Buffaloes, birthday and brrrrr...

Oh boy, lots have happened in the past couple of weeks, so I summed it up in 3 B's...

Buffalo!
Katie and I took a shuttle Friday morning from Bishop to Mammoth Lakes and then hitched our way with two different rides to Reds Meadow. Hitching has still been easier than I expected going into this trip. It is fun and you meet a lot of cool people.

Once back at Reds Meadow, I went to hit the restroom and heard an excited scream coming from the café. I turned to see what the commotion was and it was Gumby coming out of the café with arms open wide to give me a hug! It was so exciting to see Gumby again after 2 weeks. Then out walk the rest of the Buffalo 6-Pack gang! It was quite the surprise and awesome to be reunited with everyone again. We all caught up over coffee at the café and then Double-It bought a 6 pack for us all.

We all left Reds Meadow at 1pm and hiked together for the afternoon. We hiked through Devils Posthole National Monument and all decided to stick to the PCT where the JMT and PCT split before rejoining 14 miles later at 1000 Island Lake. Katie and I spotted a sweet campsite a couple miles before the others were planning to stop (pic below), so we left the gang there for the night.

We had a very leisurely second day out; left camp at 9am (late for PCTers), took a 3hr lunch break at 1000 Island Lake (pics below) and finished the day off at 6pm...a whopping 9 mile day.

We then went up and over Donahue Pass and entered Yosemite NP which is sooo beautiful. I only have a couple pics of the pass below, but unfortunately nothing else to show with phone pics of this area.

We made it in to Tuolumne and caught back up with the gang. After wine, brats, and some great care packages from friends and family,  we headed back out on our 8 day stretch to Echo Lake.

Birthday...
The terrain out of Tuolumne was deceivingly tough. Even with the elevation profile not quite as crazy a the high Sierras, the ups were long and the downs were rugged and rocky which made for a slow go. My birthday was on the 20th and it worked out that we crossed the 1,000 mile mark that day which was pretty cool. I didn't get a birthday beer, but did treat myself to a Baileys and coffee and the best dehydrated dinner that we had to choose from that stretch which was Mary Jane's Curry In A Hurry (I highly recommend this one for all you backpackers). The night ended on a ridge line up near Sonora Pass which was windy with many snow fields to cross, but the scenery was so amazing it made it all worth it!

Brrrrrr...
The last couple of days have been a mix of sun, wind and full-on rain. The rain is always a good test of mental toughness and I realize I still need to get tougher. Today we hiked 8 miles in the rain to Echo Lake lodge and all I have to say is thank goodness there was a lodge to loiter in. I was soaked to the bone and didn't have any dexterity to write my name out on my sandwich order. I don't know that the hikers were all that welcome hanging out in their General Store for hours, but hopefully I bought enough food and drink to make up for it. We managed to get a ride into South Lake Tahoe from a local trail angel who was recently inspired by Sheryl Strayed's book, Wild, and 4 of us hikers are now cozied up in a motel to wait out the storm tonight and tomorrow (turns out I melt in the rain).

On a side note, we have had really good coverage on our AM/FM radio which has been a nice change for knocking out the miles. We also get to say good-bye to our 2lb 9oz bear canisters which means a lot lighter pack and easier packing of my backpack. Lastly, I want to give a shout out to some of my favorite foods on the trail thus far...Cheetos, Fritos, Oatmeal poptarts, butter, cheese, and Mission super soft tortillas with nutella and nuts!

Up next is the halfway mark, mile 1325 roughly; it is crazy how fast this trip is going.

Updated stats after 68 days...
# nights indoor: 10
# days rain: 3
# pushups: 450
# showers: 13
# loads of laundry: 10
# snakes: 18
# bears: 1
# of couples I know of getting engaged on the trail: 3

A bunch of random pics are below. I will try to be better about taking phone pics more than one or two days in a stretch.

Slight change of plans

After a fun day and a half of eating, drinking and swapping stories with fellow hikers at VVR we headed back to the trail. VVR is situated on Edison Lake, but since the lake is 50ft below normal levels, the ferry shuttle they normally run to get you to and from the trail is currently a metal fishing boat they only can take 4 people at a time. I went on the first shuttle out and waited an hour for the second shuttle that Katie was on.

It was about 10:15 when we started hiking and the weather was quickly changing for the worse. Within an hour the winds picked up and the skies turned from blue to white to dark grey. We decided to seek shelter under some trees before we got out of treeline and we made the right call. Another hiker, Brownie, joined us under the trees and in a matter of minutes the thunder, lightning and hail came and the 3 of us waited it out under the Tyvek ground cover for about 30 minutes while the storm passed. The rain continued for another couple hours, but we decided to hike through it. Our group of 3 grew to 5 with Georgie and Ben from Austrailia. We forded a few creeks, Katie managed to fall in one trying to rock hop across wet rocks, but we were all rewarded with blue skies as we approached Silver Pass.

That day we only hiked about 10 miles. We found a sweet campsite that the 5 of us all stayed at (later 2 others hikers made camp there too) and had a campfire that night to keep warm and keep the mosquitos away.

The next day we took it easy and was the first day of hiking in a while that we didn't have to go over a pass! We went 20 miles to Reds Meadow Resort which is another "resort" that is not the fancy kind you may be picturing in your head. They did have a small store, cafe, horse stables and cabins but felt a bit like a ghost town. I got my usual chocolate milk and an apple, both hit the spot! Katie was not feeling well, so we made the decision to get off the trail here to get down to lower altitude to see if that helped (we had been above 9000ft for nearly 2 weeks straight). We hitched a ride from a worker at Reds Meadow and made our way into Bishop via Mammoth Lakes.

We are rested up and Katie is feeling better, so we will make our way back to the trail and again head towards Tuolumne (Yosemite NP).  As our wise thru-hiking friends told us many times, "don't over-plan." Well, they were right...sometimes you just need a longer break and some salad!

Updated stats after 57 days:
# snakes: 18 (only 1 rattler)
# bears: 1
# pushups: 370
# days rain: 1.5
# nights indoor: 9
# showers: 12

Here are some town pictures below for your viewing pleasure...

The High Sierras!

After shoveling in a pancake breakfast, hamburger and a pint of Cherry Garcia ice cream all to myself, I was ready to head out of Kennedy Meadows back on the trail. We had 10 days of food each to go 195 miles to our next destination, Vermillion Valley Resort. I posted a pic below of what 8 days of food for me was, so you can imagine how heavy my pack was to start out.

It took us a couple days to really get into the Sierras. Our timing could not have been better though as we were able to climb up Mt Whitney on Katie's birthday. What a beautiful peak! We had great weather although it was a little hazy from a couple fires burning in southern CA. The views from the top of Whither were amazing! I included a pic below of us on the summit.

After Whitney, we went up and over 6 mountain passes in the course of 5 days which included reaching the highest point on the PCT on Forester Pass (13,200 ft). We also had numerous river crossings, but the water did not get higher than our knees. We did hit snow on 4 of the passes, but by timing it right, we did not run into ice or have to posthole through it. Below is a pic of Forester Pass itself and us on to of the pass.

It is so hard to sum up these past 10 days. The views are breathtaking and after working your way up each pass you are rewarded with views of mountains, basins, clear blue lakes below and surrounding you. There is also something so refreshing about not seeing a road or car for 10 days straight. Granted, I do get pretty excited for a trail town, but this stretch of trail has been incredible. If you are reading this blog, I highly recommend getting to the high Sierras; it has to be up there with the Grand Canyon and other magical scenic places to see in your lifetime.

Trail stats after 52 days...
# snakes: 18
# bears: 1
# days of rain: 1
# nights indoor: 6
# pushups: 310
# showers: 9