Category: PCT 2018

June 17, 2018

Miles 1101-1118 Karen mile 919

Well, if you guessed I didn’t get much sleep last night, you guessed correct. Once I was done blogging (around 9pm) it seemed as if the wind had died down. There were only a handful of gusts that were strong enough to take down my home but the parachord attached to the rock held strong. I also left my pack outside as another helpful barrier so that my tent wouldn’t fly away. I tossed and turned most of the night and finally woke after 5am. I slowly packed up as I knew Laura would be awake by 6. Only one minor snafu of the morning… While breaking down my tent, I needed to dry out the footprint so I put some rocks on top of it so it wouldn’t fly away. Of course I turned my back to my tent for 2 seconds and it was toppling end-over-end towards the creek. Again, rookie error… guess I’m out of practice.

We were hiking before 7am. For the first few miles I felt like my legs were back in business. The 4 miles to Dicks Pass were mostly uphill. We knew we’d see snow again but to our delight it was way better than we anticipated. On the way to the pass, the snow was minimal on the trail. Up top, and down the other side it was worse but only for maybe a mile. As it was still early, the snow was mostly icy. Neither of us had our microspikes so we just took it slow. I took a few spills, of course, and always landed safely on my butt. Note to self: glissading is for slushy snow only. Ice glissades hurt when you reach the end.

After Dicks Pass, we took a short break. While sitting a southbound hiker came by that I recognized. I can’t remember her name but it was nice to see a familiar face. Last I saw her it was in Agua Dulce. She flipped up to Dunsmuir instead of going through the Sierras earlier. We saw about 15 other people on the trail. Only 2 other PCTers. I wish I had gotten a photo of them. They were a cute couple from Alaska.

The miles today were pretty easy. We had covered 17 miles by 330pm and decided that was good enough for the day. After so many days off, I’m glad we don’t need to “push” miles. Laura is meeting Andrew in Truckee (Soda Springs) early Thursday morning so that is our only deadline. Although, we could potentially make it there by Wednesday.

It’s still cold out here but thankfully we escaped any rain that was forecasted. Laura and I were able to sit out again together and cook meals but as I write this it’s 642pm and we are both hunkered in our tents so that we can stay warm. The last fire that someone burned at this particular spot contained some larger than life logs, so making the pit usable for us would have taken some work. So we decided to forego a fire tonight.

I ‘m feeling indifferent about being out here now. I know it’s only been 2 days, but 2 days is a lot of time to process the experience of what this has been and what lies ahead. I’m committed to this stretch and I know every day will continue to be different. There are always brief low points. And when you’re on a high, man it feels good. But sometimes the body doesn’t want to keep up. For now goodnight, my fingers are cold and it’s time to snuggle in.

***6/18/2018 I barely have 1bar of 4G service, so photos will be uploaded later.

June 16, 2018

PCT mile 1090-1101 Karen miles 902

I just recalculated my mileage. I Guess today I officially crossed the 900 mile mark. Whoohooo! For those wondering, I skipped the section from Sonora Pass to Echo Lake (74 miles) and the section from Kearsarge Pass to Angew Meadows (125 miles). The decision to not rejoin the Trail at Sonora was more based on an easy in and out location for the next 200 miles. I don’t plan to skip anything else. Now it’s just more a matter of how many more miles I can cover before September arrives. At this point, I will not complete the trail this year and that certainly okay in my eyes.

Breakfast this morning was included with the stay at the Fireside Lodge. A cute bed and breakfast place for sure! After breakfast, Debbie was kind enough to run me into Big 5 where I could pickup some fuel for my campstove. I also needed a lighter and a water bottle which I was able to find both at a grocery store. After that, we were off to the trailhead. We parked 1 mile south of Hwy 50–which was almost as dangerous as crossing a log. Debbie hiked 3.5 miles with us. We stopped for a snack break on the east side of Lower Echo Lake which is where she headed back to the car. It was really nice to meet her!!! Thank you so much for letting me stay the night with you and Laura and for the quick errands this morning! Hope to see you again soon.

There were so many people out on the trail today. Plenty of reasons; it’s a weekend, the PCT and the Tahoe Rim Trail overlap in the area, and also I learned today that the Desolation Wilderness Area (which we entered at mile 1095@140pm) is the most used wilderness area per acre in the nation. It’s amazing beautiful and I understand why it’s so busy!

The lakes are amazing here. Aloha Lake was stunning. And Heather Lake has some really cool rock islands. Once we passed those lakes though, the wind started up. Huge breezes came at us like bricks. We hoped we’d be able to find a sheltered campsite but to our dismay, good campsites out of the wind seemed like a lot to ask for. We stopped at the southeast side of Susie Lake (1101), just passed the outlet of the lake. So not only to we have raging water sounds we will also have strong winds this evening.

Laura I both felt like we were a bit rusty out here. Setting up the tents alone was a struggle with the wind. Laura has a new tent–which looks stellar. I’m a little gear-jealous of course. Her setup looks great but she may be leaving a stake behind as she managed to get it stuck in the root of a tree. Whoops! I’ve still got the Nemo but it sure has been tested this evening. The wind is so strong, the one tent pole that is taking the brunt of the wind has turned inward and collapsed 3 times. I was able to jimmy-rig some paracord to a rock–cause wouldn’t you know!!! I just took my guylines out of my stuff sack and left them at home. No biggie, I think I’ve got it secure now. There’s also a layer of dirty that has stealthily made its way into my tent with the wind. Every time I dust off, another layer appears thanks to the wind. Ugh! I’m doubtful I’ll get much sleep tonight. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s blog on that!

Overall, I’m glad to be back out. Laura and I both feel like days off are bad for the body. You’d think it would be great to rest and heal, this time around we both felt like our feet, ankles, knees and hips were starting over again. Like they forgot every step they’d been on. Hopefully they will remember and tomorrow will be better. The views are always amazing and it makes you forget for just a few moments when your body is hurting.

Goodnight for now. We are 4 miles from Dicks Pass tomorrow morning. The forecast had called for Sunday rain so we shall see how that turns out for us.

June 15, 2018

Hello Friday! It’s been 11 days since I departed the PCT at Sonora Pass. With each passing day, I wondered if I would make another attempt at the northbound miles . After leaving my brothers house on last Friday, thankful for my airline benefits, Glen dropped me off at the Oakland airport within the hour of departure for my flight.” (Dang traffic!) I had to do curbside checkin as I was running late and there was no way I was going to get the rucksack my brother gave me into the terminal solo. The ruck sack contained 2 bear cans and 2 pairs of snowshoes. (Justin, you’re welcome!) When I landed in Las Vegas mid afternoon I called Lori (my housemate) for a pickup. Dragging the large rucksack through baggage claim distracted me from the airport hustle and bustle I’ve been away from for over 2 and a half months. I walked into my home and everything was perfect. It was clean, the air conditioning was cranking — it was 101 when I landed — and Lori was sweet enough to make chicken soup since I was still sick. I seriously can’t thank her enough for all the things she had done for me.

It has been really easy to put myself right back into pre-trail life. My home, my truck, my friends all there to welcome me back. So much so that I’m still unsure of the culprit, but I’m whoever drove my truck last filled it with gas and washed it. Boys–you’re awesome. JamieP organized a small “Limited Time Appearance” party in her backyard on Sunday for me. Great turnout and perfect weather for brunch, mimosas and a little pool time. I doggy sat Nala, so Mom and PopsBonham stopped by for a small chat on Tuesday. Lori made paella on Wednesday night and we had a girls night in with Betsi–my other housemate– and Alyson, my neighbor. Such a fun night of laughs. There was a lunch with Kurt, coffee with Armando, pool day with Mike, a quick trim of my hair with Shelli, and plenty of Karen and KellyB time to catchup on. I seriously love my circle and family friends here.

Those first few days of being home–and sick–gave me a little down time for work stuff too. Every year I have online training modules I have to complete before attending a recurrent training class at the airport. As I had wanted to get RT done while I was there, the first class wasn’t available until yesterday (Thursday). Once I scheduled the class and completed my modules, I could start planning my next exit; getting back to the trail.

With almost two weeks off the trail, I kept reading blogs, Facebook posts, and Instagram posts of others. Photos and snow reports slowly reported the melt happening. Sweet! Justin and Laura would send periodic updates as well. I was happy to hear about their progress and the conditions of the trail improving.

I spent Thursday evening packing my pack one more time. My plan was a Friday flight to Reno and bus ride to South Lake Tahoe. From there I had planned to wing it. Laura and her mom had been staying in SLT and offered to let me stay with them for the night. I didn’t want to impose but I also was excited to see Laura and catch up on the “miles behind.”

When I got to South Lake off the SouthTahoe Airport shuttle, I had a box of food that I had checked in my hands and my backpack. The checked box also contained my campstove and knife and a few other things I couldn’t carryon on the plane. I walked half a mile and found a JambaJuice where I could loiter at and rearrange all the stuff in my pack. This place is packed with tourists, not hikers, and so I got a lot of weird looks as to what I was doing.

Whatever time it was, things seem to happen for a reason. I messaged Laura to call me when she was done with her hike for the day. She said she and her mom were finishing their hike and were on their way to me! Yay. I didn’t have to hitchhike. Actually, I wasn’t going to hitch solo, I could have found an Uber–that’s the same as hitchhiking right?

Their little room was perfectly cute. The extra bed (which creaks loudly) is like the extra bed in a camper. You know, the ones that convert from being a breakfast nook with table to folding flat into a twin bed. It was just what I needed.

We went to dinner at Sonny’s BBQ right down the street. The food was delish, the stories were great and the company was even better. Maybe I wasn’t quite ready to get back to hiking. But I will.

Tomorrow, Laura’s Mom Debbie, will drop us off at Ecko Lake. Dicks Pass is the next highest point at 9376ft. so we will hike to the pass and most likely go over Sunday. There’s still reports of at least a mile of snow on the north face, that better than what it was 2 weeks ago of course so I’ll take it.

I left all my snow gear at home. Temps are warmer and I traded warm sleep clothes for lighter weight options. Mosquitos might be a problem so I did spray a coating of permethrin on most of my layers. I’ve got food for 7 days and will plan to grab a few items in Soda Springs. Not sure I will head into Truckee at all at this point. My plan for now is 2 weeks out here. I’m trying to make a trip to Idaho with friends on the 30th happen. I’m hoping to make it to Belden by the 28/29th, to fly back to Vegas and then to Idaho. After that, I’ll repack again and hope to make more miles on the PCT through August. At least that’s the plan right now. Things can always change.

Happy Trails. It feels good to be back. Let’s see what the legs say about that tomorrow.