JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
The Pacific Crest Trail winds through more than 2,600 miles of desert, mountains and forest in the western U.S. When field recordist Tom Kelly hiked the trail a few years ago, he brought along microphones and a recorder to capture the sounds he heard along the way...
(SOUNDBITE OF SNOW CRACKING)
SUMMERS: ...Like the sharp crackle of snow melting off a giant ponderosa pine at midday in California's San Jacinto Mountains.
(SOUNDBITE OF SNOW CRACKING)
SUMMERS: Or 37 days farther up the trail, the whirring of a wind turbine in the Mojave Desert...
(SOUNDBITE OF WIND TURBINE WHIRRING)
SUMMERS: ...As he sat under its massive blades.
(SOUNDBITE OF WIND TURBINE WHIRRING)
SUMMERS: Tom Kelly takes it from here.
(SOUNDBITE OF GREAT HORNED OWL CALLING)
TOM KELLY: First and foremost, I think everyone who's setting out to hike the Pacific Crest Trail is trying to finish the trail. So there was naturally some conflict with having to stop and record sound.
(SOUNDBITE OF GRASS BLADES RUSTLING)
KELLY: Specifically with that recording, I can recall just walking and coming across a very specific pocket in the trail that had, you know, the breeze blowing through the grass.
(SOUNDBITE OF INSECTS HUMMING)
KELLY: So who doesn't love the sound of wind blowing through, you know, tall grass out in nature? It's a very calming, very pleasant experience to sit with.
(SOUNDBITE OF WOODPECKER CALLING)
KELLY: Yeah. I remember that spot pretty well. I remember being in a tall canopy, but open understory conifer forest. And I remember the lush reverberance of the woodpecker drumming against the tree.
(SOUNDBITE OF WOODPECKER DRUMMING)
KELLY: And there was car traffic, like morning car traffic, on the closest highway that I could hear pretty consistently. So there was that kind of conflict of, you know, I'm sitting in this very beautiful, very peaceful space. And then there's also the city life stuff that's happening out in the distance.
(SOUNDBITE OF WATER GEYSER BUBBLING)
KELLY: Terminal Geyser is - it's technically a geothermal steam vent that has a body of water, like a creek or stream running over the top of it.
(SOUNDBITE OF WATER GEYSER BUBBLING)
KELLY: I remember the smell of sulfur in the air. I remember all of the steam that was surrounding me. I remember feeling really at peace with the sound of the geyser in my headphones and being just kind of immersed with this really unique geothermal feature in front of me.
(SOUNDBITE OF TREES CREAKING)
KELLY: It is a massive undertaking and a massive experience to spend, you know, five to six months hiking across the country. And coming back from an experience like that and reintegrating into the pace of everyday life, it really just does fundamentally change your orientation to the experience of life.
(SOUNDBITE OF THUNDER BOOMING)
SUMMERS: That was field recordist Tom Kelly and a sampling of the hundreds of sounds he captured while logging about 6 million steps hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. He created an interactive sound map of the trail. You should explore it yourself. You can find it at thomasmkelly.com.
(SOUNDBITE OF THUNDER BOOMING) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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