Here's the address for our next maildrop:
Box #3 - mile 1,197.6:
Keith & DeAnna Romstad
c/o Sierra Country Store
213 Main Street
Sierra City, CA 96125
If you'd like to send us something, you can send it out within the next week so it'll make it there on time...& write "ETA July 8th" on it because we hope to make it there sometime around there.
We are well rested & our bellies are full & it's time to continue on to the next part of our journey. We've had a lovely, relaxing time here. Next stop: Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park to grab a bite to eat/supplement our food in 35 miles, then we're heading straight to South Lake Tahoe. We'll be arriving there around the 4th of July so we're hoping to get in & out as quick as possible to avoid all the chaos. We'll see how that goes.
Keith was able to epoxy the heck out of my glasses so they're actually quite sturdy, just look a little goofy. They should last just fine until I'm able to get new ones. It's all part of the adventure...
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Friday, June 21, 2013
Happy Summer Solstice from our Vacation in Mammoth Lakes, CA, mile 906.7 (& I posted pictures!!!)
Thanks to Cuddles & his wife, Emma, we are finally able to upload some pictures!! This is all we have time/energy to share, but hope it makes up for all the times we weren't able to post previously. But first, here's what we're up to. We agreed to share a condo with Cuddles & Emma, The Blur, Goodall, Fun Size, Hermes & Lotus, & Cookie - sharing it, it costs about the same as a crappy motel but is MUCH better! We have a kitchen so we get to cook whatever our hearts desire & there has been an abundance of food since we first got here, yesterday morning. We had the most amazing almost never-ending breakfast this morning with vegan pancakes, potatoes & veggies, french toast, fruit, soysage, & orange juice & it was amazing. We are staying here until Sunday so this is our "summer vacation" although we've felt like we've been on vacation since we left our other life behind in Michigan.
Life is good...we just keep taking it one step at a time & soaking up all the beauty all around us. Thank you for all of the love, support & well wishes. Much love.
We have had a lovely 8 days since we left Independence, with a few minor bumps along the way...I broke my glasses by sleeping on them...so they are now super-glued together & we are hoping they last until I can find a optometrist who will see me! Keith burnt his $30 underwear while attempting to dry them next to our campfire after a swim...but at least he didn't burn his socks this time! For the first time, the people along the trail are spreading out a bit, so we've had more seclusion, which has been nice, although we have fallen in love with many people we are hiking around. Since we summitted Mt. Whitney, the PCT has been conjoined with the JMT (John Muir Trail) so we have been running into quite a few JMT'ers heading the opposite direction as us. By the time we separate from the JMT, we will have hiked a majority of it...with only like 60-something miles left, so perhaps we will return someday to complete those 60-something miles? Especially since it has been SO non-stop beautiful ever since we met up with the JMT. Who knows...
We have passed through Sequoia & King's Canyon National Parks, which we've been to once before, but it was cool to see a different part of them, all on foot.
We don't have many pictures of us & I'm not sure we have any of us without our hats on, so you can't exactly get a good look at our hair...
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| Mexican border |
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| Unicroc walking along the Los Angeles aquaduct |
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| Moonrise over some Joshua Trees |
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| Taking a break next to the Kern River, looking ahead to the GREEN mountains |
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| Climbing up Mt. Whitney in the evening, trying to catch sunset |
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| Sun cups on Mt. Whitney |
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| Up bright & early for sunrise atop Mt. Whitney |
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| Jen's box arrived with Primal Strips inside - yummm!! |
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| Rae Lakes, one of the many beautiful lakes atop the Sierra's |
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Independence, CA - mile 790.2
Oh man have things gotten good. The beauty that we have experienced in the past week or so has truly blown us away...& continues to blow us away. Every day it just seems to get better. We feel like we're finally in a place where we'd CHOOSE to go backpacking if we were to just take off for a few days to find a cool place. We definitely appreciate the challenges we have faced & feel that we had a lot to learn by pushing through the desert & parts that weren't quite in our comfort zone & I'm sure going through all of that has truly made this part all that much more magical. Just glad that's all over...& now we're right where we want to be!
We had the most beautiful time on Mt. Whitney. Mt. Whitney was a 8+ mile side-trip off the PCT but since we were so close to the summit, we couldn't pass up climbing it seeing that it is the highest point (14,505 ft.) in the U.S. aside from Mt. McKinley in Alaska. As we approached our planned base camp, 5-miles from the summit, Unicroc kept hinting that he wanted to keep going & try to camp on top. At first, I didn't even take him seriously because those last 5 miles were going to be entirely uphill, into an elevation that neither of us had ever experienced hiking into & that would make it a 25+ mile day for us total (which is the most we've ever done) & the thought of sleeping up there sounded so crazy because it's above treeline & there was possibly no shelter from wind or cold...BUT...he kept dropping hints & slowly...I started to consider it. After all, this was probably going to be the only time we'd ever climb Mt. Whitney. We ran into a few other hikers who were just coming down from the summit & they said that the weather on top was actually quite tame - the wind wasn't bad at all & the skies were entirely clear so we felt safe from the threat of storms. So I said, "I'm in if you're in." So we did it! We made it to the top JUST as the sun was going down & it was SO lovely, I can't even possibly describe in words. And pictures can't do it justice. Four other PCT thru-hikers made the same decision & we each found rock structures past people had built to cozy up behind for the night. But the weather was amazing...we were very lucky. We set up our tent, ate our second dinner & went to sleep. I have to admit I felt nauseous & Unicroc felt dizzy throughout the night due to elevation sickness but by the time morning came, we felt great...our bodies had adapted. The others who had stayed behind at base camp all woke up at 2am or earlier to climb to the top for sunrise so as we awoke, they all joined us, we gathered on rocks & watched the Earth come to life from atop the highest point around.
That still doesn't quite seem real...it feels like it was more of a dream.
The following day, we had to do another large climb to Forester Pass, the highest point on the PCT, somewhere above 13,000 ft. Got the most amazing night's sleep, woke up to beautiful clear blue skies & had 6 miles to go to get there. It was a lovely climb & we were feeling great but just as we were about to reach the top, we noticed dark clouds were rolling in the distance. Sure enough, after we got about 4 miles beyond the pass, it started to snow! And then it turned to rain. And then we found a giant rock to hide under for shelter & cooked a warm lunch & decided to hike on because it's actually warmer to hike through weather like that than to stay still & try to wait it out. Shortly after, the precipitation stopped but it remained cloudly & moist & we had some of the most lovely hiking we've had yet.
Independence is a small town, we had to hike 7.3 miles off the PCT, over another pass, just to reach a trailhead to then get a hitch into town. But that 7.3 mile hike was BEAUTIFUL. This whole area is BEAUTIFUL. We're staying at Mt. Williamson Motel & the owners, Doug & Strider have been so good to us. They even have a cat! Small towns like this are part of why we're out here.
Unfortunately, the library is about to cut off my time - I only get a half hour! So that's all I have time for for now.
Much love & goodbye for now!
We had the most beautiful time on Mt. Whitney. Mt. Whitney was a 8+ mile side-trip off the PCT but since we were so close to the summit, we couldn't pass up climbing it seeing that it is the highest point (14,505 ft.) in the U.S. aside from Mt. McKinley in Alaska. As we approached our planned base camp, 5-miles from the summit, Unicroc kept hinting that he wanted to keep going & try to camp on top. At first, I didn't even take him seriously because those last 5 miles were going to be entirely uphill, into an elevation that neither of us had ever experienced hiking into & that would make it a 25+ mile day for us total (which is the most we've ever done) & the thought of sleeping up there sounded so crazy because it's above treeline & there was possibly no shelter from wind or cold...BUT...he kept dropping hints & slowly...I started to consider it. After all, this was probably going to be the only time we'd ever climb Mt. Whitney. We ran into a few other hikers who were just coming down from the summit & they said that the weather on top was actually quite tame - the wind wasn't bad at all & the skies were entirely clear so we felt safe from the threat of storms. So I said, "I'm in if you're in." So we did it! We made it to the top JUST as the sun was going down & it was SO lovely, I can't even possibly describe in words. And pictures can't do it justice. Four other PCT thru-hikers made the same decision & we each found rock structures past people had built to cozy up behind for the night. But the weather was amazing...we were very lucky. We set up our tent, ate our second dinner & went to sleep. I have to admit I felt nauseous & Unicroc felt dizzy throughout the night due to elevation sickness but by the time morning came, we felt great...our bodies had adapted. The others who had stayed behind at base camp all woke up at 2am or earlier to climb to the top for sunrise so as we awoke, they all joined us, we gathered on rocks & watched the Earth come to life from atop the highest point around.
That still doesn't quite seem real...it feels like it was more of a dream.
The following day, we had to do another large climb to Forester Pass, the highest point on the PCT, somewhere above 13,000 ft. Got the most amazing night's sleep, woke up to beautiful clear blue skies & had 6 miles to go to get there. It was a lovely climb & we were feeling great but just as we were about to reach the top, we noticed dark clouds were rolling in the distance. Sure enough, after we got about 4 miles beyond the pass, it started to snow! And then it turned to rain. And then we found a giant rock to hide under for shelter & cooked a warm lunch & decided to hike on because it's actually warmer to hike through weather like that than to stay still & try to wait it out. Shortly after, the precipitation stopped but it remained cloudly & moist & we had some of the most lovely hiking we've had yet.
Independence is a small town, we had to hike 7.3 miles off the PCT, over another pass, just to reach a trailhead to then get a hitch into town. But that 7.3 mile hike was BEAUTIFUL. This whole area is BEAUTIFUL. We're staying at Mt. Williamson Motel & the owners, Doug & Strider have been so good to us. They even have a cat! Small towns like this are part of why we're out here.
Unfortunately, the library is about to cut off my time - I only get a half hour! So that's all I have time for for now.
Much love & goodbye for now!
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Kennedy Meadows, mile 702.2, the start of the Sierra's!
Wowza, so much has happened since our last post! Some good, some not so good. We were unable to post anything while in Tehachapi, about 140 miles ago, because we were in town over Memorial Day weekend, so the library was closed. However, we met some lovely ladies in the most amazing German bakery who let us use their Smartphone (first time ever using one & I found it a bit confusing) to check our email at least, although we weren't able to post to the blog or respond to any emails. So, we got all your messages, just weren't able to tell you so. But thanks. :)
Things are good...now. The desert is now (pretty much) officially over & we couldn't be happier because it was really really really difficult/daunting/tiring/exhausting/hot. We spent a lovely afternoon at Hikertown & loved hearing stories of how it came about & enjoyed being fed vegetarian foods, although we were kind of in low spirits at the time. The two days before we arrived in Tehachapi we were both feeling pretty down & I got to a point where I was ready to get off trail. I hated feeling that way & I found it so frustrating because we NEVER felt that way while hiking the AT. A few days spent in Tehachapi (eating, drinking, resting in a crappy motel, watching the new Star Trek movie, & eating giant tubs of popcorn & soda) helped. I found that at the end of those two days, I was still very much looking forward to what was next on the trail. Only 140-ish miles until the end of the desert (which is where we are now!) kept my hopes of happy hiking alive. Turns out that the next stretch of trail would be much more of an adventure that I imagined...
It was SO windy when we left Tehachapi & we were hiking right through giant wind farms so one could expect high winds but it was quite obviously windier than normal, even for a wind farm in the desert. We cut that day short in hopes of less wind the following day...but unfortunately, it just got windier. And then the very moist clouds rolled in. We were grateful it was cooler but eventually it got so windy that we could barely stand upright on the trail & even though it wasn't actually raining, we were getting very wet. We were being blown all over the place & I eventually got knocked over. I am not one to swear but swearwords were all that were coming out of my mouth during that section of the trail...but the wind was so loud, Unicroc couldn't make out what I was saying. Eventually, we ducked behind some shrubbery with some other hikers & tried waiting it out but realized we were getting cold just waiting for it to pass through. So we continued on & not even 30 minutes later we hiked out of the clouds & into beauty all around us & eventually the wind died down as well. The following day, we hiked back into clouds but this time there weren't high winds & we had the most pleasantly cool & lovely hike through pine woods & we saw our first 2 white-tailed deer of the trip (although we'd been seeing scat & tracks all over the place), which made us very happy. The sun eventually came out & it turned out to be one of our favorite days of hiking yet. We thought we were done with the desert at this point but we were trying not to get our hopes up too high...& good thing we didn't. Because we went right back into it, hardcore. For an entire day, we were hiking through the most intense & sandy desert yet (absolutely zero shade at mid-day, with the exception of a few Joshua trees). It was SO hot but keeping a lookout for desert tortoises helped us keep our minds busy (didn't see any). Thankfully, at the end of that day, we climbed back up into higher elevation so we were able to camp under a canopy of pine trees/shrubbery. But we had just entered into a 31-mile stretch of trail with ZERO reliable water. So we had packed ourselves full yet were still concerned about making it all the way to next water source & keeping ourselves happily hydrated. We were going to be crossing through Walker Pass, though, which is a road that could take us (if we could get a hitch) 37 miles into the nearest town, so after walking through the heat of that day, we decided that would be our goal. So we aimed & went for it & I was literally brought to tears when we arrived down at the pass & saw that there were people set up with tents & a sign that said "TRAIL MAGIC - THIS WAY!" They applaud whenever hikers arrive & so as they were applauding our arrival, we were still trying to wrap our brains around what was happening because we were just in such desperation (so hungry & so thirsty for something COLD) & all of a sudden, there was the most amazing oasis right in front of our very eyes. Meadow Ed, Yogi, Jackrabbit & her 5 3/4-year old son Bearbait, Weathercarrot & other volunteers were there along with many many hikers, most of which we knew, & as we walked up they delivered us an ice cream sandwich. And then there were endless cold drinks, & then there was fresh fruit, & then there was chips & hummus, & then there were Tofurkey brats (which were supposed to be saved for the following night but Jackrabbit was kind enough to make some especially for us) & then there was a spaghetti dinner with salad & bread & then there was cake & the list goes on & on. Needless to say, we decided to stay for the night. We even squeezed in a few games of Euchre with Red & Dufresne, Mud & Dingo & then Cuddles & Legend. It was so lovely & these people were so good to us. We woke up the next morning late (surprise, surprise), yet Yogi was kind enough to still make us some pancakes & we were finished by 8am & had plans to hike out but as soon as we stepped out into the sun, we realized it was HOT...too hot to hike on exposed trail, we thought (although so many other people hiked out just an hour earlier), so we decided to hang out for a while longer. Unfortunately, the mood of this day quickly turned around when Meadow Ed, the trail angel in charge of this whole operation, experienced a medical emergency around 11am & we were all quite concerned for his well-being. He was eventually taken away by paramedics & taken to the nearest hospital. The rest of us were hanging around the rest of the day, wishing the best for him & waiting for news on how he was doing. I spent a majority of the day tracking lizards & animal scat with Bearbait, which kept us both distracted through the whole ordeal. Unicroc & I were so easily coaxed into staying for dinner & just before it Jackrabbit informed us that Meadow Ed would be returning just after dinner & that it also was his birthday & that we would be singing Happy Birthday & eating cake in celebration! Such great news & it was such a great ending to what was just such a stressful day! We applauded his arrival (many new hikers had arrived by this time) & he came back & gave a speech on his many years of doing trail magic through this stretch of the trail & then we had such a great time celebrating him on his birthday. We decided to hike out shortly after, since it was finally cooling down & as we left, I again had tears in my eyes because these people truly felt like our family & this place felt the closest to "home" we've felt since we started this adventure. Much love to them.
We hiked only a few miles that evening & hiked into the dark & we saw our first scorpion! So wild. We decided to cowboy camp (sleep in our bags on top of our pads, without a tent) for the first time ever that night & we had a lovely night's sleep & it made for a quick set-up that night & take-down the next morning. The following day, we saw our first bear! A young bear (we were instantly on alert for mother...but the bear must've been old enough to be without mother) who was unafraid of us yet completely non-aggressive. Dusty was collecting water at a spring when he looked over & the bear was just standing there in the trail, about 10 feet away, just watching him, which is when Dusty said quite calmly to us as we were reading, "There's a bear just to my right!" We all stood up & attempted to scare him away, throwing rocks, yelling & banging our poles together & eventually Dusty chased it down the trail with his poles in hand. But the bear just turned right back around & clearly was intent on getting where he was wanting to go. We realized we were standing at some of the only water around so we decided to gather our things & back away, down the trail to see if that's what he was after. That seemed to work...he eventually walked through, possibly took a drink of water & then climbed up the hill & then eventually climbed a tree & sprawled out & that's where he stayed...we decided to leave to give him his space. We were on a huge high after this experience. Later that day, we got rattled at again by a rattlesnake in a bush. These are the experiences that make me never want to leave...
We also came to our first real "river" crossing, the south fork of the Kern River. We went for a swim & decided to camp next to it instead of hiking into town right away & we arrived in Kennedy Meadows early yesterday morning. It's not quite a "town" but rather just an awesomely hiker-friendly general store & Tom's place - a trail angel who has computers for our use & the most adorable outdoor theater ever - where we all watched "Cowboys & Aliens" last night & we've never had so much fun watching a sucky movie. We received our boxes, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU & are getting ready to pack up & head out later today, after Unicroc orders & eats a triple-decker veggie burger from the grill at the general store.
We're ecstatic to be entering the high Sierra's (& water & trees) & are greatly looking forward to summitting Mt. Whitney - the highest point in the lower 48 later this week!!!
Until next time...much love to y'all!!
Things are good...now. The desert is now (pretty much) officially over & we couldn't be happier because it was really really really difficult/daunting/tiring/exhausting/hot. We spent a lovely afternoon at Hikertown & loved hearing stories of how it came about & enjoyed being fed vegetarian foods, although we were kind of in low spirits at the time. The two days before we arrived in Tehachapi we were both feeling pretty down & I got to a point where I was ready to get off trail. I hated feeling that way & I found it so frustrating because we NEVER felt that way while hiking the AT. A few days spent in Tehachapi (eating, drinking, resting in a crappy motel, watching the new Star Trek movie, & eating giant tubs of popcorn & soda) helped. I found that at the end of those two days, I was still very much looking forward to what was next on the trail. Only 140-ish miles until the end of the desert (which is where we are now!) kept my hopes of happy hiking alive. Turns out that the next stretch of trail would be much more of an adventure that I imagined...
It was SO windy when we left Tehachapi & we were hiking right through giant wind farms so one could expect high winds but it was quite obviously windier than normal, even for a wind farm in the desert. We cut that day short in hopes of less wind the following day...but unfortunately, it just got windier. And then the very moist clouds rolled in. We were grateful it was cooler but eventually it got so windy that we could barely stand upright on the trail & even though it wasn't actually raining, we were getting very wet. We were being blown all over the place & I eventually got knocked over. I am not one to swear but swearwords were all that were coming out of my mouth during that section of the trail...but the wind was so loud, Unicroc couldn't make out what I was saying. Eventually, we ducked behind some shrubbery with some other hikers & tried waiting it out but realized we were getting cold just waiting for it to pass through. So we continued on & not even 30 minutes later we hiked out of the clouds & into beauty all around us & eventually the wind died down as well. The following day, we hiked back into clouds but this time there weren't high winds & we had the most pleasantly cool & lovely hike through pine woods & we saw our first 2 white-tailed deer of the trip (although we'd been seeing scat & tracks all over the place), which made us very happy. The sun eventually came out & it turned out to be one of our favorite days of hiking yet. We thought we were done with the desert at this point but we were trying not to get our hopes up too high...& good thing we didn't. Because we went right back into it, hardcore. For an entire day, we were hiking through the most intense & sandy desert yet (absolutely zero shade at mid-day, with the exception of a few Joshua trees). It was SO hot but keeping a lookout for desert tortoises helped us keep our minds busy (didn't see any). Thankfully, at the end of that day, we climbed back up into higher elevation so we were able to camp under a canopy of pine trees/shrubbery. But we had just entered into a 31-mile stretch of trail with ZERO reliable water. So we had packed ourselves full yet were still concerned about making it all the way to next water source & keeping ourselves happily hydrated. We were going to be crossing through Walker Pass, though, which is a road that could take us (if we could get a hitch) 37 miles into the nearest town, so after walking through the heat of that day, we decided that would be our goal. So we aimed & went for it & I was literally brought to tears when we arrived down at the pass & saw that there were people set up with tents & a sign that said "TRAIL MAGIC - THIS WAY!" They applaud whenever hikers arrive & so as they were applauding our arrival, we were still trying to wrap our brains around what was happening because we were just in such desperation (so hungry & so thirsty for something COLD) & all of a sudden, there was the most amazing oasis right in front of our very eyes. Meadow Ed, Yogi, Jackrabbit & her 5 3/4-year old son Bearbait, Weathercarrot & other volunteers were there along with many many hikers, most of which we knew, & as we walked up they delivered us an ice cream sandwich. And then there were endless cold drinks, & then there was fresh fruit, & then there was chips & hummus, & then there were Tofurkey brats (which were supposed to be saved for the following night but Jackrabbit was kind enough to make some especially for us) & then there was a spaghetti dinner with salad & bread & then there was cake & the list goes on & on. Needless to say, we decided to stay for the night. We even squeezed in a few games of Euchre with Red & Dufresne, Mud & Dingo & then Cuddles & Legend. It was so lovely & these people were so good to us. We woke up the next morning late (surprise, surprise), yet Yogi was kind enough to still make us some pancakes & we were finished by 8am & had plans to hike out but as soon as we stepped out into the sun, we realized it was HOT...too hot to hike on exposed trail, we thought (although so many other people hiked out just an hour earlier), so we decided to hang out for a while longer. Unfortunately, the mood of this day quickly turned around when Meadow Ed, the trail angel in charge of this whole operation, experienced a medical emergency around 11am & we were all quite concerned for his well-being. He was eventually taken away by paramedics & taken to the nearest hospital. The rest of us were hanging around the rest of the day, wishing the best for him & waiting for news on how he was doing. I spent a majority of the day tracking lizards & animal scat with Bearbait, which kept us both distracted through the whole ordeal. Unicroc & I were so easily coaxed into staying for dinner & just before it Jackrabbit informed us that Meadow Ed would be returning just after dinner & that it also was his birthday & that we would be singing Happy Birthday & eating cake in celebration! Such great news & it was such a great ending to what was just such a stressful day! We applauded his arrival (many new hikers had arrived by this time) & he came back & gave a speech on his many years of doing trail magic through this stretch of the trail & then we had such a great time celebrating him on his birthday. We decided to hike out shortly after, since it was finally cooling down & as we left, I again had tears in my eyes because these people truly felt like our family & this place felt the closest to "home" we've felt since we started this adventure. Much love to them.
We hiked only a few miles that evening & hiked into the dark & we saw our first scorpion! So wild. We decided to cowboy camp (sleep in our bags on top of our pads, without a tent) for the first time ever that night & we had a lovely night's sleep & it made for a quick set-up that night & take-down the next morning. The following day, we saw our first bear! A young bear (we were instantly on alert for mother...but the bear must've been old enough to be without mother) who was unafraid of us yet completely non-aggressive. Dusty was collecting water at a spring when he looked over & the bear was just standing there in the trail, about 10 feet away, just watching him, which is when Dusty said quite calmly to us as we were reading, "There's a bear just to my right!" We all stood up & attempted to scare him away, throwing rocks, yelling & banging our poles together & eventually Dusty chased it down the trail with his poles in hand. But the bear just turned right back around & clearly was intent on getting where he was wanting to go. We realized we were standing at some of the only water around so we decided to gather our things & back away, down the trail to see if that's what he was after. That seemed to work...he eventually walked through, possibly took a drink of water & then climbed up the hill & then eventually climbed a tree & sprawled out & that's where he stayed...we decided to leave to give him his space. We were on a huge high after this experience. Later that day, we got rattled at again by a rattlesnake in a bush. These are the experiences that make me never want to leave...
We also came to our first real "river" crossing, the south fork of the Kern River. We went for a swim & decided to camp next to it instead of hiking into town right away & we arrived in Kennedy Meadows early yesterday morning. It's not quite a "town" but rather just an awesomely hiker-friendly general store & Tom's place - a trail angel who has computers for our use & the most adorable outdoor theater ever - where we all watched "Cowboys & Aliens" last night & we've never had so much fun watching a sucky movie. We received our boxes, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU & are getting ready to pack up & head out later today, after Unicroc orders & eats a triple-decker veggie burger from the grill at the general store.
We're ecstatic to be entering the high Sierra's (& water & trees) & are greatly looking forward to summitting Mt. Whitney - the highest point in the lower 48 later this week!!!
Until next time...much love to y'all!!
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