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

On the road again

We are leaving Hiker Heaven this morning. Ahead lies the Mojave Desert and a very sunny section of trail. We plan on stopping in the town of Mojave sometime this weekend. Fun stuff!

Community

Last night was a reunion. Gene and Charlie showed up sometime in the evening. We hadn't seen them since Idyllwild and they have been chasing us for about 200 miles!

We watched a few episodes of Planet Earth and drank lots of alcohol. Later we all talked about the challenges ahead. The Sierras are coming later this month and there is an unbelievable amount of snow out there. We strategized, but also pumped ourselves up. It has been an amazing psychological drain to contemplate the snow and it was awesome to talk it up with other hikers. I could feel solid community develop right as we were standing there.

This forming community reminded me of our community back home in Portland. I went to sleep last night thinking of them.

5 June ~ HIker Heaven!!!!

Hello m'dears! Goodness and I arrived this morning to Agua Dulce where we had a wonderful breakfast with Racheopod and were reunited with our Gnar. I am now sitting in what is appropriately named, Hiker Heaven. We will be taking a zero here tomorrow and enjoying the unbelievable hospitality! You walk up to this ranch and see all of these white tents set up outside with cots inside and many stations to meet all hiker needs. An array of clean clothing and sandals to choose from as your laundry is washed, a pile of movies for all to enjoy, and even a few 'private' sleeping spaces for couples. Goodness and I have scored the horse trailer! This space is the platform that you see above a pick-up truck bed and it is quite sweet. There are a row of hiker boxes to sift through for gear, a single wide trailer kitchen, community hair clippers, and even a sewing machine that I will be hitting by and by today! We spent last night about 2 miles away so today is a near-0 for us which gives us much time to rest. The first of the month was Gnar's 22nd birthday. I grabbed a pair of numeral candles and we sang near the top of Mt. Baden Powell over snow cones. I randomly and magically found an unopened bottle of Grenadine at the top, so we busted out our cook pots and mixed the snow on in! It was fantastic! Yum! Most of that day I spent in a meditative state through some loverly country. That evening, our Cardinals split for the Frog Detour. Gnar went up to scout it out and we went down to a roundabout trail that resembled a rock quarry. It was certainly rougher terrain than we were accustomed to thus far but reminded me greatly of the Sierras. We cowgirl slept at the river after a nice long descent.

The next detour day found us also in Sierra reminiscent territory as we climbed and climbed and climbed up to a sweet saddle. We also went out on a short jaunt to a formation called 'Devil's Chair' which was just a nice long rock jetty that looked out over a valley. The odd thing was that there was this cage around the entire thing of which Goodness felt was condescending. We later supposed that it was for the area laymen to feel safe out in the wild. We joined the PCT again that evening and were delighted. :) The following day was the 3rd and we awoke after more cowgirl camping out at a small empty boyscout camp. My first thoughts of the day were happy birthday wishes to my Aunt Carol and my old pal Dave Gehrke!! Hope your day was more than you wished! We slept next to a stream with Racheopod that night and I sang Bobby Gentry's Ode to Billie Joe as a lullaby per the date. Music has been central to my walking experience and the trail is the perfect place to memorize lyrics and poems. I will be printing out many more things that I want locked in my head. So if anyone has something wonderous in mind, send it my way! I wrote out the lyrics to the Siren's song, Go to Sleep Little Babe from O Brother Where Art Thou and now Gnar, Racheopod, and I have it memorized to sing at the gloaming tonight.

Tomorrow we are getting an Angelride to REI and a larger grocery store. I will attempt to write more catch-up entriage tomorrow to detail my adventures living in a castle with Racheopod.

5/31 Cold Windy Night

We climbed into the San Gabriel mountains yesterday. The elevation gain was 5000 feet over 15 miles. The temperature was balmy at the bottom and frigid at the top.

A ton of hikers camped at the top. It was the only water source in the entire stretch.  Water sources tend to clump hikers into groups. There were hikers we hasn't seen for a week, others we had never met before. The campfire is obligatory whenever a bunch of folks are camping in the same place. Sometime after dark Gnar wandered in. He had left the motel room several hours after us.

As the night grew darker the wind picked up and the fire grew higher. Outside of the fire ring the temperature was extremely cold.

At some point in the night, I realized that I wasn't sleeping due to the wind buffeting our tent in the most outrageous fashion. I became convinced that cowboy camping without a tent was he sleep solution.

I woke a, reluctant Zm and we stumbled out into the intense wind. After some comical fumbling we were able to reconfigure into cowboy mode. Now it was our sleeping bags that were being buffeted. It was not a good night of sleep.

This morning was a quick 4 mile walk for the hitch to Wrightwood. It was all business: stuffing our faces, getting mail, and buying food for the next 100 miles. I was able to score a ride back to the trail around six. A mile down the trail led us to our friends.

Tonight a legend was born. As we got to camp one of our friends was on the way back to the trailhead. He was convinced that he could hitch back to Wrightwood and bring back some pizza. I was skeptical as the highway was not busy at all. However, just before dark he returned with two large pizzas and a steak. We gorged ourselves on pizza while Gnar cooked the steak on a stick above the fire. The fellow that went out on the pizza run got his trail name that night. We called him 'Legend' due to his legendary pizza obtaining abilities.