Saturday, April 30, 2016
Julian to Warner Springs
We last wrote from the comfort of Julian, a little touristy town that nobody planned to stop at ... But then everyone did. Turns out, there's a ~35 mile stretch with no water. Halfway through that stretch, there's a road though. You can hitch to the right and get water at an RV park, or to the left and get water in an adorable town that offers, among other things, free pie for PCT hikers. Obviously, we went left. So did everyone else. It was pretty hilarious to run into all our new hiking friends in town and have the same conversation.
Hiker 1: oh, so funny to see you guys! I thought you were way ahead.
Hiker 2: yeah but the water situation... And the pie.....
We took a full zero in Julian (day where we walked zero miles) because Justin's knee and my
Achilles were acting up. It was great to have a day of recovery - the hotel where we stayed (decorated in the same Victorian style as my childhood home - when Justin noted there was nowhere comfortable to sit in the hotel, I gave him a look that I hope implied "try that for 18 years") was super nice and kept giving us bags of ice. We watched several movies on our phones, the best of which was "Dope," which we highly recommend.
Free pie for hikers!
An unplanned zero sets us a day behind schedule though. Not a huge deal, but we do have a somewhat important deadline in July. It's incredible how easy it is to fall behind schedule (slow down the miles, take an extra day), and how hard it is to make up a day (skip a town stop, do 40 miles on day instead of 20?!). Hopefully we don't have too many more unexpected stops.
We hitched back to town with a man who wasn't even going in the direction of the trail. He said if he went home, he was going to have to do laundry, so he was putting that off for as long as possible. So he drove 20 minutes out of his way, just to drive us to the trailhead. Thanks, Mr. Mitchell! He also has a custom woodworking company making natural items out of local woods, so here's a plug for Mitchell Woodworks.
The trail was awesome from the the trailhead (known as Scissors Crossing). Trail magic donuts in an underpass (thank you, we'll take two), then a gentle climb up 2,000 feet with flowering cacti on both sides. It was incredibly sandy and gradual and the plant life just kept getting cooler. At one point, I announced I was going back to school to get my phd in desert botany. Justin correctly noted that might have a negative impact on my already staggering student debt load. So the idea is on hold for now. The trail snaked laterally along the side of a mountain range that whole afternoon, so you could see where you were heading for miles. It was really incredible - my favorite stretch so far.
Awesome flowering cacti!
Still awesome.
Keeping the rain clouds at bay.
Trail sunset.
The next day was sunny with blue skies! Our first perfect weather day since day 1. We took it real slow again, hoping to not exacerbate the injuries. Highlights included hitting mile 100 (!!), seeing Jack Haskell sign into a trail register right before us (he's the face of the Pacific Crest Trail Association - the magical place that maintains the trail, issues our permits, and does other incredible things to keep this footpath running), and walking through like 2 miles of valleys field with purple wheat unexpectedly at the end of the day. We obviously sang "America the Beautiful" to commemorate this unexpected desert moment. We're now camping about 4 miles away from town (Warner Springs - really just a post office), and are hoping we can pick up our resupply box and post this blog all before lunch. It rained last night and is supposed to thunder tomorrow, so we're getting the full range of weather.
Celebration at mile 100!
Oh beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain. (Memories of 4th grade chorus coming back)
Little rain overnight in the desert!
One last thing. One of our PCT apps tells us the total elevation gain/loss before we hit X destination. Typically, it's helpful to see how much climbing we have to do before, say, lunch. But Justin, cheeky fellow that he is, decided to see how much climbing we have to do before Canada. Answer: 468,000 feet up, 467,000 feet down. That's right, we still have to go from sea level to the peak of Everest 16 times. Guess we better start walking.
Update from Warner Springs. We made it, got our boxes (thanks mom and carol for the love!) and then had lunch with the man the myth.... Jack Haskel! We spent the whole lunch talking about the PCTA's strategic plan. You can take the consultants out of the team room....
Hiker 1: oh, so funny to see you guys! I thought you were way ahead.
Hiker 2: yeah but the water situation... And the pie.....
We took a full zero in Julian (day where we walked zero miles) because Justin's knee and my
Achilles were acting up. It was great to have a day of recovery - the hotel where we stayed (decorated in the same Victorian style as my childhood home - when Justin noted there was nowhere comfortable to sit in the hotel, I gave him a look that I hope implied "try that for 18 years") was super nice and kept giving us bags of ice. We watched several movies on our phones, the best of which was "Dope," which we highly recommend.
Free pie for hikers!
An unplanned zero sets us a day behind schedule though. Not a huge deal, but we do have a somewhat important deadline in July. It's incredible how easy it is to fall behind schedule (slow down the miles, take an extra day), and how hard it is to make up a day (skip a town stop, do 40 miles on day instead of 20?!). Hopefully we don't have too many more unexpected stops.
We hitched back to town with a man who wasn't even going in the direction of the trail. He said if he went home, he was going to have to do laundry, so he was putting that off for as long as possible. So he drove 20 minutes out of his way, just to drive us to the trailhead. Thanks, Mr. Mitchell! He also has a custom woodworking company making natural items out of local woods, so here's a plug for Mitchell Woodworks.
The trail was awesome from the the trailhead (known as Scissors Crossing). Trail magic donuts in an underpass (thank you, we'll take two), then a gentle climb up 2,000 feet with flowering cacti on both sides. It was incredibly sandy and gradual and the plant life just kept getting cooler. At one point, I announced I was going back to school to get my phd in desert botany. Justin correctly noted that might have a negative impact on my already staggering student debt load. So the idea is on hold for now. The trail snaked laterally along the side of a mountain range that whole afternoon, so you could see where you were heading for miles. It was really incredible - my favorite stretch so far.
Awesome flowering cacti!
Still awesome.
Keeping the rain clouds at bay.
Trail sunset.
The next day was sunny with blue skies! Our first perfect weather day since day 1. We took it real slow again, hoping to not exacerbate the injuries. Highlights included hitting mile 100 (!!), seeing Jack Haskell sign into a trail register right before us (he's the face of the Pacific Crest Trail Association - the magical place that maintains the trail, issues our permits, and does other incredible things to keep this footpath running), and walking through like 2 miles of valleys field with purple wheat unexpectedly at the end of the day. We obviously sang "America the Beautiful" to commemorate this unexpected desert moment. We're now camping about 4 miles away from town (Warner Springs - really just a post office), and are hoping we can pick up our resupply box and post this blog all before lunch. It rained last night and is supposed to thunder tomorrow, so we're getting the full range of weather.
Celebration at mile 100!
Oh beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain. (Memories of 4th grade chorus coming back)
Little rain overnight in the desert!
One last thing. One of our PCT apps tells us the total elevation gain/loss before we hit X destination. Typically, it's helpful to see how much climbing we have to do before, say, lunch. But Justin, cheeky fellow that he is, decided to see how much climbing we have to do before Canada. Answer: 468,000 feet up, 467,000 feet down. That's right, we still have to go from sea level to the peak of Everest 16 times. Guess we better start walking.
Update from Warner Springs. We made it, got our boxes (thanks mom and carol for the love!) and then had lunch with the man the myth.... Jack Haskel! We spent the whole lunch talking about the PCTA's strategic plan. You can take the consultants out of the team room....
Wednesday, April 27, 2016
Mount Laguna to Warner Springs (just kidding, Julian): or how we stopped striving and learned to slow down
We hit Mount Laguna early in the day, and after breakfast and packing up our resupplies from the general store (we had sent a box), we hit the trail. Given that we had already hiked 5 miles we figured we would follow the wisdom of the crowd and camp another 5 miles out of town at the Mount Laguna campground. Needless to say, we got there too quickly ... So we kept hiking.
It was an unseasonably cold day already, high of 48 in town. Once we had gone another mile or two from the campground, the wind decided to announce its presence at a nice 35 mph with gusts up to nearly 50 mph. Jenny got nearly knocked over by a particularly strong gust (I caught her before she fell backwards into a cactus). In the middle of this madness we hit fifty miles -- other hikers had marked it with stones.
Needless to say, we had to walk at least another 9 miles from the campground (14 miles from Mount Laguna) to hit a known spot to put our tent.
At around 5:45pm we found a little cove in the bushes just off the trail. We decided to set up camp there. The wind disagreed. Despite Jenny laying in the tent to keep it anchored, and my putting stakes in the ground and covering them with big rocks, the wind pulled up the stakes from the soft ground. We packed up and kept walking.
About a mile later we found the noted campsites in a boulder field, saw a tent set up and found a promising spot nearby. Lo and behold, we managed to stake in the tent, tie up all possible guy lines and have shelter from the wind and later rain. We were pretty excited.
We cooked in the vestibule. The mashed potatoes were delicious.
The next day we got up early and hiked 13 miles to a water tank. It was a beautiful walk down into a valley to get there: gorgeous views, wildflowers and the utter destruction of my knees.
Jenny walking through the Dr Seuss-esque landscape down into the valley.
Wildflowers and cacti abound out here!
When we arrived at the water spot, several other hikers were already there taking a siesta. A hiker we had met at the beginning, Blue Moon, lent his heavier water bottle to the rest of the hikers to attach to a rope and scoop water out of the deep well. We later learned there was a spigot down the hill. Go figure. We had fun pumping water nonetheless.
After lunch we decided to hike onwards towards Scissors Crossing on the valley floor. To put this in perspective we had been up at 6,000 feet and hiked down to 2,200 feet in a day. The trail circumnavigated rocky peaks, and then took us through an other worldly desert floor.
We knew we hit the road when we saw the tell tale thruhiker sign in the trail:
Although not part of the plan, we hitched into Julian, a small former gold mining town near the trail. A lovely woman, Karen, who worked as a manager at a hotel in town gave us a ride. We decided to rest our weary bones and ligaments. We weren't the only ones.
We are still getting our trail legs. In the meantime, we need to rest. It's a long 2,650+ miles to Canada, and we cannot afford to get hurt. Therefore, RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation) pizza and board games with other hikers for the moment. Up next: Warner Springs.
It was an unseasonably cold day already, high of 48 in town. Once we had gone another mile or two from the campground, the wind decided to announce its presence at a nice 35 mph with gusts up to nearly 50 mph. Jenny got nearly knocked over by a particularly strong gust (I caught her before she fell backwards into a cactus). In the middle of this madness we hit fifty miles -- other hikers had marked it with stones.
Needless to say, we had to walk at least another 9 miles from the campground (14 miles from Mount Laguna) to hit a known spot to put our tent.
At around 5:45pm we found a little cove in the bushes just off the trail. We decided to set up camp there. The wind disagreed. Despite Jenny laying in the tent to keep it anchored, and my putting stakes in the ground and covering them with big rocks, the wind pulled up the stakes from the soft ground. We packed up and kept walking.
About a mile later we found the noted campsites in a boulder field, saw a tent set up and found a promising spot nearby. Lo and behold, we managed to stake in the tent, tie up all possible guy lines and have shelter from the wind and later rain. We were pretty excited.
We cooked in the vestibule. The mashed potatoes were delicious.
The next day we got up early and hiked 13 miles to a water tank. It was a beautiful walk down into a valley to get there: gorgeous views, wildflowers and the utter destruction of my knees.
Jenny walking through the Dr Seuss-esque landscape down into the valley.
Wildflowers and cacti abound out here!
When we arrived at the water spot, several other hikers were already there taking a siesta. A hiker we had met at the beginning, Blue Moon, lent his heavier water bottle to the rest of the hikers to attach to a rope and scoop water out of the deep well. We later learned there was a spigot down the hill. Go figure. We had fun pumping water nonetheless.
After lunch we decided to hike onwards towards Scissors Crossing on the valley floor. To put this in perspective we had been up at 6,000 feet and hiked down to 2,200 feet in a day. The trail circumnavigated rocky peaks, and then took us through an other worldly desert floor.
We knew we hit the road when we saw the tell tale thruhiker sign in the trail:
Although not part of the plan, we hitched into Julian, a small former gold mining town near the trail. A lovely woman, Karen, who worked as a manager at a hotel in town gave us a ride. We decided to rest our weary bones and ligaments. We weren't the only ones.
We are still getting our trail legs. In the meantime, we need to rest. It's a long 2,650+ miles to Canada, and we cannot afford to get hurt. Therefore, RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation) pizza and board games with other hikers for the moment. Up next: Warner Springs.
Location:Main St,Julian,United States
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
Campo to Mount Laguna
Made it the first 42 miles! Scout and Frodo continued their amazingly tight ship on Saturday morning. They told us we were going to leave at six, and sure enough when I checked my watch in the car, it said 6:00 exactly. A volunteer named Jesse drove our car (we were a caravan of three cars filled with April 23rd starts!). Scout pulled us aside at the border for some marital advice: be kind to each other, he said - and then hugged us both.
A lot of our starting crew.
Scout and one of the volunteers who drives people to the border.
At the Southern Terminus! Looking fresh and clean.
Scout made us take this photo. Everyone then clapped. Justin loved it.
Makin' huge progress. 2649 to go.
While about 15-20 people were milling around the border (literally, you start the hike next to some barbed wire, a dirt road for border patrol jeeps, and then the wall that separates us from Mexico), people had different levels of appetite for taking pictures near the Southern Terminus monument. When we were picture-sated, so was a small group: two Australian guys, two east coasters who have already hiked the Appalachian Trail, a guy from Oklahoma, and a 19-year old from Canada. We stayed with these guys more or less for the next two days. Lotta dudes... Fortunately I have three brothers and am used to their shenanigans.
Thanks for the snacks, Andrea!
Inaugural wrap of the hike!! Smoked cheddar, tapatio, and raspberry jam. Only downhill from here.
Awesome wildflowers in the desert right now!
We didn't want to overextend ourselves on Day 1. Unfortunately, there are no sources of water in the first twenty miles of trail, so you have to either carry a ton of water, or have your first day be a 20-miler. We ended up doing (oof) ... both. We brought mucho water in case we decided to camp at mile 15. However, when we got there, we were in such good spirits that we decided to go the last five miles. We gave our extra water to the Korean film crew who is here doing a documentary on the trail, lugging a ton of equipment, and generally seeming underprepared. 20 miles in the books! The next day was an uneventful but beautiful 17, and then on Monday we walked five miles into the town of Mount Laguna, where we picked up our first resupply box. The trail has been good to us so far - sandy, gentle, and sunny. Justin will be sharing our post Mt Laguna reflections in the next post. But here's a little preview: WIND.
Justin got a reflective umbrella for desert.
He's still figuring out how to make it work for him.
We're doing a lot of thinking about how this experience is different from 2014. I mean there are obvious things: we're getting married! We're doing the whole hike! We already know that Kennedy Meadows is the single greatest spot on the planet! But the biggest difference by far is mindset. We have confidence we can do this and have some experiences to back that confidence up. This has made the last few days a lot more fun and less stressful. Good old mindset....changes everything.
Awesome wildflowers.
And finally, some scary signs.
Don't worry Mom. If we see an unexploded military ordinance, we won't touch it.
A lot of our starting crew.
Scout and one of the volunteers who drives people to the border.
At the Southern Terminus! Looking fresh and clean.
Scout made us take this photo. Everyone then clapped. Justin loved it.
Makin' huge progress. 2649 to go.
While about 15-20 people were milling around the border (literally, you start the hike next to some barbed wire, a dirt road for border patrol jeeps, and then the wall that separates us from Mexico), people had different levels of appetite for taking pictures near the Southern Terminus monument. When we were picture-sated, so was a small group: two Australian guys, two east coasters who have already hiked the Appalachian Trail, a guy from Oklahoma, and a 19-year old from Canada. We stayed with these guys more or less for the next two days. Lotta dudes... Fortunately I have three brothers and am used to their shenanigans.
Thanks for the snacks, Andrea!
Inaugural wrap of the hike!! Smoked cheddar, tapatio, and raspberry jam. Only downhill from here.
Awesome wildflowers in the desert right now!
We didn't want to overextend ourselves on Day 1. Unfortunately, there are no sources of water in the first twenty miles of trail, so you have to either carry a ton of water, or have your first day be a 20-miler. We ended up doing (oof) ... both. We brought mucho water in case we decided to camp at mile 15. However, when we got there, we were in such good spirits that we decided to go the last five miles. We gave our extra water to the Korean film crew who is here doing a documentary on the trail, lugging a ton of equipment, and generally seeming underprepared. 20 miles in the books! The next day was an uneventful but beautiful 17, and then on Monday we walked five miles into the town of Mount Laguna, where we picked up our first resupply box. The trail has been good to us so far - sandy, gentle, and sunny. Justin will be sharing our post Mt Laguna reflections in the next post. But here's a little preview: WIND.
Justin got a reflective umbrella for desert.
He's still figuring out how to make it work for him.
We're doing a lot of thinking about how this experience is different from 2014. I mean there are obvious things: we're getting married! We're doing the whole hike! We already know that Kennedy Meadows is the single greatest spot on the planet! But the biggest difference by far is mindset. We have confidence we can do this and have some experiences to back that confidence up. This has made the last few days a lot more fun and less stressful. Good old mindset....changes everything.
Awesome wildflowers.
And finally, some scary signs.
Don't worry Mom. If we see an unexploded military ordinance, we won't touch it.
Friday, April 22, 2016
Trail Angels!
As Jenny mentioned we've officially gotten rid of the last of our non-hiking clothes in preparation for the start of our hike tomorrow. Though as you can see from this shot of her walking through the gorgeous Union Station in Los Angeles, the change isn't super apparent from the outside.
We are spending our last night before the trail at a trail angel house in San Diego: Scout and Frodos home. Scout and Frodo are the trail names of these generous souls who routinely host 20+ hikers a night during hiking season, organizing resupplies, providing big tents in their backyards for hikers to sleep, and shuttling vans of hikers to the border to start the hike.
They ran a tight ship. Take a look at this little peak into their "command center": Gantt chart of arrivals for each hiker with dietary restrictions and nationality.
They organize dozens of volunteers, airport pick ups and more every day. They feed us, provide fuel for sale, and maintain a spotless house that feels remarkably calm. All for nothing in return. It's an amazing act of giving to the hiking community by a couple that love it. We are exceedingly grateful and lucky to have their support!!
Tomorrow morning we are up at 5:15am for a 5:30 breakfast and 6am drive to the border. We are nervous, excited and hopeful that our legs hold up on the first day.
Good night from San Diego.
Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
We are spending our last night before the trail at a trail angel house in San Diego: Scout and Frodos home. Scout and Frodo are the trail names of these generous souls who routinely host 20+ hikers a night during hiking season, organizing resupplies, providing big tents in their backyards for hikers to sleep, and shuttling vans of hikers to the border to start the hike.
They ran a tight ship. Take a look at this little peak into their "command center": Gantt chart of arrivals for each hiker with dietary restrictions and nationality.
They organize dozens of volunteers, airport pick ups and more every day. They feed us, provide fuel for sale, and maintain a spotless house that feels remarkably calm. All for nothing in return. It's an amazing act of giving to the hiking community by a couple that love it. We are exceedingly grateful and lucky to have their support!!
Tomorrow morning we are up at 5:15am for a 5:30 breakfast and 6am drive to the border. We are nervous, excited and hopeful that our legs hold up on the first day.
Good night from San Diego.
Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Location:Wellesly Ct,San Diego,United States
Day minus one!
Tim and Matthew joined us for a wonderful last night in the Bay. Matthew made us Mexican feast with mango salsa (and steak for Justin) because he knows we'll be craving it in a few weeks. We gave them both a ton of bags to bring to our wedding in July, our wedding dress/suit, and a million resupply boxes. Thanks, brothers! Matthew the drove us to the train the next morning and waved us off.
We decided to take the train down to San Diego because we wanted to savor a slower pace from the start. Yesterday, we did the first leg from SF to LA. I highly recommend it! While roughly twice as long as driving, we had beautiful views of the Central Valley and then somewhere around Santa Barbara, we hit the coast! We were on cliffs right above the ocean, watching whales breach in front of the setting sun. Probably the best wildlife we'll see on the whole journey, knowing my wildlife luck.
We spent last night in LA at a Starwood hotel, in official commemoration of our last night as consultants (for now - we'll be back in October). Today we did a bunch of final wedding errands while we still had access to a computer and then went out to lunch at a hipster Vietnamese spot, because Asian food will be sparse for the next few months.
The clothes we are wearing are a mix of clothes we're wearing on the trail and clothes we are going to ditch before tomorrow morning. I felt so dorky going to this super hip lunch spot in LA wearing bright orange crocs and a hand-me-down tshirt from Matthew that says "Significant Otter." Hiker trash, through and through.
Friends of a friend of a friend are meeting us at the San Diego train station. They're famous "Southern Terminus" trail angels and in peak hiker season (aka now), they pick up groups of hikers every night and shuttle them to the southern border every morning at 6 am. There's an amazing network of volunteers who make this experience happen and we're grateful for all of it.
We started the PCT at mile 450 last year, when a number of hikers had already dropped out and the remainder had gotten a bit dispersed. Starting from the Mexican border tomorrow morning will be a different experience. The PCTA issues 50 permits per day to start at the Southern Terminus, so we'll be hiking with dozens of others tomorrow. I'm sure even within the first week we'll start to spread out, but the next few days will be social ones. New friends!!
We're only taking on 41 miles in this first resupply (by the time we're in good shape, we'll be able to do 150 miles in a single stretch). So hopefully we can take it easy, enjoy the significance of this moment, and not hurt ourselves. Should be in Mt Laguna by Monday!!
For whatever reason it's 2016 and there's seemingly still not a reasonable way to post to blogger from my phone. Get it together, Google. So until I figure this out, my pictures will continue to not be embedded into the post.
1. Matthew send off at the Amtrak in Emeryville
2 and 3. Awesome views from the train
4. Someone looks awesome while enjoying hipster LA.
Wednesday, April 20, 2016
The things we carry
Editor's note (aka note from Jen): I suggested Justin write a blog post about gear, since we've both gotten a number of questions. Holy cow, I did not realize he was going to go into this level of detail. The following should sate even the most curious of readers. Over to you, Justin.
When hiking 2,650 miles, we choose the things we carry carefully. We want to carry as little as possible while staying happy and healthy.
Every hiker figures out the right balance of gear to them depending on what they're doing. If you are going out for 5 days and planning to hike 8-12 miles a day, you might want to carry camp chairs, a roomy tent, a guitar, several onions, a skillet and a bottle of whiskey. If, however, you are going to be walking for days on end that is probably not a great idea. You want to keep enough weight off your legs that you don't need to rest several days for every week that you hike.
On a thru-hike – what long distance hiking trails are called when hiked from start to finish – weight becomes especially critical. Thru-hikers can be passionate to the point of insufferable when it comes to their gear (we'll talk about food another time). Admittedly, it ranks up there in one of our least favorite conversations to have with other hikers. And yet, it's critical.
So, what things will we carry?
The big 3: tent, sleeping bag & backpack.
Tent: Big Agnes Fly Creek UL3 (3lbs)
- Tent or no tent? Believe it or not a lot of PCT hikers don't sleep in tents. Some "cowboy camp" – i.e., sleep under the stars – for the full first section of the trail in the desert. This strikes this risk-averse couple as a great way to see if there really are snow storms around Mt San Jacinto in May (there are). Some use lightweight tarps or bivouacs that they have to use their hiking poles or other structures to set up. These are absolutely lighter, but take more time to set up and may require you to be picky about where you can go to bed at night (not fun after 25 miles of hiking). We chose to sleep in a tent because they are easy to set up, and protect us better from the elements.
- Which tent? Two years ago, when we hiked about half of the PCT, we slept in a 2-person tent: the Mountain Hardwear Super Mega UL2. A 2 lb (!!) tent, it served us excellently over more than a thousand miles and three months of hiking. However, the price we paid for the weight: only one of us could sit up at a time. Jenny maintains it kept us close. I, well, I bought a bigger tent, a 3-person ultralight tent that has enough room for us to put our packs inside when it's raining and both sit up at a time. The price: an extra pound of weight that I will carry. Worth it? We'll see. The other stipulation: if the tent requires us to hike longer than planned more than two times in a row because it's too big for campsites, we will trade it in for our more snuggly tent.
Sleeping bag: EMS Mountainlight 15 degree bag (2lbs)
An excellent, lightweight down sleeping bag. This bag served us well last time around, and we'll use it again this time around. While it may not exactly keep us warm to 15 degrees, it's pretty close.
Backpack: Osprey Exos 58 (2.2-2.4lbs)
Super comfortable, breathable and lightweight, we both used the Exos last time and we'll use it again. It can't carry more than 50 lbs without becoming distinctly unpleasant to carry, but as we've already alluded to that's far more weight than we really want to carry.
Total weight = ~7lbs for me, ~4.2lbs for Jenny
Things we hike in.
- Hiking shoes: I prefer a mid-weight hiking boot, the Merril Moab Ventilators: low-top for the desert, high-top for the Sierras. Last time they lasted for 7-900 miles at a time. Jenny prefers trail runners (they're lighter and more breathable), and hasn't yet found the perfect shoe. They last for about 500 miles before needing to be replaced. Jenny is starting with a thru-hiker favorite, the Brooks Cascadia (1.5 sizes large for the inevitable foot swelling)
- Hiking socks: we each carry 2 pair that we rotate, and then cycle them out as they fall apart.
- Gaiters: we both wear colorful hiking gaiters from Dirty Girl Gaiters to keep sand, dirt, and rocks out of shoes. These are a far cry from traditional backpacking gaiters that you might be used to which go up to your knees and are made from Gore-Tex. They are a little piece of nylon with elastic that creates a seal around your ankle. Grit in shoes = boku time cleaning socks and fighting the inevitable blisters that emerge. These are life savers.
- Shorts: I go back and forth about whether I like a liner in my shorts, and will be starting with my black Patagonia baggies. Jenny swears by her baggies as well.
- Underwear: performance underwear, 2 pair.
- Shirt: long-sleeve Patagonia button-down shirt with zero cotton (it collects stink like you wouldn't believe)
- Buff: I'd never heard of a Buff before two years ago, but now swear by it. What is it? A colorful piece of cloth that you can use as a headband, bandana, handkerchief, etc etc. The possibilities are endless!
- Sun hat: we both wear nerdy looking tan, wide-brimmed hats in the desert. The sun is brutal.
- Hiking poles: we both have them, and couldn't imagine hiking without them. They save our knees on descents, help pace us while we walk, and help us keep our balance in heavy winds and sketchy terrain.
- Sunglasses: polarized, wrap-arounds with croakies.
- Umbrella (an experiment): I bought a silver reflective umbrella for hiking in the desert. Friends love them, and I want to give it a try. It will be odd holding an umbrella in one of my hands while hiking (or figuring out how to attach it to my pack - as the resourceful hiker below did), but it provides infinitely better protection from the sun. The jury is still out.
Layers and additional clothing.
- Rain jacket: lightweight poncho (Jenny) and Marmot PreCip (Justin) for the desert, northern California and Oregon. Gore-Tex jackets for the Sierras and Washington.
- Rain pants: Jenny is carrying them throughout, while I'm only carrying them in the Sierras and Washington. Otherwise I have lightweight EMS hiking pants that I love. Particularly useful in town when you're washing your shorts :)
- Warm jacket: Patagonia Down-Sweater. Amazing layer: they pack into a tiny-ball, weigh very little and are our warmest layer.
- Mid-weight hiking jacket: Marmot Ether DryClime Hoody. This came highly recommended by Yogi, a hiking guru who writes the annual "guide" to the PCT – primarily useful for information about potential resupply spots (where to get off trail to get more food) and trail angels (good Samaritans who help hikers by leaving water caches, providing rides from the trail to town, hosting hikers, and more!). It was one of our favorite pieces of clothing two years ago: you can hike in it when it's windy, getting cold, or just use it as an extra layer.
- Long-underwear: we both carry lightweight Capilene top and bottom layers.
- Beanie: critical for keeping our heads warm, we sleep with these on most nights. It gets cold.
- Gloves: did I mention it gets cold!
- Luxury clothing items: warm sleep socks
Total weight = ~3lbs
Communal gear.
As a couple we are lucky that we can split some gear across the two of us. Some hikers choose not to carry a stove, using the sun and water to "cook" dehydrated food. Call us quaint, but when it is freezing we enjoy a hot meal and even some hot chocolate. This is one of the bright "happy" lines: we could go without hot food or drink, but we are much happier with a piping hot bowl of mac and cheese in our bellies. To that end, we carry:
- Stove: JetBoil. As its name suggests, the JetBoil is a hyper-efficient water boiling machine. Given that our cooking really only involves boiling water, a JetBoil is perfect for us. We have the same version from our prior hike (the Flash system), which is a little heavier than the latest version and really can't simmer anything – but hey, we can't upgrade everything! It comes with a 1 liter boiling cup with an insulated sleeve for the most efficient boiling (typically >1 minute).
- Compressed gas for stove
- Pot: Titanium TOAKS 1.3 liter pot with lid. Strictly speaking unnecessary, we could get by with just the JetBoil cup, as many hikers do. We like the pot because for two hikers we eat a lot and it typically doesn't fit nicely into the JetBoil cup. Also, it makes it possible for us to eat dinner and drink some hot chocolate at the same time. The pot requires us to also carry a small metal adapter for the JetBoil.
- Water purification: Sawyer Squeeze. Weighing in at 2.2 OUNCES, the Sawyer Squeeze is a super-lightweight way to keep our stomachs safe.
- SPOT device. We use this incredible little device to transmit our GPS coordinates to our family nightly to say that we are okay. In the event of a disaster, the SPOT device can transmit our GPS location to first responders for a rescue. This didn't exist a decade or two ago, and while Sharon may still have heart palpitations about our hike, our nightly SPOT messages go a long way to keeping them to a manageable level. The only issue: we don't know it the SPOT went through if we don't have cell coverage, and sometimes it doesn't. That's never good.
Total weight (per person): ~3lbs
Other critical gear.
For organization:
- Ziplocs
- Stuff sacks
- LokSak. Waterproof plastic bag for electronics and valuables.
- Spoons: lexan spoons.
- Knives
- Three empty Gatorade or Smartwater bottles each
- 4 liter dromedary each (for the desert only)
- First aid kit: band-aids, burn cream packets, two bandages, poison ivy cream, iodine (for drying out oozy blisters)
- Leukotape: super sticky tape great for helping ward off or treating blisters, can also be used as athletic tape and to patch up the tent. We wrap it around our trekking poles.
- Needle and thread: used for popping and treating blisters and patching up gear
- Sunscreen
- Hand sanitizer
- Toilet paper
- Baby wipes for desert "showers"
- Safety pins. Mostly used to pin wet clothing to the outside of our packs to dry in the sun
- Advil
- Headlamp
- Compass
- Paper maps (we send each section with the appropriate resupplies)
- iPhones. There are two incredible apps – yes, apps! – that we use on the trail: Halfmile (named for the hiker who maintains the maps) and Guthooks. Halfmile uses GPS to find our location vis-à-vis the coordinates for the trail. When you're on the trail it highlights distance from way-points such as noted campsites, water sources and road crossings into resupply points. Guthooks is a great visual app that includes photos of waypoints, hiker intel, and an at-times demoralizing view of the trail in vertical form (you mean we still have to go up that?)
- ATM/Credit card
- Cash
- ID
- Sleeping pad. Foam RidgeRest sleeping pad to provide some insulation and cushioning from the ground
Total weight (per person): ~3-5 lbs
Little luxuries
- Camp shoes: we both love our lightweight crocs for airing out our feet at camp
- Jackery. External batteries that extend the lives of our iPhones
- Charging cords: iPhone & micro-USB for Jackery
- Headphones
- Kindle
Total weight: ~2lbs
Putting it together
Our total base pack weight (i.e., the weight of our packs without food or water) comes in at ~20 lbs for me, and ~15 lbs for Jenny.
In the peak of the desert we can carry as much as 14 lbs of water each (7 liters) during a 30 mile dry stretch of trail. Our longest resupplies are 150-160 miles, or ~8 days. At ~2lbs food each per day that's another 16 lbs of food. Theoretically, that means most food and water we'd ever carry would be 30 lbs, though the likely max is more likely around 20 lbs.
Therefore, at the beginning of a long resupply we could be carrying as much as ~40 lbs total.
As you can tell, we aren't the most ultralight thru-hikers out there. This list will almost certainly change over the next several months as we learn more about the right balance for us this time around.
It's an El Nino year, which has brought the snow levels in the Sierras closer to their historical average – good news for the drought in California, more mixed for our ability to hike through them in early June. What does this mean for our gear? We already bought microspikes (lightweight metal spikes that go on the bottom of our shoes) to help us in the snow and ice, but may need ice axes or more serious gear depending on the weather and the speed of the melt. We'll just have to wait and see what we're hearing from hikers ahead of us and then nicely ask Matthew to put the right things in our Kennedy Meadows resupply box.
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Trail prep
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