Day 17- May 6th

Today we TRIED to sleep in but instead woke up at 6. Our bodies are now on a backpacking sleep schedule and there's no going back! 

We went to a coffee shop and got some good things, I had the "PCT Sunrise", which is a blended drink with OJ and yogurt. Sounds weird but was really good! 

After that we walked around a few little cute shops in town, and scoped out a jerky shop for our resupply later before we hike out tomorrow. The lady there told us this is the coldest day that they've had all spring!! 

Some good news about the storm, we saw it start rolling in today around noon over some fish and chips and beer, but overall the weather says that it's going to ease up tomorrow.

We are most likely going to head out tomorrow morning, since there will only be some showers at worse, stay at the Mt. Jacinto Shelter, and then summit Sunday morning. Mt. Jacinto is the highest mountain in this immediate cluster at 10,834 feet.

-----------------------

I wrote all the above around lunchtime. Then, we got some bad news: the ranger in town says the storm that brings rains tonight in Idyllwild is supposed to bring a bunch of new snow to the summit of Mt. Jacinto!! 

There's a few options for tomorrow: one involves a sketchy 8 mile twisty turvy highway walk down busy highway 243, to get to an old road that leads us up another 8 miles to the PCT. However it might be super sketchy with snow up at that point anyway! 

Second option is to charge up the PCT, but since this is a freak storm and the coldest spring weather ever, we weren't exactly prepared for it. We have all the clothing to stay warm but our micro spikes for walking in the snow are sent far ahead to Kennedy Meadows, mile 702, the start of the High Sierra. I'm really frustrated because it's been such nice weather in this area before now and next week is beautiful too! Summiting Mt. Jacinto has been a highlight in my mind since the start, and I'm bummed that it's so dangerous up there right now... (There are other trails around, but none are much lower than the PCT, and some are way more dangerous at the moment)

Third option is to hitch around, which in my opinion is NOT an option! We've already done an alternate route due to a fire closure, and because we took the extra days to do so, everyone who skipped it got up and over Mt. Jacinto before the storm, and now we're stuck here waiting for it to stop snowing ahead! Ugh, I want to hike already, not sit around and wait or hike for days on roads! They should call this the Pacific Crest Road Walk..

I hope that our trail karma comes around soon, but for now, I am quite frustrated. I've been poring over my phone all "night" in the tent since 5pm and I still have no idea what we're going to do tomorrow, I just know we have to get out of this town or we'll never make it to Canada! 

It's been raining all day since 3pm I write this at 9pm. After lunch we went to the library where I spent a few hours researching a possible way to get around a fire closure starting at mile 221. Using info from an alternate someone else had taken, I ended up printing 7 pages off of google maps and I'm able to piece them together, I think it will work!

But ugh, a 45 mile road walk just to go around 10 closed miles of the PCT is not my favorite! Sorry, I'm ranting, more about this later...

Sorry for being such a bummer on this post. The whole afternoon has been filled with frustrations and let downs, we're freezing cold in our soaked tent, we've been in this town for almost 3 whole days total, and we're ready to leave already! 

It's hard because it feels like we're being punished for doing the "right thing" in our minds. Not saying that anyone else is doing it wrong by hitching around these problem areas, but Claire and I strongly share the passion of wanting to complete this THRUhike in one continuos footpath from Mexico to Canada. 

Cross your fingers for us tomorrow, it's easy to be so bummed down here in a small tent in a rainy valley, but who knows, it might be way better up there than anyone is speculating from the comforts of a computer and desk. Whatever we decide to do, we'll be safe and make wise decisions  tomorrow when we are faced with them.

-Thanks for reading!

Day 16- May 5

Last night there was no rain forecasted, so we camped without the rain fly up (always our preference if possible). However either during the night or early this morning there was a light misting and our down bags got a little wet. Luckily we knew we only had 9 or so miles today and they are able to dry out as long as they aren't compressed wet for too long.

We left our camping site on some bike trails, which eventually led us to May Valley Road, which we walked in for a few miles, then jumped onto another dirt road and did the same. 

The morning was beautiful, we walked through a cool little burn area, everything was closed except for the road we were walking on. We saw a beautiful burned tree with some new growth starting:

The roads were actually quite pleasant. It's crazy to be viewing the mountain range from down below instead of being up on top of them! 

Long story short we climbed up different dirt roads and came up on the backside of Idylwild, avoiding the dangerous twisty turns of the narrow highway altogether! We rolled into town before noon, and took our tourist picture near a cool wooden statue:

We went back to the campground that we stayed at on Tuesday night, paid our $6 for the both of us to camp, aired and dried out the sleeping bags, washed up, and headed out to the library.

We killed some time in there waiting for $1 taco night to start at 5pm! Two $1 taco nights in one week?! Score! Oh and, something we didn't realize until later in the day: It's Cinco de Mayo! Fitting!

When we left we saw that the local theater was premiering the new Captain America movie one night early for $10. We thought about it for a second, but in the end, 10 tacos = waaaaay better than 1 movie ;)

We're now turning in for the night, juuuuust in time for the rain splatters to play their rhythmic song on our rain fly. The thunderstorm is supposed to hit tomorrow by noon, and then cold temps and rain are supposed to last until Sunday :/

We don't like the idea of staying three more days in town so we may just wait out the thunderstorm and carry on through the tail-end of rain. We've gotta hit crazy rain sometime between here and Canada right?

It's hard to say because of the alternate route, but we know that we did somewhere between 8.5 and 9 miles today. Fire closure alternate walk-around number 1 complete!

-Thanks for reading!

Day 15- May 4th

(In song) These shoes are great! 

These shoes are great. 

These shoes are great,

with a cherry on top!! (End song) 

This was my anthem all day. Did I mention that these shoes are great? Even after walking over 16 miles today, straight through the hottest time of day, all my blisters are dry and non-irritated. They are surely healing, yay!!

Unfortunately for Claire the previous shoes gave her a mean blister on the INSIDE of her pinky toe, so it continues to run on the neighbor toe. However, since the toes aren't as squished, we're hoping for a speedy bliss-covery.

But enough about feet. Today we set a new speed record for packing up camp, we were out on the trail by 6:45am! This may not seem like a big accomplishment, but with us sharing a small space, and a relatively big tent to break down in the morning, it means getting "started" at 5:30!

Getting that nice and early start sure makes a big difference.. The first few miles flew by! As we went up and up and up, we soon came across someone who has just packed up their campsite. It was Orion!!

What perfect timing! We hiked with him up up and up some more while catching up and seeing what's been going on. We came across some beautiful views towards the top:

We were waaaaaay up! 

It's nice when someone's around to take pictures of the two of us together! 

At the top we came to Cedar Springs Junction, which starts the 10 mile portion of the PCT closure. So we took a left in Cedar Springs trail and started going down down down! 13 switchbacks in a row! 

On the way down we saw two people hiking up. It was Cassie and Dario, the last of our three hitchhike rides yesterday out of Idylwild! They were day hiking and it was such a nice surprise to run into them again! The PCT is full of magical reunions and often times has extreme coincidental (or not) timing! 

At the bottom of Cedar Springs trail we continued on a paved road for 1.4 miles, then forked onto a crazy rocky dirt road that went down down down for 2.5 miles straight! No shade at all, and mean ankle-threatening rocks. 

At the very bottom, we had another reunion!! It was Alyssa and Paul, who we hadn't seen since day 3, hiking out of Lake Morena! We talked for awhile and ate lunch under a big pine. 

Alyssa sent me a very detailed 55 mile alternative route around the NEXT fire closure that up until today we thought was impassable, resulting in a 60 mile hitch and having to skip 40-60 miles of the PCT. (Which is a real bummer for those of us who want to maintain a continuos foot-path from Mexico to Canada!) More on that later, we can only handle one fire-closure at a time!! 

The road walks today weren't my favorite, but it's worth it in the long run to be able to say we walked from Mexico to Canada without hitching around any sections. And after all, they aren't ALL bad views:

This little dirt road paralleled the highway, and it's way safer for hikers. 

Today we hiked 16.2 miles total, only 7.65 of which were on a trial. The other 8.55 being on 4 different roads combined. 

It wasn't all that bad, we got to test out our little AM FM radios today. Claire and I both almost stepped on a snake. We also got to stop at a little market along the highway for some breakfast burritos and a Pacifico! 

Tonight we are camped close to the highway, but it's not loud enough to keep us awake. That storm that's supposed to start tomorrow night or early Friday and last until Sunday is still coming on strong. We plan on hiking our 9 mile road walk/bike path back into Idylwild, completing our fire closure alternative footpath, and we safe and sound enjoying $1 tacos again before the storm hits! 

-Thanks for reading! 

Day 14th- May 3rd

Today was such a good day! We woke up semi-early, went down to the Rangers check-in station and got $5 in shower tokens. 1 token = a 5 minute "hot" shower, not too bad! 

We then headed just down the road to do some laundry. They were so nice there; free soap to PCT hikers, and even random clean clothes to wear so you can wash everything! 

Stylin' 

During laundry we ran into Daniel ("Forgetpole"), and "Guac", (one of two of the Chips and Guac duo; we started with "Chips" (Russ)). After we were finished we were starving and headed to The Red Kettle for lunch. 

We had huuuuuge burgers (the biggest burger Claire has ever eaten) and sweet potato fries, yum!!

We then headed to the post office to pick up the new stove that Laguna Dave had sent. When I told the lady my name, she came back with two packages for me, one from my sister Sarah and one from my mom Ki'i (both are still in Hawaii)

Awesome care packages and cards guys! I have the best family ever! :) (The brownies disappeared first...) 

We hit the local grocery story since it was right next door, and resupplied with a few more items. Then it was off to the outfitter!

I know this all might sound kinda boring, but when you're out on the trail for days at a time, a morning in town is so exciting! I can imagine that it can get quite exhausting walking around a huge town, but so far, all the towns (including Idylwild), have been very walkable..

If you've read any of my previous blogs, you must be fully aware of Claire and I's blister problems. The day had finally come for new shoes! 

Out with the old :(

And in with the new!!

Yes, they may look like clown shoes, but they have a nice wide toe box, the bottom of the show is wider than your foot, (giving more stability), and they have "zero drop", which means the heels aren't any higher than the toe. 

This sounds weird but for loooong hiking, all day everyday, these shoes are te way to go.

Finally we were all done in town. As we were leaving, I had to save Claire from this dragon:

We packed up nice and quick, and hit the road! (To hitchhike). We got suuuuuper lucky with rides and got three connecting hitches in a row, making the 18 mile hitch out of town in about a 30 minute process!! (Verrrrrry good for hitching)

We hit the trail at about 5pm, and walked 5.5 miles through some of the most BEAUTIFUL terrain and trail we've seen so far! 

The trail was stunning, the shoes AMAZING, and the blister pain non-existent! We set up camp in the twilight, what an awesome view:

Well, that's about it! Tomorrow we walk about 5 more miles of the PCT, and then start our 25 mile fire closure detour that skips 10 miles of the PCT. That will land is back in Idyllwild in a couple days, just in time to wait out a snow storm in the mountains above! (All theoretically of course.)

Thanks for reading! 

Day 13- May 2nd

So today we walked 15 miles. (Well 15 trail miles but a more accurate number for miles walked is 16 and change.) now 15 miles is not uncommon out here on the PCT. So what made today so special? I walked it with no soles.

That's right, no insoles in my shoes. Reason: Our feet have started to swell in the desert, and we are now learning that we should've started with a size larger of shoe. This isn't a lack of research problem, just an underestimation of foot swell combined with sweaty socks combined with blisters!

Up until today I've been able to wear my shoes like normal, with a little rub on the feet and some minor blisters, but nothing too major. This morning the fit was wayyyyy to tight, and within the first couple hundred yards I knew I had to switch something up. So out went the soles and away went (a little bit) of the pain.

We had stoked up with water at Mike's yesterday, but found a cool surprise cache along the way! 

Nothing like unopened jugs of water in the desert, time to camel up! :)

We hiked long and hard and hot and tiring. Saw some beautiful views for sure but man are we beat! 

So pretty!!

The last couple miles went by painstakingly slow! I was hobbling in pain with every step in the last super long incline! Blisters + hot feet + plantar warts + no insoles + rocky/sandy ground = slow hobble..

Which actually brings me to my next topic! We came up with some clever trail names today! Yes, you're supposed to let other people pick your trail names, but since we've been avoiding most big group hiking interactions, we now have some temporary ones at least until we become properly named.

Ready? Claire's trail name is "Calvin' "

My trail name is "Hobbles"

Like Calvin and Hobbes! I had jokingly suggested earlier that Claire's name be "Calves", since she already has nicely toned dancer calves, one could say she's Calvin'! (Pronounced ka-vin) I always seem to be hobbling the last few miles a day because of my blisters, so there it is! 

After a looooong day we finally made it to the highway that we'd be hitching 18 miles NW from to get to Idylwild. After 15 minutes and about 30 cars that passed us by (light-traffic highway), we finally got a hit!

His name was Charlie and he was an ex-police officer that had worked in the narcotics division, and had some cool stories about local drug busts and grow-operation stake-outs in the area. He was very kind and gave us a tour of Idylwild. He asked where we wanted to be dropped off and let us know that there was a local taco-night special every Monday at a near-by Mexican joint. Guess where we ended up? Yup. 

$1 tacos and $5.50 margaritas!! 

We didn't stop there of course; we each had 5 tacos, the margs, some cervesa, and some deep fried ice cream! (Along with house chips and salsa during the entire dining experience) I'm allowed to constantly stuff my face, we just walked over 150 miles in less than 2 weeks! 

We were the only hikers there still dirty and accompanied by our packs. The rest had walked over from the campground where all their stuff was. After eating, we hobbled down to find the campgrounds, got lost, and then got a ride right to our campsite. 

Which brings me to the present. It's 9:30 and waaaay past normal sleep-time. Plan for tomorrow: Take some showers and do some laundry, pick up the new stove that Laguna Dave sent to us, get some new (bigger) shoes at the local outfitter, and then depending on what time it is either hitch back out to where we left off today or stay one more night and get an early start! 

-Thanks for reading! 

Day 12- May 1st

Wow guys, what an eventful birthday! Wowwowwow so much has happened today! 

So we woke up in our perfect little campsite we had scored yesterday. We slept in because... IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!! Woo-hoo! They day was absolutely beautiful, the weather had said there was a 60% chance thunderstorm the night before and today, but alas, not a cloud in the sky!

We walked through some beautiful boulder fields and took many many pictures! 

Finally some tee-shirt weather! 

And check out this epic panorama I took of Claire walking:

We knocked out about 4.5 miles when we came across this sign:

Mike Herrera is an awesome trail angel who lives out in the middle of nowhere next to the PCT. His private property land is surrounded by the Anza-Borrego State Park. This amazing dude has a well on his property which he lets all of the hundreds of PCT hikers that come through fill up at. Without his tank, hikers would be facing a 36 mile water-less stretch!

He happened to be home today and the lands caretaker Josh invited us down to the house, where about 8 other hikers were resting. Some had stayed the night because of the thunderstorm "scare". We enjoyed pancakes, carrots and Tecates, said thank you to Mike and Josh, gave the tip jar a little lovin', and then headed back out on the trail!

It was so warm and sunny that we had to pull out the umbrellas! Claire told me that for my birthday she had kept her Spotify Premium account. (Shorthand meaning that she had all my favorite reggae jams saved offline so I could listen to them on her phone today)! I popped in the tubes and started singing away some of my favorite songs! 

Suddenly some clouds popped out of nowhere, one of them was a perfect heart! 

(Of course by the time I took the picture it had started to dissolve) 

Three songs later and it started to sprinkle. We were both in t-shirts, Claire was wearing shorts, and we both had our umbrellas out because of the sun. Oh well, we thought, now we can finally use them for their intended use! 

The trail was going down and down and down, and the rain was getting harder and harder. Music still bumping, I heard Claire say something. 

"What?" I took the earphones out of my ear to hear her repeat:

"It's hailing!!" 

Sure enough the rain had turned into hail and it was coming down hard. Small pieces but lots of it. We rushed down the mountain quicker thinking we might be able to get low enough to escape it. 

I swear, in my whole life I've never seen weather change that quickly. One second it was a hot desert and a beautiful day, the next second it was flash flooding. It was now a mix of rain and sleet and hail. We hadn't had a chance o change clothes and the sidewards hail was pelting our legs, poor Claire in her shorts!

There were no trees around, only shrubs. We ran into some 4 ft shrubs to try and hunker down with our umbrellas as a shelter. It lent a few moments of relief. 

After a few minutes and no end, our fingers were turning white and our limbs becoming cold. We decided we had to keep moving forward to stay warm. 

Soon there were streams everywhere caused by the flash flood. We hobbled down the trail with our wet blistered feet, not able to avoid the water. 

Three-four foot wide and 10" deep streams, too big to jump over, were now crossing the pct in each dip. 

(If you look at the river closest the front in the picture, you can see a little rapid.. Full on river-status!)

Finally the hail stopped. It continues to rain in and off for a little while. Finally, when it had all stopped, we also stopped and changed into some dry clothes. Our feet were soaked and our socks were full of muddy grit that had gone right through the mesh and into the socks themselves.

The only thing to do was to keep pushing. Soon the misery went away and we were yet again just strolling along. It was only 5pm, the sky had cleared shortly after the hail ceased, but now it was darkening up again, we passed a group of people that invited us to camp with them, but decided to get in a few more miles and get even lower off the mountain in case the storm struck again. 

Sure enough, we soon heard thunder rolling back in, but it was almost as if we were walking INTO the darkening clouds! 

As we approached a good looking campsite with a couple other hikers a few miles later, the rain had started back up. We hurried as fast as we could to set up the tent in the now rain. However by the time we got it up everything was soaked. We threw all the dirty and muddy and wet items in, and then proceeded to wipe everything down with our Pack-Towels (Thanks MaRegine!)

We were sitting in the tent soaking wet and it was raining super hard outside, with thunder and a little lightning as well. Claire and I discussed and inquired the chances of surviving being hit by lightning, and if the poles in our tent acted as conductors. 

Once everything was relatively wiped down but nowhere near clean, it stopped raining. Of course! We went outside and witnessed some of the most beautiful scenery we had seen so far. The sky was pink and orange with the setting sun, the distant clouds looked mysterious and strange. All of the white rocks around had an orange tint and the green desert seemed to be sighing relief around us...

Claire had some people camped nearby to take some awesome pictures of us, a little birthday-shoot:

Well, that's about it. What a great birthday I had out here on the trail! Thanks for all the wishes everyone, all of the texts came in all at once when my phone caught service but I lost it agin before I could reply to anyone. We are safe and sound and have survived the storm!

-Thanks for reading! 

Day 11- April 30th

Last night it rained for about half the night. We woke up in Warner Springs and relectantly got out of the tent to pack up. Although reluctant, we had been there for a whole day yesterday, and were eager to leave.

Saying goodbye to our friends staying an extra day, we headed out. Our blisters were popped, however they were as bad as new when it came to pain factor. Within the first few miles, I had to stop and situate my feet. The pressure from my shoe on both my heels caused me to limp on my toe side on both feet, aggravating the arches. When we stopped I taped up a blister I had forgotten on one of my toes and changed my socks to thinner socks.

Viola! The sock change had relieved  the pain! It was like magic. My huge blister (or what remained) on the left heel was no longer rubbing thanks to the thickness of the thin socks!

Feeling 100's of times better, we trekked on at a faster pace. Slowly climbing out of the valley, we crossed a nice stream 5 times, there were different cacti and all sorts of beautiful flowers blooming left and right! We even saw a few nice yuccas that reminded us of day 1 in Campo:

Claire and I's hiking style is to not eat much in the morning, (this morning being an exception as there were some goodies at the Warner Springs resource center like fresh fruit that we consumed upon leaving) but then eat little snacks throughout half of the day, until we get substantially hungry for a lunch. Today my lunch consisted of tortillas with these awesome Spam Singles I found in the hiker box at WS! 

Hawaii represent!!

Don't worry that's not all we eat on the trail. Walking 13.21 miles (that's what we did today), you eat a lot..

 A lot of people have been getting things in their resupply boxes which they're already sick of. Since Claire and I are resupplying along the way, we are able to grab many items from the hiker boxes that other hikers have tossed (such as the spam singles). This allows us to vary our diets quite well. It also saves us a lot of money because that means less items we have to buy at the grocery stores in towns!

Just yesterday one of our friends gave us some couscous and also some potatoes (think Idahoan packets) with nuts and grains and dehydrated mushrooms mixed in. We ate it all up today on trail. We also had some mac n cheese that was in a hiker box. 

Some people make awesome delicious meals like those potatoes with mushrooms, but if they don't eat it all by the time their next box comes, they throw it in the hiker boxes to save some food weight. I've also found some MRE's and other packaged dehydrated meals like the Mountain House brand (our favorite that  we've found is chicken and rice- usually $9!!)

Wow, 5 paragraphs on food, you can tell what I think about all day, haha. Anyway, some trail news and updates: 

We are about 30 miles from a highway, where Claire and I will hitch 18 miles into the town of Idylwild, where Dave from Mt.  Laguna Sports is sending us our new stove. We are also going to buy new shoes as we are 100% sure now that they are what's causing the blisters. (Yes the socks made a difference but our feet are swelling everyday) we need to size up and get a shoe with a little more stability and ankle support. 

Claire also said she'll buy me a new pillow in Idylwild for my birthday as mine has a leak and flattens out every 10 minutes :( The leak is too small to find so I can't patch it. Until then I'm using my awesome puffy jacket as a pillow. How you ask? .... Just ask how. Thanks.

Well, since you asked, Claire showed me that our puffys can stuff into their own pockets! 

Step 1:

Step 2:

TADA!! A pillow!

Tonight we found an awesome campsite just off trail with a beautiful tree arch and a big nice rock to cook and eat on. (The crappy broken stove we have now is kiiiiind of working, so we'll be using it (carefully) until we get to Idylwild.)

As I said before we did 13.21 miles today, (we would be doing more, but we really need bigger shoes so we're taking it easy) and the highway is 30 miles away. We'll probably do 14 or 15 tomorrow and the same Monday. That way we can hitch into Idylwild wary Tuesday and be productive with our "to-do list." Then hitch back out to the trail to avoid having to spend the night and $$ in town..

These are all theoretical plans, as the trail has its own way of doing things sometimes.. But we love it! Well it's almost 8, past our bedtimes!

-Thanks for reading!