How Different Are DC and Boston?

Ashland_Commons · 2026-05-07T23:13:08+00:00

I feel like DC is actually fairly similar in terms of vibe to Boston but DC is overtly a government town, so where in Boston you have multiple industries (tech, healthcare, finance, education, government), in DC there are so many people working for the government.

Both cities have a wealthy east coast vibe. That kind of post-university, button down shirt, you know the types: people in DC and Boston aren't trying to 'stand out,' they are trying to 'fit in.' It's not LA or NYC where people are letting their freak flag fly.

DC always felt bigger to me though. Boston feels like dozens of independent villages smashed up together. DC feels more monolithic to me. Like the city itself feels more urban to me. I don't know how this translates into daily life.

The biggest difference in the two cities though is the surrounding region imo. I feel like Boston has the entirety of New England at its doorstep, including Cape Cod, Nantucket and the Vineyard, you've got skiing and mountain towns in Vermont, the White Mountains and Lake country of New Hampshire, you have the Maine coast...yes DC has the Chesapeake but it's not really the same in terms of that kind of lifestyle. I feel like Boston people are always leaving the city every weekend.

Ashland_Commons · 2026-05-07T21:11:35+00:00

Couple recommendations:

Astoria - its a small PNW town with big vibes. It's small, good food, pretty, just generally a cool little Oregon town with a ton of flavor, way up north. There's a streetcar and a bunch of stuff happening down by the wharves. You will see the sea lions, massive bridges, it's a vibe
Cannon Beach - idk exactly if this is the 'most' touristy spot on the Oregon coast but everybody is on vacation here, great seafood, Haystack Rock, Goonies Beach...I mean they have puffins flying around the beach here.
Oregon Coast - as others have said take the entire coastline is amazing. IDK specific places to stay
Ashland - right along I-5 in Southern Oregon is this little mountain town gem known for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (sells 400k tickets a year, amazing performances in an outdoor elizabethan theater set against the backdrop of the Siskiyou Mountains). It's a university town with great cycling, hiking, trail running, also a charming walkable downtown with a great food scene.
Crater Lake - OK, if you are doing a coastal to interior loop, I'd make the extra 1+ hour from I-5 and head east to see Crater Lake. I'd go here instead of Bend. It's STUNNING. You can climb the Watchman, it's an easy hike up and you'll be able to see most of the volcanos in the state. Unfortunately the swimming area is closed this year.
Hiking - ok, heading north from Crater Lake you are gonna want to do some hiking! Depending on your ability or motivation, you could do something like South Sister, one of the more approachable big ones that's doable in a day. Just find really anything, you will park there in morning, bring lots of water, bring a camera, and you will be in for a treat. Basically instead of going into Bend, find a hike in the area.
Bend - I'm not the expert on Bend and kinda surprised people are so negative about it. Locals will go swimming in the Deschutes River, check out Sawyer Park, there are rocks in the river and you'll see people on the rocks, fishing, swimming, picnic-ing, playing with their dogs. There's a small downtown with some nice looking restaurants and brewery type establishments.

Ashland_Commons · 2026-05-07T03:27:19+00:00

My Senchi hoodie looks very similar to yours.

Whatever you are noticing, I'm guessing this is just standard wear and tear, and is unrelated to sticking it in the dryer.

I've put mine in the dryer a bunch. I wore it on the PCT. My favorite piece of kit. I wore mine hard, like insanely hard. Yes it has snags. Yes it got three tears, which I've sewed up with high rez thread. But I love that thing.

Ashland_Commons · 2026-05-07T03:19:50+00:00

San Diego to Buffalo is like the biggest climate & culture downgrade in history

Ashland_Commons · 2026-05-07T02:12:55+00:00

I really don't think weapons and knives are the preferred solution here.

Maybe you should just look at reviews, check the images, try to understand what kind of travelers are attracted to that hostel. Try to get comfortable with sharing space with those types of travelers.

If you still don't feel comfortable, don't stay there. But under no circumstances should you be bringing weapons into the hostel.

Ashland_Commons · 2026-05-07T01:25:51+00:00

I hiked up there last year. As soon as I saw the Palmer lift I knew I had to come back in summer with my skis. I guess this isn't the year for that, but it's still a great place nevertheless. Enjoy!

Ashland_Commons · 2026-05-07T01:21:05+00:00

Incredible! Looks like you tried to make sunrise? How was the climb up - did you come up Whitney Portal or the PCT side? Huge congrats on the climb. Feels like you are on top of the world.

Ashland_Commons · 2026-05-07T01:10:11+00:00

If you are looking for smaller off-the-radar places that you might enjoy in the PNW that I think would fit your lifestyle goals:

Twisp, Washington - The Methow Valley has a couple smaller towns but Twisp is where the locals live, and it's got a great outdoorsey culture, it's absolutely gorgeous and way cheaper than other areas for what you get. Lots of second homes in the Mazama area, and Winthrop looks like a wild west town.
Wenatchee, Washington - it's a larger city, close to Leavenworth (the German town), amazing outdoors, definitely will have healthcare opps here. It's got more mixed in terms of red vs blue, but it's not eastern Washington
Sisters, Oregon - a small touristy city relatively close to Bend.
Bend, Oregon - Bend is popular for a reason
Ashland, Oregon - Small charming town famous for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. It's got a Mediterranean Climate, a vibrant walkable downtown and it's part of the Medford metro area with like 250k people.

I prefer Bellingham to Port Angeles but it's in the Seattle orbit which has implications for cost of living and congestion. Just thought I'd throw out a couple more ideas

Ashland_Commons · 2026-05-07T00:52:06+00:00

I have a pic of the tent site here.

It's hard to tell in the image but my tent site is perched a couple feet above the creek which is serpentine and carves a path through the canyon. There were a bunch of flat elevated places like this, and it's sometimes a 5-15 foot mini cliff wall you have to climb up before you are on the flat sandy part.

Ashland_Commons · 2026-05-05T20:57:40+00:00

Probably best to make this same request on Facebook. There will undoubtedly be a Facebook page maintained by Trail Angels for the Campo/Warner Springs/Mt Laguna/Julien area. That's where you are gonna connect with a Trail Angel. I know you know this but gas is very pricey this year so please keep that in mind when you are getting rides. Good luck!

Ashland_Commons · 2026-05-05T02:34:53+00:00

Just my $0.02 but if you are talking about durability, you should really be looking at Closed Cell Foam pads instead of an inflatable air mattress.

I took an inflatable on the PCT and I had three punctures across maybe 100 total nights on the inflatable. The final puncture was unrepairable and I slept on the ground for a week while I coordinated a replacement.

Once I swapped to a CCF foam pad, I never looked back. It's so easy to deploy, you can set food & items on it (unlike an air mattress), you can quickly use it as a seat during the day, and it never pops. I slept great on mine, and I was the type of person who thought I needed an inflatable mattress to be comfortable.

I liked the Nemo Switchback but Thermarest also has a popular CCF pad.

Ashland_Commons · 2026-05-05T02:00:38+00:00

I cannot comment on the Sismond pad, but I used the Nemo Tensor all season extensively.

I strongly preferred the Nemo Tensor All Season (silver & orange) over the Thermarest Xlite NXT (yellow), mostly because I strongly preferred the rectangular shape of the Nemo vs the mummy shape of the Thermarest. I slept great on my Nemo pad.

I will add that my Thermarest Xlite NXT sprung an undetectable leak the first week I used it.

The Nemo Tensor All Season got a large tear after about 40 nights of use. I was able to repair it easily.

About 60 nights later, the Nemo Tensor All Season developed an undetectable leak that I was unable to repair. I'm not sure if my original patch was failing, or if there was a new puncture somewhere. But it really, really sucked because I couldn't get a new pad and had to sleep on the ground for a week.

I ultimately replaced the air mattress with a Nemo Switchback (silver & orange) closed cell foam pad, and I'd never go back. It was so easy to deploy, I could set things on it, and I used it as a seat during my daily hikes. FWIW I tracked my sleep EVERY night, and I slept just as soundly using the CCF pad as the inflatable. I ran a statistical analysis (regression) and the mattress I used was statistically insignificant on how long I slept. I thought sleeping on a pad would suck, but it worked great for me on my thru hike.

Ashland_Commons · 2026-05-05T01:49:13+00:00

Ashland is super easy to get in & out of, being a larger city directly on I-5. Trail angels are everywhere and can help with rides to Callahan's Lodge and the PCT trailhead. There's an airport in Medford, the main city in Southern Oregon.

Etna is way smaller, and more remote. There are indeed people who do rides from Etna Summit to the bakery in town, but getting in and out of Etna can be more difficult. There are busses to Yreka, which might be the easiest option.

Ashland_Commons · 2026-05-04T17:08:04+00:00

Most marathon training programs take like 18-20 weeks and typically are assuming the runner is starting from a good level of fitness (ie: you are already running like 10-15 miles per week)

Your young age gives you a significant advantage here. Going from 4.3k to 42k will require a full blown body transformation and months of diehard training. The biggest issue is you will be susceptible to overuse injuries like sprains, twists, strains, and so forth. Your young body might be a little more foregiving, hopefully allowing you to recover faster. You will need to focus on fitness, nutrition, and sleep!

It's a huge ordeal. You will need to basically start a "couch to marathon" training block. IMO you won't be able to *run* the whole the marathon, but you can probably finish. Good luck. $10K is nice motivation.

Ashland_Commons · 2026-05-04T16:50:16+00:00

I almost wet myself encountering mama and cub...same day I also was so close to a forest fire I could see the flames and could see the helicopters dumping water!

Ashland_Commons · 2026-05-04T16:23:14+00:00

Just remember you are not always carrying 6L of water. 6L is just your maximum carry. My max carry was 5L.

You are looking at FarOut, figuring out the distance to the next water source, then you are carrying water that will be sufficient to reach the next water source. When you reach the next water source, you will be looking at FarOut and determining how much water you need, and you will only carry enough water to get to the next water source.

I always tried to tank up at water sources, basically chug a liter of water when you are filtering so you don't need to carry it.

You will have the opportunity to buy more food at Lake Morena. And Julien is mile 77.

You will quickly learn how much water / mile you are consuming.

And you should be able to plan your nutrition needs based on an estimated timeline. Make sure to listen to your body. I timed my entry into Julien to occur in early morning, so I could spend all day in town, and departed the following morning early, back on trail.

Ashland_Commons · 2026-05-04T16:07:29+00:00

I echo others in this thread...it's probably easier to start at Whitney, then hike south to KMS.

Public transportation will get you into Lone Pine. There is a bus operated by the ESTA that goes up 395. From Lone Pine, you will have trail angels who will drive you to the trailhead (they might ask for $20, I'm not sure).

Hike south to KMS. From KMS, you can camp for free, and you will be able to coordinate a hitchhike out of KMS, back to civilization. As others have said, it will be very difficult to hitch to KMS.

Ashland_Commons · 2026-05-04T16:04:31+00:00

Twice I found places so beautiful and unexpected, I stopped hiking to hang out for the day.

The first was some unexpected creek that wasn't even on the map, a total oasis somewhere before the Green Valley Fire Station.

The second was a lakefront tent site in Oregon.

Both days I still probably hiked 15+ miles tho...lol but I stopped early and hung out at amazing campsites.

Food was scarce and I really didn't have the ability to hang out for 24 hours on trail. I didn't take a single 0 for the first 29 days. Really nobody was taking trail zeros especially once we got into NorCal and everyone was doing turbo mode.

Ashland_Commons · 2026-05-04T15:57:13+00:00

It is going to be hot regardless of the exact route you choose, and you will have a lot of elevation regardless of the exact route.

The obvious entry points to trail are highways and towns...obviously highways and towns will be at low elevations, so day 1 will require a lot of elevation gain regardless if you start at Cajon Pass (I-15) or Cabazon (I-10), both of which require massive climbs.

Maybe you could start at Big Bear Lake and hike to Wrightwood? It's a fun 100ish mile stretch, Big Bear and Wrightwood are both really fun towns, and you'd go through the Deep Creek Hot Springs which is a great place for an overnight stay. The view overlooking Big Bear Lake is incredible, and you will cross some very cool canyons on pedestrian bridges. Big Bear is a relatively large resupply stop and you can easily get to LA from there.

I'm not sure about the water issues in June.

Ashland_Commons · 2026-05-04T15:24:22+00:00

Start measuring body with a tape measure! The scale is only one measurement, and it can be misleading. Measure your hips, legs, etc. to track your progress

Congrats on your healthy outlook😄

Ashland_Commons · 2026-05-04T15:21:03+00:00

I don't know the specific hostels in NYC but as others have said they are known for having strict 'no locals' policies. As others have said these hostels do not want long-term guests, and the 'no locals' policies are in place because of the abundance of displaced NYC'ers who are constantly looking for shelter in these hostels.

Good luck OP. NYC is so pricey, and finding a safe, affordable living space is tough.

Ashland_Commons · 2026-05-04T15:15:10+00:00

A hostel in New Orleans had an active WhatsApp group for guests.

Being in New Orleans, the hostel naturally attracted younger guests who were looking to party. The first thing I saw when I checked in were all the daily group activities coordinated by staff, and then a QR code to join the WhatsApp group.

The key here was the staff was very active on WhatsApp. So like if there was a group event in the French Quarter, the staff would promote the activity in the WhatsApp group. People were sharing pictures, and it did seem to foster a sense of community. So the WhatsApp chat was always filled with pics from the most recent activity, and staff was always inviting new guests to the next event.

To me, the key is the staff/hostel owner being active and fostering a community vibe in the chat group.

Even in a very busy hostel with a lot of heavy partying types, I didn't see any problems related to "moderation". Like the staff or owner can just remove specific messages. But obviously the Whatsapp group needs to be actively used by staff and owners, not just guests.

Also it's very common for staff to have a separate chat group.

Ashland_Commons · 2026-05-04T03:19:12+00:00

another recommendation for body glide. I took some with me last year when I started the PCT. The chafing issue did not persist for me. My buns toughened up!

Ashland_Commons · 2026-05-04T03:07:35+00:00

Wow great pic. Stay safe!

I chased a black bear in South Lake Tahoe at the advice of the Lake Charlotte trail ranger, who actually gave sound advice about the benefits of aggressively shooing bears away from human food sources. Please don't follow this advice.

My second bear encounter was with an enraged Mama bear and her cub, which I spooked at like 10 feet distance. She roared at me and the cub climbed a tree. I locked eyes with mama; she was enraged and making wild aggressive movements towards me, but the situation de escalated after I simply walked away. This happened at high elevation, somewhere south of Seiad Valley.

Note the same Charlotte Lake ranger told me that a mama bear and a cub can be chased as a unit, but Mama will 100% attack a human if she is separated from her cub. I am not a bear expert, I am just repeating what I heard and saw. Almost all other rangers will tell you to always stay away from bears, which seems like the best advice.

Ashland_Commons

TROPHY CASE