Some thoughts before departure...

  • I am still not a vet, doctor, lawyer, dog trainer, cia agent, fbi agent or a navy seal so...walk
  • I am doing this for the challenge of course, and I hope to gain a confidence that comes with this type of endeavor. But also I hope to gain some new knowledge about the world and the truths that reside in it.
  • Am I walking to "find myself"? Or just to take a walk. You decide...and you'll probably be right.
  • I'm not in the best shape of my life, but I do have a lot of new great gear so....
  • After living with my parents the last 2 years, it makes perfect sense to walk 2650 miles - alone.
  • Yes there will be bears, cougars, rattlesnakes and scorpions both imagined and real along the way. I'm definitely more worried about those imagined.
  • Am I scared? Not as of yet, more of just a constantly increasing anticipation. But check back with me on the 3rd night in the desert.
  • I tried to keep my pack fairly light, but I definitely would not call it ultralight. Somehow when I added up all my ultralight gear and put it in my ultralight pack, I ended up with just slightly heavy.
  • My biggest concern for this trip is that I get too hungry somewhere along the way, my brain goes awol as it usually does when I get hungry and subsequently you never hear from me again...I'll try to eat frequently.
  • I am not Christopher McCandless. This is not Into the Wild.

Monday, May 26, 2008

Now this is hiking the PCT

Day 23, Mile 395.3 - Today was a hell of a day, if hell froze over. Got a little bit of a late start this morning, and only 30 minutes into the climb it started snowing ever so slightly. By the time we summited Mt Baden-Powell it was blowing and snowing sideways, with enough snow falling to fill in our tracks in the time it took to take a few pictures at the peak monument. It was cold but bearable, i had on my rain jacket on top of everything else and it really cut out the wind and a little bit of the snow. After summiting we managed to lose the trail for about 20 minutes as the powder deepened and covered what was left of the trail that wasn't already under the drifts. We finally found our way and eventually we descended to below the storm and it was beautiful, but still cold. we stopped to have lunch and talked about how intense that was; Craig said he would call that winter conditions, i called it holy shit repeatedly as i was consistently astounded at the conditions. It has been suggested by on! e hiker that the pct was drawn by someones 5 year old with a crayon and a map. Well following our decent i realized that we now were at hwy 2 and we needed to climb up the side of Mt Williamson 1200ft in 1.7 miles only to meet hwy 2 on the other side which was essentially around the corner if you were driving the hwy. So i decided that whoever made this trail go where it goes is far too deviant to be a 5 year old with a crayon, they must have been at least 7 or 8. After arriving at hwy 2 the second time there was a sign on the opposite side saying trail closure due to the endangered yellow legged mountain frog...grrreat. The detour took us down the hwy for about 2.5 miles then through a campground then another trail that finally linked back to the pct. We ate in the dark and i am writing now at 10, way past "hiker midnight". Also i developed pretty bad shin splint type pain the last two afternoons, so hopefully that calms down, oh yeah and the crazy bite thing went away, no! worries. Thought of the day; well I'm real glad i packed that extra dinner just in case- oh wait, i didn't...hmm that's unfortunate (during the near blizzard and subsequent losing of the trail). Song of the day; (Jarell i know its your favorite) the Jesus in me and the Jesus in you, soooo easaaaay, so easaaaaay, so easy to luh-uh-uv. And a new category- Craving of the day; pizza (BJs or CPK) and a churro.

JWC on the PCT

2 comments:

DANYELIA said...

Were there more words to that song??? Anyway i hope you did it with the hand motions too!

DANYELIA said...

oh yah still using danyeles account cuz im apperently computer illiterate..
jarell