Soooo...we're halfway there!...Actually, more than halfway! We hit the halfway point at mile 1331.5-ish, or somewhere around there, a few days ago & spent a day and a half in Chester, CA celebrating with K-Pax, MeHap & NoDay, Wysi & Lodgepole & Simon. Had no internet access so I wasn't able to update the blog there, so this one'll be a longer one.
As we were approaching/crossing the halfway point, I put a lot of thought into what the heck we're doing & why we're doing it & thought of some things that I have forgotten to share with you folks through the blog. First off, I want to say thank you to those of you who have taken the time to send love our way, via mail, email, phone calls, whatever. Every ounce of love & support truly means the world to us. We've realized we're kind of lonely out here, we miss our family & friends & each time we hear from one of you, it makes us SO happy! Here's a few random bits of info I had previously forgotten to share:
1.) We had left S. Lake Tahoe the afternoon of July 4th, to avoid all the craziness that was about to happen in that town...we had heard rumor that it gets super busy for the holiday. So we got dropped off at the spot where we'd been picked up & hiked 16 or so miles up the trail to a place called Echo Lake & climbed up to the top of a rocky ridge, found a spot big enough for our tent & watched the fireworks over Lake Tahoe from afar. We had packed out Tofurky bratwursts & double stuff Oreos & although some locals also knew about this spot, we had a lovely celebration of our own, away from all the chaos, which was nice.
2.) We have walked through many wildfire spots & apparently even since we've gone through, there have been at least 2 more wildfires on the PCT! As we were walking near the north end of Lake Tahoe, we could see a the smoke from a wildfire that had started on the Nevada side, in Carson City. Luckily, we have avoided any that have affected the PCT this year, so far. But we have walked through so much burnt landscape & although it is beautiful in it's own way, it makes for very hot, exposed hiking.
3.) Hummingbirds - we have seen so many out here & even back in the desert, which is something we did not expect. We have been woken up on at least 2 occasions from a hummingbird hovering just outside our tent, checking us out & I must say, it's one of the most lovely ways to be woken up. They are so beautiful. neither of us has ever seen so many out in the wild.
4.) I had brought a wooden walking stick from Michigan & it is still surviving, although it's slowly shrinking...I had found another so I had two for a while but after it started cutting up my hand, I said goodbye by burning it in a campfire. Unicroc found his walking sticks on the trail & has kept one since about 20 miles in & that's the only one he currently is using. He's tallying every 100 miles on it, like he did on the PCT, so he now has 14 tally marks on it! He might run out of room by the time we hit 26...
5.) MOSQUITOES...I don't know how I'd forgotten to mention mosquitoes! There was a stretch of trail just after Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite where the mosquitoes were SO bad...it's really impossible to explain without you seeing it firsthand. For about a week, we didn't take barely any breaks while hiking because it was safer to just keep walking, although when you walk, they still somehow find any available skin (even through clothing) & pounce right on it, so our shoulders were so full of bites. They follow you, if they can keep up while you're walking! I literally tried to outrun them at times, but they're too bloodthirsty & they caught right back up! It's not easy running with a giant backpack on either! They were so thick that as soon as we'd open the tent to jump in as quickly as possible, 100's had followed us in! I have to admit, it didn't take me long to become a murderer of mosquitoes! For one, our tent was our only "safe" place from them & after 100's had followed us in, we had to have our nightly killing spree...When there are that many of them, they literally start to drive you crazy! No Deet for us, though, no matter how bad they got...just can't justify putting chemicals on our body, no matter the reason...the natural stuff works great as long as you re-apply it often. We bought head nets in S. Lake Tahoe, but I haven't had to use it since because the mosquitoes have tamed down quite a bit.
6.) Fording streams/creeks/rivers made for some adventures. We haven't had to cross any large ones lately, but there was a stretch where daily we'd be making crossings numerous times. You either have to find rocks or a sturdy log or take off your shoes & carry them. It always seemed as though the mosquitoes were sitting there waiting for you as you were about to cross so that they could hover over you & drive you crazy as you cross, just to add a little more adventure to the mix.
I'll probably think of more as we're hiking, I always do...there's so much time to think out here. And to think clearly.
We just crossed through Lassen Volcanic National Park, which was really cool. Mt. Lassen blew up in the early 1900's & there's so much beautiful volcanic rock & caves all around. While hiking the Hat Creek Rim yesterday, we had a view of a snow-covered Mt. Lassen to the southwest of us & we saw a snow-covered Mt. Shasta for the first time off to the northwest, which is the next big volcanic mountain we will pass nearby. There's all this smaller volcanic stuff in between; it's absolutely breathtaking. In the National Park, the trail took us near the Terminal Gueyser, which is not technically a gueyser, but instead a "steam vent" but it was AMAZING! To see the Earth in action like that, spewing out steam & literally making the nearby water boil was breathtaking. We really hope to come back & do some more exploring around this area.
We had our three-month anniversary on the trail a few days ago & spent it with a few other hikers who had started on the Mexican border the same day as us, back on April 22nd. The night before, Fuller shared a clip from NPR's "This American Life" with us, Frosty & Goldilocks (all 5 of us had started the trail together). We sat there together, under an almost full-moon & listened to a 20 minute story of a young man who decided to hike across the U.S. from PA to CA. I highly recommend listening to it, if you can find it. It was beautiful; it helped remind me of why I'm out here, living this life.
Mt. Shasta will be our next stop, a town in about 90 miles & we are greatly looking forward to it! I don't have the address on me for our next maildrop spot, I know it's our box #4, in Crater Lake, around mile 1,800 & we will post the address again when we're in the next town. Otherwise, you can scroll back through my older posts on the blog & I had posted it when I put up the whole list of all our box drops.
Miss y'all, as usual!
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Friday, July 12, 2013
Sierra City, CA - mile 1,197.5
Greetings from Sierra City, a cool old mining town tucked into the mountains. It has a library, a general store, a few inns & taverns, a post office & a few other cool shops & stops all crammed into the same historic buildings that have been here since the gold mining boom in the 1800's. Our favorite place here, though, is of course The Red Moose Inn, owned by Bill & Margaret, who cater almost entirely to hikers. They have created a lovely little hiker oasis & last night was our second night here in town. The hike out of here is basically straight uphill & quite exposed so we are spending the day here & hiking out this evening, once it cools down a bit.
Bears? Technically, no, we have "seen" no more bears since the young guy we wrote about earlier (before Kennedy Meadows). However, we did have a bear "encounter" in Yosemite...but it's a shameful story to tell... So here's the thing: before we entered into Yosemite National Park, we had come across a few bags of food (& an old pair of shoes) that some other hiker had ditched from their pack & just left out. Apparently their pack was too heavy so they decided to just ditch the weight & figure that once it's out of their sights, it's no longer their problem? (Unicroc is the king of picking up other people's crap...any time we come across anything left behind by others, we carry it out, if possible...even if it's truly an inconvenience.) Anyway, so we picked up those bags of food because they were destined to be found by a bear or an animal & obviously that's a terrible, terrible thing. Bears & wildlife should NEVER get food from humans. So we carried that extra food (& shoes) & had plans to throw it in the hiker box about 30 miles down the trail...in Tuolumne Meadows. As soon as we crossed into Yosemite, 2 nights later, we were required to put our food into bear canisters overnight, which we did...but with the extra food we had picked up, we didn't have enough room in our bear canisters, so we put the rest into a bag & did the next best thing (we thought) & hung the bag PCT-style, like we would do anywhere else. But the Yosemite bears are truly a different breed. They are skilled & talented & dexterous...& they are used to humans leading to food. [This is why it is now actually illegal to use anything other than a bear canister in Yosemite...the bears have gotten too smart.] So when I went to collect our canisters & food bag in the morning, I was glad at first to see that our bag was still hanging but I noticed right away that it looked a little funny & that there were empty wrappers & empty containers laying all around underneath it. The bear had somehow managed to slit the bag from the bottom so all of the food just fell out to the ground & it had eaten every single little piece of everything that was in the bag! It was amazing! Amazing in such a bad way, though...we felt terrible, horrible & despicable. We were well aware of how bad it was that this bear had gotten food from us & we decided we were going to report the incident to a ranger once we reached Tuolumne later that day. The ranger pretty much made us feel like crap & I understand she was just doing her job (because if I were her, I would've been frustrated, too...especially in Yosemite, this is far too common of an event) but when we asked her what she would've done with the extra food we had found, she gave us no answer. Needless to say, we have decided to keep our bear canisters for the remainder of the trip. Now our food will be safe from bears, rodents, whatever & we won't have to worry about another similar incident while we're out here again.
One animal we have seen plenty of, but I have yet to mention on here is the yellow-bellied marmot. This animal seems to be everywhere, especially in high elevation & they just kind of chill on or around the trail. They don't let us get too close, but they're really not too concerned when we're coming through. They're definitely the most frequently seen animal out here. We've also seen some beautiful bucks, young & old as well as does. The grouse around here seem lazier, they don't fly off when we get close, they just kind of meander on. We've seen a couple sets of mamas with her babies. Plenty of lizards, even still, which I thought would disappear after the desert.
We have slowed our pace down & feel like we are kind of slowly falling behind in the pack. People are spreading out. Some people we hiked with early on are like 8 days ahead. Others are just a few days behind. But most are now getting ahead of us. The thing that I've found frustrating about this trail is the constant pressure to do high mileage, but we've recently decided that we're going to just do the mileage that's comfortable to us & keeps us happy. If we're not enjoying ourselves, what's the point? We keep having to remind ourselves that we have no deadline.
Life. Is. Good.
Miss y'all.
Bears? Technically, no, we have "seen" no more bears since the young guy we wrote about earlier (before Kennedy Meadows). However, we did have a bear "encounter" in Yosemite...but it's a shameful story to tell... So here's the thing: before we entered into Yosemite National Park, we had come across a few bags of food (& an old pair of shoes) that some other hiker had ditched from their pack & just left out. Apparently their pack was too heavy so they decided to just ditch the weight & figure that once it's out of their sights, it's no longer their problem? (Unicroc is the king of picking up other people's crap...any time we come across anything left behind by others, we carry it out, if possible...even if it's truly an inconvenience.) Anyway, so we picked up those bags of food because they were destined to be found by a bear or an animal & obviously that's a terrible, terrible thing. Bears & wildlife should NEVER get food from humans. So we carried that extra food (& shoes) & had plans to throw it in the hiker box about 30 miles down the trail...in Tuolumne Meadows. As soon as we crossed into Yosemite, 2 nights later, we were required to put our food into bear canisters overnight, which we did...but with the extra food we had picked up, we didn't have enough room in our bear canisters, so we put the rest into a bag & did the next best thing (we thought) & hung the bag PCT-style, like we would do anywhere else. But the Yosemite bears are truly a different breed. They are skilled & talented & dexterous...& they are used to humans leading to food. [This is why it is now actually illegal to use anything other than a bear canister in Yosemite...the bears have gotten too smart.] So when I went to collect our canisters & food bag in the morning, I was glad at first to see that our bag was still hanging but I noticed right away that it looked a little funny & that there were empty wrappers & empty containers laying all around underneath it. The bear had somehow managed to slit the bag from the bottom so all of the food just fell out to the ground & it had eaten every single little piece of everything that was in the bag! It was amazing! Amazing in such a bad way, though...we felt terrible, horrible & despicable. We were well aware of how bad it was that this bear had gotten food from us & we decided we were going to report the incident to a ranger once we reached Tuolumne later that day. The ranger pretty much made us feel like crap & I understand she was just doing her job (because if I were her, I would've been frustrated, too...especially in Yosemite, this is far too common of an event) but when we asked her what she would've done with the extra food we had found, she gave us no answer. Needless to say, we have decided to keep our bear canisters for the remainder of the trip. Now our food will be safe from bears, rodents, whatever & we won't have to worry about another similar incident while we're out here again.
One animal we have seen plenty of, but I have yet to mention on here is the yellow-bellied marmot. This animal seems to be everywhere, especially in high elevation & they just kind of chill on or around the trail. They don't let us get too close, but they're really not too concerned when we're coming through. They're definitely the most frequently seen animal out here. We've also seen some beautiful bucks, young & old as well as does. The grouse around here seem lazier, they don't fly off when we get close, they just kind of meander on. We've seen a couple sets of mamas with her babies. Plenty of lizards, even still, which I thought would disappear after the desert.
We have slowed our pace down & feel like we are kind of slowly falling behind in the pack. People are spreading out. Some people we hiked with early on are like 8 days ahead. Others are just a few days behind. But most are now getting ahead of us. The thing that I've found frustrating about this trail is the constant pressure to do high mileage, but we've recently decided that we're going to just do the mileage that's comfortable to us & keeps us happy. If we're not enjoying ourselves, what's the point? We keep having to remind ourselves that we have no deadline.
Life. Is. Good.
Miss y'all.
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Mile 1,000 & beyond!!! South Lake Tahoe, mile 1,078-ish
Been falling more in love with the trail lately...not many road crossings & many days in between town stops makes it so that we are truly experiencing some remote places...places you couldn't go unless you backpacked, or spent a good amount of energy & time to get there. It feels like you really have to earn it & when you earn it, it feels dang good. California is such a diverse place, we never know what we're going to find over the next mountain pass. It's truly exhilarating.
We hit mile 1,000 a while back, which was very surreal feeling. It's now been over two months (almost 2-1/2, actually) & it's JULY!
We were planning on heading into South Lake Tahoe via Echo Lake at mile 1,094 but when we reached a road crossing at Hwy 88, mile 1,078-ish, we threw out our thumbs in hopes to beat some of the holiday traffic through town. A woman in a Subaru (of course) picked us up & she had her young daughter in the back seat, which at first, surprised me. Turns out, she just completed the John Muir Trail (which was also the PCT for 100+ miles) & so she was very familiar with PCT'ers. We instantly hit it off & after talking about how expensive our town stay was going to be since it's so near to the 4th, she invited us to stay at their home. She pulled up to her house & basically said to her husband, "Look what I brought home!" & he immediately was friendly & welcoming to us & invited us right in. He took us on a bike ride through town as he skateboarded (on a longboard, which is pretty sweet...& he's dang good at it) & rode us up to a pier on Lake Tahoe last night for a quick dip before the sun went down. She has fed us fruit & goodies & shuttled us around town, making sure we're getting our town needs met, because she knows just what hikers need! It's been lovely. And their daughter is adorable, reminds us of Gabby, Keith's neice. We're staying one more night & then heading back out to where we left off tomorrow sometime & will celebrate the 4th hiker-style (pack out veggie brats & few other treats), on the trail.
Running low on library computer time again, so I'll have to cut this short, but thanks for all the love to all you who we heard from!!
Oh & I just got new glasses because in California they have "opticians," (rather than just optometrists) who can look at your glasses, read your prescription & then make you new ones...Amazing!!!
Next stop - Sierra City!!!
We hit mile 1,000 a while back, which was very surreal feeling. It's now been over two months (almost 2-1/2, actually) & it's JULY!
We were planning on heading into South Lake Tahoe via Echo Lake at mile 1,094 but when we reached a road crossing at Hwy 88, mile 1,078-ish, we threw out our thumbs in hopes to beat some of the holiday traffic through town. A woman in a Subaru (of course) picked us up & she had her young daughter in the back seat, which at first, surprised me. Turns out, she just completed the John Muir Trail (which was also the PCT for 100+ miles) & so she was very familiar with PCT'ers. We instantly hit it off & after talking about how expensive our town stay was going to be since it's so near to the 4th, she invited us to stay at their home. She pulled up to her house & basically said to her husband, "Look what I brought home!" & he immediately was friendly & welcoming to us & invited us right in. He took us on a bike ride through town as he skateboarded (on a longboard, which is pretty sweet...& he's dang good at it) & rode us up to a pier on Lake Tahoe last night for a quick dip before the sun went down. She has fed us fruit & goodies & shuttled us around town, making sure we're getting our town needs met, because she knows just what hikers need! It's been lovely. And their daughter is adorable, reminds us of Gabby, Keith's neice. We're staying one more night & then heading back out to where we left off tomorrow sometime & will celebrate the 4th hiker-style (pack out veggie brats & few other treats), on the trail.
Running low on library computer time again, so I'll have to cut this short, but thanks for all the love to all you who we heard from!!
Oh & I just got new glasses because in California they have "opticians," (rather than just optometrists) who can look at your glasses, read your prescription & then make you new ones...Amazing!!!
Next stop - Sierra City!!!
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