We made it to Oregon!! We had to walk 1,699 miles to get here but finally we have made it through California and now resting in Ashland, Oregon before we start off again and try to tackle another state. California was long. I mean we knew it would take a long time and just looking at any map to the United States will tell you that it is long but I didn't appreciate just how long it was until I walked from the southern end of it to the northern end. Unfortunately we have not been able to update our blog at all since Belden Town due to not being able to get access to a computer. We are now sitting in the lobby of our hotel and we are on the public computer here and we have a 20 minute time limit if there is anyone waiting... we are the only ones here for now but I may have to cut this short if someone shows up to use the computer.
We left Belden Town after taking two zeros there to visit my mom. For some reason we left Belden at 10 am and started the 14 mile climb that would take us 5,000 feet higher. It was already hot at 10 am and only got hotter as the day went on. To make matters worse, we decided to not stop in Chester (a two day journey from Belden) and instead carry a week's worth of food (heavy!!!!!). We were both drenched when we finally made it to camp that night and grateful to have a spring with really cold water flowing just a few feet from our camp sight. The next day we set off early because we were excited to get to get to the halfway point of the trail! It felt so good to see that trail register and read up on which of our friends had already made it! We made it a few more miles and actually caught up with a couple of our friends and camped by a highway where some nice trail angel had left a cooler full of sodas for hikers. Great night.
The next few days were really hot. And we had to tackle a section called the Hat Creek Rim - a 33 mile waterless section that is notorious for being one of the hottest parts of the trail. Boy oh boy we were not let down either. We both carried 6 liters of water for that section and I'm still happy that a trail angel had set up a water cache about 20 miles in. There were chairs and lots of gallon water jugs in a nice shady section. We spent about 2 hours there before taking off to finish the rest of the waterless stretch. That afternoon was easily the hottest of the trail so far for me. We stopped nearly once an hour or so to sit down and try to cool off in the shade. Apparently, right after we left the water cache someone showed up with a thermometer and he said it was reading 102 degrees in the shade. That night when we finally made it to our water source it was still really hot. We camped (probably illegally) by the fish hatchery but when a worker drove by us all he said was, "sprinklers come on at 7 am" and drove off. Normally we get right in our tent after dinner but it was so hot we sat outside as the sun went down trying to cool off. Finally around 10 pm it cooled down to a comfortable temperature.
Over the next couple of days it stayed uncomfortably hot. We stopped and did laundry in a town called Burney and then took 4 days to make it to Shasta City and although we have done longer stints on the trail, my clothes have honestly never smelled worse. For each of those four days our clothes were soaked with sweat. We would take them off and hang them up all night but each morning they would still be wet. I guess it was just so humid that they couldn't dry off. So we would put on our wet clothes and head off and by the time we got to Shasta City I was so thankful for a shower and a laundry machine. We straight up smelled like sweat and mold. It was nasty.
At first, we didn't even plan on going into Shasta City. It was the second to last stop on our way to Oregon and we were so anxious to get out of CA that we wanted to blow on by but we got a call from our friend, Miss Maggie, saying that her and her husband and brother in law were all in Shasta City and they were going to see the Wolverine movie that night and (and this was the kicker) the Outfitter in town let PCT hikers camp in their backyard for free. We had such a fun night with Miss Maggie, Uncle Famous, Ian aka Old Man Wrinkles, and Hummingbird. The next day we ran into our friends Dinnertime, Leftovers, and Lullaby whose friends were doing trail magic for the day 26 miles up. We got a ride up there thinking we would hang out all day, leave some heavy stuff there that night, get a ride back to the trail the next morning, and fly those 26 miles up the trail with light packs. It was the perfect plan... till I came down with flu like symptoms that night and ended up throwing up 10 times between the hours of 9 pm and 3 am. Easily one of the worst nights of my life. And poor MudD couldn't get any sleep either because I was getting up so much so often the puke loudly right outside our tent. The next morning MudD packed up all our stuff while I concentrated on not throwing up and we got a ride back in to Shasta City where MudD got us a hotel room and so that I could sleep away my nausea and fever. What a guy.
The next day I felt great and we finally left Shasta City. We spent nearly 3 full days in a town that we didn't even plan on going into. Luckily for us, in those three days the temperature had broken and so instead of hiking in temperatures in the 100's, we experienced temps in the 90's - a significant difference. It actually was cold at night! That first day though when we left Shasta City was rough. A couple miles in, MudD started coming down with the same symptoms I had but instead of going back, he pushed on even though we had a really demanding steep climb. He was exhausted when we stopped and fell right asleep. He had the nausea and the fever but luckily he did not have the vomiting so he (and I) was able to sleep the whole night. The next morning he felt fine and we took off!
We basically ran through that section. We did our first back to back 30 mile days and felt great! On our last day on the trail before reaching Etna, our last stop in CA, we woke up to the smell of fire. As the day went on, we found that we were hiking through tons of smoke. At one point, I noticed that something was falling on us as we realized that we were literally being rained on by ashes. I was freaked out. There was obviously a forest fire nearby and I did not want to get stuck in it. Luckily we met Etna's youth pastor on the trail who informed us that we were safe for now but that the fire was indeed really bad. Someone had gone down by the Salmon River and started 5 fires! When we reached Etna (the youth pastor ended up giving us a ride) we realized the town was ready for the fires. Fire trucks were driving through the little town all day long. It was nuts!
When we left Etna, a woman from the Forest Service informed us that the PCT had not been closed... yet. It was open that day but they were probably going to close it the next day and that if we decided to hike out of Etna, we had to move it pretty quickly and get at least 20 miles from the trailhead and then bust it the next day to Seiad Valley to ensure our safety. I guess a bunch of hikers didn't want to risk getting caught in the fires and opted to hitch hike to Seiad Valley instead of hike there and I was all for doing that as well but MudD really wanted to hike it. When I told him I didn't want to do it, I could tell he was disappointed but agreed to hitch if that was really what I wanted to do. We were almost about to get in the car when the Forest Service woman said, "oh don't be a wuss... you can do it. The fire fighters are going to hold the fire at the PCT so if things get bad the whole trail will be full of fire fighters and they'll get you flown out. You'll be fine if you stay on the trail." So we went. I was terrified the whole time and MudD was just happy that we had decided to go. In hindsight I'm happy we went too. It would have been a disappointment to have skipped 55 miles of the last 93 in California. And hey, we didn't die, we didn't get airlifted out, and we didn't even see the fires so it all turned out fine.
We made it safely to Seiad Valley where we waited out the midday sun in an RV park and then took off to tackle the steepest climb on the trail. In the next 8 miles we would gain 4,500 feet in elevation - that's a huge climb! Again, our clothes were soaked with sweat but we did it! It wasn't so bad as I imagined but my legs were dead afterwards. We only did 16 miles that day... and only 10 after Seiad Valley but that was plenty for us. We were beat! That night we ran into a trail crew and we camped with them. It was a nice, cool night but it was really creepy being surrounded by all that smoke.
That next morning we woke up early and took off with tons of excitement - this day we would finally walk out of California. It was a hard day - lots of uphill. In the end, we reached the Oregon/California border around 5:45 pm after walking 27 miles that day to get there. We sat down and celebrated by drinking the beers we had both carried out of Seiad Valley. It was just one beer each but after 27 miles and before dinner, I could feel the effects. We made it about another mile before we decided to call it quits and eat dinner.
The next day we were woken up by rain! Welcome to Oregon!!!! It was our first time we had been rained on while we were walking on the trail. I couldn't believe it. I was cold and wet and it felt good! The rain only lasted a little bit but it stayed cool all day. We quickly did the last 27 miles into Ashland. And although we have only walked 28 miles in Oregon so far I already love it! This is both of our first times ever being in Oregon and everyone is so nice! One woman (a senior day-hiker) told us that she was proud of us even though she didn't know us when we told her we had started from Mexico. Other day hikers on the trail apologized to us for all the smoke. And then when we got the the place where we were picking up some packages from, we were offered a free beer for being PCT hikers! And then when we got on the road to hitch into Ashland, the first car that drove by us picked us up!!! Oh my gosh! What nice people!!
So we love it here. We are going to hit the trail tomorrow after taking two zeros here. We are both very excited for Crater Lake and the rest of Oregon! Hopefully we will be able to update the blog more often in Oregon.
Friday, August 9, 2013
Friday, August 2, 2013
Pictures from the last couple hundred miles
Monday, July 15, 2013
South Lake Tahoe to Belden Town - Miles 1093-1289
So far I (Dingo) think these might have been my favorite 200 miles of the trip (although MudD has enjoyed this section, his favorite has been the Sierra). Although it has been a little hotter (lower elevation) the weather hasn't been too bad and the terrain has been getting a bit easier. It's good walking and great scenery. I have learned that although the views from the tops of mountain above tree line can be jaw dropping and amazing, I really enjoy walking through forests where we can't see much. Now my opinion is not shared by all... not even by most. Many other hikers we have talked to have not liked this section at all. They miss the hugeness of the Sierra. And I do too... I guess I just don't miss it as much as others. I think Northern California is pretty cool so far.
7/5 - Day 70 - 17 miles - 1093-1110
We had spent two days with my mom in South Lake Tahoe and Carson City and although it was nice to see her and eat everything we wanted to, we were anxious to get back on the trail. My mom dropped us off and we set off. We had left some things with my mom, including our bear vaults which we were no longer required to carry so our packs were lighter than they had been in a while. Ironically this first day without our bear vaults we saw a bear within the first 15 minutes of our hike. It was just a little guy/gal but it was not afraid of us at all. It just sat on a log and watched us walk past. We ran into a bunch of other hikers at Echo Lake, only a mile and a half into our hike that day. Chatting and catching up with these hikers really distracted us and we ended up accidentally spending an hour and a half there. It seems as though whenever we take off our packs and sit down time just flies and before we know it it is time to get moving again when all I want to do it relax just a little bit longer. So off we went, up and over Dick's Pass! My brother had told me to look out for Dick's Pass because there was a nice lake to camp by right around it. Now I don't remember which lake he said it was but it could have been a number of lakes. It seemed like all day we were hiking by lake after lake and we finally chose a nice little lake (with only a few mosquitoes) and had a great night cooking food and reading our books. We really surprised ourselves this day... even though we were kind of lazy all day and stopped early, we were still able to do 17. Pretty cool.
7/6 - Day 71 - 19 miles - mile 1110 to 1129
Well our laziness from the day before continued into this day. We slept in! A lot. Now I love sleeping and I am not a morning person at all but even I can't sleep too long in that tent once the sun rises enough. It's just too bright out. But even I couldn't believe that we slept all the way until 7 in the morning. That is the latest start we've had the whole trip! I loved it. Honestly we don't really remember too much about this day other than we took our time. We stopped at 4 pm at the last water source for another 9 miles and although it was early and we had only done 19 miles that day we didn't feel like dry camping that night so we decided we would just set up our stuff and have another great night. Although we had the place to ourselves when we first showed up, right around 7 pm a whole bunch of other people walked up into the campground so we had several neighbors that night. Most of them I don't remember too well as I haven't seen them much since but two guys, Veggie and Track Meat, we would spend a lot of time in the next couple of days.
7/7 - Day 72 - 30 miles - 1129 to 1159
What we didn't realize the night before when we stopped so early was that it would set us up to have to do a 30 this day due to lack of water. We knew about the first 9 miles from our campsite without water and we were prepared for it. But when we looked at the maps to see when the next water source was, we realized that we had plenty of water for the next couple of miles but then we had a long 16 mile waterless stretch. Really the only thing that made sense was to do 30. So we set off and started moving... fast. For some reason I felt amazing this day. We had a pretty steep 3.5 mile climb up to that last water source for 16 miles and I was flying. MudD even said he was struggling to keep up with me up that hill and that has never happened before. We stopped at the top of the hill at the water which happened to be right under a ski lift and had lunch with Track Meat! After we had finished lunch we took off to finish the last 16 miles of the day and I was disappointed to realize that my energy boost from the morning was over and I was back to moving at my normal speed again... which was unfortunate because we had another steep uphill to deal with. But we made it just fine to the first highway crossing (only 3.5 miles from our destination) where some nice trail angel had left a cooler of beer! After we finished our beers we headed off for highway 80 where there was a rest stop with water and bathrooms. We were flying towards that! A real bathroom! I couldn't believe it. We made it to the trail junction and knew the rest stop was only another half of a mile up the trail but somehow took a wrong turn and got really lost. We walked for 40 minutes uphill thinking maybe the rest stop was just around the next bend when finally we wised up and realized, hey we have been walking for 40 minutes when it was supposed to take five minutes to get there. We turned around and finally made it back to the rest stop at 10 pm. We cooked right out front of the rest stop and got some pretty weird looks but we did not care at all. We ended up setting our tent up in the backyard of the rest stop. It was 11 pm before we even ended up getting into the tent and then we were so razzled from the day that we probably didn't end up falling asleep until after midnight. Our feet were sore, we were frustrated, but at least we were in our tent. We ended up doing maybe 34 miles that day but only 30 on trail.
7/8 - Day 73 - 22 miles - 1159 to 1181
Because of our huge day the day before we took it easy today. We breaked a lot and really enjoyed the day. We were walking over rolling hills, nothing too steep, nothing too hard on our knees. Just easy walking. This was our favorite day of the trail so far. We found a great camping spot near a stream and had amazing stars that night.
7/9 - Day 74 - 16 miles - 1181 to 1197
This day flew by because we booked it as fast as we could to Sierra City. We had heard really good things about this town and we wanted to know why. Everything we had heard about Sierra City was true. It is our favorite town of the whole trip so far. Why? Because it's tiny. Everything is right there! The trail angel, the deli, the postoffice, and the bar were all less than a 3 minute walk from each other! It was so easy! And everyone was so nice! We ended up at the bar that night, hanging out with the guy who had made us burgers earlier that day, playing great songs on the jukebox and playing pool.
7/10 - Day 75 - 0
We had so much fun in Sierra City the day before that we decided to zero there and hang out a bit. Great decision. Everything about that little town was amazing. That night we even got to attend a cello concert put on by a fellow hiker. This guy is a really great cellist and has been mailing his cello from town to town and playing concerts along the trail. We had missed all his concerts up to that point and this one was a very special one because his wife (who plays the violin) would be joining him! It was the final straw - we had to stay. So we did and had an amazing time!
7/11 - Day 76 - 14 miles - mile 1197 to 1211
It was pretty darn hard to pull ourselves away from Sierra City but finally at 1 in the afternoon we finally got our stuff together and headed off in the heat of the day for a large ascent. It actually wasn't too bad and those first 8 miles of uphill was over before we knew it. We had great views, it was a great trail, and there was just enough of a breeze to keep us cool. That night we camped at a little pond with sort of sketchy water but it was wet. MudD fell right asleep as soon as we were done with dinner and I wasn't too far behind.
7/12 - Day 77 - 26 miles - mile 1211 to 1237
What a great day. There was nothing too spectacular about this day but we loved it. We were just in the zone and moving. We had to eat dinner a little early by the last water source we were going past for the night and then hike on and dry camp for the night. We both carried three liters of water to our campsite and we had way more than enough water not only for that night but also for the next day. We didn't have to stop for water until noon the day after that. All day long we walked through beautiful forests with huge trees, some of them with really green moss growing all over them. There was nothing really special about the day to talk about but it was really fun.
7/13 - Day 78 - 24 miles - mile 1237 to 1261
Again, this was a great day of walking through forest after forest over mountains and hills and on top of ridges. The best part of the day was our break at noon. We had walked about 14 miles already by our lunch break and took a break by this beautiful river. It was a gorgeous break and we spent over 2 hours there when normally we try to keep our lunch breaks to an hour. It was just too beautiful to pack up! After lunch we had a large climb ahead of us that went by a lot faster than I was expecting it to. Again we had to eat our dinner early at the last water source of the day and moved on to dry camp. We found a great spot right across from a place called "Lookout Rock" (appropriate name) and had amazing views of not only the sunset but also the sunrise the next morning. Neither of us slept too well though because all night there was some animal visitor making noises around our tent. It was probably just a deer but I was convinced there was a bear stalking us.
7/14 - Day 78 - 28 miles - mile 1261 to 1289
When we woke up this morning we had no intention of walking the 28 miles into Belden Town. We told ourselves that we would just go with the flow and keep walking until we wanted to stop. It just so happened that we wanted to stop at the restaurant in Belden Town. The 28 miles this day was an easy 28 miles. We had a couple of climbs and then it was downhill all day. But again, the uphills were well graded and gradual and the forests are just very fun to walk through and so the miles fly by. Even though it is getting hotter outside (by the day it feels like) it feels really good to sweat and we just have to make sure we are drinking enough water. After we finished dinner in Belden, my mom called saying that she was going to visit us one last time before she flies back home! So now we are in Quincy on yet another zero day hanging out with my mom at this awesome motel. We saw an okay movie but we are excited to hit the trail again tomorrow! Our next stop is Burney Falls State Park which is over halfway done with the trail! WOOOOOOO. I can't believe we are so close to being halfway done. After this the next big milestone is getting out of California at mile 1698 but we shouldn't count our miles before they are walked.
Picture Post
We only have 30 minutes on this library computer which is not nearly enough time to write a summary of our last week and a half so we are just going to post some pictures now and we'll try to write a summary tonight once we find a hotel! We are in Belden Town which is at mile 1289... only 43 miles from halfway!
Hiking towards Sonora Pass. BEAUTIFUL scenery! And better yet it was a nice break from the mosquitos
Storm rolling in over us as we go over a pass. Kind of sketchy. Made it to an overhang just as it started to rain on us.
aafad
We keep walking through these cool forests covered in moss
Thursday, July 4, 2013
The Last Week
Finally leaving Yosemite
So we finally got out of there! We slept in again but then hit the trail! What we did not realize was that we were walking into the worst mosquito experience we may ever have in our lifetimes.
6/26 - miles 942 - 962- 20 miles - day 62
We headed out on the trail this day after not doing any PCT miles for 3 days. There were a lot of dayhikers out on the trail but they disappeared once we got about 6 miles from the trailhead. We were back on the PCT and cruising! had a couple of tough climbs and but we had a lot of fun. At one point we came to a fork in the road and we had to choose between two different paths. After consulting the maps we chose the one on the left. After a couple of minutes of downhill walking I got a terrible feeling that we had chosen wrong. I looked at the maps again and just did not know where we were so I dropped my pack and sprinted down the hill after MudD to tell him that I wasn't so sure we had chosen right. I thought MudD would just be around the corner but he is a lot faster than even I knew. I got nearly all the way down to the bottom of the hill when I stopped him, showed him the maps, and he said, "Fran, we're right here... see? We chose the right way." So I then started the long walk back up the hill to get my pack only to come back down. It really wasn't that bad. And that's really the only exciting thing that happened during they day so hey, it wasn't too bad. That night when we got into camp the mosquitos were pretty bad. We set up the tent and started a fire. We spent that night with Goodall, The Blur, Hummingbird, Dinnertime, and Keno- not knowing we would spend every night this week with most of these people.
6/27 - miles 962 - 983 - 21 miles - Day 63
We woke up to a mosquito free day... but it wouldn't stay that way too long. By the time we got to the top of our first pass at 9 am, the mosquitos were terrible. We had our bug nets on, pants, rain jackets, and bug spray. I don't think we were getting bit by the mosquitos but we were still pacing back and forth trying to get away from those bugs. Luckily MudD found a bug net at some point during this day. That night, the mosquitos were even worse than they were the night before. We decided that night we had to wake up early the next morning, before the mosquitos were up so we could pack up in peace.
6/28 - miles 983-1,007 - 24 miles - Day 64
Our plan to wake up early to skip the mosquitos and pack up in peace failed because the mosquitos were already out at 5 in the morning. And they were biting like crazy and they did not stop the entire day. It was my least favorite day on the trail so far. It was terrible! Everything we walked through was wet. My feet were soaked, not from river crossings but from just walking down the trail which itself became a river at times. Easily the worst it got was when we were passing by this one lake. I had reapplied bug spray a million times it seemed that day and still they were biting me. At this lake though, I could feel them flying and hitting my calves by the hundreds. MudD got his wiffle ball bat out and started swinging it around in the air and he said he could hear them hitting the bat, one after the other. We literally could not stop walking this day. They were bad enough when we were moving, I didn't want to know what they would be like when we stopped. But I started stumbling and nearly fell a couple times and even though I didn't want to stop, MudD insisted that we take a break, drink some water, and have a little snack. That break helped a lot and gave me the energy to get to the top of the pass we were climbing where we finally left Yosemite National Park! Finally! We had been blaming all our mosquito problems on Yosemite and maybe it was all in our heads but I swear the mosquitos let up just a bit as soon as we passed over the Yosemite National Park line. We passed that line at mile 998 and only had two to go until we made it to mile 1,000... which we completely missed. We passed by the rocks that were marking the huge milestone so that was pretty anti-climatic. That afternoon we experienced our first afternoon storm scare. These clouds looked nasty! But it was hot out so I was hoping it would actually rain. The clouds went right by us, never actually going over us and we would not know it then but this would happen to us several more times that week. That night we had a nice campfire with Hummingbird, Dinnertime, Keno, and our new friend, Caveman. Besides Caveman, we had camped with these guys every night that week so far... and not because we had planned it that way, just because we all happen to have the same plan every morning when we woke up.
6/29 - miles 1007 - 1029 - 22 miles - day 65
Today was our best day of the week. The mosquitos were non-existent, the scenery was beautiful, and we had some unexpected trail magic! We spent the morning climbing up to a ridge that we then followed for a couple miles. It was just gorgeous and we thought we must be going to slow because we kept on stopping to take pictures. Then when we finally came down from the ridge, some trail angels were at a parking lot where the trail crossed a highway at Sonora Pass. They made us hotdogs for lunch (including a side of cheesy potato). I had at least 4 cans of soda and I'm pretty sure MudD did the same. I was so full but we still wanted to go another 11 miles before the day was over. So reluctantly we put our packs back on (though we had to loosen the waist bands a bit) and headed off. It was actually a lovely afternoon. The climb out of Sonora Pass wasn't even that bad. We made it to camp, ate again though we were still full from the trail angel lunch. We thought maybe the rest of our group wasn't going to make it but just as we were about to get into the tent for the night, our friends showed up! Keno started a fire that night and we stayed up late all telling stories and chatting it up. Finally around 9 pm (very late for us) we headed off to bed to get ready for the next day.
6/30 - miles 1,029 - 1,055 - 26 miles - day 66
This day was pretty rough. We knew we wanted to get far this day and so we took off like a shot. We made it 13.5 miles by lunchtime and sat down to take a break where we both realized we had headaches. It was really hot out this day and I felt like I could not drink enough water. On we went, up and over a couple hills. The hills didn't look too hard or long on our elevation charts but man these things kicked our butts! We sat back down after crossing a highway with a little less than 6 miles to go until we would stop for the day. We got out a couple snacks and were hanging out for a bit when Dinnertime showed up and suddenly shouted, "trail magic!" and went off running up the hill. MudD and I followed quickly and we discovered a cooler full of gatorade, soda, beer, chips, and apples! It was delicious! And very uplifting after such a hard afternoon. We immediately grabbed some apples... which immediately made MudD feel terrible! Maybe it's because we hadn't eaten fruit in so long? I don't know what happened but MudD ended up throwing up the apple... and I mean just the apple. I took a look at the throw up when it was all said and done and none of the snacks he ate right before the apple were included in the puke. So that was weird. But afterwards he felt great and we kept moving! And it was a beautiful last couple of miles. We ended up camping in a beautiful canyon (with all of our friends) and the mosquitos were barely biting. Great night. I had a bit of a headache though still so I went to lay down in the tent - thats when the zipper on our tent officially broke. Oops. That night we had to sleep with the tent open and in the morning our tent was full of huge insects.
7/1 - miles 1,055 to 1,084 - 29 miles - day 67
Now, we did not mean to do 29 miles today. MudD and I were both so out of it this morning for some reason that we thought we might only make it 20 miles. It was hot was just a hot hot morning and there were no landmarks so we couldn't tell how far we had gone yet. Suddenly at 10:40 in the morning we came across Blue Lakes Rd... which was supposed to be 12.5 miles from where we camped the night before. We were both pretty surprised. We thought we were going really slow! But somehow we were moving! We took an early lunch, had a beautiful uphill climb and then started up a pass just as a huge thunderstorm was rolling in. We had amazing views from up high... and then just as we got to the top of the pass, the thunder and lightning started and we decided it was a good time to get off of the top of a mountain. So we ran down and made it to a building with an overhang just as it started sprinkling. MudD, Keno, Hummingbird, Dinnertime, and I all made dinner early and then headed out for three more miles where we heard there was good camping. We got there and there was terrible camping there so we all kept going. We all felt great from dinner and though we had had a huge day already, everyone of us felt confident to move on. That night we camped at Showers Lake, home of the mosquitos. We were too pooped to even have a fire that night.
7/2 miles 1,084 - 1,094 - 10 miles - day 68
After the hellish week we had with mosquitos we were all very excited to get into town. It was a quick morning and got a hitch in to South Lake Tahoe pretty quickly. We chowed down on McDonalds and found a cheap place to stay. It was the Super 8 and it was actually really cool. We went out to a casino that night with plans of hitting the all you can eat buffet and then gambling a bit in the Nevada side of town. But after the all you can eat buffet we were pretty done and just went home, watched some movies, and fell asleep.
So now we are still in South Lake Tahoe. My mom happened to be coming out to California anyway so she met us here and we have been hanging out with her for a while. Tomorrow (the 5th) we will be heading out on the trail again for more adventures!
Stuck in Yosemite!
Stuck in Yosemite...
6/21-6/25 - mile 906-942 - 36 miles - day57- 61
This is our story of how we got stuck in Yosemite National Park for 3 days... when we only planned on 1
We left Mammoth on June 21st... the first day of summer! We got a really slow start though and didn't get back to the trail until around noon. Our friend, Mermaid had contacted us the day before and told us her family was throwing a dinner party of sorts at Tuolumne Meadows Campground on the 22nd. Tuolumne Meadows was just 36 miles away from Mammoth which was very possible for us to do in two days but we had to get descent mileage in that first day if we were going to make it. So we booked it out of Mammoth, running past the Devil's Postpile (pretty cool and famous rock formation) and tried to walk fast enough to get ourselves away from the dayhikers that were flooding the trail. We made it 16 miles that day despite our late start but we never really got away from the crowds. Later the next day as we were walking into Tuolumne Meadows the crowds got bigger and bigger the closer we got. And then we arrived at Tuolumne Meadows and holy cow were there a lot of people at this campground. There were tons of families with huge tents complete with blow up mattresses to sleep on cooking hot dogs and steaks on their huge portable grills, and everyone drinking sodas or beers out of their coolers. Now normally crowds of people bother us... it's a weird feeling to be out in nature all alone and then all of a sudden BAM a ton of people are around. But we knew that somewhere in that maze of campsites all filled with people was a campsite that we were welcome at with homemade food. We put our blinders on, found the campsite, and had a great night with Mermaid and her family. There was pasta, chicken, guacamole!, salad, and beverages other than water for us to drink. It was a really great night.
The next morning we woke up and had breakfast with Mermaid's family and then set off for our next adventure: finishing the John Muir Trail. The Pacific Crest Trail links up with the JMT at mile 766 (I think) and the two trails are the same until Tuolumne Meadows. The PCT breaks off and continues north whereas the JMT goes down into Yosemite Valley. We figured we had done nearly all of the JMT and we were so close to finishing it that hey, we might as well go on and just do it. But we ran into problems at the ranger station. We found out that we would need a permit to camp overnight on the JMT and although it was only 22 miles to finish (we thought) it was already 10:30 in the morning and I didn't think I would have fun hiking as fast as I could through the last section of the trail and all the while worrying that we wouldn't finish and would have to camp and then get hit with a $5,000 dollar fine. So MudD went off with our friend, Hummingbird and finish the JMT while I spent the day hanging around Tuolumne Meadows with Mermaid and her family. MudD said that they had a great hike. They didn't end up leaving until 11 am but were able to finish the 31 miles that they did by 8 pm that night! They were even fast enough to climb up Half Dome - a really famous mountain that can be seen from Yosemite Valley. Normally there are tons of people on the trail... and normally everyone needs a permit to hike it but that day there was a storm rolling in so everyone had gone home, including the park ranger, so MudD and Hummingbird scrambled up to the top and they were the only two at the top! It was a great hike they said. But their real problems started after they finished the hike.
So they finished their hike and before getting the usual celebratory pizza and beer, they immediately started to try to hitchhike back to Tuolumne Meadows. Now even though the trail that they took was less than 30 miles long, the drive between the two locations takes at least an hour and half. Also it was getting dark and to be honest, MudD and Hummingbird both look like pretty sketchy guys with their huge beards and their hiker smell. One guy picked them up but could only take them about 15 miles us the road which is where he dropped them off and again, they waited and tried to get a hitch... which they were not able to. So they set up camp by the road and waited till the next morning when they were able to hitch BACK to the valley where they caught the only bus going up to Tuolumne Meadows. If they had been 10 minutes later they would have missed that bus. So up they came to Tuolumne Meadows on that bus ride and it took them 2 hours to get there. Meanwhile, I'm back at Tuolumne Meadows where it is raining and cold. Our friends Hermes and Lotus have just informed that that there is a free place for us to stay in Yosemite Valley and they have a ride down there. So I try to get a hold of the boys but for some reason, Hummingbird's phone is off. I was hoping that maybe they hadn't gotten a ride yet... I had been informed that the bus wouldn't come until the afternoon and so I was under the impression that they were still trying to hitchhike up. Hermes and Lotus had just taken off with their ride when 10 minutes later, MudD and Hummingbird showed up. They were completely exhausted from hiking 31 miles in 9 hours and then being up all night trying to find a ride back. They had no desire to hike out that day. Plus MudD's sleeping bag was wet and since the forecast showed rain for the next two days, we decided the best decision would be to go back to where they had just come from and spend the night in the Valley.
So back to the road we went. They had hitched for hours and not been able to find a ride but it only took us 20 minutes before a woman picked us up and took us all the way there. We found our friends and waited to find out where we were staying... and it happened to be with this awesome park ranger. She was amazing and fantastic. She had met Hermes before and found his blog and opened her house up to us. She not only let us shower and do laundry, but she made us an amazing, home-cooked meal with honestly the best chicken I have ever had. That night we slept great on her comfortable and soft carpet. That night we had intentions of leaving early the next morning but we were so cozy that we slept in... and then we were made breakfast which was just as good, if not better than the meal we had the night before. I really don't know how this woman learned to cook this way but holy cow. The best part were her home-made ginger scones which I then dreamt about every day since.
But all good things must come to an end so we had to leave our park ranger trail angel and head back out into the wild world. We put our thumbs out and it took us 4 hours to get a ride back to Tuolumne Meadows. Again, we had every intention of hiking out that day but by the time we got back, it was nearly 5 and we were all pooped from the travels of the day... so we set up camp once again at Tuolumne Meadows and hoped that the day after we would finally be able to escape from the madness.
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Week two in the High Sierra - GREAT!!!!
Okay this week has been absolutely awesome. We have been hiking over a pass a day and each one we find more beautiful than the next.
6/13 - Day 49 - Onion Valley to Kearsarge Pass to mile 795 - 12 miles
The day we leave a town to get back on a the trail is always a hard day... especially when our bed at the hotel is as comfortable as the one we had in Bishop. But we had a ride from our friend Ducky so we reluctantly left Bishop to hike back up over Kearsarge Pass back to the trail... it was a 5 mile uphill hike with an elevation gain of over 2,000 feet. Combine that with 7 days of food means that our packs were heavy and our legs were tired afterwards. Making it to the top was a great feeling but then we still had to hike another 2.5 miles till we were actually back on the PCT. Then once we did that we had to climb over another pass - Glenn Pass - which was only 2 miles more but extremely steep. It was much harder than we expected. I would say one of the hardest passes we did which was weird because it was so short. The way down was pretty sketchy too with a bunch of snow and ice covering the trail. But we made it and had a beautiful spot to camp at by a lake. That night there were three deer hanging around and they didn't seem to mind us one bit. They were running through our camp and just ignoring our presence. It was really awesome and beautiful. We thought that it was a once in a trail kind of an experience but throughout this whole week we have had very similar experiences... once I was having a conversation with another hiker and a deer just sat laid down about 10 feet away from us and didn't care much that we were there.
6/14 - Day 50 - mile 795 to 813 - 18 miles
We woke up bright and early... it was a cold morning so we packed up our stuff fast and headed off on the trail. We had a beautiful 5 mile downward hike in which we got sort of lost for about 20 minutes and I ended up getting my feet soaked in a river that we didn't actually have to cross. In spite of that, we still were having a really great time... and we were excited to get to mile 800! It felt like we had been in the 700's for so long! Mile 800 marked the start of Pinchot Pass which in our opinion was one of the hardest this year. 2013 is a very strange year here on the trail... there is almost no snow - even on the passes - which makes our experience very different from other years. We have talked to people who hiked in 2011 and they don't even remember going over Pinchot... but they remember a couple others to be very hard and difficult that we thought to be some of the easier ones. But back to Pinchot. It was a long, steep, 8 mile uphill climb. I had expected us to finish it in 4 hours because even on uphills we normally were averaging 2 miles an hour... but not on Pinchot. This one took us a very long time. It was beautiful, don't get me wrong. We followed an amazing stream up a valley for a very long time and had amazing and gorgeous views but boy were we pooped. So pooped that a mile before the last push to the top we stopped and had to eat lunch to give ourselves a little extra energy. But boy getting to the top of that pass was really satisfying. I don't even remember going down Pinchot - the experience of the ascent eclipses it so much. We made it down to the bottom and went a couple more miles back uphill towards the next pass (Mather Pass) so that we could hit it early in the morning. That night we camped with a bunch of other people at a beautiful stream that luckily didn't have too many mosquitoes. It was rather cold that night and we both woke up the next morning to find that the condensation in our tent had frozen and our sleeping bags were covered in a thin layer of ice.
6/15 - Day 51 - 813 to 835 - 22 Miles
Up Mather Pass! We loved Mather Pass! It was not too steep on the way up, short section of switchbacks, and great views on the way up, from the top, and on the way down. This pass however is one of the passes that in previous years has been really hard for hikers due to the snow. Not the case for us. We loved it. One of the best hands down. We were up and over pretty fast and started the 10 mile descent. What a gorgeous, gorgeous downhill descent. It was rather steep at times but completely worth it. Again we followed a river down into a valley and there were just tons of waterfalls all day long. They were coming down the side of the mountains around us just gushing into the stream we were following. Oh it was great. Although it was beautiful I was pretty happy when the descent ended. My knees were pretty sore from the constant pounding they were taking from going downhill. But I was also pretty intimidated of the pass up ahead. We were about to start going up to Muir pass - an 11 mile uphill climb that I heard was pretty hard. MudD however was very excited and insisted that we do another 7.5 miles up towards the pass to make the next day easier on us. And I'm glad we did. Again we had a beautiful campsite right next to a river with a waterfall a couple feet away from us and more friendly deer running through our campsite. The first 5 miles were fine but the last 2 were really hard and really steep. But I'm glad we did them... MudD was right, it did make the next day easier.
6/16 - Day 52 - 835 to 855 - 20 miles
Up Muir Pass! So the place we camped the night before set us up for having to hike under 4 miles to the top of Muir Pass. Although it was tough and steep and we often lost the trail due to snow it was hands down our favorite pass. We would hike up these switchbacks that would plateau out into a lake that we would walk around and then up more switchbacks to another lake that had a stream flowing into the lake we had just left. Amazing, just amazing. At the top of the pass there was a hut that was built in the 1930's I believe by the Sierra Club. It was built for hikers stuck at the pass in bad weather and even though there was not a cloud in the sky when we were up there, but hut was still really cool and amazing. It was made out of stones from the area and it blew my mind that people had actually hiked up there with enough supplies to build that hut. Muir Pass is one of those things that we experienced that is too cool for words... I hope our pictures will give a little taste of our experience. The rest of the day we spent doing a knee-breaking 23 mile descent. It was great and beautiful and we even got to ford our first big river. Like the passes though, it was much easier for us due to the fact that there was such little snowfall this year. Our guidebook told us that sometimes that river could reach up to your chest! The water at the place we crossed at didn't even reach our knees. We found a waterfall off the side of the trail to have lunch at. MudD was even brave enough to take a swim in the freezing cold water coming down it. That downhill was so long that MudD and I couldn't even finish it that day. We camped beside a river and had another great fire and slept great, excited for the next day and the next pass.
6/17 - Day 53 - mile 855 to 879 - 24 miles
We finished up the rest of the downhill from Muir pass and then started up Selden Pass. Selden Pass was long but mostly gradual. We sped up that thing faster than any other pass... partly because of the gradual grade but mostly because of the smoke in the air. There was obviously something on fire that was not supposed to be... it smelled like a fire and the smoke scared me into flying up that hill. MudD was less concerned but happy to be moving a pretty good clip. We spent very little time at the actual pass because even up there the mosquitoes were biting us. All day long we were getting eaten up... especially on our lunch break. There was hundreds of mosquitoes swarming us for those 30 minutes. It was awful but it was worth stopping for a good meal.
6/18 Day 54 - mile 879 to 901 - 22 miles!
We did our last pass in the high Sierra today - Silver Pass. It was great! I can't write much about this day because I'm running out of time on this library computer and we still have to upload pictures! The highlight of the day was getting to mile 900 - what an amazing feeling! The next day we ran into town! We got a hitch, got a place to stay, and at a ton of food! We are having a zero day and then heading out again tomorrow, the 21st to celebrate the summer solstice on the trail!!
Headed back to the trail after Kearsarge Pass
Made it to mile 800.2
MudD at the top of Pinchot Pass.
The hut at the top of Muir Pass
Heading down Muir Pass.
Fire! Hanging out at camp.
Holy cow mile 900!
6/13 - Day 49 - Onion Valley to Kearsarge Pass to mile 795 - 12 miles
The day we leave a town to get back on a the trail is always a hard day... especially when our bed at the hotel is as comfortable as the one we had in Bishop. But we had a ride from our friend Ducky so we reluctantly left Bishop to hike back up over Kearsarge Pass back to the trail... it was a 5 mile uphill hike with an elevation gain of over 2,000 feet. Combine that with 7 days of food means that our packs were heavy and our legs were tired afterwards. Making it to the top was a great feeling but then we still had to hike another 2.5 miles till we were actually back on the PCT. Then once we did that we had to climb over another pass - Glenn Pass - which was only 2 miles more but extremely steep. It was much harder than we expected. I would say one of the hardest passes we did which was weird because it was so short. The way down was pretty sketchy too with a bunch of snow and ice covering the trail. But we made it and had a beautiful spot to camp at by a lake. That night there were three deer hanging around and they didn't seem to mind us one bit. They were running through our camp and just ignoring our presence. It was really awesome and beautiful. We thought that it was a once in a trail kind of an experience but throughout this whole week we have had very similar experiences... once I was having a conversation with another hiker and a deer just sat laid down about 10 feet away from us and didn't care much that we were there.
6/14 - Day 50 - mile 795 to 813 - 18 miles
We woke up bright and early... it was a cold morning so we packed up our stuff fast and headed off on the trail. We had a beautiful 5 mile downward hike in which we got sort of lost for about 20 minutes and I ended up getting my feet soaked in a river that we didn't actually have to cross. In spite of that, we still were having a really great time... and we were excited to get to mile 800! It felt like we had been in the 700's for so long! Mile 800 marked the start of Pinchot Pass which in our opinion was one of the hardest this year. 2013 is a very strange year here on the trail... there is almost no snow - even on the passes - which makes our experience very different from other years. We have talked to people who hiked in 2011 and they don't even remember going over Pinchot... but they remember a couple others to be very hard and difficult that we thought to be some of the easier ones. But back to Pinchot. It was a long, steep, 8 mile uphill climb. I had expected us to finish it in 4 hours because even on uphills we normally were averaging 2 miles an hour... but not on Pinchot. This one took us a very long time. It was beautiful, don't get me wrong. We followed an amazing stream up a valley for a very long time and had amazing and gorgeous views but boy were we pooped. So pooped that a mile before the last push to the top we stopped and had to eat lunch to give ourselves a little extra energy. But boy getting to the top of that pass was really satisfying. I don't even remember going down Pinchot - the experience of the ascent eclipses it so much. We made it down to the bottom and went a couple more miles back uphill towards the next pass (Mather Pass) so that we could hit it early in the morning. That night we camped with a bunch of other people at a beautiful stream that luckily didn't have too many mosquitoes. It was rather cold that night and we both woke up the next morning to find that the condensation in our tent had frozen and our sleeping bags were covered in a thin layer of ice.
6/15 - Day 51 - 813 to 835 - 22 Miles
Up Mather Pass! We loved Mather Pass! It was not too steep on the way up, short section of switchbacks, and great views on the way up, from the top, and on the way down. This pass however is one of the passes that in previous years has been really hard for hikers due to the snow. Not the case for us. We loved it. One of the best hands down. We were up and over pretty fast and started the 10 mile descent. What a gorgeous, gorgeous downhill descent. It was rather steep at times but completely worth it. Again we followed a river down into a valley and there were just tons of waterfalls all day long. They were coming down the side of the mountains around us just gushing into the stream we were following. Oh it was great. Although it was beautiful I was pretty happy when the descent ended. My knees were pretty sore from the constant pounding they were taking from going downhill. But I was also pretty intimidated of the pass up ahead. We were about to start going up to Muir pass - an 11 mile uphill climb that I heard was pretty hard. MudD however was very excited and insisted that we do another 7.5 miles up towards the pass to make the next day easier on us. And I'm glad we did. Again we had a beautiful campsite right next to a river with a waterfall a couple feet away from us and more friendly deer running through our campsite. The first 5 miles were fine but the last 2 were really hard and really steep. But I'm glad we did them... MudD was right, it did make the next day easier.
6/16 - Day 52 - 835 to 855 - 20 miles
Up Muir Pass! So the place we camped the night before set us up for having to hike under 4 miles to the top of Muir Pass. Although it was tough and steep and we often lost the trail due to snow it was hands down our favorite pass. We would hike up these switchbacks that would plateau out into a lake that we would walk around and then up more switchbacks to another lake that had a stream flowing into the lake we had just left. Amazing, just amazing. At the top of the pass there was a hut that was built in the 1930's I believe by the Sierra Club. It was built for hikers stuck at the pass in bad weather and even though there was not a cloud in the sky when we were up there, but hut was still really cool and amazing. It was made out of stones from the area and it blew my mind that people had actually hiked up there with enough supplies to build that hut. Muir Pass is one of those things that we experienced that is too cool for words... I hope our pictures will give a little taste of our experience. The rest of the day we spent doing a knee-breaking 23 mile descent. It was great and beautiful and we even got to ford our first big river. Like the passes though, it was much easier for us due to the fact that there was such little snowfall this year. Our guidebook told us that sometimes that river could reach up to your chest! The water at the place we crossed at didn't even reach our knees. We found a waterfall off the side of the trail to have lunch at. MudD was even brave enough to take a swim in the freezing cold water coming down it. That downhill was so long that MudD and I couldn't even finish it that day. We camped beside a river and had another great fire and slept great, excited for the next day and the next pass.
6/17 - Day 53 - mile 855 to 879 - 24 miles
We finished up the rest of the downhill from Muir pass and then started up Selden Pass. Selden Pass was long but mostly gradual. We sped up that thing faster than any other pass... partly because of the gradual grade but mostly because of the smoke in the air. There was obviously something on fire that was not supposed to be... it smelled like a fire and the smoke scared me into flying up that hill. MudD was less concerned but happy to be moving a pretty good clip. We spent very little time at the actual pass because even up there the mosquitoes were biting us. All day long we were getting eaten up... especially on our lunch break. There was hundreds of mosquitoes swarming us for those 30 minutes. It was awful but it was worth stopping for a good meal.
6/18 Day 54 - mile 879 to 901 - 22 miles!
We did our last pass in the high Sierra today - Silver Pass. It was great! I can't write much about this day because I'm running out of time on this library computer and we still have to upload pictures! The highlight of the day was getting to mile 900 - what an amazing feeling! The next day we ran into town! We got a hitch, got a place to stay, and at a ton of food! We are having a zero day and then heading out again tomorrow, the 21st to celebrate the summer solstice on the trail!!
On the way up Muir Pass. It was so clear that day all the lakes reflected the mountains around them.
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