Miles: 351.8 to 374.8 Mileage: 23 Day: 19 The view was gone by the morning. Our sleeping bags were wet again and so was the tent. Fog was everywhere. Cold and wet to start the day. The weird part of it was, the higher we climbed the drier it got. We had ten miles of […]
Miles: 325.5 to 351.8 Mileage: 26.3 Day: 18 The sun hit us early on the lake shore. We woke to find dew on everything. Even though we woke up around 6 a.m., we didn’t start hiking until after 7 because we let our sleeping bags dry in the sun for a bit. Our first […]
Miles: 275.1 to 298.7 Mileage: 23.6; plus, 2.8 miles from the bottom of Van Dusen Canyon Road to the PCT Day: 16 After we peeled ourselves away from the cotton and comfort of our hotel (which took a couple of hours), we headed up Van Dusen Canyon Road and back to the trail. The grade […]
Miles: none Mileage: 0 Day: 15 To celebrate our first two weeks on the trail, we gave ourselves a day away from it. We slept in, ate a huge breakfast, lounged in a hot tub and did chores. Hiker chores include: laundry, body hair removal, wash pot and spoons, rinse gaitors, buy replacement gear (like […]
Miles: 256.6 to 275.1 Mileage: 18.5 Day: 14 The early morning air was cold. I spent the first part of the night tossing and turning because my aching feet kept me awake. I took some ibuprofen, my first medication on the trail, and was able to sleep. We packed up slowly because we stopped to […]
Miles: PCT: 1.6; Cedar Springs Trail Junction plus road walk to Idyllwild: 19, minus a 2.5 mile hitch along highway 74. Mileage: 18.1 Day: 9 When the light returned around 5:45, the rain and wind we still working full time and we were still in our sleeping bags dreading the moment when we stepped back […]
Miles: 140.3 to 161 Mileage: 20.7 Day: 8 At 5:30 a.m. I woke to hear rain pattering on the tent. I do not enjoy packing up in the rain, but I figured, it’s the desert! How long can this last? And I was right. The pattering stopped in 15 or 20 minutes and we packed […]
Miles: 115 to 140.3 (plus 1 mile to get water) Mileage: 125.3 Day: 7 We camped in a rare forested area next to a flowing stream. Once we started hiking, that didn’t last long. The whole morning was a long, slow climb through boulder-pocked desert scrub. The first few hours were cloudy and cold above […]
Miles: 101.1 to 115 via resupply in Warner Springs Mileage: 13.9 Day: 6 The walk into Warner Springs was chilly and windy. The sky was fully overcast and even the ants were slowed by the drop in temperature. Rather than moving quickly in neat lines to and from their mounds, they lay nearly still, no […]
Miles: 61.7 to 82 Mileage: 20.3 Day: 4 Body status update: Day one felt great. We made good time and nothing seemed to slow us down; not heat, not liters and liters of water, not five days of food. Day two was painful. Sore feet, hips, shoulders, the beginnings of blisters, etc. My energy […]