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.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Yaw! Fish Yaw!


Day 56, Mile 877.2
I am beat. Tired and dirty, but not hungry. By the time i get to Mammoth i will have not showered in 17 days. I know ladies, get in line. Anyway on to better things - i did not starve tonight. Yesterday i think i hit my hiking wall per se as evidenced in the blah post but today was a new day. Around noon we came on a set of lakes on our way to another pass. I happened to see a few trout and we decided i should try fishing for real this time. They were nice size fish, but not at all interested in my particular fly. Then we noticed that just in this one shallow area there were probably upwards of 50 trout. So we decided to go back to the old Indian ways - fish herding. I had thought of using our mosquito nets on the way up to Whitney and now we put this plan into action. Kraig got alongside a narrow channel with his net, and i got in the water with a trekking pole and my "new" walking stick and commenced the herding. It worked on the first try. 5 more times at different angles and different channels and we had 6 fish. Kraig cleaned them and i packed them in snow in a plastic bag inside my bear canister. When we got to camp they were basically frozen solid. Boiled them, took the skin and bones off and out and added them to Kraig and Gina's dehydrated chili. Extra water added and we had ourselves a trout and bean stew of sorts. It was really really good. We pushed 23 miles today so we will be able to spend all of tomorrow at VVR handling business and taking on some calories. Get to sleep in tomorrow because the ferry to VVR picks up at 945 and we are only 1.4 miles from the dock. But i wont get any if i don't put this thing down, and its midnight - not "hiker midnight" actually 12am. Thought of the day; i wonder if my godson Roman is walking yet. Songs of the day; this morning when i woke up it was, knock knock knocking on heavens doooor. After we caught the fish and were climbing to the pass it was, i wiiill surviiive hey hey do doo dodooo dooodleoo dooodledoo etc. Craving of the day; my moms cooking.
JWC on the PCT
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