8/6 Big Miles Have Begun

We are 1440 miles in, 3 months out, with about 1200 miles to go. As of now we have less than two months to finish the trail before the hypothetical snow kicks in. What does that mean? Big miles!

Every day we try to do a 30+ mile day. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't. Usually it depends on the terrain and our general well being. The terrain has moderated in Northern California, making big miles much easier.

We are about 12 miles past Burney Falls State Park where we grabbed our resupply package today. Anytime we hit a town, the mileage for the day goes down. We still managed to do 25, which I consider a success.

Tidbits:
--- I was sick as Zm said. It was a fever lasting two days. Hiking with a fever is no fun. You still have to make forward progress lest you run out of food.
--- The trail has been quiet recently. There is a big pack about a day ahead. We have been hiking on and off with Dain and Skipper whom we had hiked with often in the Sierra. Gnar and Pod are somewhere behind, hopefully not too far.
--- Places we have passed recently: Belden, Lassen Natl Park, the dreaded Hat Creek Rim.

Next stop is Castella. We have less than two weeks of California left. It has almost more trail than twice Oregon and Washington combined.

7/29 Refreshed and Resupplied in Sierra "City"

It is now day two out of Sierra City and I am cozy in our tent with my Goodness asleep next to me. Midday yesterday he came down with a fever so we took a nap and then ended our day early. He is much better today although still achy and fatigued. Prior to this surprise illness, we had a different surprise in Sierra City!

On our way in on Wednesday morning we ran into the last Portlander we hadn't seen yet from the pretrail meetup. He was on his way back to the trail and if running into him wasn't cool enough, he informed us that the restaurant we were headed to for breakfast was additionally trail angel's residence! We chatted awhile and returned his watch which Goodness had picked up in the snow(!) and hopefully we will catch him down the way when he stops for a zero.

We walk into town, greeted by a giant Pacific Crest Trail emblem outside of the Red Moose Inn. Inside were Margaret and Bill Price, some of the loveliest humans ever and joining them to hold down the fort was a thru-hiker from a year prior, Coach K. We were greeted by Margaret who gave us a tour of the place before cooking us up a scrumptious hot breakfast. There was a shower for us there, laundry facilities complete with extra clothes to put on while it all goes round, a telephone, and the internet on a laptop upstairs. Not to mention space out in the back yard for anyone who wanted to camp and of course there was home cooking. Amazing. I was able to contact my Dad from there and learn that he was on his way into the wake for my Uncle Jimmy who had passed away on Saturday of a heart attack. My thoughts are with his wife and especially my cousins tonight.

The Prices had only just started Angeling last year so they still had the ability to catch a few of us unaware of their offerings. Our original plan was to just be in town for a few hours but with the company and comforts, we soon were signed up for dinner! Yum. Goodness and I were afraid of getting swooped into breakfast the next morning and wanted also to have an early start on what can be a very hot and dry climb. So we said our farewells and walked back to the trail by the light of the gloaming.

It was good to be up early and complete the climb of Sierra Butte in the shade, I was glad that we hadn't attempted it in the midday sun. There were fantastic views and we ran into a few southbound PCT hikers as well as swarms of day hikers. The day hikers were all on their way to the fire lookout to get an even broader and farther view of the surrounding area. We stayed on the PCT opting to come back and visit the Prices one day and see the fire lookout as day hikers ourselves. At this juncture, Goodness had already begun to fall ill and his fever was on the rise.
We crossed a dirt road and a young boy called out to us asking if we were hikers and wondering where we were going. When I called out that we had started in Mexico, he was so excited! He announced us to the group of parents and the gaggle of children behind him. We soon had them all gathered round as we answered questions and talked about the fun of swimming in lakes in the summertime. The kids were all super sweet and they gave us their extra picnic foods for later. (OK OK I did eat some rice krispy treat on the spot) I could see Goodness fading further out though so we pressed on.

We ate the grilled cheese sandwiches they had given us for dinner that night and I am excited to make them with hamburger buns in the future because that is genius! Both of us too wiped to cook, those were perfect... I think we each slept 10 hours or so that night!

This morning brought more southbounders our way and with that boy still under the weather, we thankfully accepted their extra foods should it take longer than expected to reach Belden. They additionally had an Alkaseltzer packet that Goodness is sleeping under now and he woke to say that the fever has broken. Phew. Today was FINALLY for real the last day with snow. Hooray! With all the snow and broken pine everywhere, it has looked and smelled like christmas threw-up in the forest. This became more apparent as well with Goodness singing carols today... good thing the heat came back today too. Gnar said that once you get carols stuck in your head, you might as well just get off the trail. In other news, the lizards are back. :-)

Today we saw four people right off the bat and then not a soul until the end of the day when we heard a young voice calling out, "Marco!" We came around a bend on Mt. Etna and called back out to a pair of 13 year-olds who said they had gotten scared by a bear growling, dropped their packs and ran, and now were unsure of how to find their group. We had passed the two backpacks about a mile back and we waited at the top on the trail as they climbed up from their bushwhacking. Brandon and Kiersten. Super cool kids. We are 34 miles out from Sierra City tonight.

Northward Bound

We are leaving Tahoe after three full days of rest. Rumour tells us that we only have 80 more miles of snow left. WooHoo!

Next stop is Sierra City. We probably won't have service there and not perhaps for another week or two but we will try to write more often, if for no other reason than to provide more details.

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.