Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot!

Anish from Bellingham, WA is going for the FKT (fastest known time) on the PCT South to North. The current record going North to South was set in 2009 by Scott Williamson at 65 days 9 hours and 58 minutes. He set this record hiking the entire trail unsupported which means no slack packing and not even accepting rides into town to resupply. Anish started June 8th and is currently on pace to break the record. To do this she needs to average more than 41.5 miles per day! She just passed us last Thursday the 11th and we barely were even able to say hello as she flew by us. You can follow her progress on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/AnishHikes

We are starting to see more and more of "the pack" passing us. These are the people that started after the PCT "kick-off" which was about 10 days after we started the trail. It is cool seeing new faces, but for some reason it is a little hard seeing more and more people passing us. As they say though, hike your own hike.

It has been fun having Katie's dog with us; something else to look at and talk about. Xena is slowly getting her trail legs but has been dictating the day's schedule. This means getting up at 4:30am to have the most time out of the heat and overall longer but lazier days with lots of breaks. You can tell when she is getting hot and/or tired as she will jog through the sun section and when she hits shade she will almost immediately lie down to let you know she needs a rest.

The trail from Burney Falls SP to Castella has been in forested areas with lots of logging roads. However we get some great vistas now and then and views of Mt Shasta. There are a lot of overgrown sections with manzanita and spurts of poison oak to carefully avoid too. We have seen two different trail maintenance crews out here making the trail very nice in some shorter 5 mile sections. The temps are in the 90's now and as we get closer to Seied Valley a week away, they will creep up to the 100's! We are working on staying cool and keeping hydrated. So far our decision to ditch the stove for a few weeks has been a good one as we are enjoying not having to cook in this heat.

We made it to Castella and are trying to all stay cool in the shade at Castle Crags SP. After much debate, Katie has made the decision to have Xena picked up. Unfortunately, the heat is too much for a dog, so we are going to say good-bye to Xena Katie will try hiking with her again when we are in Oregon...hopefully with cooler temps. The temps are now in the 100's and climbing higher for the next week at least. Nobody wants to hike in this heat, so why put a dog through that if you don't have to.

Trail stats after 93 days and 1506 miles:
# snakes: 22
# bears: 1
# pushups: 650
# days rain: 3
# nights indoor: 13
# showers: 19
# loads laundry: 14

Pictures from top to bottom:
- Break time with Xena!
- Katie & Xena w/ Shasta in background
- Nasty socks!
- Overgown trail section
- Mt Shasta
- PCT sign at Castle Crags SP
- Another beautiful view of N. CA

New Kicks

Our hike into the park yesterday was 10 miles of mostly flat and lightly forested terrain. At 8:00am we came upon trail magic of cold Budweiser beer...nothing like beer for breakfast! A half hour later more trail magic with coolers of soda, water and candy bars. It is so amazing how many people  there are out here doing trail magic and being so kind and generous. It certainly gives me a new perspective of mankind and I hope I can return the favor to thru hikers in the future.

The last few days we have been ahead of schedule. We meet up with Katie's parents Saturday and even with 2 low mileage days in a row, we werte a day early into our meeting place, Burney Falls SP. The good news is they had a General Store with soft-serve ice cream and coin-operated showers, so we had no problems waiting here for a night. We sat in the shade for a few hours eating meat and cheese and drinking water when we saw Chief come around the corner. He had taken the day off today and was camped at a nice site. Chief and Maureen asked for us to join them and that they could have up to 8 people at their site. Sure enough, an hour or so later there were 8 other hikers that showed up. We grabbed a bunch of beers and hot dogs and all camped together sharing stories of the trail.

On a separate note, I am in desperate need of new shoes and thankfully they arrived in the knick of time! My shoes have over 700 miles on them and have been through the Sierras, numerous stream crossings, as well as lava rock. Needless to say, the tread is wearing. Worse than the tread are the condition of my insoles. The cushion is gone and I am wearing through the material in places. The constant dirt in my shoes doesn't help with the wear either. I have a pic below of my old shoes and insoles compared to the new pair. Nasty!

Also, my feet are starting to feel a little weird too. My toes go numb often while hiking and at rest. My feet also swell quickly when I am not walking. I have tried to be good about elevating them, but it seems to help only temporarily. I have asked other hikers about their feet and it seems to be a common problem. I guess that is good to know I am not alone, but still doesn't seem right. Hopefully the new shoes will help!

Lastly, Midnight Chocolate and her dog, Sleeping Dragon (a.k.a. Xena), had a reunion here in Burney today. Sleeping Dragon will be with us until Ashland! Katie's parents flew her in and will be spending the next couple of days with us.

We plan to make numerous changes with gear to help lighten our loads, especially since we can send stuff back with them. We decided to not use the stove until after Crater Lake as it has been so hot that cooking seems more of a chore than anything. We also got rid of our cups, extra pens, batteries, etc. and Katie swapped out her backpack.  Hopefully these changes will help make our loads more comfortable.

Trail stats after 87 days and 1424 miles:
# snakes: 22
# bears: 1
# days rain: 3
# pushups: 580
# nights indoors: 12
# showers with soap: 17
# loads laundry: 13

Pics from top to bottom:
- Budweiser trail magic!
- The trail into Burney
- Lava fields
- Old vs. new shoes
- Katie and Xena
- Hat Rim
- More awesome trail magic

Spoiled slackers

We left Belden at 6:30am with the sound of rave music still thumping across the river. I wish we could have heard the music for a while as we had a 14 mile climb to start out. We made it 21 miles and called it a night.

The highlight of the next day, Day #81, was officially crossing the halfway point of the PCT. This is marked by a post along the trail.  We took a break here and signed in to the registry. It was fun to see the names of hikers in front of us, probably about 60 or so names (not everyone chooses to sign in though). It is crazy we are halfway done and still in California!

From this point on, we ran into lots of unexpected trail magic...We crossed Hwy 36 in the morning and found coolers of fresh fruit and sodas from a trail angel. We continued on and after 22 miles we went through Warner Valley CG where we saw Chief and his wife, Maureen, with their camper. Chief's wife is taking a few weeks off supporting her husband at various points along the  trail. We had intended on saying hi for a few minutes and then hiking on a few more miles, but after some lemonade, fruit and an offer to "slack pack", we put up our tent there and each cracked open a beer. Slack packing is where someone takes the contents of your backpack ahead for you and you hike with just food and water for the day, essentially like a day hike. After Maureen made us a wonderful breakfast, she drove our stuff to Old Station and Chief, Katie and I set off at 6:30am for our 23 mile "day hike" to Old Station. Oh man, slack packing felt great! It was a good break from the weight of the pack and our pace was so much faster. We hiked through Lassen NP and went through a couple different burn areas. The trail was mostly flat and downhill and the ground was soft and dusty, we even trail ran a few miles. We were 3 miles away from Old Station when we encountered some unexpected trail magic from 2 old thru hikers from 1999. They had a banner welcoming us to their trail magic and when we walked over there we were given cold soda, pastries and fresh watermelon. Wow, what a treat on a hot day!

We reached the Hat Creek RV Park at 3pm and caught back up with Maureen who had just arrived and had a great site by the stream. We did laundry, showered and relaxed for the afternoon. Once again Chief and Maureen let us camp with them. Maureen also fed us homemade chili and we split a bottle of wine. Great end to an awesome day!

After a restful sleep we woke up and were invited in for pancakes and coffee with Maureen and Chief. I haven't ate this well in weeks and their kindness is amazing! We set off at 8am to hike 7 miles with a side detour to check out Subway Cave (pic below), and then took a siesta at their camper until 4pm to stay out of the heat. We hiked on until about 9:15pm so we had to break out the headlamps but were rewarded with a great view of Mt Shasta with the sun setting behind it. I "cowboy camped" for the first time in my life last night (camped without a tent); the stars were out and the moon just a sliver. It was a beautiful night.

Next stop is Burney Falls SP where we will meet up with Katie's parents and Katie picks up her dog Xena for a couple weeks of hiking.

Trail stats after 84 days and 1398 miles:
# snakes: 23
# bears: 1
# days rain: 3
# nights indoor: 12
# showers with soap: 16
# beers: 37
# loads laundry: 13
# chocolate milk: 10
# pushups: 560

Pics from top to bottom:
- Footprints
- Siesta at the camper
- View of the trail
- More cows!
- Boiling Mud Lake at Mt Lassen NP
- Lunch time and Katie's stove
- Chief and Katie entering Subway Cave
- Our favorite trail angel, Maureen, and me

Hikers from hell

After accidentally throwing the maps away that we needed for our next section, I went dumpster diving for them unsuccessfully. Thankfully technology came through and we both uploaded the maps to our phones. I don't like to rely on this, but it certainly helped in this situation. 

I redeemed myself later that afternoon by hitching is a ride back to the trailhead in about 8 seconds. We started out of Sierra City about 3pm and immediately climbed up an exposed and hot 3,500ft. That day we hiked about 10 miles before calling it a night.

The next day we ran back into Gumby and Double-It and leap-frogged with them throughout the day. We had a break together at The A Tree which had a delicious ice cold spring! After our break, we noticed the clouds starting to build up around us and they were not looking pretty. Right before we reached treeline we decided to have dinner and just keep an eye on the clouds. They started to look a little better, so we made a run for our last 5 miles which unfortunately were mostly uphill. I was sweating like crazy trying to keep up with Katie.  Once we were above treeline the view of the storm was pretty spectacular and safe for viewing as it was a few miles away from us. The four of us all camped together that night exhausted, but happy we went for it.

The next day was again hot and humid, but we had a good destination for motivation. We had heard that the Feather River had camping and some good water holes for swimming. We hustled that day and made it to the river by 3pm. We immediately dropped our packs and went in the river. The water was refreshing and the perfect temp for bathing and sitting in with the hot sun over us. Turns out many other hikers had the same idea as us...by the end of the night there were 10 of us camped out together.

Our 4th day out was the 4th of July! We had an 8 mile climb out of the valley and then it was rolling hills after that. We had recently found out that there was a resort with 18 beers on tap and homemade pizza, so we decided that if we got 20 miles in and a ride before 4pm, we would treat ourselves to a long break at the bar. Sure enough this motivation did the trick and 4 of us were at the road to hitch by 3pm! The 3 of us girls stuck our thumbs out and the 2nd vehicle picked us up, we all hopped in the back of their pick-up truck. The Lakeside Resort was just as I imagined it would be and more! I had an Icky IPA, which was awesome, and a pizza. There were tons of people, good music playing, a wrap around bar, and views of Bucks Lake. We even got offered a ride back to the trailhead and were able to hike up a couple miles further before the end of the night. Brownie and Lint joined us in Katie's huge tent to escape the mosquitos before heading to bed.

The day into Belden was another hot one with a gruelling downhill to get to town. It was a major culture shock once we got to "town".  Belden is known for their raves and this being 4th of July weekend meant it was a big one. We had to walk right through it all. It was quite the people-watching experience, although I guess they were probably doing the same when they saw us walking through. We called the local trail angels in town, the Braatens, and they picked us up right away.

The Braatens live a mile away from where the raves are and 1/4 mile from a small grill with laundry service.  They have a separate apartment-style place for the hikers with 4 beds, a kitchen, bathroom and dining room. It was the perfect setup and a good place to relax. When we asked for our packages and told her our last names, Brenda said we get the "hikers from hell" award since we had 4 packages waiting for us and they came one at a time each day. Not only did we get our resupply package and our new NeoAir mattresses, but we had two amazing care packages from friends. Thank you to all of you who wrote notes to us, it brought smiles and tears to our faces hearing from you.

The scenery is certainly changing and we are in trees more and more of the time. It is crazy how long ago the desert and Sierras seem and how you soon get used to the new scenery.

We are also getting good at recognizing who is in front of us by their shoe print in the dirt. It is not uncommon at all for someone to come up to us and say something like "do you guys both were Cascadias" or "I knew I was seeing two prints of Cascadias." I guess that is what happens when you have lots of time on your hands and look at the ground a lot each day...

Pictures from top to bottom:
-Climb out of Sierra City
-Katie walking through the Belden rave.
-Before the descent to Belden
-Sierra Buttes
-18 beers on tap!
-Feather River
-View of the storm

Bites, Sweat and Tears

We left Echo Lake Wednesday morning. The same awesome Trail Angel that picked us up on that rainy Monday got up early to take a few of us hikers back to where we left off. The skies were blue again,  but the trail was still plenty wet in places.  There were streams of water coming down the trail. We tried avoiding the water, but soon enough our feet were wet. We headed up to Dicks Pass where we found 6 or so other hikers resting in the sun and airing out their wet gear (they had braved the rain the day before), so we joined them for a bit to dry out our shoes.

After the Pass, we descended to mosquito hell! I am sooo glad I have my bug net. I sure don't look stylish, but it helps keep the bugs away from my face and therefore keeps me sane. We had hours throughout some days where they were so bad we just didn't rest until we hit a spot well above treeline or in a light breeze; they definitely dictated where we took our breaks. Once at camp for the night, we would quickly put up the tent and immediately get in. In the last couple of days the mosquitos have joined forces with the bees and flies, we have had all 3 annoying bugs to contend with.

The heat has also come back strong and it feels like the desert all over again. I am sweating profusely and with the mix of sweat, dirt, sunscreen and deet on me, you can imagine how sticky and nasty I feel after this 5 day section.

We also experienced some tears (not literally) when we hit Donner Pass on our 3rd day out in hopes that the Donner Ski Ranch restaurant was open. Rumor had it this place was open Fri-Sun and gave PCT hikers 40oz of beer for free!! Yes, this was great motivation for Brownie, Katie, and I to get to the Pass, but sadly when we arrived they were not open for the hikimg season. :-(  Thoughts of salad, Reuben and beer in my head were quickly erased. We decided to push on and at least try to make it to one of the few huts on the trail, the PeterGrubb hut. Low and behold, to our dismay the hut was also closed for repairs! Ugh, defeated again. We instead camped near it and the mosquito infested Meadow.

The good news is that we caught back up with Gumby and Double-It on our last day hiking into town and we are now at mile 1198 in Sierra City. We are staying at the very hiker-friendly Red Moose Inn. These are trail angels who purchased an Inn complete with a small restaurant, bar and 2 hotel-style rooms for rent. To top it off, their living quarters are above it all. The Inn isn't officially open to the public, but they are open to hikers. They let us shower for free, do laundry for free and camp for free in their backyard. Tonight they cooked up all-you-can-eat bbq ribs and there were about 10 of us hikers partaking. Alas, I was able to have the beer I had been dreaming about!

Now that the chores are mostly done, the plan is to sleep in (wake up with the sun), have breakfast, go shopping for our next 5 day stretch to Belden and eventually head back to the trail this afternoon for a "nero" (hiker term for a partial day of hiking).

Trail stats after 74 days:
# snakes: still 18
# bears: still just 1
# pushups: sadly only 480
# showers: 14
# loads laundry: 11
# nights indoor: 11
# days rain: 3

I have included a bunch of pics below of this last 5 day stretch and have labeled each pic here (for some reason these don't show up in the order they are taken).
-Wildflowers on trail day 4
-Heading up towards Dicks Pass
-Hikers on Dicks Pass
-Beer selection at Red Moose Inn
-Scenery, Day 3
-Echo Lake Resort (where we waited out the rain earlier)
-me at Red Moose Inn (Sierra City)
-Aloha Lake, Day 1
-PCTers enjoying beers at Red Moose
-Scenery
-Lake Tahoe in background
-Squaw Valley ski resort
-Random sign by trail

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.