikers wait until late March or April? Well, April (later known as “Pace Setter” on the trail) grew up in southern Florida and had never seen snow. She suggested February, and since we were already looking at a mid-month start, I suggested Valentine’s Day.

The day before our official start, we checked in at the Appalachian Trail Conservancy office, registered our thru-hike, and posed for the classic photo under the arch. After a short hike up the mountain past the famous falls, we spent the night at the park’s lodge. The next morning, we hiked to “Mile 0” atop Springer Mountain to officially begin our journey northward.

Throughout the trek, we posted YouTube videos whenever we could. We called it the “AT Comedy Channel,” and we’ve been told they’re pretty entertaining—but I’ll let you judge that for yourself.

Tomorrow, exactly one year since we first stepped foot on the AT, I’ll begin posting “One Year Ago Today” photos in the Notes section of this site. I’m actually preparing for a Pacific Crest Trail thru-hike in April 2026, but I plan to edit and upload these 2025 AT photos daily as internet access allows.

As for April’s wish for a snowy February start? It worked out. Oh, it worked out! She saw snow—lots and lots of snow.

For those who think you don’t have an impactful way to show your opposition to what’s going on in the government here in the United States right now, and you’re only plan is waiting around to vote in the mid-terms, I’ve posted a video below that shows a simple way you can have an impact.

Or, for those of you who are supportive, or ambivalent, to the current administration’s actions and policies, this same link is also for you and, it can potentially save you a lot of money.

So far, I’ve unsubscribed from:

Washington Post
Apple TV+
Apple Music
Apple Arcade
Facebook
Paramount+
X/Twitter
Microsoft Office
LinkedIn
Instagram

Here’s the site:

https://www.resistandunsubscribe.com

Here’s an interview with the professor who created the site:

In twenty-eight, the banners wave,
They say the nation’s “strong and brave.”
Gold letters gleam on downtown glass,
And deals move fast—then faster—past.

A ledger speaks in tidy sums:
New plants, new ports, the humming drums.
At borders, floodlights stitch the night,
A promised “order,” hard and bright.

In Minneapolis, winter breath
Turns metal to a finer edge—
Three thousand badges, staged and sworn,
A city “surged” from dusk to morn.

And ICE moves close, a shadow hymn,
Doorways marked, then swallowed dim;
A clipboard, zip-ties, radios—
A street made narrow, heel to toe.

Then comes the phrase that chills the air:
“She impeded—she was there.”
“Stalking,” “harassing,” words like chain,
To make a witness sound like blame.

A citizen, a mother, dead—
A school run finished, then the lead.
The muzzle flash, the broken day,
A nation watching videos play.

They argue what the law allows,
How force can fit inside its vows;
Some prosecutors fold their files,
Some quit in anger, miles and miles.

And on the corners, people learn
That “protest” can become a term—
A charge, a label, paperwork,
A knock at night, a practiced smirk.

In other streets, the “less-lethal” rain
Finds eyes and faces all the same;
Two blinded, they say “close-range,”
And cameras shake, and sirens clang.

The winners toast the calmer screen:
Lower risk, a steadier green.
They buy the dip, they buy the town,
They buy the story going down.

But on the block where paychecks thin,
The math still bites beneath the grin.
Rent climbs the stairs two steps at once,
While wages hobble, out of breath.

The middle holds a fraying rope,
Knots tied from overtime and hope.
They learn new tools, new bots, new charts,
And trade their weekends for their parts.

And still, at night, the porches glow,
With talk of “then” and “now” and “so”—
Some swear the nation found its spine,
Some whisper, “Who gets left behind?”

Greatness blazes, billboard-tall,
A spotlight cutting through the smog—
But when a citizen can fall
For “in the way,” the shadow’s long.

April and I completed our 2,000+ mile Appalachian Trail thru-hike on September 24, 2025. After the trek was done, we returned to our sailing home, Avemar, in Florida, where we’re already planning our next adventures.

We’re still hiking and walking almost daily. The photo above was taken this evening on a walk through the scrub—deep sandy trails in Seabranch Preserve State Park—near where we’ve been moored through the holidays.

Since we’ve returned, April has been rebuilding her tutoring company, Your Next Chapter Tutoring, where she remotely teaches students with dyslexia and other reading challenges, helps students with scholarship applications, and supports language arts and literature coursework.

You may remember from earlier posts that April was in the classroom for 33 years, teaching across every grade level. She retired the day she moved aboard Avemar—back in May 2024—on her last day of school.

I know I wrote about it at the time. She left her classroom that day, locked the door, drove to the boat, and we left Port Salerno, Florida. That evening we were already offshore in the Gulf Stream, sailing north toward Rhode Island.

April specializes in helping kids with dyslexia learn to read and write and perform at grade level. She’s been using research-based methods in her private tutoring work for ten years, and she’s now training as an Orton-Gillingham Associate-in-Training. The Orton-Gillingham approach is widely considered the gold standard for teaching struggling readers. Her final assessments are at a summer camp in the mountains of North Carolina in summer 2026, where she’ll be teaching and hiking with her students.

And there’s more: April is also working part-time at Western Governors University in a role where she evaluates student teachers during their in-classroom practicums before graduation. In other words, she helps determine when they’re ready to teach.

With her hands full this year—and with the goal of getting back to 100% remote work so we can keep exploring the world on Avemar—I’ve got plans to do something new as well.

On April 13, I’ll be starting a NOBO hike of the Pacific Crest Trail. It’s a 2,600+ mile trail from Mexico to Canada through the deserts and mountains of California, then north through Oregon and Washington to the Canadian border. We’ve got a map on the wall, and we’re planning the towns along the way where April can come hike a bit and visit during breaks.

I also wanted to note that I’ll be posting more on Substack—sharing briefs and photos as I hike the PCT this year—and then as we prep the boat with two major projects this fall so we can begin cruising full-time in early 2027.

During 2025, I couldn’t post much from the trail beyond the occasional link to our YouTube videos. Now that we’re back and settled in, I’m going to remove the posts that are only a YouTube embed to clean up the homepage.

Our 134+ Appalachian Trail YouTube videos can be found in a single playlist here:

If you’ve been following along on YouTube, you’ll notice the videos are still catching up—we’re currently posting the New Jersey section even though we finished the trail on September 24, 2025. I have over 13,000 photos and unedited video from the remainder of the hike, and I’ll keep adding episodes to the playlist incrementally until the full journey is documented.

I’m mostly posting so we have the entire hike preserved, but I’m also thrilled that people have enjoyed following along. I’m a bit sad we couldn’t post videos in real time, but on-trail connectivity was spotty at best—and once I got behind, it was hard to keep the timeline synced with our progress. Either way, I’m going to post all of the videos from the trail.

My goal for 2026 is to post at least one Substack “Note” per day. It may be only a photo. It may be a video. It may be a short note about the day.

You’ll find “Notes” in the top menu bar of this site. I’ll do my best to share at least one update per day for the entire PCT hike here on Substack.

I did purchase a ZOLEO satellite communicator for this hike, which I did not have on the Appalachian Trail. If I can’t get a post to upload, I’ll send it to April to schedule for me so we can keep a steady flow of updates.

I hope all of you are well—and for those in the Southeast and Northeast right now, I hope you stay safe, fed, and warm as this storm rolls through over the weekend!

Thank you for watching the first video of our adventures as we through hiked the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. We took video and photos for the entire hike and if you want to follow along, they are all posted on our YouTube channel and you can click here to jump to that playlist.

While preparing to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail this year, I’ve been refining how I want to manage my photo workflow and file storage on my iPhone and Fuji camera on the roughly 2,200-mile trip.

The Photographer’s Playbook includes 307 photography ideas, lesson plans, and assignments contributed for publication by photography teachers.

I picked an assignment to complete on a 2-mile walk from the boat to retrieve my mail this morning.

I shot “from the hip” with my Fuji X100VI every 60 seconds. Here are a few of the 57 unedited images.

America Is Great Again

by ChatGPT

Golden towers kiss the sky,
Fortunes bloom as markets fly.
The wealthy dine on finest fare,
Sip champagne without a care.

Taxes cut and profits soar,
More for them, yet still want more.
Private jets and ocean views,
A world where they can never lose.

Laws are written with their hand,
Shaping rules to suit demand.
From marble halls, they gaze below,
Watching cities shine and glow.

The world is theirs, a grand parade,
Built upon the deals they’ve made.
A dream fulfilled, a wish come true,
For just the lucky, wealthy few.

The middle class walks a line,
Between the stars and steep decline.
Once they dreamed of brighter days,
Now they work through endless haze.

Homes still stand, but debt runs deep,
Bills arrive, no time for sleep.
A college fund? A distant thought,
With rising costs, all plans are fraught.

They hold on tight, they play it safe,
Afraid to slip, afraid to break.
Hope still flickers, dim yet strong,
They hum the tune, they sing along.

Yet in their hearts, a silent fear—
How long until they disappear?

Steel boots stomp on factory floors,
Yet hunger lingers at their doors.
The promised land, a distant gleam,
Replaced by shifts that steal their dream.

The safety nets are threadbare thin,
A battle lost they cannot win.
The doctor’s bill, the rent unpaid,
A life of toil, yet still afraid.

Their voices rise, yet few will hear,
Drowned beneath the sounds of cheer.
For wealth is bright, its towers tall,
While shadows stretch for those who fall.

Greatness glows, but not for all,
Some still struggle, some still crawl.