PCT day 4

Day 4 

21.4 miles 

2200 ft of elevation

PCT mile 68

Came into camp just trashed, legs, feet, and me dead tired. Pushed the mileage to camp at a water source. Today was the first real day of desert elements. All day sun, no shade the entire 21 miles. Put up tent and crashed. Trail mix for dinner no energy to filter water and cook. Heard my first rattler today...he was behind me and I ran quickly a few steps when I heard it. Looked back but didn't see him. Later crossed paths with a 2nd snake...gopher? 

Morning view 

Sure happy to find this cache to resupply water, instead of having to filter from here:

Day 2

Day 2

13 miles

2398 Elevation gain

Lake Moreno to Cibbets Flat Campground

Hit the trail at 8:45 this morning. Intended on an earlier start, but first I needed to tape my feet then I ended up spilling a liter of water in my tent, which needless to say, my clothes got washed earlier then I thought they would. 

    Feet taped up.

   And heading out.

Just as I was heading out 2 little boys ran over to tell me their dad was making breakfast burritos and wanted to know if I wanted one, I declined but was gracious for the offer. I was unsure how today would go with my feet and blisters. I was pleased that the first 6 miles went well, tape job seemed to be holding my feet up just fine...so I thought I'd be able to pull off 18. But by mile 11 my feet were slowing me down...I stopped at Fred's Canyon to rest for a while and decide what to do. I pulled my sock off my right foot and it was apparent the right heel blister was getting worse as there was a large bubble under the tape. I doctored it up a bit and decided to call it a day. I hiked up out of the canyon and pulled off the trail at PCT mile 32.6 and hiked down another 0.6 mile to Cibbets Flat Campground.

Earlier in the day I had prayed for trail magic as things were getting tough, magic greeted me at the campground. A fresh crisp cold apple was brought to me by a man that directed me where to go earlier when I arrived at the campground. Then when I was getting cleaned up in my tent, I had a full on dinner brought to me by a family camping next to me. I was overwhelmed with gratitude, I didn't realize how soon ordinary people would become trail angels in my book. These gestures made a day that was going tough worth every bit!!! 

    Hwy 8 bridge over PCT

    Random bus stop in the middle of no where 

   Hand delivered dinner.

Cookies in Hand...Thanks to The Alternative Baking Company

Huge shout out to the Alternative Baking Company that sponsored a box of their delicious yumminess of Peanut Butter Persuasion Cookies for my hike. I was in heaven when I discovered the Alternative Baking Company's cookies. A vegan cookie jam packed with 480 calories and tasting just like a homemade soft chewy cookie fresh out of the oven. They have a bunch of other awesome flavors too and now have a line of gluten free cookies. 2 of my other favorites flavors are Explosive Expresso Chip and Colossal Chocolate Chip. The big draw to me is that it is a high calorie high energy food and I don't feel like I'm putting processed junk into my body when I'm eating it. I eat clean and healthy at home and one of my main goals is to continue doing so as much as possible on the trail. These cookies are reprieve from the monotony of my usual energy bar routine of eating on the go during the day! Can't wait to enjoy these on the trail.

The Pacific Crest Trail, Thru-Hiking and What my Pacific CrestThru-Hike Looks Like To Me

The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) is long-distance hiking and equestrian trail which lies 100-150 miles east of the Pacific Coast. The trail's southern most terminus is on the US/Mexico border and the northern terminus is on the US/Canada Border on the edge of Manning Park in British Columbia, Canada. The trail is 2,668 miles long, traverses through California, Oregon and Washington, ranges in elevation from sea level to 13,153 feet, passes through 25 national forests and 7 national parks. The trail runs mostly through national forest and protected wilderness, avoids civilization and passes through the Mojave Desert in Southern California, the Laguna, San Jacinto, San Bernardino, San Gabriel, Liebre, Tehachapi, Sierra Nevada and Klamath mountain ranges in California and the Cascade Range in California, Oregon and Washington. 

Thru-hiking refers to hikers that complete long distance trails from end-to-end in a single trip. The Pacific Crest Trail is one of 3 long distance trails in the U.S. the other 2 are the Appalachian Trail and the Continental Divide Trail. Thru-hiking the Pacific Crest Trail usually takes between 4 to 6 months to complete. The popularity of thru-hikers has grown tremendously over the past years, it is estimated that there are somewhere around 700 +/- thru-hikers attempting the PCT in 2014. Usually the completion of the PCT is around 50% each year, with most dropping by Kennedy Meadows around mile 700. The trail is unofficially divided into 3 parts: miles 0-702 Southern California (The Desert), miles 702-1698 Northern California (The Sierras), miles 1698-2668 Oregon and Washington (The Cascades). Each section provides different elements and challenges. The desert hot and dry with limited water. The Sierras with higher elevations and more difficult terrain, The Cascades with rain and possible early snow. Most thru hikers start at the Southern part of the trail and hike North, but there are also those that start at the Northern part of the trail and hike south. The challenge of the PCT and completing it has a lot to do with weather and timing. Leave too early in the season and you will be in Kennedy Meadows too early with snow in the Sierras and some of the trail impassable. Leave to late and you are at risk for snow storms and impassable trails in Washington. Northbound hikers usually start in the months of March, April and May. With the majority leaving in April. Most through hikers will arrive in Manning Park, British Columbia the last part of September or 1st week of October. 

There are two ways hikers resupply along the trail, buy as you go or send resupply boxes. There are 40+ opportunities to resupply on trail which include Post Offices, small towns, road access to bigger towns within 20 miles of the trail, and stores along the way, usually ranging anywhere from 3 to 12 days between resupply points. 

With the growing number of thru-hikers, even as a solo-hiker you meet many hikers along the way and are not alone in your journey. There is a community that is developed each year amongst thru-hikers and those that support them (trail angels) along the way. 

Some common PCT terminology: 
NO-BO, northbound hikers starting at the southern most part of the trail, the US/Mexico Border, *majority of thru-hikers 
SO-BO, southbound hikers 
Zero Day, rest days with 0 miles hiked on the PCT 
Near Zero Days, small milage days with majority of day being a rest day (most often happens at resupply points) 
Trail Angels, people that help thru-hikers along the way, some live near the trail and host hikers and accept resupply boxes, offer meals, a place to sleep, do laundry and rest, others are out leaving water caches (jugs of water to refill your water supply) out on the trail, or offering hikers rides to nearby towns, filling drop boxes with food 
Trail Name,  thru-hikers will be given a trail name along the way...at this point forward you are known on the trail by your trail name, real names are rarely used and once your trail name is given few will know you by your actual birth name 
HYOH, Hike Your Own Hike -with all the changes in backpacking and trends in Ultralight backpacking, ways to resupply along the way,  and opinionated personalities out there, you are likely to get criticized by your style of hiking , the most important thing to remember is that this is your hike not theirs, there's no right or wrong way to do it, although people will think that and tell you so. That's not to say you will adapt as you go. Your hike is going to look much different in the first couple hundred miles to the last hundred miles. You learn as you go. 
Resupply Boxes, Boxes that you have prepared for yourself ahead of time, before you leave for your hike with supplies, most often filled with food and other small supplies you need to restock along the way, mailed to the post office of the resupply point. Post offices along the trail are accustomed to receiving these hiker boxes. You either mail these out before you leave for your hike or have a point person at home that will be mailing these boxes for you as you go 
Bounce Box, similar to a resupply box, but this is a box with supplies that you may only need at resupply points,  that you keep mailing ahead of yourself to each resupply point you stop, 
Drop Box/Hiker box, boxes along the trail where fellow thru-hikers may leave food and supplies they no longer need or don't want and/or also surprises left by trail angels, up for grabs by fellow thru-hikers (also another term hikers call there resupply boxes) 

So with all this said this is what my PCT thru-hike looks like to me: 

My plan is to hit the trail, on May 21st, this is about one month later then the main group of thru-hikers usually leave, but my milage goals are a little higher and ambitious so I have hopes of slowly catching others as I go. I have an overall goal/daily average of 22 miles/day. Starting off close to 20miles/day. Dropping milage through Sierras to adjust to climbing and elevation. And ending with possibly 25+ miles/day. Keep in mind these are averages only. There will be days that aren't close to any of these numbers, one cannot prepare for actual elements of the trail, so you adjust as you go. I have around 17 resupply points I have selected along the way. Most of my food I am planning on preparing ahead of time, but also I will buy along the way, I am really nontechnical with the resupply strategy just dividing miles between resupply points by my 22mile/day average to get days between resupply points and allowing at least 3000cal/day in each resupply box. That calorie per day is low but that is my number I am sending to myself ahead of time, this doesn't include the food I will be buying along the way to add to my daily caloric intake (i.e. jars of peanut butter, tortillas, whatever I may be craving at my next resupply point) I anticipate my daily caloric intake ranging around 4000cal/day??? 

My goal is to take the least amount of zero day possible, allowing zero days for illness and injury. But using near zero days at resupply points for rest. But again I'll just go with the flow. 

I need to finish the trail by no later then October 5th to get myself to my brother's wedding in Wisconsin on October 11th. That is a total of 137days from one end to the other. That's 122 days of 22mile/day plus 15 extra days. 

Stay tune for future posts of gear reviews, pre PCT projects and preperations. 

Where am I now and what lies ahead of me...

As I sit down to write this post, I'm struggling for a title. So I'm going to write it first and title it when I'm done. 

Upon the first of the year it began to to hit me how big of a year 2014 is going to be for me. Those who know me know my that I quite often live a larger then your average adventurous lifestyle. Go big or go home. OK before I offend anyone, I know I live within a very small percentage of the population and it's not for most, but it's for me, it's what makes me tick, it what makes me happy and, as cheesy as it sounds, completes me. I'm in one way or another an adventure junkie. 

Looking back at 2013 I can't say that nothing big happened, as lot really did, as my previous post had depicted, but I didn't really feel like I had accomplished anything big and it wasn't one of those years I would say was an amazing year for me. Yes, I did however have amazing things happen in small doses. It was a year of trial and error, live, learn and move forward, it's because of everything that had happened in 2013 that has led me to make 2014 a big year in terms of big adventures, mainly due to timing, but also due to sheer will and determination to make my dreams happen.

So the best thing about not having a full-time standard job is flexibility. I choose to take a 6 month contract assignment, so I would be free to do what I wanted to do when I was done and I didn't have to make any permanent choices that I didn't feel I was ready to make. So I was counting weeks and doing math and figuring out how to squeeze my adventures in between my work contracts. Or maybe I should say fit work in between my adventures.

Alright, enough blabber I'll just get to it already. Those who follow me on facebook, may have already gotten an idea of what lies ahead of me, or where I am in my first adventure of the year. After my contract ended in January I had always been planning on a trip to Costa Rica and then later in the year thru-hike the Pacific Crest Trail. In planning and researching my Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) hike my Costa Rica trip morphed from a yoga retreat vacation to a backpacking trip, through Costa Rica, Panama, and Nicaragua. So thru-hiking if the big event of the year, more in what that entails later but just in quick detail: The Pacific Crest Trail is a trail that spans from the Calfornia-Mexico border thru Califormia, Oregon, and Washington to the Washington-Canada border. It is 2600 and some odd miles of backpacking through wilderness and some desert in the Southern California. This is all done in one shot, for most it takes about 5 months with an average of 20 miles a day. There will be many posts to follow regarding my PCT planning, what the hike looks like for me, gear reviews and the actual hiking of the PCT.

So where am I now? I am 5 days into my backpacking trip through Central America. I flew into Costa Rica, made my way down the Caribbean coast into Panama and am now in Boquete, Panama. I will travel until mid February, then return to the Bay Area for a 13 week work assignment and then off to the PCT.

Here are a few shots from my trip so far:

Saying goodbye to Izzy, with all my all that I will travel with packed into my backpack of 30 pounds.

Punta Uva, Costa Rica

The hillsides of Boquete, Panama