Independence Resupply: Mile 787

Written 6/27/14

Posted 6/27/14

After our big Mount Whitney day we had a fairly mellow day going over Forrester Pass. This is the highest point on the PCT, not including the Mount Whitney side trail, at 13,200 feet! 

Hiking up to the pass was very gorgeous alpine meadow with a lot of waterfalls, creeks, and lakes. When we got to the pass we chatted with some other folks hiking south bound and got the scoop on the northern trail conditions. We were happy to hear that our upcoming down climb of Forrester Pass was going to be the sketchiest part of the Sierras. Heading down the pas really wasn't too bad, just one steep short section of snow. 

The next day we were only 9 miles away from getting to the Onion Valley trailhead where we were planning to hitch a ride down into Independence, CA. Those 9 miles proved to be some of the most difficult miles yet because of the weather. We had to head over Kearsarge Pass in very strong winds because a storm was pushing through. I got blown over three times by gusts of at least 40-50 mph!

Eventually we got all the way down to the parking lot to discover some awesome "Trail Magic". The term Trail Magic is used when anybody helps out a thru-hiker, either by giving away some extra food, offering a hitch into town, or just general support of hikers. An older couple was staying at the campground in the parking lot offering food, beer, and rides into town. They are retired and just camped out for 2 weeks up there to support hikers. They hiked the PCT last year and just wanted to help out. What awesome people! 

Once we got to Independence, we realized that this town is tiny! There isn't much here. We decided to catch public transit down to Lone Pine which is a slightly bigger town. We've been eating a ton of food and resting up. Planning to get back on the trail tomorrow morning. Luckily the owners of the motel are very friendly to hikers and are going to give us breakfast and a ride to the trailhead tomorrow morning! It feels great to be in a bed and be clean again but I'm really looking forward to the next section of trail. We'll be in Mammoth in roughly 9 days where we'll post our next updates. Stay tuned! 

Mount Whitney: Mile 774

Written 6/24/14

Posted 6/27/14

We stood on top of the tallest mountain in the U.S. (excluding anything in Alaska) at 14,505 feet!!!! Mount Whitney is so awesome!!!

We camped just below Mount Whitney at a high alpine lake, Guitar Lake. We decided to wake up at 4am in order to watch the sunrise as we were climbing and also to beat the crowds. As we started our climb, Mike was feeling pretty tired and nauseous. I thought the altitude must've been getting to him so we stopped and he drank a lot of water while I tried to capture pictures of the sunrise.

We climbed 3,500 feet up from camp to get to the summit around 8am. When we arrived at the summit nobody else was there. We knew some other PCT hikers were sleeping in the hut at the summit but we felt like we were totally alone. Eventually a couple from Russia came to join us on the summit. After taking some summit photos we decided to head back down because we still had another 15 miles to hike before sundown!  See if you can spot me in this picture...

It was our biggest mileage day yet! We did a total of 20.1 miles with approximately 4,500 feet of elevation gain. Our feet hurt and we're exhausted but gee whiz what a phenomenal day!!!

Climbing high: Mile 761

Written 6/22/14

Posted 6/27/14

Oh boy the mountains are beautiful! We hit our 100th-trail-mile mark today when we got to Cottonwood Pass which also marks the start of the high Sierras! The day after we left Kennedy Meadows we were able to hike 19.5 miles with 4,000 feet of elevation gain which makes that our biggest day yet! We've been feeling really good and we're incredibly excited to spend the next couple of days in the mountains. We also got to experience our first lake swim at the 10,500 foot high Chicken Springs Lake. It was cold but clear and refreshing!

Ever since we left Kennedy Meadows we've been gaining elevation and the scenery has been constantly changing. Our water sources are starting to become more frequent which allows us to carry only 1 or 2 liters at a time and save some extra pounds on our backs. We started this section with 7 days of food and 2 liters of water each. Those are easily the heaviest packs that we'll have this entire trip so it feels great to have that behind us!

Our leg muscles are holding up incredibly well. We both feel like our legs haven't really been tired much. We do some yoga and stretch every other night which is definitely helping. Our blisters on our feet have been more of an issue than any thing else. PCT hikers refer to it as "having your blisters come in". It's inevitable that we'll get blisters and everyone experiences this phase differently. For me, I had horrible blisters all over my feet by day 4. I had a blister on each toe, one on the back of my heel, some between my toes, and some on the balls of my feet. Luckily for me, most of those blisters were small and they completely healed by day 7 and now they never hurt! Mike's blister experience has been a little different. He tends to only get one (maybe two) blisters at a time but there is always a fresh one somewhere on one of his feet. They heal after a few days and I'm sure that eventually he won't get them anymore. Just have to tough it out a little longer! 

We're getting creative setting up the tent. We were missing out on the stars because we weren't able to set up the mesh without the tarp. We started using this cord that Mike brought to tie between two trees and then just hooking the mesh to that. This way the ridge line isn't weight-bearing and we don't have to worry about putting too much force on the mesh seams. We can't cowboy camp without a mesh around the Sierras because the mosquitos would eat us all night.

I've also started to get in better eating habits with my trail food. The first few days I was trying to conserve my food because I didn't want to run out. So I was only eating snacks when I started to feel hungry. I was burning out in the afternoons with that scheme and I didn't have enough energy to get me through the day. I'm now eating something every two hours (minimum) even if I don't feel hungry and it's helping me keep my endurance throughout the day. 

Kennedy Meadows: Mile 710

Written 6/19/14

Posted 6/27/14

What a stay! We escaped the hiker vortex, Kennedy Meadows, but got to indulge just enough while we were there. So far on this trip we haven't run into a lot of other hikers and our interactions with those we have met have been fleeting. At KM we finally got to meet and socialize with all the other people that are around us on the trail. As it turns out there are lots of people that started where we did and skipped the desert so we aren't the only ones jumping on late.

It was interesting coming into the social scene. We felt like a pair of outsiders since everyone else seemed to know each other and all had cool trail names! It felt almost like being in high school when you don't belong to a clique :( To hide the fact that we were trail newbies and avoid any ill-fitting nicknames, we decided to give each other trail names. Receiving your thru-hiking trail name is a big deal in the PCT community; like a right of passage. Normally you have to hike several hundered miles before people get to know you well enough to earn your new title. But since we just started and didn't know anyone we thought it would be easier to come up with our own. Thus Chappy (Mike) and Two-Step (Erin) were born! No one seems to have noticed that we made our own names so long as we have a short anecdote for how we got them and we have seemlessly blended into the social network. We've met a lot of interesting and fun people: we hope to see more of the worldly travelers Hobo & Milkshake; the badass Two-Feathers solo hiker from South Africa; the Jolly Lama; and Dances with Bacon. 

It's easy to see why hikers have a hard time leaving KM. They have a large outdoor patio with 10-25 thru hikers drinking beers, watching the World Cup, eating burgers, and playing games. They had outlets available to charge your electronics, showers for 3$, laundry for 3$, a port-a-potty (with toilet paper and hand sanitizer!!!), and FREE camping in their yard! KM is basically a big party for thru hikers to go and be merry!   

We mingled and got our jollies in over our 24 hour stay and took off the next afternoon. We were able to get a good 7-8 miles out of KM which was enough distance to feel removed from the party. We weren't the only ones to leave that day and we ended up camping with other hikers for the first time. It was nice to have a small circle of people to interact with and get to know better as opposed to a large group of people. Though the conversations are similar (e.g. where you're from, why are you doing the PCT, what does your trail name mean, etc.) you still feel like you get to know people better out in the woods. 

We were the first to arrive at the campsite  and we stumbled upon a 2-foot long King snake! The catchy rhyme to distinguish between King (non-venemous) and Coral (venemous) snakes came in handy:

"Red touches yellow, kills a fellow. Red touches black, you're ok jack!"

We warned the other campers about it when they arrived but nobody seemed to mind. Storyteller actually got really close to it to take pictures! I was still pretty scared to sleep there so we opted to put up the mesh enclosure underneath the tarp. Worry-free night of sleep!  The wind was still roaring though, so even though our slithery friend didn't cost us any sleep, our tent collapsing in the wind did :(

P.S. Sorry for the lack of pictures in this post.  We still have to get in the habit of taking pics with our phones to upload, not just the camera!

The desert stretch: mile 702.2

Written 6/18/14

Posted 6/27/14

Today we reached our first big landmark, Kennedy Meadows!  We've spent the last few days making our way through hot, windy, dry terrain. We intentionally cut out a large portion of the desert stretch of the PCT, whittling our stint down to a mere 50 miles or so. Neither of us regret that decision.  It's pretty landscape with expansive views, desert plants like yuccas and Joshua trees, and has it's unique charm, but we couldn't imagine 700 miles of it.  Water sources are normally a big concern through this section, and with California's drought, this is an especially dry year.  You can't bank on every 'reliable' source. There were a few occasions where we had to put in extra miles to find water which meant carrying extra weight but luckily we were prepared for such scarcity!

Another interesting aspect to the desert stretch (due to the dry climate) are the amount of burn areas. Wildfires are common and can create massive burn areas. We passed through several of these in the past couple of days; some of which left the landscape completely bare with dead trees. I find beauty in the stillness but it's very sad to see our human impact on such a large scale.

One of the more interesting things that we came across on the trail was an abandoned village called fox mill springs. It looked like nobody had inhabited the area in several decades. There were rusted out cars and foundations of buildings and delapidated equipment strewn about. It was an odd sight especially since there seemed to be no roads to get to that spot on the hillside.

There were a few inhabitants left. We saw a desert horned lizard (or at least that's what Mike thinks they were...). We almost stepped on a few of these well armoured reptiles because they just sit in the middle of the trail! 

We ended our desert stint today when we came across our first major water source: the Kern River! The water was flowing and it was even deep enough for us to take our first swim! This felt SO good to us I can't even imagine how the other hikers felt after spending an additional month in the desert.

We just walked in to Kennedy Meadows general store where all of the other hikers gave us a standing ovation which was really fun! All hikers get applause when they arrive and it makes you feel really good! We also passed some hikers leaving KM who warned us that this stop can be hard to leave because it's a vortex of luxuries and good people so we're going to try hard not to stay for too long.

Day 2: Mile 670

Written 6/16/14

Posted 6/27/14

Day 2 in the bag. We had our first full hiking day today, and made it 13 miles. We're both feeling pretty good; only a few minor aches and pains. We're getting back into backpacking shape quickly.  Although the ground we've covered is short, we have already learned a few important things with our time on the trail. 

1).  Don't underestimate the wind. So far we've experienced howling gusts at all times of day. This makes the mornings cold and also came close to knocking us off our feet at times.  It also makes us very happy that we packed plenty of earplugs for loud nights. 

2).  Technology makes backpacking a much safer experience.  Doing long trips like this a few years ago before smartphones was considerably more challenging. Take today, for example. We knew that dry water sources were going to be an issue. But thanks to online forums, we were able to print updated water reports before starting, and there are even apps that let you track your location on the trail on topo maps as you go. So all of a sudden when the water source you were banking on is dried up, you can easily find your next one and see on your phone how close you are to it. Getting lost would be nearly impossible, and any resource we need is at our fingertips since you have cell coverage for most of the trail.  So to the parents and worrywarts who are concerned for our safety, you can rest easy on our behalf :)

3).  The days are long, we don't have to hike too fast. Today we got to camp by 3:00 after starting at 7:30. Granted we're doing smaller mileage right now while we get in trail shape, but we have a lot of daylight to cover ground, even on long days, so we should enjoy our breaks and pace ourselves.  It's 7:30 right now and we've run out of things to do, so we're just waiting for the sun to go down so it's dark enough to go to sleep. Either we're going to have to get better at finding things to occupy our time with at camp, or start beefing up the mileage soon. 

First day: Mi. 657

It was our first day on the trail today!!! We hiked a whopping 5 miles after Mike's dad dropped us off around 4:30pm.  We soaked in the last bit of AC we'll experience in a long time on the car ride and ate a sensational last meal (subway).

We had a slight scare this morning when we checked the weather and found out there were several wildfires that popped up 40 miles west of where we were starting. The maps showed heavy smoke, but luckily we weren't really affected by it other than a little cottonmouth and shrouded views.

When we set up camp we got to play around with our pride and joy, our home made tarp tent, for the first time on an overnight outing. It only took us a half hour to set up after tripping over some guide lines and uprooting a few stakes but we were successful at last! 

Right now we are relaxing in our home away from home, basking in the glory of our first PCT experience. It's super windy and kind of chilly but the views are spectacular and we couldn't ask for a better introduction to the trail. 

It feels surreal to know that we're going to be doing nothing but hiking for the next 100 days and that today is now our normal. Neither Mike or I have ever been in the woods for such a long stretch, disconnected from our belongings, friends and families. All we have from here is what's on our backs and each other, and we couldn't ask for anything more!  Yet :)

No more driving!!!

Mike and I finally finished our road trip in Bakersfield yesterday evening. On the drive south from Salt Lake we decided to stop in St. George to go climbing at Chuckwalla wall. I was really happy to get one last climbing session in before we commit to 4 months of backpacking!

Total miles traveled since Seattle = 4,880 miles

We're finishing up a few last minute items before we start the trail tomorrow. Ever since we packed our resupply boxes I've been wondering if we packed enough food for ourselves. I decided that I wanted to put an additional 80 calories into my diet each day on the trail so I bought some various kinds of granola from the bulk foods section in WinCo and threw those in to each box. I'd rather have too much food than not enough food!

We also created some light-weight scrabble tiles to accompany our cloth scrabble board. Mike made the cloth scrabble board a few years ago specifically for backpacking and traveling. Now we upgraded those heavy scrabble tiles to some paper tiles. We printed out all of the letters onto blank labels and then stuck the labels onto a manilla folder. Then we cut out each letter and wrote its point value on the tile. They turned out really nice and sturdy! The only down side is that we won't be able to play in the wind...

Weight of our home-made scrabble game = 2 ounces of fun

Mike and I are expecting to lose quite a bit of weight over the next 4 months. As of this morning, I weigh 148 lbs and Mike weighs 183 lbs. Men tend to lose more weight on the trail than women, so we're expecting to weigh 138 and 150, respectively, by the end of the trip.

Tomorrow we're getting dropped off on the trail at mile 652:  Walker Pass (even though Mike really wants to push our start date back a day so that we can watch the first U.S.A. game of the world cup on Monday). Our first stretch of the hike is only 50 miles long until we get to Kennedy Meadows. Our biggest worry for the first leg of the trail is going to be the water availability. We only have three sure-fire, totally reliable water sources across those 50 miles. Hopefully we'll find some other streams to refill water along the way but we aren't counting on it. We're planning to get to Kennedy Meadows on Friday and we will try to write our next blog post there. [Disclaimer to mom: Kennedy Meadows is a very small town and we may not have service--don't panic if we fail to write a post on Friday!]

Gluttony

The last two weeks have been relaxing and gluttonous, as we took full advantage of our resources during our stay in Salt Lake.  Thanks to the hospitality of our wonderful friends, we were wined and dined almost every day for the last week in Utah, and it was great catching up with everyone.  Whether it was rolling sushi, making pizzas, or just having brunch, we were able to eat, drink, and be merry with pretty much everyone we were hoping to see.  When we weren’t stuffing ourselves silly with great company, we were romping around our favorite SLC spots during the day…day hikes in the Wasatch, disc golfing at Creekside, playing soccer with the pickup group where Mike and I first met, and floating the Weber!

 

And of course we had to spend a morning climbing in Big Cottonwood Canyon!

It was so great seeing everyone, thanks so much to those in SLC!  It felt like we had never left, we really would love to move back there if it worked out that way.  On our last day, Mike went golfing with Paul, so I decided to hike towards Lone Peak in hopes of spotting some wild flowers blooming. I wasn’t disappointed, and had a beautiful sendoff hike in the mountains

The next day, we left for Cincinnati for Katie’s wedding!!  We got in to Ohio late Wednesday night, got a few hours rest, then went to King’s Island for the day.  It’s been a few years since I had been there, and this was Mike’s first time.  There were so many new rides and we decided to hit as many as we could, so we were at the park from open until close, it was so much fun!  Despite some early queasiness, we rallied and packed in 12 hours of rollercoasters and water park rides.  What a way to welcome back Cincinnati! The next day we went frisbee golfing with my parents and my younger brother before we went to the rehearsal dinner. I was really excited to get to see Katie again! 

 

Katie is the first of my really good friends to get hitched so this was the first time I've ever been in a wedding party. To make it even more exciting I got to be her maid of honor! I was so happy to be with her on her big day. We spent the evening dancing, laughing, drinking, and eating delicious food (as most people tend to do at weddings...) Pam came down from Cleveland to be at the wedding too so we got to hang out also! It was so great seeing all of my old Cincinnati friends and seeing Katie's family. I feel so spoiled to have all of these amazing people in my life!

The day after the wedding me, Pam, Mike, and my parents all went to my old climbing gym. I got to teach Pam how to lead belay! And we also made a pit stop to one of my favorite places in Cincinnati: the Root Beer Stand!!!

 

We left Cincinnati super early this morning and are making our way back to Salt Lake City for a few more days.  We start the trail in only 6 days, and couldn’t be more pumped.  We’ve spent so much time recently talking about the trip with all our friends and family that we’re really hyped up and anxious to get going.  I think feelings of excitement far surpass nervousness and angst, and we can’t wait to take our first steps on the trail.  We really hope that we have convinced a few of our friends to join us on the trail; we’ve tried our hardest to sell it to you all.  We’ve received so much great support, advice, and encouragement.  Wish us luck!  Our posts will likely be from the trail from here on out.