I'm lovin' it!

This subject line has two meanings...

#1 - I am loving it out here! Hard to believe it is already Day 21! We had our first day of rain a couple days ago. We went light on the rain gear on purpose (since it not supposed to rain in the desert), but after a day of solid rain I am going to have to make an adjustment to the pack cover and change from my $2 poncho that is now torn up to a retrofitted garbage bag to cover my pack.

#2 - McDonalds (insert jingle here)! I just got done wolfing down some food at McDonalds and boy was it tasty! I don't think I have been there since college as an aid to a hangover. Those that know me know I am not a fan of fast food, but it seems like the trail has changed my cravings where a .4 mile detour to McDonalds is all that is on my mind! I even went back for seconds!

It seems we see fewer people each day, so the hikers are certainly spreading out as the miles add up. Yesterday we hiked a bit with a guy named Bipolar and saw one other hiker. Today we are at McD's with Mike & Jill and have only seen one other hiker.

Here are a few pics from today. You can see that to make this trail go straight through Mexico to Canada, you don't always hike through the most beautiful places. Even as I type this, I am right next to I-15 where the sounds of cars, trucks and trains seems so loud. I am looking forward to getting back on the trail.

Updated trail stats after 21 days:
# snakes: 11
# days hiking in rain: 1
# nights no tent: 2
# showers with soap: 4
# pushups: 100
# trail magic: 12

Big break in Big Bear

We have made it to mile 268 after 17 days! This last 5 day section seemed to wipe us out as well as many other hikers. After a huge descent to the lowest point in CA at 1,190ft, we went up over 25 miles to about 8,000ft (the longest climb in CA).
Thankfully this section also seemed to have the most trail magic with Ziggy & The Bear trail angels, 3 water/food/soda caches and another tail Angel, Tiffany, in Big Bear.  I tell you what, I don't normally drink soda, but it has never tasted so good out here on the trail.
We got to Big Bear this morning by calling up the new trail Angel in town, Tiffany, at 10am. Not only do we have the same name, we also have the same middle name, our cat has the same name and she has a daughter named Katie :-)  She ran us around town to do errands and has been great to hang out with! Thank you Tiffany!!
Tomorrow we start back on the trail and the weather report looks like a chance of rain/snow for the next two evenings. Even though it will be chilly, the cool weather is welcoming from the heat we have had.
It is so interesting talking to the different hikers; you certainly get all walks of life. People are doing this for all different reasons like life goals, mid-life crisis, celebration of life, meditation, raising money or awareness for a charity, etc. There are rich people, people in debt, people just getting out of debt, retirement, etc. Two interesting hikers I have met are the "wild boys". They are two brothers with their dog who forage for food and are brewing beer in their backpack. They sleep during the day and hike at night. Last I heard they killed a rattlesnake and ate it. Not sure how far they will make it, but it goes to show there is no one way to hike this trail.
Updated trail stays after 17 days:
# snakes: 9
# pushups: 85
# nights no tent: 2
# trail magic: 9
# showers with soap: 4
# days of rain: 0
Here are some recent pics from the trail, caches and from Big Bear.

Loooong siesta!

FYI, these posts are delayed on purpose...

We passed mile 200 last night and are now staying for a long siesta at trail angels' house Ziggy & the Bear (more on that later).

We just got done dropping down 6,000 feet over 18 miles heading back down to the hot, hot desert. Other hikers had been telling us how nasty the descent would be and they were right! We hiked into  the night last night trying to find a place out of the wind to camp and found a small little spot out of most of the wind at 9:30pm. That made it another big day for us that we were not planning for. However, the good news is that we were able to get to the trail angels' house at 9:30am and can have a long break out of the heat before we get in a few more miles this evening once it sort of cools down.

The temperate at Ziggy's house is reading about 115 degrees in the sun, but all of us hikers are being well taken care of! Here is how it goes down at their place...
We walk through the back gate and are greeted by the trail angels. They get us a Epsom salt foot bath and then a towel to take a shower. Now we just lounge around in the shade where we can eat fruit and drink gatorade or soda, wash out our dirty socks, use the internet, etc. They make a Burger King run for us around noon, salad for dinner and ice cream for dessert depending on how long we stay.

I just can't say enough about how giving these people are as well as other trail angels we have met along the way like Magic Man.

They call these places The Vortex because once you get here it is hard to leave...

Here is a pic of 2 of the 3 trail angels, Ziggy and Ron, as well as Katie and I getting our foot baths!

Updated trail stats after 14 days:
# pushups: 45
# nights not in tent: 1
# snakes: 7
# showers with soap: 3
# days rain: 0
# trail magic: 6

Chuggin' along

We are cruising right along! We were able to successfully hitch our first ride of the trip out of Julian, it was the 10th car to go by us. Today we hitched into Idyllwild and it was the 2nd car that pulled over! Hopefully we can keep on that trend for future hitch hikes!

We hit the 100 mile mark on our 6th day and I also set my own personal record of this trip now officially being my longest backpack ever. Katie still has a couple weeks to go before she beats her longest trip.

We picked up our first resupply of food in Warner Springs and it felt like Christmas going through that box!

The people we have met have been so great and there are so many more out here hiking than I expected. Word on the trail is that there will be nearly 1,000 people attempting the thru hike which is hard to imagine.

We are adjusting well to hiking in the heat, taking siestas in the afternoon and dealing with the lack of water stops available. There is a lot of support from the PCTA and trail angels loading up caches too which helps a lot (see pic below).

It is amazing how simple my days become out here. A typical day is waking up about 5:30, putting camp away and packing my bag and starting to hike by 6:30. We usually hike for 2-3 hours, break for 30 min and then hike another 2-3 hours or until the heat becomes too much. Then we take a siesta for 3-4 hours where I might nap, read or write in my journal. We also use this time to cook our dinner so that it is one less thing to do once we get to camp. Around 4pm, we start hiking again and finish the day between 7-8pm depending on where we are heading.

Here are my updated totals after day 11:
# pushups: 45
# snakes: 7
# nights not in a tent: 1
# days of rain: 0
# showers with soap: 2
# trail magic: 4 (unexpected generosity by someone when you are not asking for it like a ride to/from the trail, filtered water, soda, etc.)

I posted some pics below. Whoever guesses first what the rock picture looks like wins a super duper prize :-)

Zero day in Julian

Katie and I just got done having pie and coffee for breakfast in Julian, CA.

We have hiked for 4 days and are at mile 78, so we were ready for a day off to shower, do laundry, sleep in a bed and just get off of our feet for a bit before we start back at it tomorrow.

Here is a quick recap of the past 5 days...

Day 1: Details are in my prior post.

Day 2: Not so awesome day. Our feet got sore quickly and we are figuring out how to strategize hiking in the heat (and it is just going to get hotter) by taking long breaks under shade during the heat of the day. Hiked about 21 miles that day to a campground that we expected would be open and have water spigots on...we were wrong on both accounts. We were thirsty going to bed, but knew we would be at a water source the next morning. Still no blisters but my feet and neck are a bit sore getting used to the miles and backpack.

Day 3: We hiked a mile to Mt Laguna where we were able to camel up on water and also go to the general store! We each scarfed down breakfast burritos and some other goodies; it was a great treat to start the day. Our intentions were to only go 14 miles but we didn't see the campsite (they are few and far between in this area) so we ended up hiking 17 miles. We are often carrying 5 liters of water which makes for a heavy pack but it is such a dry year that water is hard to find any many seasonal creeks are not flowing so we rely on water caches or troughs.

Day 4: Finally got smart and were on the trail by 6:15am. Met up and hiked with 5 others for 10 miles and made it to our water stop by 10:30. Hiking in the cooler weather helped a ton! We took a 6 hour break here to wait out the heat. The only bummer was the lack of shade, so we rigged up our ground cover using trekking poles, paracord and stakes to make our own shade. Several failed attempts later due to the wind blowing it down, we found a set-up that worked. I can guarantee we will be using this sunshade again, so I will try to remember to take a pic of it to post. We made our way out to Hwy 78 (and coincidentally mile 78) at 7:30pm to hitch a ride 13 miles to Julian but were unsuccessful, so we just camped on the trail nearby.

Day 5 (now): As I mentioned, we are in Julian for a full day of rest. We were able to check in early to a B&B and do a load of laundry that will hopefully get most of the dirt and smell off our clothes to last for about a day :-)  I just took an awesome shower and my toes are no longer black (again, that will only last for the day).

One unfortunate piece of news to report is we have decided to drop the badminton rackets as it is just too windy to play. Looks like we probably won't make it to the 2016 Olympics afterall.

On a side note, my favorite piece of gear so far is this food cozy we made out of a sun vizor. We put our dehydrated meal in a bag, add boiling water and then put the bag into the cozy. It is hydrating our food 50% faster and allows us more food options that require a longer cook time or that require you boil the meal for a certain time. Check Katie's blog for a picture of it.

Here are some trail stats after 5 days:
# snakes: 3
# showers w/ soap: 1
# pushups: 15...not very many but I have had a busy schedule :-)
# trail magic: 1
# nights not in a tent: 1

I'm going to attempt to post pics but am not sure how they will turn out as I am using an app that is not user friendly, so there will be no captions and probably not in order.

Awesome day!

We had a great first day on the trail. Started from the TH at 7:30 and got to camp at 4:45. We did just shy of 20 miles. The trail was gentle terrain, but dusty. Also it got hot quick but there was a nice breeze for much of the day.

My feet are a little sore but I feel great otherwise and even was able to grab a shower! Katie and I saw 8 other hikers today and there are probably about 15 of us at the campground.

Tonight is the first dehydrated dinner of many, but boy does it sound good!

Ready or not...

...Here we go!  I can't beleive it is actually going to happen.  It is funny how we have spent so much time talking, planning and preparing for the hike and now we are actually going to be hiking next week!

A lot of people have asked the simple question of why I am doing this.  Well, there are many reasons, some of them may be foreign to you but all are important to me...I love the outdoors, being active and in the wilderness, meeting new people, going on an adventure, eating junk food and just living life in its simplest form...in the moment.  I have to admit, it is going to be weird only thinking of the very basic such as where I am going to sleep and what I am going to eat.  Yet, there is a smile that comes to my face when I think that this will be my life for the next several months.

I have had a great send off so far.  Last weekend was full of food, wine and laughs with some great friends!

Wine tasting in McMinnville

Katie and I also spent a day double and triple-checking our food boxes to make sure we had all our ducks in a row, adding extra candy bars, underwear and socks here and there for good measure :0) 


And of course I had to check to be sure my luxury item, my badminton racket, was tuned up for the trail.  Don't be surprised if you see Katie and me in the 2016 Olympics for badminton doubles!

This weekend I'm seeing a few more friends and family, then it's off to the train station on Monday for our 31 hour ride to San Diego!  Our awesome friend Mollie is meeting us there to spend the day with us on Wednesday, then we will try to get a good night sleep and get an early start from the trailhead on Thursday.

Lexi

Sadly the hardest part of all of this will be leaving my dog for the summer.  She has been a trooper with all the moving, driving and chaos and will be vacationing at the Cap's Day Spa (a.k.a. My parent's house) while I am hiking.  It is very hard to leave this girl, but if all goes well she'll get to hike with me for a bit in Oregon.