Alright, over 1/5 of the way there!

Alright folks, this week has been absolutely incredible.  Here is a quick overview of what we have done.

5/21 - Day 26 - 24 miles - mile 454 to 478
This day we left the Saufley's place and headed to the next water source: another trail angel's house (the Anderson's) 24 miles away.  Some hikers are really crazy and do the "24 24 24" challenge... hike 24 miles in 24 hours drinking 24 shots/beers on the way.  People asked us we were going to do that and we said heck no! We get dehydrated enough hiking in the heat! 

So we left the Saufley's at about 5:30 in the morning and headed off with our really heavy packs.  Other than water, I would say food is the heaviest thing in my pack... and since our next resupply was 5 days away (we thought) we needed 5 days of food... but 5 days of food isn't what is used to be.  5 days of food is a lot of food.  We need a lot of calories.  This is roughly what I eat every day:
Breakfast: pop tarts and HUGE snickers bar (the bigger the better), and a breakfast shake (160 calories)
Snacks: Cliff bars, trail mix, chex mix, anything that comes in bar form
Lunch: Preferably bagged tuna with peanut butter and hot sauce... I know this sounds disgusting but out there on the trail it is absolutely magical.
Dinner: A Pasta Side or a Rice Side with a package of ramen noodles mixed in and maybe a scoop of peanut butter and hot sauce
Desert: A 360 calorie cinabun

Okay so that menu times 5 means a lot of weight.  So off we went.  This day had three pretty significant climbs but we got the first two over with before it was really hot out so they weren't all that bad.  Around lunch time we walked up on a water cache that the Anderson's had set up called "The Oasis."  That water cache is awesome.  It's tucked away in the shade and they have all these chairs set up so that we could really relax. I can't really explain just how amazing a chair is to me now.  Whenever we stop walking we try to find a shady place with rocks to sit on.  If there are no rocks we sit on a our packs.  If our pack is uncomfortable then we sit on the ground.  Nearly all of these options require me to put at least a little pressure on my feet for one reason or another (like balance).  Chairs let us actually rest our feet.  They are amazing.  But like all good things, this break had to come to an end so off we went again to tackle the last large uphill before coming into the Anderson's place. 

Now the Anderson's is about 2 miles off of the trail. And actually we weren't sure we even wanted to go.  We had just had a long break at the Saufley's and we had heard that the Anderson's want you to spend a minimum of two days there.  And those two days are just a long party.  That just didn't seem like our scene and so we debated on if we wanted to go there or not... but then Mrs. Anderson actually showed up to where we were, put us in her car, and drove us to her house, promising taco salad.  When we got to the Anderson's we realized that it was all that everyone had told us it was... a fun time, a good party, and a really nice place to just relax and have some fun.  But that wasn't the whole story.  In the backyard they had a maze through these beautiful trees with random spot cleared out for sleeping.  MudD said it reminded him of Sleepy Hollow.  So we were able to go to bed early that night and really relax. 
Day 27 - 5/22 - 23 miles - mile 478 to 501
We woke up at the crack of dawn (like usual) and snuck out of the Anderson's before we could get stuck there with the promise of homemade pancakes for breakfast.  We weren't looking forward to walking the two miles back to the trail so we stuck out our thumb at the first car that passed us by... and he picked us up! Easiest hitch ever! We were back on the trail in no time and going up another mountain.  This day was just beautiful... lots of shade and the birds were singing.  We even saw a deer.  We had a weird lunch break on top of a concrete water container in no shade and fire ants everywhere but hey, we had all the water we could drink.  Originally our plan was to just do 20 miles every day until the next town and just take our time with that... but that would mean that we would stop at mile 498! We couldn't stop that close to 500! So we went on... and nearly missed the 500 mile marker all together! Luckily our friends Thirsty Boots and Tower turned around and saw us walking right passed it and pointed it out to us.  What a great mile to pass.  500! I'm still amazed that we walked that far.

That night we camped up on a beautiful ridge and I was asleep before the sun went down.  But then sometime after the sun went down the wind started blowing really hard and that combined with the near full moon shining down on us, we didn't really sleep well that night.

Day 28 - 34 miles (!!!!) - 501-535
Well the wind from the night before didn't let up... and we didn't realize that it wouldn't let up for some time.  Normally MudD gets up, gets his stuff packed up while I lay there and try to be as small as possible and then gets out of the tent so I can get packed up and we don't get in each other's way.  But this morning was just too cold and too windy.  We both stayed in the tent until we were ready to take it down.  I think this was our record time for getting out of camp.  We were out by 5:25 which is 5 or 10 minutes faster than we normally do it.  That morning was just cold and windy so we didn't stop and didn't take breaks and just put our legs on cruise control and did the 16 miles into "Hiker Town" in about 5 hours. 

Now Hiker Town deserves its own paragraph.  Hiker Town is just someone's house in the middle of nowhere.  There are a couple of farms around this place but nothing else.  So I guess this guy bought all this property as some sort of investment opportunity.  His first night sleeping at his new place, him and his wife looked out the window to see what they thought were a bunch of homeless people camped out in their front yard.  They could just not believe that all these people were choosing hike from Mexico to Canada.  But slowly they got to talking to these hikers and really took a liking to them and slowly started building things to help the hikers out.  Now these two have produced and directed movies for Disney so they are kind of creative people.  So when they wanted to build a little place for hikers to sleep, they didn't just build a shack and put some cots in it.  No, they made a miniature hotel.  And when hikers started to ask if they could get maildrops sent to them there, they didn't just designate a closet as the mailroom (like I probably would have done) but they hired a guy to build a miniature post office!  This place is bizarre and wonderful at the same time.

But we couldn't stay there forever.  We had the dreaded Mojave Desert to hike through.  Everyone had told us that the day we entered the Mojave would be the hotest day of our lives.  Well they were wrong.  We went through on maybe the best day possible.  It never got above 80 degrees that day (or the next) and we cruised through those next 18 miles.  They were completely flat and our bodies are at the point where they can handle flat.  In fact I say unless we are going uphill, there is no need to stop and camp for the night.  I guess that's why we normally start the day with a climb.  So we just cruised to the next water source - a water cache set up by the owners of Hiker Town - and set up camp for the night.  We got in about 9:30 and did the last couple miles by the light of the moon that had kept us up the night before.

This might have been one of our weirdest camping spots of the trip so far.  I am not exaggerating when I say that we were in the middle of a wind farm.  I have never seen so many windmills in one place.  Needless to say that night was windy but we found a nice spot that was protected by some hills and we slept well.  Our feet were sore, our knees hurt a bit, but boy we were really pumped that we had hiked 34 miles.  Even though the last 3 or so miles all I could think was "this is miserable," as soon as we got to camp I knew that this day would be one of the days that I really remembered well after the hike.

Day 24 - 23 miles - 535 - 558.
Boy was I tired this morning.  We let ourselves sleep in all the way till 5:45 am!  But then got going... and the going was slow.  Luckily it wasn't hot just like the day before.  This section was extremely exposed.  Even the water cache (with chairs!) that we found at noon wasn't in a shady spot like they normally are... there just wasn't any shade.  Nothing really sticks out about this day.  We just cruised and had a good time.  We were in good spirits for most of the day knowing that we were walking into a town.

Now we are actually in L.A.  Our friends that we started hiking with but then lost a few days into the trip had plans to meet up with an uncle in L.A. these days.  We were too far away to get a ride so we rented a car, picked up our friends behind us, and headed out to L.A.  We have been here now for two days are we are leaving tonight to get back closer to the trail and get ready to get moving tomorrow.  We have about 140 more miles of Southern California to get through and we are anxious to get it done!  We will be at the address we posted below till June 4th! So feel free to send us a letter if you want!

Fast feet, fast miles

MudD goofing around at the 500 mark!

Trail leading down to Hiker Town

A good shot of the Mojave

Walking into Hiker Town

Hiker Town post office and sheriff station

Heading out into the Mojave! Check out how flat that is!

Weirdest place to sleep

Going up out of the Mojave!

Address!

Hey so if anyone wants to send MudD or me a letter or care package, we will be at Kennedy Meadows in about 250 miles which may take between 10 and 14 days.  We really don't know,

The address is:

Franny Newport/MudD Hemberg
C/O Kennedy Meadows General Store
96740 Beach Meadows Rd 
Inyokern, CA 93527

We'll send you a postcard if you send us a letter/care package!

We made it to Agua Dulce!

When MudD and I were planning this PCT hike, I kept on looking at the map and seeing Agua Dulce and thinking, if I can get there I can make it through the rest of this hike.  And now we have made it!  And I hope we can make it...

*Warning: the miles might not add up... there was a detour that added 13 miles to the trip so we made our own detour*

Day 21: 21 miles - mile 369-391
We left Wrightwood pretty late that day and decided to try to make as many miles as we felt like.  It was a really nice and beautiful day and we were just relaxed all day.  Nothing really exciting happened this day besides the fact that we made progress and that MudD nearly stepped on a rattlesnake!!!!  He was walking ahead of me at the end of the day and said that he went to put his foot down, he noticed that there was a snake there so he did a little jump over it and it actually snapped at him! Luckily I did not see this happen or else I don't think I would have had the nerves to keep walking.

Day 22: 26ish miles - 391-418
This was the day with the really long detour.  The PCT goes through an endangered frog's habitat and so that part of the hike is closed!  There were three options: walk the new detour (13 extra miles), walk the old detour which includes 2.7 miles of "dangerous road walking" (1 extra mile), or do what MudD and I did and just walk that dangerous road all the way passed the old detour and cut a couple miles.  It may have been cheating but we didn't really care so thats what we did.  And the dangerous road walk wasn't dangerous at all.  I think 2 cars passed us the entire 6ish mile walk. 

I think doing a road walk first thing in the morning really took our enthusiasm for the day out of us.  We didn't feel like walking the whole day.  Luckily it was an easy day so we still did a bunch of miles but we never really got into it.  This was the first day that this has happened to us and hopefully it won't happen again.

Day 23: 26 miles - 418 to 444
We had a ton of fun this day.  We met up pretty early with our two friends Unicrock and Scat Tracker.  We had met them before but had never really hiked with them until this day.  Mostly we fantasized about what movies we would go and see if there were a movie theater around.  We saw another HUGE rattlesnake today and again, MudD got pretty close to it and it curled up in striking position and rattled at us a little bit.  Speaking of dangerous things, we also walked through a whole bunch of Poodle Dog Bush and Poison Oak today.  I think we avoided most of it (might be wishful thinking).  We made it 18 miles by noon and decided that we should keep going and push for another 8 where a KOA campground was with running water, showers, ice cream, and a pool!!! Those last 8 miles were really hot but very worth it.  The KOA was great.  It was a Saturday so there were tons of people there which normally I'm not into but everyone was really nice and having a great time.  A good amount of hikers stopped there too and since there were only 10 miles that we had to walk till town the next day, we stayed up late and hung out (all the way till 9 pm! I was so tired).  But absolutely a great great day!

Day 24: 10 miles - 444-454 THE SAUFLEYS!
So MudD let us sleep in all the way till 5:45 this morning! Woah! Let me just say that MudD is a morning person and wakes up before the alarm every morning... even when the alarm is set for 4 am.  As for me, I hate the mornings.  If MudD weren't there to wake me up I would sleep in till 10 am every day and hike late into the night... which would mean I would be hiking in the heat of the day.  It really is better that we wake up early and get miles in before it gets too hot, take a break during the hottest part of the day, and then get moving and get a couple more miles before bed time.  But even though I know that, I still hate waking up.  So this morning was an absolute treat!  We walked the 10 miles into town in just 3 hours, had a great breakfast and headed to the Saufleys.

Now, when we started this trail all the other hikers kept on saying this like, "oh its only 300 miles till the Saufleys" or "the real desert starts after the Saufleys" and I always thought the Saufleys were a mountain range that we walked through.  Boy was I wrong.  The Saufleys are a trail angel couple who hosts probably every single PCT hiker.  As soon as you walk into this place, they give you a clean change of clothing, you can take a shower, and then they have a shower! We got all cleaned up, found cots, and now we are just hanging out and waiting until 5 pm when the Detroit Tigers are playing on ESPN!  We love the Tigers and are very excited to watch them play.  Anyway, I feel like a broken record saying this but the Saufleys are absolutely amazing and helpful.  The best part about these trail angels is that knowing there is someone in a couple miles who is supporting us really gives us the motivation to move and get there!

CRAVINGS
Walking these insane amount of miles every day and eating the same food over and over again really gives every hiker insane cravings. This is what we are craving:
Pickles
Beer
Sour candies
Anything to drink besides water
Fresh Fruit.

These are most of our current cravings. We want these things and lots of these things. The more calories something has the better.

The top of Mt Baden-Powell... Beautiful climb and beautiful views! 

 

Dingo walking on a ridge

 

MudD and Dingo at the top of Baden-Powell

MudD on the ridge!

Dingo at mile 400!

 



Woke up above the clouds again!

 Goof

Walking down towards the KOA

 

A great shot of the elusive horny toad!  These things are all over but won't stay still long enough to get a good photo! MudD even got to touch this one! I think if he had been able to catch it he would have kept it as a pet.

The trail!

 

 Dingo's toenail... it is only connected to the toe at the base of the nail... soon to fall off.

 Walking through some really cool rocks!

Walking into the KOA... so happy to be here!

MudD's feet are healed!!!

Day 20 - 27 miles - mile 342 to 369!!

I guess the zero day that we took at Cajon Pass combined with MudD's new shoes have completely solved MudD's foot problems.  His blisters have started to callus and his heals miraculously don't hurt anymore.  So we had a great day! It started off normal enough, just walking around, and ended in a really amazing, unexpected way.

We took off from the Best Western knowing that the next water source was 22 long uphill miles away so our goal was to make it there.  At around 4 pm we rolled into that campground and were pleasantly surprised to see our old hiking buddies, Hermes and Lotus, who we had not seen for almost a week now! What a great surprise... the first of many we did not realize were about to happen.  We sat and talked to Hermes and Lotus for a bit and the four of us came up with a plan: Even though we had already hiked 22 miles we decided we should continue and walk the remaining 5 miles into town where hopefully a trail angel would let us stay at their house.  Before we left we contacted a trail angel named Jeff and who said absolutely the four of us could stay at his house.  So with renewed enthusiasm we left for Wrightwood! Boy those last 5 miles killed us.  Sure MudD's feet didn't ache in the problem places but after 20 miles all feet ache a bit. But on we went. Right before we reached the highway that we would have to try to get a 5 miles hitch at Hermes and Lotus caught up to us and let us know that they had invited Fun Size, Frosty the Saltman, and Ashley to come along with us.  So then our group of 4 became a group of 7.  And there we were, all 7 of us trying to hitch a ride on very deserted highway.  We had been standing there for maybe 5 minutes when a black pick up truck drove up and parked in the parking lot across the street from us and next to a large, white van.  We yelled across the street, asking for a ride.  They responded that heck yeah they could give us a ride! The three guys drove their black pick up and their large white van across the street just as another hiker, Roger was walking down to the highway... and 7 became 8.  MudD and I crawled into the back of the white van with Roger, Ashley, and Fun Size while the others got in the pick up and all 8 of us got a hitch at the same time (I thought that would be impossible) and got dropped off at a great cafe to get dinner.  Just as we were walking into the cafe, we saw another long lost hiker buddy, Yuske from Japan.  The reunion was glorious and we invited him to dinner with us... and 8 became 9.  We all ate to our hearts' content and as we were leaving the restaurant we realized that 9 might overwhelm this trail angel that had invited us to his house so we nervously awaited his arrival and hoped that maybe a few of us could get a ride to his house and the rest of us could hitch or walk.  When Jeff pulled up, we told him that we had picked up a few more people and he responded with the more the merrier!! Jeff too had a black pick up truck and somehow all 9 of us crammed ourselves into that truck with all 9 of our packs. Two of us rode up front with Jeff and the rest of us took the packs and held on for the 3 mile ride to Jeff's house.  Jeff's house is awesome... and so is Jeff.  He has a great loft that all of us can sleep in and he invited us all take showers and do our laundry which was very necessary because we had a very scary brush with a poison ivy-like plant called Poodle Dog Bush.

Quick side story.  We had been informed that for a mile and a half there was "nearly unavoidable Poodle Dog Bush" but there was a detour we could take and avoid it all!... so of course we didn't take the detour. And it was not nearly unavoidable... it was absolutely unavoidable. Very scary.  Its a crazy looking plant that smells like marijuana but could kill you if you tried to smoke it and has been known to kick people off the trail because they get such bad reactions.  So showers and laundry were absolutely necessary.

But back to Jeff's house. So here we are, all 9 of us, hanging out with Jeff, his daughter, and his two dogs.  We are showered and clean clothes are on the way.  Jeff has even offered to let us borrow his car tomorrow to run errands.  I swear the kindness of the people that we met on the trail is very humbling.  We would not be nearly as healthy, happy, and carefree without all the people helping us out.  There is just no way to thank or repay all the people who have already helped us out and we aren't even 1/5 of the way done with the trail.  Anyway, we better get off the computer and start spending time with the party!

 I have copied MudD and got a Camel Back for my front and I love it! MudD and I match a bit too much now.

 If you look closely you can see part of the trail on that mountain. Up we go!

 Our first sighting of Poodle Dog Bush. It got much worse than this.

Ha! This is all 9 of us in the back of the truck! That's Yuske in yellow, MudD in the foreground and me, Franny aka Dingo burried beneath some packs in the back.

Unplanned stop at the Best Western at the Cajon Pass

Well our plan after we left Big Bear was to hike the next 100 miles straight, take a break in Wrightwood, and head out.  But plans never work out the way they should.  For some reason MudD's boots started breaking his feet so we had to make a pit stop and get new boots.

Day 15 we headed out of Big Bear and did 26 miles.  The night before there was a BIG thunderstorm and we were thankful to have a roof over our heads. The thunderstorm kept things cool (but not too cold) and even though we had a late start (8:30 am) we were able to pull out 26 miles before 7 pm.  We even had time to stop around 3 and have a nice, long chat with our hiker pal, Swic. For some reason we keep running into this guy.  He is an older gentleman whose whife is driving around in a sleeper camper picking him up at intersections and dropping him off wherever he wants to go next.  Whenever we see him, he is going southbound but we keep running into him as we go north.  Anyway, the day was great.  We hooked up with our new friend, Ducky, and hiked with him nearly all day. It was really quite pleasant and we found a beautiful spot to camp next to a stream.  As we were falling asleep, MudD pointed out that this was the first time the whole trip that we would be camping next to running water (I mean besides the times we slept next to faucets).  The stars were really bright that night, the temperature was just perfect, and the sound of the running water put us right to sleep.

Day 16 - 25 miles - mile 292-317
This day was not as pleasant as the day before.  It turns out that the creek we had slept next to (Deep Creek) would be our guide for nearly the whole day which means we had a nice view... but we were also extremely exposed to the sun.  And it was hot.  Really hot.  The trail was cut into the edge of the canyon walls so there were really no trees to speak of so we didn't really take a break.  The worst part of the day was that something happened to MudD's shoes.  He may have had a two blisters before this day... at the end of the day he had 8.  And these weren't just normal blisters.  These were blisters on steroids. He kept stopping and trying to tape them up and they just got bigger and bigger under the tape while more blisters formed around the tape. But MudD, ever the stoic, kept moving on.  At one point we passed a beautiful hot spring that we would have loved to spend time at but it was a Saturday and there were tons of people there.  It was an awkward mix of locals having parties and hikers in the middle of a three day long party.  It just wasn't our scene.  So we kept going. We made it 21 miles (our goal for the day) by 3 pm and realized we couldn't stay there.  The water source that we had planned to stop at was being used by the locals and as off roading course.  They were driving their 4 wheel drive vehicles through the water that we had planned on filtering and and all over the grounds we planned to sleep on.  It just wasn't going to happen.  So off we went again.  Our new plan was to make it to mile 318 where there was supposed to be more water.  Luckily, we ran into some trail angles around mile 314 who let us fill our water bottles with them and even had root beer floats for us.  They informed us that it was 95 degrees (!!!!!!!) and it was 5 pm.  We had been walking through brutally hot weather without even realizing it.  Finally around mile 316.5 the blister on the bottom of MudD's foot just got too painful and we had to pop it... terrible mistake.  The pain that MudD was in after popping that blister was even worse. We hobbled on until we found good camping and stopped for the night. What we didn't realize is that we stopped only 1 mile from the water! We thought we were two miles away at least! Oh well.  Although the day was really terrible, it was a really beautiful and comfortable night.

Day 17 - 17 miles - Mile 317 to 334
When we woke up, MudD tested his feet out was in excruciating pain. I was all for taking a zero day on the mountain.  I would go get water, we had plenty of food, and we could spend a relaxing day letting MudD's blisters heal. But whereas I would have been content relaxing all day, MudD would have gone crazy. So he taped up his feet really well and off we went.  We thought we would only go 13 miles (we always underestimate) and off we went. Today was even hotter than the day before. We were fully sweating by 7:30.   But we knew there was a lake somewhere up the way.  We made it to the lake and took shelter under a pavilion at the picnic area around 11 am.  Now normally when we take our breaks, MudD hates any time we spend not hiking. But today was so hot that even he wasn't wanting to go out and hike in it.  We stayed there for six glorious hours.  There was a water fountain, a lake to take a dip in, and nice families that gave us extra food. One family even gave us their leftover baby food.  It was kind of weird but we sure at it up anyway.  Fruit is hard to come by on the trail and mine was apple, pear, and banana.  Anway, we left around 5 pm even though we were still sweating in the shade.  The next 5.5 miles weren't that bad.  We rocked it out in less than 2 hours, set up the tent, and relaxed as the sun went down.  Oh I forgot! We saw another rattlesnake!  Actually, I saw it under a rock, pointed it out to MudD who immediately took my hiking pole and poked it.  That thing started ratteling like crazy! I took off like a shot and sprinted for the next twenty yards, imagining the snake had taken down MudD already and was after me next.  When I turned around I saw that MudD was fine and I had left him to on his own to deal with the snake.

Day 18 - 9 miles - Mile 334 to 342
Today was the day that MudD's feet finally broke. We made it to mile 342 which is well known around the PCT community because there is a McDonalds .4 miles off the trail.  Everyone goes there.  By this point of the hike, everyone needs all the calories we can get and McDonalds is the place to go to get calories.  I think the thought of an airconditioned McDonalds was the only thing that got MudD through those last 9 miles.  The problem is that the pain from his blisters was changing his gait so his heels are bruised up pretty good. Luckily there is a Best Western by the McDonalds.  We booked a room as soon as we got into town.  I was very worried about MudD's feet.  We have been dating for two years now and I have never seen MudD in more pain. I mean this guy works outside in Alaska at negative 40 degrees with broken fingers and he doesn't complain.  He was hurting.  So after we got some food in us, I came up with a great idea.  We rented a car, drove to REI, returned MudD's boot, and got him new ones.  MudD had always hiked with Keens before and he changed to Merrills for this hike. I guess MudD is just a Keen guy.  As soon as he put those boots on, I could see a clear difference in the way he was walking.  They weren't pinching his heels and the pressure on his blisters had lessened.  It was amazing.  It was a complete transformation.  With his old boots he was limping like crazy.  With the new ones he was walking almost normal.  So hopefully the problem is solved!  We are staying here tonight and might head out early tomorrow morning.  If we don't get a move on then we will wait till its later and cooler to head out.  We have a 20 mile climb ahead of us and don't want to do it in the heat!

Day 19! ZERO DAY!!!!!!! We woke up and found out our friends Giddy Up, Wocka (Julia), and Sneaks are not too far behind us. Why not rest all day and take off tomorrow morning!

Picture time!

 MudD finally had to throw out these pair of underwear.  He wore these to hike the entire Appalachian Trail, the Long Trail, part of the Colorado Trail, the Kerry Way (Ireland), the Dingle Way (Ireland), and now 342 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail.

 The trail.

 Mile 300!

 Beautiful, cool day out on the trail. This part had some obvious fire damage.

Check out these ridiculous pine cones. They are as big as MudD's head!

 Our dear friend Ducky trying to figure out where we were and how much farther we had to go until the hot springs. He decided we were at the "seasonal spring on the bottom of map C12." We are going to miss Ducky a lot.  He was really fun to hike with and just a good guy in general. He was only section hiking this year (had hiked it 05) and was ready to get off the trail and go back to his wife! It was good to meet you Ducky!

 WHAT? A LARGE BODY OF WATER? We didn't know these things existed in the desert.

 Baby food!

 This is us hanging out at the Silverwood Lake picnic area on a really hot day. We broke here for 6 hours and took full advantage of their running water, shade, and bathrooms.

Seeing this sign gave me a huge energy boost. I nearly ran all the way there.

Two weeks, 265 miles in!

As soon as we left Warner Springs about a week ago, we started puting in some serious miles.

Day 7: 26 miles! Mile 109-135
We got out of Warner Springs at about 4:30 in the morning on our seventh day of the trip. It was a beautiful day... not too hot, not too cold, and we had pizza from the night before for breakfast. Our plan was to try to do as many miles as we could during the morning before the sun got up. We had to get to mile 127 before we could get to any water. What we didn't know was that at mile 127, there was not only water but also a trail angel named Mike who let us come over and spend the hot part of the day at his house. He had sodas, tacos, and best of a all, a foot bath. It was glorious. My blisters on my heels had been feeling better but they were still a bit infected so I soaked my feet and relaxed. Oh, he had a hammock too which was really nice. But we got out of there around 3 pm and headed off.  We wanted to make get as many miles as we could so that we could stop the next day at mile 151 which happened to have a cafe a mile down the road (more on that later). So off we went. It was hot and uphill but it was fun. Finally, with aching feet, we decided to stop at a nice little spot a couple of miles before the next water source. We had barely gotten into our sleeping bags before falling asleep... so pooped from our biggest day... so far.

Day 8: 22 Miles (135-157)
Now day 8 was another great day, but not because the scenery was beautiful or we were moving well or anything. Actually, it was kind of an ugly day and neither of us felt like walking much. But we knew the cafe was coming up so we were determined to make it to mile 151 for our lunch break. When we finally saw the highway in front of us, we were both just so happy. Again like the day before, we had a certain mile marker in mind because there was something we needed there, but like the day before, we had no idea there was a trail angel there as well who would make our day so much better. This trail angel was Dr. Sole. He was just set up on the side of the highway with sodas and hot dogs. He even let us (and every other hiker) leave our bags with him when we went to The Paradise Cafe. This cafe was SO GOOD. It might have been because we were just so hungry but dang it was good. We both had a nice cold beer and a HUGE hamburger... which we ate with enthusiasm and yet we were still hungry afterwards. We hung out there for a bit but then headed back to Dr. Sole. It turns out Dr. Sole was there to set up a "foot triage" as he called it. One by one, he let all the dirty hikers but their dirty feet on his lap so that he could check out their blisters. Apparently this is also what he did during the Vietnam war. He really worked on my two blisters on my heels and popped the blister I had under by big toe nail on my right foot. Ever since my Dr. Sole visit my feet have felt amazing.  But we couldn't stay there forever so we moved on and headed off into the San Jacinto wilderness and found a great camping spot.

Day 9: 22 miles (157-179)
This was easily the hardest but perhaps the most beautiful day on the trail. MudD right now is running over to the grocery store to see if he can pick up a cord for our camera so we can share some pictures from this amazing day. It was just so beautiful.  Before the beauty began though, we had to climb in elevation. Nearly the entire day we were hiking upwards towards 8,000 feet. The previous days had been hot but up at this elevation, it was pretty perfect. It was a nice, cool day. Beautiful trees, beautiful ridges, beautiful trail work by the trail maintenance crews. I don't even know what more I can say about this day without the pictures to back it up. It was really just amazing and the scenery was stunning and our legs were dead at the end of it. We stopped to camp right before a trail called the Devil's Slide that lead into Idyllwild. Though most people had to stop in that town to get more food, MudD and I had gotten lucky and had picked up some extra free food so we could make it without stopping in that town. We didn't realize at that point that this decision would put us much farther ahead than the rest of our group (more on that later). As we set up to sleep that night, we put the rain fly on our tent for the first time the whole trip because we had heard rumors of a snow storm that might start that night.

Day 10: 31 miles!!!!!!! (179-210)
So we woke up, half expecting snow but not having any. We had 9 more miles of serious uphill that would take us to 9,000 feet and then a long, downhill day. Everybody that we met on the trail told us that the snow we thought we might get the night before was going to hit us at 11 that morning and would last all the way till Tuesday. So we booked it. We had to start going down before this storm hit. We ended up getting to the trail to get us off the mountain at 10:30, just as the clouds were starting to look pretty bad. We heard from our friends behind us that a lot of people took zero days to wait out the storm. The ones who braved it said it was really cold up there and they were fighting hypothermia. Our timing could not have been better. And now we just had to worry about an easy downhill day, right? Wrong! That dowhill was rough! First, it lasted forever. Second, there were so many switchbacks that we almost went insane. Our maps told us that from where the downhill started to where it ended, it would be 16.5 miles for us... as the crow flies it is only 2.5 miles. We were going crazy. MudD actually started sprinting at one point just to try to get out of there sooner. Luckily for us, it was a cold day because of the storm on the mountain above us. We had just the right amount of water to get us down. After we had finished that section, we heard horror stories of other people doing it in 120 degree weather with not enough water because they, like us, thought it would be easy because it was downhill the whole way. Luckily for us, our day wasn't. But it was terrible. The worst part was that the thorn bushes were all overgrown and neither of us had shorts so we got torn up for 16 miles (I just took a shower and now that all the dirt is gone, you can see all the scratches all over my legs). When we got down to the water source, we realized there was no way to we wanted to camp there. It was rocky and REALLY WINDY. Plus, there was a trail angel just 5 miles down the trail and although we didn't know how amazing that trail angel experience would be, we knew it would be better than camping there. So even though those last 5 miles put us at 31 miles for the day and 101 miles for the last four days, we did it anyway.

AND BOY WERE WE HAPPY WE DID. The trail angels are called Ziggy and the Bear. We showed up to their house, exhaused, dirty, and just worn out. They welcomed us with ice cream and warm foot baths. There were some volunteers there helping Ziggy and the Bear out who had hiked the trail last year. They set us up with foot baths, some extra pizza, and showed us where everything was. As they were explaining everything to us, our mouths were hanging wide open in shock. It was the kindest thing I have ever experienced. And it wasn't just us that they were being this nice to. There were about 30 other dirty hikers hanging out in their backyard. They had a shower (which we didn't use for some reason), free wifi, snacks, and most importanly, our resupply package. We slept that night with all 30 of those other hikers in terrible wind but we were so happy.

Day 11: 25 miles (210-235)
We started off this day later than normal, not wanting to leave the comforts of Ziggy and the Bear. But we had to set out. We were both very sore from the day before so our goal was to make it 17 miles to the next water source and see how we felt there. We got there around 2 pm, realized a ton of people were going to camp there, and headed off to find better camping. Then we got to looking at the water report and realized that the next day would be a whole lot easier on us if we went all the way to 235. So as much as we didn't want to, we went all that way. What we didn't realize was that we also gained about 4,000 feet in elevation those last 9 miles. We were dog tired at the end of it but it all made more sense once we looked at the elevation maps. That night was really cold as well.

Day 12: 21 miles (235-256)
This day was going to be hard because we had 21 miles between water sources. Luckily for us, the storm from a couple of days ago was still going up on the mountain and making it much colder than normal. We both had 5 liters of water on us and I think we barely drank 2 each. The morning was literally freezing but beautiful. Frost was covering all the trees and made it look like winter. That afternoon, we took a lunch break at these animal cages. I guess the wild, scary animals that hollywood uses for their movies are kept right off the PCT. Like feet from it. They had tigers, bears, a black panther, a lion, and probably other animals that we just couldn't see. It was kind of cool but really depressing... with a weird lack of security. We were about 10 feet away from this lion and there was noboby else around.  That night, we made it to the next water source at 2 pm and there was only another 9 miles into Big Bear where we planned to take a zero, but we didn't want to do another 30 mile day, so we called it quits, put up our tent, and tried to stay warm even though it had been snowing all day.

Day 13: 9 miles (256-265) (Today)
Man was this night cold. We woke up and I thought I was just being tired and cranky and I would warm up... until we disocovered that the water in our nalgenes were completely frozen... like rock solid. I guess it dropped below 32 degrees for a while.  There was nothing really remarkable about this hike today. We just wanted to get into town and get to our rooms. We are staying here today and tomorrow to let our bodies heal up till we go out again.  Big bear is cool. We have a room with a hot tub jacuzzi tub and fireplace. We have clean laundry and we took showers. The amount of dirt we had to wash off of ourselves was amazing.  But now MudD is back from the store with that camera cord so we are going to load pictures!

Day 14: ZERO DAY

The beautiful but really hard day. The views were like this all day.

 Having a little fun on the hard day.

Fran aka DINGO struggling with the uphill

 MudD playing in the water

 Mile 200!

 This is the mountain we came off of with the 16 mile downhill while we were getting scrathed by the thorns. Hard to believe we were all the way on top of that mountain a few hours before hand. You can see all the clouds stuck right at the spot where we had just been.

 Rainbow in the desert! Right before we got to Ziggy and the Bears. It was really windy that day... good thing they have all those windmills right there.

 MudD killing time waiting for Dingo

The frost on one of our coldest morning. It snowed on us this day.

109.6 miles in!

Alright everybody! We made it to our first 109.6 miles!!!  It's pretty exciting. We will just give you a quick overview of the trip.

So we started off the first day getting a ride to the California/Mexico border from a trail angel named Girlscout. We got there just after 7 am, took our pictures at the border, and headed off as fast as we could. Our goal for that day was 20.6 miles to the Annual Day Zero Pacific Crest Trail Kick Off party where we would meet up with our hiking buddies Giddy Up, Sneaks, and Julia. Boy did we move that day! We made it to kick off by 2:30. It was hot and hard but it was great. One of the best parts of the day was realizing we hit 14 miles already. We thought there was no way we were going that fast but I guess we were. The worst part of the day was that Fran developed pretty bad heel blisters that are still here 6 days later. The absolute best part of the day was reuniting with Giddy Up, Sneaks, and Julia!

The second day we got up late, hung around, and didn't get out of the ADZPCTKO until 10:30 that morning. We wanted to leave that day before the hundreds of hikers that were starting the next day. We all agreed that we didn't want to do another day like the day before but the ended up doing 18 miles, mostly uphill. It was fun though. We camped at this beautiful spot by a stream and got to use our new purifier for the first time. IT WAS AWESOME. It's this new gravity filter - no pumping necessary. It was like we discovered the wheel. I can't say enough about that filter. But that night was really crazy. I woke up in the middle of the night thinking that MudD had the headlamp on but it was the nearly full moon shining really bright on us. It was really fun.

Day three: 19 miles!
Day three was great. There were lots of places to stop and get water. Lots of faucets. Lots of shade. We hiked under these two boulders that were leaning on each other on top of a great ridge. Great sunset, great sunrise. The only bad part was that our hiking buddy Julia started to get shin splints!

Day four: 18 miles.
Day for was really hot. We were planning on just going 13 miles which would put us to the next water source and we thought hey, lets camp by water. Boy of boy it was so hot that day and there was no shade for the last four miles. We made it that 13 miles to the water source by 11 am and were disappointed when we saw there was practically no shade for us to hang out in. We did the best we could though and waited out the hot part of the day. Then we got antsy and let at 3 to hike another 5 miles to a different campsite. That night we saw the biggest rattlesnake ever! Well maybe not ever. But it was 4 feet long at least. It was amazing... and scary. Our new friends, Hopalong, 62, and Rum Monkey camped with us that night.  Unfortunately, we had to leave Giddy Up and Julia at the water source 5 miles behind due to injuries. Hopefully they are healing and will meet up with us soon!

Day 5: 20 miles
BRUTAL DAY. But really amazing and really satisfying. Also a day that really showed how much people in the community care about the PCT. So when we left that water source at mile 68, the next guaranteed water source wasn't until mile 101.1. Ouch. But in between, there are two different places that trail angels leaves a bunch of gallon water jugs for hikers. The first was at mile 77 called scissors crossing. The water was there so we were able to top off our water supplies and start the 14 mile uphill towards the next water source. At first it was fun. (This is Fran talking now) MudD was an absolute beast. I would never have made it as far or as fast without his help. Every morning, he was been sneaking another item from my bag to his to make my load lighter. This day with the terribly hot 14 mile uphill, he just straight up demanded that I give him two liters of water for him to carry. This made my pack so much lighter and made me move much faster. So with MudD's help, we got to the second water cache at 1 pm. This water cache was also full. I can't believe people care so much to take water up there several times a week so that we have enough water for this insane hike we are doing.  It was so nice to have that water cache, not only because we ABSOLUTELY needed that water, but also because it gave us the motivation to make it to mile 91. A couple years ago, there was a fire around that area so there is absolutely no shade to stop and rest in. The first shade was at the water cache. When we got there, we stayed till 4, hiked out just two miles, and camped at a beautiful spot.

Day 6: 16 miles
We got up at 4 am and started walking. Our goal was to make it to our first town stop, Warner Springs, which is where we are now. The day was great. We think we are going to wake up at 4 am every morning just to avoid the heat. This way we get to see the sunrise every morning. The views were spectacular too... the clouds were drifting below us which made it kind of look like lakes in the valleys. The best part was walking through them to get down into town. We were actually cold. Great feeling. Another cool thing about today is that we saw a wild coyote! So cool! But easily the best part was making it to the Warner Springs Community Center where there are volunteers cooking burgers for everyone. We have hot showers, great shade, and a nice place to rest. Plus the internet! So we can write this!

Okay now we are going to try to figure out how to put pictures on this computer so we can show you what we've been doing!

 The border! No miles hiked yet!

 The blazes!

 Having fun

 The first water cache - so awesome

 I don't know how this happened. The lady running the showers today said I was the dirtiest one she has seen so far.

 The clouds this morning

The first 100!