Day 93 July 20, 2008

Up around 5am, ate some yogurt and powdered donuts for breakfast and hit the trail! 8 miles of uphill, thank goodness for the early start in the cool temps! Saw tons of poison oak on the climb out of the valley, but I steered clear of most of it. We had hiked 15.1 miles by noon. Lots of big pine trees, forest like...Oregon is close now! It is only 64.5 miles from Seiad Valley to Ashland, OR! We planned on 3 days (tops)

By the end of the day, we'd hiked 27! Oregon in the morning for sure! You can see the trail in this picture......meandering, level and scenic!

P.C.T. Mop -Up Tour Finished!!!!

We started hiking north from Sierra City on 7/23/10 and 6 days later we reached Highway 36 (Chester) finishing that 138.2 mile fire section!!! Met some great 2010 thru-hikers and stopped at Buck's Lake for a night of rest and relaxation with the wonderful trail angels there.

Another ride (HUGE thanks to Jim) brought us up to Etna summit (after visiting the Heitman's in Old Station and then a nice rest day at the Hiker Hut in Etna) On 7/30/10 we walked into the absolutely beautiful Marble Mtn Wilderness......wow, what a great section....55.5 miles later on 8/1 we walked into Seiad Valley@ 8 am........with big smiles on our faces! Enjoyed breakfast at the cafe, showered up and hitched a ride out of town. P.C.T. Mop-Up Tour DONE! :)

Had a wonderful roadtrip after the 190 miles were done, saw the Redwoods, drove the whole Oregon Coast, saw Mt. St. Helens and an elk and then spent a few days in Portland, OR with Dandy..........what a great trip!

Total Stats for our P.C.T. hike are as follows;

2,655.4 miles

154 days complete

133 of walking

21 zero days (rest days)

Ocean Beach in San Diego finishes up our mtns to sea tour!!!

Checking out the big fence! Border patrol seeing what we were up to!!!

Monday June 8, 2009

Having finished the 39 miles, we decided to take the scenic route back to San Diego. So, Monday morning we got up and drove south through the Anza-Borrego desert, crossed the PCT a few times, checked out the Mexican border in Jacumba (and border patrol checked US out!!!) got a room in SD, had more Mexican food in Old Town San Diego and then went to Ocean Beach to round off our Mtns to desert to sea tour! We flew home on Tuesday, all smiles, full of Mexican food and already thinking of our next PCT "fire miles section"!!

Kathryn and Steve......our trail angels!! :)

More Fuller Ridge!

Fuller Ridge

Fuller Ridge

Sunday June 7, 2009

Great night sleeping, heard a deer snorting at one point, beautiful full moon when we woke up. Walking before 6am and quietly passed by Strawberry Junction where all the campers were still warm and cozy in their sleeping bags. Great view into the valley of clouds as we made our way to Fuller Ridge. Another cold morning walking with our winter hats on! The 5 miles along Fuller ridge were just one beautiful sight after another, definitely a highlight of this section as we meandered along below the towering peak of San Jacinto, lots of nice little spots to camp on and a river....waterfall almost at the beginning of the trail (coming from the south). Looking to the north and far below, we could see I-10 and the windmills we camped under last year, it was funny knowing exactly what the trail looked like ahead, but we where wouldn't be going this time. :( We got to Black Mtn Rd (officially connecting the dots from last year) and started walking down the road. About 4 miles later, we saw Steve and Kathryn driving up the road to pick us up! This great couple Neighbor met through a San Jacinto hiking board and they arranged to pick our sorry butts up and bring us back to our rental car (waaaaay back where we started the 40 mile hike)! Great feeling knowing that we didn't have to try to hitch on the side of the road for endless hours! We all went out for Mexican in Idyllwild and then back to our car. It was great meeting them and you never know......we just might see them again someday!! After this full day, Neighbor and I drove back to Idyllwild and crashed in the State Park. What a great 3 days back on the PCT!!

Look how far we've come!

Clouds coming in from the West, hitting the Desert Divide and drying up on the East/dry side of the range. Magic!

So many beautiful sights along this section!

burnt trees from last year's fire, but new growth already taking place.

Sat June 6, 2009

After quite the windy night, we woke up to a beautiful sunrise over Palm Springs area, packed up and got walking northward again. Cold morning, no one else on the trail, just amazing views all around, walked through the small section of trail that was on fire last year (1 mile out of the 39) near Apache Peak. Didn't go down to the Apache spring as we didn't need water and we heard it was quite the elevation drop to get there. Meandered along, following the trail, enjoying every step of it. Came to Saddle Junction around noon, lots of hikers here, had a bite to eat and decided to keep walking. Found a great little spot to camp around 2 or 3 in the afternoon and called it quits for the day. 15 miles for the day only left us 8 to get to Black Mtn Rd in the morning.

Friday June 5, 2009

We were up bright and early on Friday, drove to the trailhead and started our 39 mile walk to Black Mtn Rd. Chilly morning, but we moved right along, taking lots of pictures and enjoying being back on the trail again. As we climbed higher up the ridge the views were awesome, we could look back and see the trail to the south, peaks all around, the Saltan Sea, just beautiful. The wind picked up in the afternoon and made it cold on the shaded side of the mtn, but still roasting on the sunny side. We stopped at Fobes Saddle for water, Neighbor got us 4 liters with no problem, I stayed with our packs at the junction and flipped through the trail register of whose been through the area, fun to see all the 2009 PCT hikers and their comments. We noticed another message for today's date and come to find out "Nitro Joe" PCT 2008 was out here hiking also hiking these missed miles from last year!! Small world. After the climb out of the saddle, we hiked a few more miles to Spitler Peak and found a great camp spot off the trail, with a nice view of San Jacinto and all of the Palm Springs area. Had some dinner and called it quits, quite early for the day (around 3pm.......but we were trying to stay on east coast time!!) Made it 16 miles for the day, not too bad!

The ridge we'll soon be hiking over!

June 4th, 2009

It was finally time to head back out west and hike a few of those miles of the PCT that were closed due to wildfires last year! We decided to start with the 39 miles around San Jacinto/Fuller Ridge area. So, we flew to San Diego on Thursday 6/4/09, picked up our rental car with Enterprise (Neighbor and Dave the Enterprise man in photo) and drove north to Idyllwild to camp in the state park for the night. Long day of travelling, I think we were sleeping by 6pm (west coast time......would have been 9pm for us!!)

Airport greeting crew!

Chief, Chickety and Neighbor in Seattle, WA

It was great to see The Great Chief-Chi-Hua-Hua Rainbowtoes in Seattle., it was the icing on the cake. Hi Chief!!!

We're home!

Just a few details about the week that followed our "Big Finish" at the Canadian border! We took the Greyhound to Vancouver the next day (about 210 miles to the West) and stayed at a "backpacker's hostel" nearby (scary!!). We said good-bye to Slider. Thrust, Neighbor and I then took a ferry from Vancouver to Vancouver Island where we stayed in Victoria for 2 nights. Then we said good-bye to Thrust and we took a different ferry to Seattle, WA for 2 nights. Seattle was wonderful! We went to Pike St. Market and were in awe of all the fresh fruit (great peaches and apples), fish and flowers the market had to offer! We went to the REI headquarters and ran into Antfarm and Swiffer! We went to The North Face and saw our friend Numtum from the AT in 2005! Then on Sunday, we were leaving the hotel to go to the airport and were walking down the street when we saw Chief and Sarong walking up the street to meet us! What a great way to end the trip, seeing Chief again! We hung out with them for a few hours and then took a bus to the airport hotel. Flew home on Monday, saw the most amazing full moon setting with the sun rising by Mt. Rainier as we took off and then saw the Northern Cascades in Washington that we had walked right by, it was awesome! Landed in Manchester to see our families and HikerEd were there to greet us home, how great was that! Thank you everyone for the support we received while out on the trail, it's great to be home and see everyone, what a great trip it was! :)