Wednesday 8/16/12
Miles 1522-1542 (20 miles)
Elevation 7,204'
I don't listen to an mp3 player while I hike, so I have a lot of time to think. All day today, I was fantasizing about how incredibly cool it would be to befriend a mountain lion and ride it to Canada. Lol! I'm pretty short, so I think I could fit on the back of a really big mountain lion. But then I'd need another mountain lion to carry my pack. It could also carry Kyle's pack. But Kyle can walk since he hikes fast. Besides, I think he's too tall to fit on a mountain lion. Or, maybe he can ride a bear. And Squizzle can ride on a mountain lion cub. I was telling Kyle this, and he asked me if I would wear a special outfit for riding a mountain lion. I said I would want something Avatar-esque. Unless I was riding a bear. Then I would want my tyvek wizard suit. I wonder if bears and mountain lions need rain gear. I guess I could make them a tyvek raincoat too. But damn I would need a lot of tyvek. So now all I need to do is make friends with some mountain lions.
Oh man, today I had a really cool view of mt.shasta. Too bad it was early in the day, it would have been a really awesome place to camp. I took a pic of it. Its kind of hazy. That's the west side of Mt.Shasta. All the pics I've taken the last few days was from the south or southeastern side of mt.shasta.
Today was kind of tiring. Not sure why. Maybe because my pack was feeling weird. Every now and then I have days where my pack just feels gnarly. It hasn't happened in a while. I was adjusting it in the morning and I think I screwed it up. Lol. It's so weird though, sometimes I won't do anything to my pack, and it will just feel like crap one day. Most of the time it feels fine though.
Wow, I almost went through all of today without seeing another person! Other than Kyle of course. At the end of the day we found some backpackers that we're out hiking for a few days. They gave us some intel on an awesome camping spot. Thanks guys! :). Oh!! And they had these super epic folding camping chairs!! Dang I wish i took a pic of it. It's a cloth bucket seat that balances on 2 legs. It looks kinda jankey but oh my god it is sooooo comfy!!! And it's quite lightweight too! Seriously, if I could get rid of a pound or two of weight I would totally carry that chair. Really. It's amazing. I'll try and find a pic somewhere. It is the most perfect camp chair ever.
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Temporary blog solution
Ok, so what's happening is that, since I blog almost entirely from an app on my iPhone, the pics I upload automatically get stored into a Picasa Web Album. Each album holds a max of 1,000 photos, but you can have multiple albums. The album that all my pics from this blog goes to is maxed out. So, until I can figure out how to get my uploaded pics to automatically store in a different album, I have to load text and pics separately. Bummer, sorry!
Maybe the interwebz fairy will come and magically make everything work right. Until then, it's text and pics separate, sorry :(
Maybe the interwebz fairy will come and magically make everything work right. Until then, it's text and pics separate, sorry :(
Day 118: big bear poop = big bears?
Tuesday 8/14/12
Miles 1506.5-1522
Elevation 5,854'
A while ago someone asked me on my blog whether I was on schedule or behind my original schedule. I am sooooo behind my original schedule!! Lol!! Probably by a few weeks. But eh, I stopped caring a long time ago. Probably about mile 200. :) My original schedule I made was just a crude skeleton time frame, just so I have something to go off of for my resupplies. But I've never been one to follow schedules when I travel, so I just keep walking day to day, until I don't want to walk anymore, and I just end up wherever I end up, and then I go the sleep. Wake up the next day and do it all over again. Lather rinse repeat, I'll eventually end up in Canada. :). However I am kind of trying to haul ass, because if I don't make it though Washington by a certain time, the weather will get crappy. By the way, I am totally not looking forward to Washington. It just seems like a state that rains and is overcast and has crappy weather 90% of the time. Maybe the locals can chime in on that. Ugh. Well on the bright side, if WA does have crappy weather, it'll just make me walk faster so I can get to Canada faster, so I can go home, where everything is perfect 90% of the time. :D Maybe I'll kidnap Kyle too. Lol! He pretty much feels the same way as I do about SoCal, I'm just way more blunt about it. So it wouldn't take much convincing. :)
Anyhow. Dang today I saw more bear poop than I have collectively on the entire trail. Some of the globs of poop were BIG! And full of berries. What I wanna know is, we're are the bears finding berries?? I want some!! :D I saw a bear running across the trail. They're kind of goofy looking in real life. Kyle almost ran into a bear on the trail. And he didn't even take pics! BAH! :( I wonder if you can domesticate a bear and ride it like a horse. That would be so cool, because bears can climb trees and you can ride a bear up a tree! I wonder if they're as soft and fuzzy as they look.
Today we walked through Castle Crags state park. The Castle Crags are reeeeally cool!!! Lots of epic climbing. The guy at the outfitter in Redding said there are lots if First Ascents to be had. So if any of you people climb and are bored, go to castle crags! It's so awesome. Very Yosemite-esque. Well, the white rocks anyways. I took lots if pics. Aaaaaah I wanna climb!! My arms are so weak sauce. I don't even think I could top rope a 5.9 at this point. :(. Unless there's a lot of stemming involved. Lol!
So we're back up in elevation. Yay! Hopefully it'll be cooler. There were some steeper and rocky sections today. It reminded me briefly of being back in the high sierras again. Except it's a lot hotter. Lol.
By the way, if any of you are future/aspiring PCT thru-hikers, don't get a 4-season tent. Or at least not til Washington. I have no idea why the hell I thought it would be a good idea. It's just not working very well. Plus I've pretty much been melting in it almost every day since I've been using it, because it's hot as hell and doesn't ventilate well. Especially the last week where it's been around 100 degrees. I have a 2 person tent at home. I wonder if I can return it. I want to buy another tent. Or, does anyone want to buy my tent? 2 person 3 season freestanding dome tent by Sierra Designs. Used once. Detachable rain fly, comes with a footprint. It weighs around 4.5 lbs, split between 2 people that's about 2.25lbs each. It's a cool tent :)
Stoked we found a flat area to camp on! That's the shady part about exposed ridges. It's fun to walk on but there's no flat spaces to camp on. Lol. We lucked out. Whew! Cuz theres a campsite 3 miles up but I'm not in the mood to night hike right now. At least there's no bear poop in the area! Haha :D
Miles 1506.5-1522
Elevation 5,854'
A while ago someone asked me on my blog whether I was on schedule or behind my original schedule. I am sooooo behind my original schedule!! Lol!! Probably by a few weeks. But eh, I stopped caring a long time ago. Probably about mile 200. :) My original schedule I made was just a crude skeleton time frame, just so I have something to go off of for my resupplies. But I've never been one to follow schedules when I travel, so I just keep walking day to day, until I don't want to walk anymore, and I just end up wherever I end up, and then I go the sleep. Wake up the next day and do it all over again. Lather rinse repeat, I'll eventually end up in Canada. :). However I am kind of trying to haul ass, because if I don't make it though Washington by a certain time, the weather will get crappy. By the way, I am totally not looking forward to Washington. It just seems like a state that rains and is overcast and has crappy weather 90% of the time. Maybe the locals can chime in on that. Ugh. Well on the bright side, if WA does have crappy weather, it'll just make me walk faster so I can get to Canada faster, so I can go home, where everything is perfect 90% of the time. :D Maybe I'll kidnap Kyle too. Lol! He pretty much feels the same way as I do about SoCal, I'm just way more blunt about it. So it wouldn't take much convincing. :)
Anyhow. Dang today I saw more bear poop than I have collectively on the entire trail. Some of the globs of poop were BIG! And full of berries. What I wanna know is, we're are the bears finding berries?? I want some!! :D I saw a bear running across the trail. They're kind of goofy looking in real life. Kyle almost ran into a bear on the trail. And he didn't even take pics! BAH! :( I wonder if you can domesticate a bear and ride it like a horse. That would be so cool, because bears can climb trees and you can ride a bear up a tree! I wonder if they're as soft and fuzzy as they look.
Today we walked through Castle Crags state park. The Castle Crags are reeeeally cool!!! Lots of epic climbing. The guy at the outfitter in Redding said there are lots if First Ascents to be had. So if any of you people climb and are bored, go to castle crags! It's so awesome. Very Yosemite-esque. Well, the white rocks anyways. I took lots if pics. Aaaaaah I wanna climb!! My arms are so weak sauce. I don't even think I could top rope a 5.9 at this point. :(. Unless there's a lot of stemming involved. Lol!
So we're back up in elevation. Yay! Hopefully it'll be cooler. There were some steeper and rocky sections today. It reminded me briefly of being back in the high sierras again. Except it's a lot hotter. Lol.
By the way, if any of you are future/aspiring PCT thru-hikers, don't get a 4-season tent. Or at least not til Washington. I have no idea why the hell I thought it would be a good idea. It's just not working very well. Plus I've pretty much been melting in it almost every day since I've been using it, because it's hot as hell and doesn't ventilate well. Especially the last week where it's been around 100 degrees. I have a 2 person tent at home. I wonder if I can return it. I want to buy another tent. Or, does anyone want to buy my tent? 2 person 3 season freestanding dome tent by Sierra Designs. Used once. Detachable rain fly, comes with a footprint. It weighs around 4.5 lbs, split between 2 people that's about 2.25lbs each. It's a cool tent :)
Stoked we found a flat area to camp on! That's the shady part about exposed ridges. It's fun to walk on but there's no flat spaces to camp on. Lol. We lucked out. Whew! Cuz theres a campsite 3 miles up but I'm not in the mood to night hike right now. At least there's no bear poop in the area! Haha :D
Monday, August 20, 2012
Blog backup!
Hey all sorry the blog isn't updated. I'm having trouble uploading photos and I don't have time to troubleshoot, hope to resolve in ashland, OR.
Someone asked me how to subscribe to the blog, I think there's a subscribe button, or a place to enter email address somewhere on the homepage. Maybe someone else can chime in. Gotta go!
Ps. We're at mile 1,606 whoo hoo! :) Everything is on fire. Boo :( yay for firefighters!!
Someone asked me how to subscribe to the blog, I think there's a subscribe button, or a place to enter email address somewhere on the homepage. Maybe someone else can chime in. Gotta go!
Ps. We're at mile 1,606 whoo hoo! :) Everything is on fire. Boo :( yay for firefighters!!
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Day 117: Kyle gets new gear, more epic trail angelness!!
Monday 8/13/12
Miles
Elevation
Wow Redding gets hot! I think it was around 108 degrees today, with no wind. Yikes!!
Jan made us EPIC omlettes in the morning. Ooooo they were sooooo yummy!! Omlettes with spinach, mushrooms, green bell peppers, tomatoes and cheese. Epic yum balls!!
Kyle also got a new pack and shoes, yay! They've been bothering him for a while. His new pack is super cool, it's an Osprey pack. Dang, now I see why all the PCTers (who aren't using a ul pack) have Osprey packs. The engineering and design of those packs are freaking awesome!! Plus it was nice to actually try on a pack to see what fit. I was pretty tempted to try on packs too. But I didn't because I really don't need a pack. Lol. I'm sure I could find one that fits better and is way more comfy, but I like my ULA Circuit. Plus I don't need to drop $200 on a new pack. The Circuit is already my 2nd pack, I was originally going to use a golite jam (stoked I didn't), but that one was too big for me and didn't have enough storage capacity.
Oh my gosh!!! I got to go to in-n-out!! Aaaaaahhhh!!!! Soooo stoked!! The last time I've been to one was 2 years ago when I went to a rock climbing festival at Red Rocks, which is outside of Vegas. So yeah, it's been a while. :). By the way, red rock Nevada is frickin amazing. If you haven't been there, you should go! Even if you don't climb, it's frickin beautiful. The last day I was there it started snowing a little, enough to make all the crags wet so we couldn't climb. So we went to Vegas instead. Lol
Anyhow, when we got back to the trailhead we found Scallywag, Mr.C and Snow White, and Kristo! Whoo
Hoo! It's like a cool people reunion :). A random guy drove by and dropped 2 6-packs of beer for us. WOW!!! Super random!! Thanks trail angel dude!! :).
Miles
Elevation
Wow Redding gets hot! I think it was around 108 degrees today, with no wind. Yikes!!
Jan made us EPIC omlettes in the morning. Ooooo they were sooooo yummy!! Omlettes with spinach, mushrooms, green bell peppers, tomatoes and cheese. Epic yum balls!!
Kyle also got a new pack and shoes, yay! They've been bothering him for a while. His new pack is super cool, it's an Osprey pack. Dang, now I see why all the PCTers (who aren't using a ul pack) have Osprey packs. The engineering and design of those packs are freaking awesome!! Plus it was nice to actually try on a pack to see what fit. I was pretty tempted to try on packs too. But I didn't because I really don't need a pack. Lol. I'm sure I could find one that fits better and is way more comfy, but I like my ULA Circuit. Plus I don't need to drop $200 on a new pack. The Circuit is already my 2nd pack, I was originally going to use a golite jam (stoked I didn't), but that one was too big for me and didn't have enough storage capacity.
Oh my gosh!!! I got to go to in-n-out!! Aaaaaahhhh!!!! Soooo stoked!! The last time I've been to one was 2 years ago when I went to a rock climbing festival at Red Rocks, which is outside of Vegas. So yeah, it's been a while. :). By the way, red rock Nevada is frickin amazing. If you haven't been there, you should go! Even if you don't climb, it's frickin beautiful. The last day I was there it started snowing a little, enough to make all the crags wet so we couldn't climb. So we went to Vegas instead. Lol
Anyhow, when we got back to the trailhead we found Scallywag, Mr.C and Snow White, and Kristo! Whoo
Hoo! It's like a cool people reunion :). A random guy drove by and dropped 2 6-packs of beer for us. WOW!!! Super random!! Thanks trail angel dude!! :).
Day 116: epic trail angel! <3
Sunday 8/12/12
Miles 1494-1506 (12 miles)
Elevation 2,155'
The last 12 miles getting into Castella was pretty quick. Whoo hoo! Cuz it was hot!! Lol. About 6 miles outside of castella you could hear the noise from the Interstate 5 freeway. Anyhow, we got picked up by an awesome trail angel Jan yaaaay!! Jan has been following my blog since the beginning so it was awesome to meet her. Thanks Jan!!! :D
She took us to her house in Redding which is about 45 minutes south of castella. Oh man it was soooo wonderful to be in air conditioning and have a place to organize all my crap and do laundry and shower and all the standard time-consuming town stuff. Lol!
We went to Olive Garden!! Aaaaaahhhhh unlimited breadsticks and salad aaaaahhh!!! Lol. That was cool. Haven't been to Olive Garden in a while and I've been having a weird craving for it. Ooooo I ate so much it was amazing :)
Jan is sooooo awesome! She has a little travel buddy too. It's a stuffed doll in a ranger outfit named Ranger Jan. lol it's cool! She'd be a great buddy for Squizzle! :)
Redding is the largest town I've been in this entire hike. It was...interesting. Lol. I dunno, all I gotta say is I am so glad I don't live on the mainland anymore. :). Jan's house was my oasis of awesomeness in the midst of a hugeass city.
But ooo there are trees everywhere in the surrounding areas!!! Yaaaaaay trees!!! I love trees :)
Miles 1494-1506 (12 miles)
Elevation 2,155'
The last 12 miles getting into Castella was pretty quick. Whoo hoo! Cuz it was hot!! Lol. About 6 miles outside of castella you could hear the noise from the Interstate 5 freeway. Anyhow, we got picked up by an awesome trail angel Jan yaaaay!! Jan has been following my blog since the beginning so it was awesome to meet her. Thanks Jan!!! :D
She took us to her house in Redding which is about 45 minutes south of castella. Oh man it was soooo wonderful to be in air conditioning and have a place to organize all my crap and do laundry and shower and all the standard time-consuming town stuff. Lol!
We went to Olive Garden!! Aaaaaahhhhh unlimited breadsticks and salad aaaaahhh!!! Lol. That was cool. Haven't been to Olive Garden in a while and I've been having a weird craving for it. Ooooo I ate so much it was amazing :)
Jan is sooooo awesome! She has a little travel buddy too. It's a stuffed doll in a ranger outfit named Ranger Jan. lol it's cool! She'd be a great buddy for Squizzle! :)
Redding is the largest town I've been in this entire hike. It was...interesting. Lol. I dunno, all I gotta say is I am so glad I don't live on the mainland anymore. :). Jan's house was my oasis of awesomeness in the midst of a hugeass city.
But ooo there are trees everywhere in the surrounding areas!!! Yaaaaaay trees!!! I love trees :)
Day 115: holy heat wave batman!
Saturday 8/11/12
Miles 1471-1494 (23 miles)
Elevation 5,000'
Wow, I had no idea NorCal would be so hot! Lol. Oh glorious trees! Thank you for your shade!! <3. We were in tree coverage all day so at least we were out of direct sunlight. Whew! Actually, the heat isn't really bad, it's just that there's no wind.
Dang, there's an absolute crapload of poison oak everywhere! Pretty much since leaving Belden I've been kind of paranoid about poison oak. Not that i get a horrible reaction from it, but it just itches and really sucks for a few weeks. Last time I got poison oak was somewhere before mile 400. I was night hiking and concentrating on avoiding the poodle dog bush so I didn't really see the poison oak. Apparently I must have just mowed through some bushes. At least I'm not night hiking lately, so I can see it coming. It's funny, there were probably about 11 different types of plants I thought was poison oak since Belden. I was never sure. So I pretty much just avoided all green foliage all together. Lol!! But I finally figured out which plant is poison oak, and there was a LOT of it today. A least it wasn't growing over the trail. So I just had to made sure I didn't squat to pee right on top of some bushes. Haha!
Oh, the trail has been kind of overgrown today as well too. Arrrg!!! Annoying!! Lol! In the grand scheme of things, it's just that I'm so spoiled because the entire trail has been more or less incredibly well manicured. So whenever I come across some parts of thick overgrowth I get annoyed. Haha. Seriously though, the PCT is incredibly well marked and well maintained. Yay for the PCTA and all the trail crews!! :)
So this evening around 9pm, some hiker rolls up at our campsite, and it's Cowboy!! Holy crap, I thought he was days ahead! Lol! I swear, that guy has a way of showing up at the most random places! Anyhow, he was in the process of doing a 50 mile day. Holy crap! Yeah. Cowboy is an animal. Lol. Oh but he is so hilarious! He stuck around for about an hour and was entertaining me Kyle and Scallywag. Cowboy is such a character. He wears neon yellow shorts and hikes with neon yellow swim goggles (around his neck, not face) and a cowboy hat. And he regularly hikes 35 mile days. But he also zeros a lot. Which is awesome because that way he's still in my vicinity. Lol! Anyhow, I later found out that he ended up doing a 45 mile day. Geez!!! O.o
Miles 1471-1494 (23 miles)
Elevation 5,000'
Wow, I had no idea NorCal would be so hot! Lol. Oh glorious trees! Thank you for your shade!! <3. We were in tree coverage all day so at least we were out of direct sunlight. Whew! Actually, the heat isn't really bad, it's just that there's no wind.
Dang, there's an absolute crapload of poison oak everywhere! Pretty much since leaving Belden I've been kind of paranoid about poison oak. Not that i get a horrible reaction from it, but it just itches and really sucks for a few weeks. Last time I got poison oak was somewhere before mile 400. I was night hiking and concentrating on avoiding the poodle dog bush so I didn't really see the poison oak. Apparently I must have just mowed through some bushes. At least I'm not night hiking lately, so I can see it coming. It's funny, there were probably about 11 different types of plants I thought was poison oak since Belden. I was never sure. So I pretty much just avoided all green foliage all together. Lol!! But I finally figured out which plant is poison oak, and there was a LOT of it today. A least it wasn't growing over the trail. So I just had to made sure I didn't squat to pee right on top of some bushes. Haha!
Oh, the trail has been kind of overgrown today as well too. Arrrg!!! Annoying!! Lol! In the grand scheme of things, it's just that I'm so spoiled because the entire trail has been more or less incredibly well manicured. So whenever I come across some parts of thick overgrowth I get annoyed. Haha. Seriously though, the PCT is incredibly well marked and well maintained. Yay for the PCTA and all the trail crews!! :)
So this evening around 9pm, some hiker rolls up at our campsite, and it's Cowboy!! Holy crap, I thought he was days ahead! Lol! I swear, that guy has a way of showing up at the most random places! Anyhow, he was in the process of doing a 50 mile day. Holy crap! Yeah. Cowboy is an animal. Lol. Oh but he is so hilarious! He stuck around for about an hour and was entertaining me Kyle and Scallywag. Cowboy is such a character. He wears neon yellow shorts and hikes with neon yellow swim goggles (around his neck, not face) and a cowboy hat. And he regularly hikes 35 mile days. But he also zeros a lot. Which is awesome because that way he's still in my vicinity. Lol! Anyhow, I later found out that he ended up doing a 45 mile day. Geez!!! O.o
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