In Tahoe... safe and repairing bruised bodies

How do I even begin describing what we have gone through? On a normal year things are challenging. Words for this year would be stuff like harrowing, brutal, intense and relentless.

The John Muir Trail section turned out to be not so difficult. Yeah there was more snow, but it affected us on the approaches to the passes, making them longer. What we weren't prepared for was the amazing amount of snow in Northern Yosemite and further. These were all sections where we encountered minimal snow in 2006. Indeed it seemed fairly minimal when we left Tuolumne Meadows.

But about 10 miles in the snow kicked in. It showed up in any forested areas with northern exposure above 8000 feet. Anything above 9000 feet had complete snow coverage on average two feet deep.

The snow makes you slower as I have already mentioned. It is also hard on your body. You are constantly breaking with your knees and falling hard several times a day. We have been using ibuprofen in small but constant doses. Our legs are covered in scrapes and cuts.

We have learned to abandon the trail and focus on he route instead. Map and compass are our friends. At a point it became clear that the trail was buried, the map would come out. First we figure out where we are. Then we figure out where we are headed. Then we gauge the terrain to figure out the least difficult way to get there. One of the benefits of snow travel is being able to choose your own route. It generally will follow the trail but not always. If the trail contours up or down on a slope we will often steer around the section, preferring to gain/lose the elevation in areas where we can move straight up/down the slope. We cut switchbacks as a rule.

It is always a good feeling to run into the trail after an extended chunk of bushwhacking. Sometimes it would appear for a mere instant, a clear indicator of good navigation. Other times entire patches of trail turn up and we unexpectedly get trail tread for a bit. Many times the trail is right next to us but we can't use it because it has become a stream or a mudhole.

The stream crossings deserve mention. They got more extreme and abundant in northern Yosemite. In fact, the section was impassable about two weeks before we got there. The Tuolomne river had risen above its footbridge and two weekend backpackers lost their lives trying to cross. The water was below the bridge when we crossed but was still a scary torrent. Most of the other creek crossings had no bridges. We crossed them the old fashioned way. Most were below he waist. One was high enough to force Zm to swim, and me to bounce on tippy toes.

Our schedule put us up front of just about everyone else we had traveled with. Consistency was our main focus, making sure we hiked moderately all day long and took minimal rest days. But since we have taken so many days here in Tahoe, it will be a different trail when we hop on again tomorrow. Racheopod and Gnar were behind us but just pulled in this morning. We will all hit yet another buffet tonight before rolling on.

Some other tidbits:
--- Trail Magic: Three times since Tuolumne, we have had folks unexpectedly show up and give us food. It is a good excuse to take it easy for a few hours. One fellow cooked us burgers, another cooked breakfast.

--- End of the snow: in another 50 miles we expect the snow to largely stop. After that we are back in the high 20's and soon will start doing 30's. It will be clear trail all the way to Canada.

--- The Mars Volta opened for Soungarden last night at an outdoor concert about 500 feet from our motel. We had no clue until we overheard a conversation earlier in the day. We listened from outside the fence. They played for a pathetic 45 minutes but it was still total magic to have run into them.

That is all I have. Journal comes at the expense of sleep and we need as much rest and healing as we can get out there.

I have updated our schedule. Still on track to finish in late September.

Rest in Vermillion Valley Resort

The last ten days of hiking have been the most intense of my entire life. I am not sure how I can even do it justice in the measly 30 minutes allowed to me on this expensive satellite internet connection. Once again I am reduced to bullet points.

• Snow... lots of it. The approaches to the passes were covered with snow. It slowed our progress to 1 mph on the uphill sides. In some places there were four miles of snow before the pass. For the most part the trail was useless to us and we either headed directly to the pass or followed tracks in the snow.
• Sun... WOW! There was no way that we could keep our lips from sunburn. The sun was just too intense in all of those snowy valleys above tree line. Another victim was the bottom of our noses. There was no way we could prevent nasty burning there as well. At the end of the day our eyes hurt from the sun.
• Friends... We caught up to our dear friends Racheopod and Gnar, whom we haven't seen in ~300 miles. We hope that we can stay within a day of them for the rest of this trail.
• Stream crossings... intense. Yesterday we witnessed several hikers get swept off their feet. Zm and I almost lost it as well, an important lesson about picking a better place to cross. Luckily we were supported by another hiker on the far bank that grabbed us before we fell. Our feet are never dry, there is so much water on the trail from the melting snow.
• We radically changed our diet with some plusses and minuses. Good were the drink mixes like coolaid, lemonade and chocolate milk. We had a ton of cheese that we never got sick of. Bad was the cooked breakfast cereal. It disagreed with my digestive system and I am not sure if I can ever have hot mush again in my life. We return to our regular diet from here on out.
• Hikers Bailing... On the first part of the trail we ran into a bunch of hikers that had turned around. They didn't like the snow and stream crossings. Other hikers on the trail bring more stories of folks that have jumped off the trail either temporarily or permanently. The hiker attrition has been amazing this year. It makes us proud to have stuck through it.

Currently we are at Vermillion Valley Resort and the worst of the Sierra is behind us. We still have a few snowy passes and a few more questionable crossings, but nothing of the magnitude we have already faced. Things will stay moderate until we get to Tahoe in about 200 miles. Then things will get easy and stay easy until Washington State.

I wish I could describe this whole thing better. We have been through a ton, but I am out of time. Next update will most likely be from Tahoe. Signal is still impossible to find out here.

Mega Snow!!!

We are at the end of a rest day in Lone Pine. In the last stretch of trail we climbed above 10000 feet for the first time. Snow appeared in patches. On the morning of the second day out we decided to push 24 miles to be at the trailhead before 5pm, giving us a chance to score a hitch before dark. We were concerned that nobody was at the trailhead and had plans to road walk the ~20 miles down to the extremely hot lower elevations. Luckily we got a lift from a mom dropping her son off to hike.

The recommended motel was crawling with hikers, most of which we had never met before. Notable among them were a Portlander couple we had met pre-trail, Topsy-turvy and DataMuffin.

Most hikers staying here have hitched backwards from another trailhead about 4 days ahead of us. They have given us a lot of info about those next days. The snow is going to make things challenging, much more than the last time we hit this section. The snow is record breaking in volume. It is melting insanely fast, swelling the creeks into rivers. 50% or more of the trail is beneath snow. The snow will slow our progress to a single mountain pass a day. We will need to cross each pass in the early morning to avoid traveling on slushy snow.

We are carrying a mind bending 20 lbs of food a piece. We figure on ten days of travel to get us about 150 miles down the trail. This next ten days will be the most challenging and spectacular hiking that either of us have ever experienced. In this section we will climb Mt Whitney, the highest peak in the 48 states. We will assault 6 mountain passes each over 12000 elevation. The highest is Forrester Pass at a lofty 13500. All this with record snow cover.

We are ready. We have added snow gear to our load. Today we radically changed our diet. Staples are now breakfast and cheese. We are removing emphasis on sugary snacks in favor of super dense fat sources. Emphasis will be on large feast breaks only a few times a day. We will wake before dawn, cook a  breakfast and be on the trail with full stomachs and some extra leftovers for later. We will start walking as soon as it is light enough. In the evening, we will go to sleep early to maximize morning time.

Sugar will come in liquid form. Powdered drink mixes will fill our water bottles. Kool-ade, lemonade, chocolate drink and cider mix will keep our blood sugar at a happy level.

The 10 lbs of cheese will be lunch and dinner fare. We have some crackers to eat with the cheese to round it out. Dinner will be late and light with mainly fat and protein, providing restful sleep.

We don't know who will be out there when we get up. Hikers will cluster in groups starting at Mt Whitney. If we hit a lull we will likely wait a day for good people. Gene and Charlie are about a day behind us in a big group of cool folks. It would be nice to see all of them again.

We scored a lift back to the trail from a local at 6:30 in the morning. Time for sleep. A few tidbits:

--- you will most likely not hear from us for a few weeks. There will be no cell service or wireless internet for several hundred snowy miles.

--- My Poison Oak is finally on its way out. It was ugly for a bit, but it didn't slow me down.

--- My Achilles is 100%. The last section was strenuous and I didn't hear a peep from it. That injury has been healing for 400 miles now. I am lucky to be this fit at the point it is needed the most.

--- Zm is healthy and strong. Her legs are made of steel.

--- I cast an enchantment spell on our ice axes today. I covered them with runes and power symbols and gave each a name. Zm took 'Ies Fortze' leaving me with 'Cold Fury'. They will help protect us from snow and ice.

Here we go! Most likely we won't surface until mid July! We are ready.

In Lone Pine

We are at the Dow Villa Motel in Lone Pine until tomorrow (Fri) morning. We have no phone service here so you can call our room if you want to say hi. We won't have much time for talk but would love to hear the voice of any loved one. Leave a message if we aren't around.

760-876-5521 x214

I will post an update later to say what has been going on.

6/17: Trail magic and goals met

Today we hit Walker Pass at mile 650. Zm has now hiked up to the point where she started in 2006 and has now completed 1100 miles of consecutive trail from Mexico to Tahoe. Congratulations Zm! Tomorrow we hike on trail familiar to both of us.

We have also brought Southern California to an end with the completion of the last desert section. In two more days, carrying all of that heavy water will be a thing of the past. Shade will be plentiful and unneeded. Sunlight will be a blessing rather than a curse.

In two days we will arrive at Kennedy Meadows, the gateway to the Sierra. Gnar and Racheopod are already there as of tonight taking it easy and waiting for good folks like us to show up. More good folks are less than a day behind us. We will wait for them as well before we start up to the high elevations.

My body afflictions continue. I have managed to get Poison Oak on my feet. I suspect that it came from the laundry at Hiker Heaven. It is pretty ugly, but it hasn't affected my hiking other than the increased time devoted to cleanliness. The worst of it is on and between my toes. Small blisters form over the affected areas. The sores pop, making a mess and increasing the risk of infection. Luckily, it looks like I am on the mend.

Mojave to Kennedy Meadows

Hello everyone! I am seated in a lovely silver trailer in the small community of Kennedy Meadows outside of Inyokern, CA! This place has much changed since 2006 when Goodness and I came through last. The General Store is no longer the main hang-out here, instead there is a Trail Angel here named Tom who has a slew of trailers and all sorts of wonderful amenities for us all at his place just down the road. The last 6 days have taken us out of the lowlands and to the mouth of the Sierra Nevada range. This leg has also taken us to the place I started in 2006, Walker Pass. This time there was trail magic there in the form of food and drink by a woman named Oakie Girl. We woke there on my birthday and I had a wonderful hot egg, cheese, and potato birthday breakfast! Yay! Well, Goodness has some entries trapped in our phone that we should be able to put up in 3 days or so.... I will have to continue this entry later as it is time to cut the solar power out here. :)

Mojave... town and desert

We are in the town of Mojave, 550 miles into the trail.

I haven't blogged since leaving Hiker Heaven on the seventh, about 100 miles ago. Let's see if I can catch us up.

First stop was the Anderson's place about 25 miles in... another set of trail angels in this section. They are less organized and more permissive. They also feed hikers breakfast and dinner. Breakfast is always AYCE pancakes and dinner is always AYCE nachos. The nachos are to die for. Imagine a plate of the most decadent nachos you can imagine: oozy cheese sauce, insane amounts of sour cream, piles of taco seasoned ground beef. You get the picture... and it is all guilt free. The exercise we are doing each day is huge and we need the fuel. Fat is the best!

A day of travel found us dropping to the floor of the Mojave desert. This is a section that hikers regularly dread. But the temperatures are mild his year. I doubt that it got hotter than the mid 80s. The trail follows the LA Aqueduct for about 16 miles on some flat monotonous desert floor. We chose to hike most of this section at night. Given the mild temps, it was hardly necessary to do so. However, the moon was waxing gibbous and there was no tree cover... perfect conditions for after hours walking.

The next day got us out of the desert and into the mountains again, only to drop into the massive wind farms of Tehachapi Pass. Check them out on Google Earth, halfway between Mojave and Tehachapi.

Today was all about setting up the next month's worth of food drops. We got a main box that we had to split into drops. Then we figured out what was missing and went shopping for the rest. Tomorrow morning we lug it all a half mile to the post office. Right now I am considering a taxi. Then it is back to the trail. We are almost out of Southern California. In another week we will be at Kennedy Meadows, the gateway to the Sierra Nevada. Our last bit of low desert is behind us and only one more 20 mile shadeless stretch remains.

Time is short so I am reduced to blurbs. Forgive me.

Lots of hikers have complained about rashes after Hiker Heaven. I think it might be the laundry detergent coupled with heavy exercise . I myself am having some moderate rash issues, mostly on places covered with clothing. Washed clothes twice today to try and fix.

The last section was the first we have hiked mostly alone. Some of our peeps didn't stop at the Anderson's, others left Hiker Heaven before us. We were playing catch up the whole time. Now we are caught up with everyone but Racheopod. She has an appointment that she must meet. Sadly, we probably won't see her until the Sierras.

We did our first 30+ mile day when we crossed the Mojave. I think it was probably around 33 miles. Most likely we won't see those miles again until Northern California. 25's are the norm until we hit Kennedy Meadows. After that our mileage drops to the high teens because of the terrain difficulty.

My heel is not fully healed, but appears to be manageable. Most of the time I feel nothing. Every so often, I feel tightness that stretching can alleviate. I think that another week of inactivity would fix it completely, but I can't sit aside just yet. Currently I am OK with 85% healed as long as things don't deteriorate.

We are carrying 6 days of food plus 20 miles of water out of here. That will be the most weight we have carried so far.

Coulter pine cones are huge. They weigh like ten pounds and are pokey as hell. If one falls on you it will do brutal damage. Google them.

Zm is doing awesome. She has none of the body afflictions I am experiencing and I give her better odds to finish than me right now. Currently I am slowing her down which is an entirely new thing for me to experience. I will try to encourage her to write more in the days to come.

Our AC phone charger was stolen by somebody in Hiker Heaven. I had to get a new one shipped to Mojave. The shipping cost more than the unit.

We are about to enter an area where cell signal is rare. If things go too long I will have my mom post an all clear.

OK it is past bedtime. Night all