4-27

Mile 100!!

Woke up today after a terrible nights sleep and ate breakfast (Apple jacks) in bed talking with everyone around me. Apparently there was lots of good star gazing last night, including a meteor that illuminated the ground. 

Packed up and was ready to hit the trail at 7. Bummed around camp for another 10 mins, before shake & bake  and Eloise wanted to leave as well. We all said okay and agreed to start hiking. Except when we went to walk towards the tail, each of the 3 of us went different directions. 

Pushed a fast 5 miles and was at the water cache at mile 91 by 9:07. Walked down to the water and took one liter. I ended up sitting around talking to everyone for about an hour before heading out again. 

There was still some wind around today, but not as crazy as it has been, just enough to be able to hike through the hottest part of the day in relative comfort. Took a lunch break with most of the same people from last night around 12:30, and then moved on. Checked out a small cave with Phil and then kept moving to get to the mile 100 marker. Had a celebratory drink of rum, took some pictures and then pushed on. 

After some minor confusion we made it to the barrel springs camping area with a horse trough to get water from. Washed my feet, had more rum, set up camp, and made dinner. This was my first on trail riceroni and I was really impressed. It's only 7pm but I'm already in my sleeping bag. Tomorrow should be fun. 

4-26

While walking down to camp yesterday the wind never relented. All of the campsites were totally exposed to the screaming gusts. so we pushed the final 5 miles to a road where we were immediately spotted by a car that we had seen before. When we camped after mt Laguna the husband/wife duo that we shared a campsite with was in the car and gave us all a ride into Julian. We got one of the last rooms at the Julian lodge and it was HUGE!! Advertised as being able to sleep 4, we could easily have put 20 hikers in there no worries. Everyone threw laundry into a pile and got that squared away first. As people were showering I did was I could to wipe off the massive amounts of dust that had accumulated after the wind storm the night before. Lots of hanging out, took pictures of people's blisters, had a few drinks before turning in for bed. 

Woke up early as I'm getting used to trying to hike most of my miles in the cool morning hours. Played on my phone and talked to Ashlee for a good part of the morning. Looks like we're going to be getting a visit soon! 

Showered again, because I could, and then organized food & gear. I'm. Carrying a LOT of food. Too much. Coupled with all the water we have to  carry, it gets heavy. 

Took a while to get a ride back to the trail but eventually made it and started walking around 3:20. Today led me through some Beautiful trails winding up the side of very rocky maintains full of cacti. It's almost starting to feel like the desert now. Passed a handful of people on my way up, and with the wind keeping me cool, I barely took any breaks. Made it just shy of 9 miles before finding a killer campsite with 9 other hikers on top of a hill somewhat protected from the winds by other mountains. I'm facing east so if I don't wake up to my alarm, I'll get a great sunrise in bed. 

It's a little windy still, and fairly cold. But I'm cowboy camping anyway. The stars are so nice, it's hard to turn down the view. 

I carried 4 liters of water out of town. Drank some and made dinner so I'm left with 2 and change. There's a water cache in 5 miles, and then a real water source 10 miles later. I'm going to do at least 15 tomorrow to hopefully get me into Warner springs the next morning. 

4-25

Day 4

Woke up at the campground just outside of mt Laguna. It was 7/10 of a mile away from the trail but we got a hitch there last night right as we got to the road. 

Stayed near a couple, Lamar and his gf, moritz (now named coinslot for the multiple appearances of his asscrack), Brianna, and a section hiker and his wife. Some little shithead kids threw a frisbee that hit someone in our group twice and when they ran over to get it they knock out someone's tent stake, so I went over and yelled at them.

Went to bed in my tarp for the first time this trip. I'm glad I did because it got pretty cold. 29° I was told. Started off the day pretty chilly and coinslot took off ahead of Brianna and I. We met up with swider and chips and stayed with them all day. 

We came to a campground with fire rings and one was still smoldering, so I peed on it before taking a couple water bottles from the nearby water fountain and dumping them on it. You know what smokey the bear says...

We did an easy 10-12 miles by noon and took a good long rest at the water tank near mile 59 at the sunrise trailhead. Stayed there for lunch and a siesta fiesta complete with karaoke from chips' phone. I didn't sing. It was the first time I had to filter water, drawing it from a horse trough. It was SUPER windy (25-35 mph) while we siesta'ed and still continues to howl (25-40mph) where we are camped near the fire tanker at mile 62. We're hunkered down behind the hill and building, using it as a wind break with moderate success. A 50' walk from my tent increases the wind exposure to laughable levels. CRAZY. WINDY. 

We ate dinner as a group and passed around the food we had excess of. Cheese, salami, and m&m's; on top of our regular dinners. 

We're all in our (dusty) tents/tarps now waiting to sleep, writing this as I listen to my own music for the first time this trail. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, we may decide to push the 16 miles (instead of the original planned 11) into town if it's bad. 

Update: it's STILL CRAZY WINDY. my tarp is pitched pretty taught and it's still flapping around. I just got hit in the face. I'm wearing a bandana over my nose/mouth to keep the dust out. My sleeping bag/feet are in a trash bag song could pitch the tarp lower and allow them to rub the tarp without getting condensation on it. But at this point, condensation will be flung everywhere anyway. So Ya. Not expecting much sleep tonight. 

4-23

With only 6 (not 8) miles into mount Laguna, we made it there before the post office even opened. Took a seat at a table in a diner with about 15-20 other hikers that also just got into town. Had some breakfast and then ran to the post office down the road. Picked up my mail drop and crammed it into my food bag before taking a short break on the steps of the post office for about just under 7 hours. We were at the the post office at 10:20 and didn't leave the porch till 5. I made multiple visits to the genera food store for snacks and to raid the hiker box (free food FTW!) and one visit to the KILLER gear shop also in town. Left and did 6 miles to get to the campground. 

Day one

Started the day at bobs at 4:15 am. Woke up with manda (from Portland), John(from nyc) , and moritz (from Germany). Ate a small breakfast and filled up water bottles, before loading out packs into the mini van and making the one hour drive to the trail head. 

Arrived at the monument around 6am and everyone was chilly and nervous. We signed the trail register and took some pictures with the group in front of the monument. There were two other hikers there as well getting ready to get started. One of them, Brianna, ended up joining our misfit family for the day as we all started making our way up the trail. 

The first mile was a cause for celebration, we stopped and took a photo with the sign and had some water. We pushed on and as the day went on our little group split up and rendezvoused multiple times. There were snack breaks, sit breaks, bathroom breaks and even a nap or two in the hottest part of the day. 

For the most part, the trail was very well marked and graded very gently. There were a few extended climbs (which eventually started to irritate my right hip flexor) but for the most part the trail was very pleasant, even in the heat. To be honest, it probably didn't get above 90° today and being from Florida makes heat easy to deal with. 

The worst climb was leaving Hauser creek. We pulled into Hauser creek around 330 and I immediately pulled out my sleeping pad to lay down for a nap. When we arrived there were already 4 people sitting around. We layer out our gear and made ourselves at home. Not long after, ryan - a 19 year old kid from Missouri carrying a 50 pound pack who we had run into multiple times - showed up. He was lamenting over the fact that he was down to half of a liter of water when we heard an engine pulling in. A man with no teeth rode a souped up moped down the hill with 4 liters of water and gifted 2 of them to ryan along with some weed. Talk about trail Magic. 

We sat around houser creek till 530. Most everyone decided to stay and camp there, but I was eager to keep going to at least mile 18 in order to finish the climb out of the creek bed. The creek was completely dry, and the first reliable water source is at mile 20, so I wanted to have an easy walk to it in the morning. 

Climbed up the hill and cooked dinner on a rock with Brianna before throwing my sleeping bag on the ground quite literally 18 inches to the side of the trail underneath a tree. No tent tonight, my first experience in cowboy camping. 

The gear that I'm bringing

So I kind of had a brain fart and completely forgot to include the trekking poles that I will be carrying as well. I'll be using the same Leki makalu trail's that I brought with me on the Appalachian Trail. Other than that, this is what I will be brining.

From Mexico to Canada

I'm happy to finally be able to officially announce that I will be attempting a northbound thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail from the US/Mexican border, 2650 miles north to Manning Park, British Columbia. 

                  

I hope to start the week of the 18th of April, but that might be moved around depending on when I'm able to get a permit. The Pacific Crest Trail Organization starts issuing permits early next month, so I won't have an exact date until then.

For right now, I have been whittling down my gear list making everything as light as possible, using some lessons I learned while I was on the Appalachian Trail in 2012. My base pack weight (without food or water) is right around 7.39 Lbs. 

which ends up looking something like this