Day 25 – Mile 369.3, Wrightwood, CA

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More days and miles pass by and it’s starting to feel like at least a little real progress has been made.  Kennedy Meadows (where we enter the Sierras) is starting to feel not so distant…

Day 19 – Lazy morning in Big Bear Lake, passed out some RXBARS to locals and hikers, nice to give back some trail magic thanks to Jenn and the RXBAR team.  Got a ride back to Onyx summit from the hotel owner and had great afternoon of hiking.  Lots of pines, shade and the grade was pretty flat!  Camped at mile 264.2.

So I should step on the plants?

Day 20 – Continued easy grade and shade made for another great day of hiking.  Today officially marks the longest trip mile wise for Ian and I!  Camped at 285.6, Little Bear Springs Camp.

Day 21 – Saw a ton of snakes and lizards today!  Enjoyable day of hiking overall and we camped at mile 303.9.

Coiled up under a bush at a right angle turn in the trail – waiting to surprise hikers no doubt.
Biggest one we’ve seen yet, it was taking up a good third of the dirt road.

Day 22 – Pretty cold and rainy all day, had to keep moving to stay warm by the end of it.  Hiked about 22 miles.  Thought we may escape the rain, but got soaked anyways.  Found a cove mostly out of the wind on Silverwood Lake at mile 326.1.

Fairly creepy part of the dam.

Day 23 – Tent held up well in the nook on the beach, but condensation got my sleeping bag a bit wet over night.  After checking the radar and seeing no way to dry out our tents easily (and more rain in the afternoon/evening), we hiked 16 miles and got room at the Best Western in Cajon Pass, at mile 342.

Day 24 – Hiked up and out of Cajon Pass through seemingly endless fire damaged areas.  Gained about 6500′ over 20 miles.  Finally we were rewarded with a nice campsite, out of the wind, under some pines, at mile 361.7.

Day 25 – Got a ride into Wrightwood, CA after a short 7.6 mile hike to the highway – no hitch needed!  Spending the rest of the day here relaxing in town.  Tomorrow we begin our climb up Mount Baden-Powell…

Day 18 – Mile 252.1, Big Bear Lake, CA

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Another small section complete, with a variety of conditions ranging from near 1000′ and blazingly hot to near 11000′ and freezing on San Jacinto Peak.  Sand to snow.  Microspikes not needed, but used because we had ’em.

Day 12 – First zero day in Idyllwild, CA.  Stayed at the very hiker friendly Idyllwild Inn, cabin #5.  Had a nice wood fire in the fireplace both nights, quite the luxury.

Five days of protein bars and pasta sides more or less. Still delicious.

Day 13 – Blue blazed on the Devils Slide Trail back up to the PCT and camped at mile 180.8 – great views.  Short day but climbed several thousand feet up to our campsite which is at ~9003′.  Played around on the boulders until sunset.


Montbell (their jackets) should totally use this photo.
Our campsite a couple thousand feet below the San Jacinto summit – all the other pics were from just past the rocks behind our site.

Day 14 – Started the day bagging the San Jacinto summit.  Fuller Ridge not all it’s cracked up to be, at least this “late” in the season!  The hype was unnecessary, especially if you have any basic snow hiking experience.  There was fall potential, but no significant exposure.  Camped at mile 193.6. 


Day 15 – Longest day of hiking yet at 25 miles.  Camped at mile 218.5, Whitewater Preserve, the closest thing to an oaisis I’ve ever seen – it’s an old trout farm that’s now a Preserve.  There’s palm trees, several ponds and the ranger we met was super friendly, offering outlets to charge stuff if needed, access to the dumpster and water spigot. Clean bathrooms with plumbing! Tons of day hikers and car campers here as well.

Hanging out under the I-10 underpass with water cache and cold beer.
View of part of the Mesa Wind Farm. They have a water cache and some shade for hikers at a service station near the trail.
I promise this was steeper, hotter, and longer than it looks here.

Day 16 – Slept in a little and paid for it – brutally hot today – 85-90ish all day with little wind and 3000’+ elevation gain.  Hiked by Mission Creek all day, so water was plentiful at least.  Camped at mile 235.5.
Day 17 – Shorter day today and much more shade, walked through the Lake Fire section and camped near Onyx Summit.

Sara siesta.

Day 18 – Saw a white tiger and grizzly bear today, at a private zoo the PCT passes by… apparently the animals have been used in Gladiator and a bunch of other movies.  Hitched into Big Bear Lake from Onyx Summit to resupply and spend the night.

Looking forward to the next few days being a bit cooler, higher, and more wooded.

Day 11 – Mile 151.8, Idyllwild, CA

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Arrived in Idyllwild, CA after navigating part of the first fire closure alternate route. And by navigating I mean mostly skipping. We’re enjoying being a couple thousand feet higher, in cooler temps, and surrounded by pines.  This will be our first “zero day” – for those of you not familiar with long distance hiking it means a rest day with zero miles of progress.  We’ve come ~151 miles over the past 11 days and we feel good, but like with any endourance sport, rest days are important.

Day 6 – We had an easy hitch out of Julian back to Scissors Crossing with a musician from Michigan who said tons of people in Julian are from Michigan.  After waiting out the heat we decided to do some night hiking from around 5-11pm.  We camped at mile 90.4, a tent site on a ridge 2-3 feet up and just to the side of the trail.

Much cooler temps hiking at dusk.
No pictures after sunset, but the stars were beautiful.

Day 7 – After night hiking we still ended up getting up around 5:45am to continue on.  The only real notable and exciting part of the day was hitting mile marker 100!  We camped pretty much right after at mile 101.1.

The 1000 mile marker will be much more exciting.
 

Day 8 – Hiked in the midst of cows and blazing sun to arrive at Eagle Rock, a pretty neat landmark.  Went into Warner Springs, CA to pick up a package, grab a hot meal, then hiked a few more miles up trail to mile 112.5 where we camped.

Eagle Rock in all its glory. ‘Merica!
 
Moooooo.
Farmers should use this as a stock photo.

Outfitter in an Airstream!

Day 9 – camped at mile 131.6 after our longest day yet at a measly 19.1 miles.  Starting to feel ready to push more than 15 miles/day.

Sara eating some candy.
Sunset view from the tent.

Day 10 – camped at mile 148.2.  Got in about 17 miles today in the early morning and afternoon shade.  Windy/chilly at a couple points.  Stopped at a water cache called “Walden” with cold soda, a 500 gal tank of water, library, and a couple picnic tables.

Awesome water cache, thank you trail angels! Even had a trash can.
Didn’t need any, but this was an interesting water source.

Day 11 – 151.8 Idyllwild, CA.

Walking/hitching to Idyllwild.
“Harmony” an Idyllwild monument.
In the next couple weeks we’ll traverse up to Big Bear Lake/City and then start heading West through the San Bernardino and Angeles National Forests.

Still no blisters on my feet.

Day 5 – Mile 77.3, Julian, CA

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We’ve made it to Julian, CA after a solid 5 days.  Starting with a ~15 mile/day pace seems to work well – as does hiking from about 6:30-13:00ish.  It’s amazing how easy it is to switch into the natural circadian cycle with the sun.  I’ve jotted down a few notes and pictures from each day below…

Day 1 – camped at mile 15.4, Hauser Creek.  About 25 people at the site, mostly European/Australian with some Scandanavians as well.  Everyone uses the metric system, with good reason, guess I’ll have to start thinking in Celsius.  Saw a rosy boa (?) and a couple horned lizards, but no rattle snakes yet.


Day 2 – camped at mile 32, Fred Canyon.  Started the day with a huge climb out of Hauser Canyon, brutal.  Shit is getting real, we are getting into the swing of the backpacking routine, it’s been awhile for all of us.  Tons of herpatiles and flowers though – all photos of em by Sara of course.


Day 3 – camped at mile 47.8, exposed site with 60-70mph wind gusts, as best as we could find without side tracking to a campground.  Didn’t expect to deal with that much wind, but not surprising at ~6000ft.  Good test of how well I can setup the ZPacks Duplex in the wind – it withheld the whole night with the exception of one stake – probably due to the rock I placed over it being a tad too small.  I managed to fix it without leaving the tent at least.


Day 4 – camped at mile 63.8, in a valley, mostly protected from the wind, after a 1000ft decent.  Windy day of hiking after not much sleep, but slept great tonight.

Nothing like filtering water from an algae filled trickle across a two track.

Day 5 – mile 77.3, Julian, CA.  We got a hotel after a ~13 mile day – it was either that or hitch back out of town and sleep under the bridge.  Not a bad option, but the shower and food was welcome after several miles of hiking in full sun.  Visited Carmens for a burger and free beer then Mom’s for a free slice of pie and ice cream.  Hiker friendly town.

Carmen’s…great burgers!
Hotel room clothesline.
 

It’s been challenging, simple, and beautiful everyday so far.  Hoping that continues, along with my lack of blisters.

Resupply Boxes and Other Prep

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Some people just start a thru hike.  That’s fine.  It’s also not me – I find it fun to plan and prepare the logistics for a trip.  Sometimes I overdo it.  I created this in XMind over the winter one weekend to start gathering a to-do list of sorts for the trail.  After awhile I stopped updating it as I moved the most relevant stuff into Google Docs/Drive.

Pacific Crest Trail 2017.png
Unnecessary?  Probably.  But it was fun and helped organize my thoughts.

Much of what I’ve read indicates you don’t need more than a couple resupply boxes to start – prep one for Warner Springs and Kennedy Meadows and figure out the rest on the trail.  We ended up prepping 10 boxes regardless, based on the results of the 2016 Halfway Anywhere survey.  I figure even if we scrap most of them, we end up with some food after the trail for weekend trips.  Or just a bunch of extra munchies.  Either way, I expect to modify our resupply strategy sometime mid hike.  For now the boxes are headed to the following spots:

  1. Warner Springs (mile 110)
  2. Kennedy Meadows (mile 703)
  3. Sierra City (mile 1198)
  4. Crater Lake/Mazama Village Store (mile 1830)
  5. Big Lake Youth Camp (mile 2002)
  6. Timberline Lodge (mile 2107)
  7. White Pass (mile 2303)
  8. Snoqualmie Pass (mile 2402)
  9. Stevens Pass/Skykomish (mile 2476)
  10. Stehekin (mile 2574)

Like most, were using USPS flat rate boxes.  Food wise we have a mix of bulk foods, home dehydrated fruits, and some bulk order freeze-dried fruit/veggie/meat combo packs.  In the boxes we have a mix of the following meals/snacks concoctions:

  • RXBARs
  • Oatmeal with Nido, dried fruit
  • Instant mashed potatoes from Costo (tasted better than the Idahoan brand) with dried kale, jerky, misc freeze-dried veggies
  • Gummy worms, gummy bears
  • Peanut butter
  • Snickers – I’ve heard these are mandatory and work as currency
  • Trader Joe’s Chocolate covered espresso beans
  • Ultima Replenisher Electrolyte Powder
  • Couscous or ramen with misc freeze-dried veggies
  • Nature Valley protein bars (yay Costco)
We laid out each day of food, in each box, for each of us.  This is the beginning of an 8 day resupply box.
Oatmeal is my go-to breakfast off trail, but I’m sure I’ll start hating it eventually.
One of the hardest parts was filling in the last few items needed in each box.  Sara has much neater notes than I.

We used the medium and large boxes for the food.  The exception being the Kennedy Meadows box, which has the above but also has to fit the ice axes, crampons, BV500 and other items for the Sierras.   I’ve got spare shoes, socks, insoles and a few other items on standby to ship out as well if I decide to switch up some layers.

Aside from all that I’m moving my life into a basement and garage, prepping my truck for storage, and getting ready for the lifestyle shift.  As for the actual start of the hike we’re lucky to have some friends that will be joining us in San Diego the week prior to our start – they’ll drive us down to the Southern Terminus.