Day Three

Today's miles: 16
Total miles: 36

Today was very mentally challenging. I can understand why people say the PCT is a metal challenge and the AT a physical one. The PCT isn't very difficult to hike - usually there are rolling hills or slow inclines, but everything else about it is difficult.

Out first day we had overcast skies and a breeze, but today was our first experience with desert hiking. It was hot. SO HOT. Hot like you've never experienced. So dry your nose bleeds all day and your lips crack. So hot that any tiny bit of shade is reason enough to crowd five hikers in it, just to escape the pounding sun.

We started out at 8 am, which we discovered was already too late. The sun was in full force and getting hotter. We traversed high desert hills at 3,000 feet and carried 10 pounds of water to get us between the meager water sources. Our pace slowed to 2 mph, then little more than a mile an hour. By 3:00 pm we had only gone 9 miles and we were exhausted.

We searched in vain for a way to escape the heat, but there was little shade and only one small cloud in the sky. At one point Katie started screaming, and I thought she had seen an animal, but it turned out she was looking up at the one little cloud, which was moving over the sun and creating a little wave of shade. Cause for celebration.

Then... Paradise. The sound of running water. Never had a noise sounded more precious. We climbed down a steep embankment to Kitchen Creek at the bottom of the canyon, where there was a tiny waterfall, just big enough to dunk ourselves beneath. Two brothers named Jesse and Zach were already there, and we joined them without any thought to propriety as we stripped off our clothes and soaked in the cold water. Never had anything felt so wonderful. We sat back in the sun, the heat drying us completely in minutes. I was beginning to understand what life in the desert would be like, and part of me wondered how I would make it through 700 miles of hot and waterless terrain.

After an hour we reluctantly pushed onward. We met up with two other hikers we had been leapfrogging all day and encouraged each other to push the final six miles to a campsite. The trail gained another 1500 feet of elevation and even with the lowering sun, it was an exhausting haul. We had been hiking 11 hours and only made it 16 miles in total. I had no appetite and had to force myself to eat, even though it made me feel sick. Sleep at 8 pm had never sounded so nice.

Day Two

We had our first official "zero" day today, which means we didn't hike any miles. The hiker kick off party was going on, so we wanted to stay and enjoy the vendors and clinics going on throughout the day. There were 700+ people registered for campsites at Lake Morena for the event, and there were rumored to be over 1,000 people trying to thru-hike this year!

Throughout the day we attended clinics on desert hiking, the water report for the season (info on where to find all the water sources in Southern California, especially since it has been a dry year), overuse injuries, and others. There was food, and vendors with lightweight gear to sell, and even a "foot doctor", a trail angel who came out every year to treat blisters for hikers. Katie and I visited "Dr Sole" and got the blisters on our pinky toes drained and bandaged.

In the evening, we stopped by the Gear Shakedown tent and had our pack weights evaluated. Katie put hers through the full scrutiny and only managed to save 0.8 of a pound (well done!), then she and Bryan helped me go through my gear and weed out the unnecessary stuff. I ended up sending home: my Jobypod camera stand, a few stuff sacks, random carabiners and a thermometer, extra first aid supplies, my sleeping bag liner, trowel (we did a test and the trekking pole worked better), inflatable sit pad, and my solar charger. That was a hard one, but it weighed a pound and I couldn't justify it in the end. I did keep the back up battery pack so I could recharge my phone once in an emergency. I also tore pages out of my journal and sent the bulk of the journal weight home. All in all, I probably saved another two pounds.

Now that we have lighter packs and an idea of what the trail has in store for us, we're ready to put on some miles tomorrow!

Day One

After a month of planning, stressing, and wondering what I've gotten myself into, I'm finally here. A one way ticket to San Diego and a dream that will carry me North. Besides that, it's just the unknown, waiting to be explored.

We hiked a full twenty miles today; farther than I have hiked in a long time. We arrived at the trailhead two hours later than expected at 10 am (after getting a little lost at the Mexican border in our unmarked white van....) and pressed our hands against the wooden southern monument. I felt the thrill of adventure rush through me, but also a deep unease that wondered, am I really ready for this? Can I really hike 2,600 miles?

At that moment, Canada seemed very, very far away.

I took a deep breath and signed the register: "Let's do this." I was the 36th one today to sign my name. And how many of those ahead of us would complete the trail? How many would become good friends? Only time would tell.

Bryan, Katie's boyfriend, had given us a ride to the trailhead and now wished us well. We took pictures, gave each other hugs, took deep breaths.

And then we started hiking north.

The desert wasn't what I expected. Instead of sandy trails and great expanses, we walked over rolling hills and through low lying shrub brushes scattered through boulders. It was greener than expected, and surprisingly beautiful.

At 1.4 miles, Bryan stopped the car and met us with a candy bar. Our first trail magic. We saw him again at mile 4, and then we headed into desolate wilderness. Except... It wasn't desolate. It was mountainous, and beautiful, and hot, and dusty. I couldn't believe so much dust exited in the world. First there was just sand everywhere. On my legs. In my shoes. On my palms. In my eyelids. Behind the bed in my knee. Then when the heat created sweat, the dust turned to mud. Running in my eyes. Lining the hatch marks in the palms of my hands. Turning my toes to bronze. I was filthy. I thought I would never be clean again.

We didn't see many other hikers. In fact, for the first few hours, we saw no one. At one point we thought we spotted someone off trail with a red backpack, but when Katie got excited and cried, "look, a hiker!" I realized we were seeing an illegal immigrant hiding in the bushes, and I tugged on her shirt, pulling her quickly along the trail. Katie, that's not a hiker... We scurried northward.

Later in the afternoon we ran into a southbounder and discovered that we were the 87th and 88th hikers he had passed today. They must have all started early. But our pace was quick, the sky was overcast and not too hot, and by mile ten we had caught up with many of them. Some were AT hikers from last year, some repeat PCT hikers, and some brand new, like us, naive and excited.

The first fifteen miles were actually quite pleasant (besides my heavy pack) with gentle, rolling grade, but the final five miles were torture, straight up a mountain when I was at my most tired. When we arrived at Lake Morena campground for the night, it wasn't a moment too soon. It had taken us a full eight hours, but I was proud of us, for we had passed many hikers who had started earlier and had only made it fifteen miles their first day out.

And there was Bryan, waiting with drinks and food. A good trail angel. :)

We took camp showers and by 8:30 we were tired enough to pass out. Tomorrow is our first zero day in camp as we enjoy the vendors and clinics that the campground is putting on for us thru-hikers.

Gear Shakedown and Last Minute Changes

Katie and I went on another gear shakedown hike, just to make sure our perfectly manicured gear lists were performing the way we wanted them to. As it turned out... no, they weren't. As such, I've made some serious changes to what I thought was my optimal backpacking gear. C'est la vie.

For this shakedown hike, we went back to Eagle Creek to do a short eight mile hike to a campsite with some friends of ours. One of them hiked the PCT last year, so he gave us some good words of wisdom and tips about our own upcoming hike. One of my primary gear concerns was regarding my sleep system - I was thinking of bringing a 32 degree sleeping bag and a warm, thick, insulated air pad. Apparently this was against the norm, as it gets quite cold in the desert at night (read: 20 degrees) and an inflatable sleeping pad runs the risk of getting a hole in it from the prickly ground in SoCal.

Thus, upon returning to civilization, I swapped my 32 degree bag for my favorite 20 degree bag (I really don't want to destroy it on the trail, but I also don't want to be cold!) and swapped my inflatable pad for a thin, foam, lightweight Thermarest pad. I'm not looking forward to that part. I've been camping on three inches of sleeping pad heaven for so long that it's going to suck sleeping directly on the ground again. Especially since the foam pads aren't nearly as warm as the inflatable ones.

The hike itself was quite nice - the weather was 50 degrees and mildly overcast - and my trail runners were holding up much better than when we trekked the Deschutes trail. I put some Superfeet insoles in them, and that seemed to help with foot soreness. (I still rolled my ankle a couple times, of course, but that's just because I'm clumsy.)

We had nine people on this hike, and it was fun because it gave me a sense of what life must be like on the trail with many other hikers to keep you company. We quietly walked at our own paces, stopped to joke around and bask in the filtered sunlight at lunchtime, and met up again at our campsite for the evening. We arrived in early afternoon, so some of us went on a day hike further down the trail while the rest of us stayed in camp talking. I stayed in camp because I realized - stupidly - that I left all my rain gear at home, and it was (of course) pouring. Under the trees we had better shelter, so the slow creep of dampness in camp somehow seemed better than instantly drenched on the trail.

We laughed that we looked like a Big Agnes catalog - once we all had our evening gear set up, there were seven Big Agnes tents littered around the campsite. Three Seedhouses, one Copper Spur, two Fly Creeks, and our Scout tarp. Katie and I were keen on trying out the Scout again, especially since the conditions were much wetter this time and we wanted to see how a single-walled tarp would do in the rain. It held up fairly well on the outside, so long as we had it staked out correctly. The rain beaded up as it was supposed to and everything inside stayed dry.

When everyone was back in camp and evening swept in (7:00! Time for bed!) we made dinners around a soggy campfire. I tested out my stove-and-pot combination with one of the rice meals that I had made quite a few of for my drop boxes. Thank goodness it tasted good, otherwise I'd have two months of painfully unappetizing dinners in the near future...

Katie and I discussed fuel efficiencies and how to resupply along the trail. It's much more difficult to come by the isobutane canister fuel, which is what we were both using for our stoves, in trail towns. The easiest way to make sure you have enough is to mail yourself some at each stop. However, this can be a pain trying to deduce how much fuel to mail yourself. In the long run, we decided to share the more efficient Jetboil stove in the interest of making our fuel last longer, and to split the weight of it between us.

As soon as it grew dark it got much colder, so we turned in for the night. I put on a long-sleeved base layer, followed by a wool mid-layer, followed by my Patagonia NanoPuff jacket. I was hoping by adding layers I could keep myself warm and eliminate the need to take a warmer sleeping bag. But I had a difficult time sleeping. I alternated between too hot and too cold quite frequently, and my toes stayed frozen the whole night, despite my warm socks. I fell asleep in short ten-minute intervals and woke up thinking I hadn't fallen asleep at all. The only indication of unconsciousness was the memory of some very bizarre dreams. (I always have the strangest dreams while camping). By the time morning came, I had ultimately decided that a warmer sleeping bag was needed. It had gotten down to 34 degrees at the lowest point, and I definitely felt it.

We discovered another quirk about our gear that morning: the Scout 2 tent does not like damp weather. The combination of rain outside, cold temperatures, and warm breath inside made the whole thing leak like a sieve. There was condensation all over my sleeping bag when I woke up, and streaks of condensation lining the roof of the tent. I did my best to avoid touching the walls, but while trying to change clothes in the small space I kept bumping into the tarp and it would rain down water. Literally rain. Everything was wet very quickly. Actually, I think it was drier outside the tent. We concluded that the single-wall tarp would be great for the desert, where dry air would keep condensation minimal, but we would have to reconsider our gear choice if Oregon and Washington had a particularly wet summer this year.

We hiked out that morning, and when I got home I did laundry and repacked my pack with my new gear choices. I updated my gear list if you're interested in seeing all the swaps I made. It will have to do, because any more changes I make will be on trail and slightly more difficult to accomodate. I'm sure it'll be an ever-evolving process, though.

Speaking of on the trail... this is officially my last post before trail time! I leave in a couple weeks and I need to get everything at home squared away before heading out. This includes shutting down my Etsy shop for a few months - today is the last day to order cards, so if you've been thinking about snagging a card from me this year, it's your last chance for a while!

I expect to be posting again in May - check back for updates or make sure you add me to your RSS feed or subscribe to emails to get the latest. If you're on Twitter you can follow my adventures @darkroomdearly. I look forward to sharing more stories with you soon!