PCT 2019 ver 2 Day 3 July 12

Daily mileage 22 plus 2
Trip mileage 67
Total PCT mileage 1422
Hiked from 5:30 am to 5 pm

The day I saw a bear instead of bare hikers.

For whatever reason, sleep was hard to come by last night. On factor could have been the rather odd hiker (and I hesitate to assign him the label of hiker as he is wearing blue jeans, has a mucky big hunting knife strapped to his hip and does not carry a sleeping bag, pad or tent) thought he could sleep through the night simply by snuggling up to the fire. Trouble with that is the firewood is all kindling size so he was up rustling around stoking the fire about 30 feet from my tent all night.

But, off I went at near the crack of dawn. I had only gone about a mile when I could hear something grubbing around below the trail. It was a bear. He or she was totally oblivious to my presence until I snapped a picture.

Look hard and you will see the bear

Trail through lava fields

A lot of the first 10 miles was through old lava flows. The crews who built this trail did an absolutely amazing job as the tread through these areas was really great. I also got my first look at Mt McLoughlin as I was passing through one of these flows. I believe that I am camped on the northern flank of that mountain tonight but all views are hidden behind trees.

Mt McLoughlin

I got 10 in by 9:30 (bless your easy little heart Oregon) and that put me at a highway from which the Fish Lake Resort is only 2 miles away from the trailhead. I was not going to bother going there until I spoke with a Sobo (south bounder PCT hiker) who said the food was amazing there. So I hitched a ride to the resort and indeed, the food was wonderful. I even managed to get a soapless shower in.

Now you see it

Now you don't. Magic!

Feeling a bit guilty about the diversion, I figured the fastest way back to the trail was a side trail, hence the extra 2 miles in today's total.

Then it was up the only real climb of the day, which turned out to be an exceedingly easy 1200 footer spread out over 5 miles.  After I got over the top, I bumped into a Sobo hiker. I could not help to notice that he had his mosquito head net on. That was rather odd as they were not really out in force. Then I went another mile or so and it all came clear. Just a flipping wall of the little blood suckers. Setting up camp tonight was predicated around getting the tent up and me and all my stuff in with as few of the little burgers  as possible.

Mt McLoughlin getting closer

Home for the night, shared with 10 million mosquitoes 

All in all, it was a very good day.

PCT 2019 ver 2 Day 2 July 11

Daily mileage 22
Hike mileage 45
PCT total mileage 1400
Hiked from 6 am to 5 pm

Granny porn on the trail!

That was a day of the highest highs and lowest lows.  It all started out in a normal fashion.  I was cruising along to the tune of 10 miles by 10 am which is always a sign of a good hiking day. Much like yesterday  the trail was very easy and the temperature was good.

Strange little dam beside where I camped

I decided to drop down to a car campsite (Klum Landing Park) beside a lake because I was a little short of water. Which meant a flush toilet at exactly the right time. Then there was a picnic table overlooking the lake, so an early lunch it is.

As I was enjoying my gourmet meal of ramen noodles, a nice lady felt sorry for me and invited me to have breakfast with her family. Cheesy eggs, back bacon, a croissant and coffee, oh yeah.  Ross and Tamra and five children, if you ever read this, thank you.

A little trail out of the green tunnel

Lunch lake

So then it was off up the trail.  There was a minor climb of about 1,500 feet to tackle straight away.  But because this is Oregon  it was an easy climb. About half way up, I spotted a group of hikers heading my way. From a distance, I was trying to figure out what it was about the lead hiker that seemed odd...oh Jesus, she is naked. Oh Jesus, they are all naked. And they are older than dirt.  I know there were 8 of them because I have the image of 8 sagging boobs and 4 shrivelled dicks seared into my brain.  And as if all that was not weird enough, the last guy stopped and took my picture like he had never seen a fully clothed hiker before.

After that, things got back to normal. I hiked with a true thru hiker (she completed the Sierra) from Quebec City for a few miles. She is doing 40's so she had to slow down for me and I had to speed up for her.

I am camped at an odd little cabin out here in the middle of the rough and tumble. There are three other hikers here so it was nice to have some dinner conversation. Sub Zero (south bound hiker) and Scooter (fellow north bound hiker) are great.  The other guy (apparently perpetually stoned hiker should be his trail name, but it is something else) is ok.

Some views

Home for the night

PCT 2019 ver 2 Day 1 July 10

Today's mileage 23
Total mileage 23
Total PCT mileage 1378
Hiked from 7 am to 5:30 pm

Hello PCT. I missed you

To say that today, as the first day back on the trail went well is a bit of an understatement.

But first, yesterday. I made the three flight op down to Medford no worse for wear. Checked in to my hotel, bought fuel and a few other necessities and that was that.

Got up around 6 this morning so so to partake in the very middling breakfast at the hotel then I got myself a Lyft and off I went to the trail.

The morning was cool, the trail was relatively flat and there were no bugs.  And it stayed that way most of the day.

Welcome to Oregon with a morning beer

First PCT sign

Typical trail in the green tunnel

There was one modest climb of about 1,000 feet, but it was gentle and right at the start of the day when my legs were freshest. I did not intend to go quite this far, but water sources dictated my end point.

Great water source

Not so great water source

I only saw one other PCT hiker all day. Walkabout  from Australia (where else would a hiker named Walkabout be from!)  Other than that it was several groups of day hikers.  With the large and late snow pack this year, I think there are hikers spread thin all around the trail.

On my last day in 2017, I was hiking into Ashland. I could see a rather unique looking rock formation on the other side of I5. I remember thinking I bet the trail gets close to that sharks fin looking rock. Sure enough  I hiked right past Pilot Rock (Sharks Fin would have been a better name).

Pilot Rock from the south

Pilot Rock from the north

The ever present Mt Shasta

Well, first day of this iteration of my PCT hike is done. And so am I. Till tomorrow....

I walked all day just to get back to where I could see pretty much where I started on I5

Home for the night

Here I go again

To summarize, in May and June of 2017, I hiked the PCT from Campo to Kearsarge Pass before the snow melt scared me out of the Sierra.  Then in July and August of that year, I rejoined the trail at Donner Pass and hiked to Ashland before fire closures ahead convinced me it was time to call it a year.  In total, I hiked 1,355 PCT miles that summer.

In May of this year, I restarted the trail at Campo and made it 165 miles before I had to admit to myself that the boredom of rehiking the trail outweighed the desire to claim a perfect thru hike (ie complete the entire 2,650 mile trail in one season).

Soooooo, with all that preamble in mind, here I go again. I will be flying to Medford (sister city to Ashland) tomorrow and will pick up the trail where I left off in 2017. 

The plan is to use Oregon to hike my way back into trail fitness and then flip down to the Sierra in August.  Given the crazy snow levels down there again this year, I am thinking that entering the Range of Light in August to be able to truly enjoy that part of the trail is well worth having to sacrafice the title of "Thru Hiker". Yeaah, I know, blatant justification!

Then if all goes well, I should be able to flip up to the Washington section in September and take a bash at completing the trail before the snow commences in the Cascades.

This all sounds doable on paper and I even have a spreadsheet that says so, but I will have to see what wrinkles both Mother Nature and an aging body have in store for me.

I suspect blog updates will be a bit spartan as I will have limited access to Wifi.  Bear with me please.

Thanks for following.

Addendum: Here is an image of my last home cooked meal before I leave for the trail for upwards of two and a half months.  We started with a Caprese salad (not shown) of baby mozzarella, avocado, Roma tomatoes, fresh basil and a reduced balsamic. Then it was off to the main of herb crusted thick cut lamb chops, grilled veggie medley and French mashed potatoes (if you have never tried these, for the love of God look up the recipe and try them) accompanied by a light BC rose.

And I am giving this up for cold oatmeal, ramen noodles and Knoor sides?  What am I thinking!?!?

PCT 2019 Day 9 May 12/19

Daily mileage 12 plus 6 bonus miles
Total mileage 167
Hiked from 6:00 am to 3:30 pm

And that is that.

I woke up to a calm but cold morning. I knew the day involved a boatload of climbing, so let's get at it. The first few miles went ok, but those same niggling doubts about about why I am out here crept into the ongoing self conversation that goes on continually in my head whilst hiking.

To explain: I really do not enjoy hiking in the desert. The scenery is alright when viewed in a vacuum. But when I consider the other hikes I have done, the scenery blows. And I still have 4 weeks of it to go.

I called my amazing wife to wish her a happy Mothers Day while on a viewpoint overlooking Palm Springs. While talking to her, a recurring thought bounced around inside my melon: Now that looks like a city that would have an airport!

As the morning wore on, the doubts about why I am out here grew. I hiked this selection of the PCT in 2017, so there is really no excitement about what is around the next corner. As a matter of fact, it is the opposite in that I know where the nasty bits are before I get to them.

Long story short, I have decided that the dream of a continuous thru hike of the PCT is not for me. I hiked 1,355 miles of the trail two years ago and have now rehiked 167 miles of the trail this year. I think that what makes sense for me is to simply pick away at the remaining 1,300 or so miles over the next few years.

It is not to say that the desert does not have some great vistas

So that is all fine and well, but now I had to get off the mountain and figure out a way home.

It is really hard to see it but there a a colorful striped snake on the right side of the trail

I knew that there was a side trail to Hwy 74 from Fobes Saddle so that is where I would make my egress. But wait, nothing is ever that simple. As I was heading for the saddle, I felt a slight twang in my right knee. By the time I got to the highway, walking was actually difficult. Man that came on quickly.

I hitched a ride back to the Paradise Cafe within 15 minutes of arriving at the road. Thank you Trail Angel Cathy. Then I caught a ride all the way to Palm Springs with a very nice family, again within 15 minutes of sticking out my thumb.

After a few calls with my ever patient wife I had a hotel booked and I took my first ever Lyft to get there.

So that is that. To be honest, even if I had not decided to leave the trail for now, I would have been forced off at least temporarily by this knee injury. Walking on it today (the next day) is challenging and I do not even have a pack on.

Thanks for following my ramblings.

PCT 2019 Day 8 May 11/19

Daily mileage 24 plus 2
Total mileage 155
Hiked from 5:30 am to 7:00 pm

Even thru hikers get the blues.

Despite the fact that I shared a campsite with an extremely loud snorer last night ,(world class actually), I got a pretty good sleep. But tonight to be safe I have a site that there is no way to fit a second tent.

Where was everyone today?  During the day I saw exactly two thru hikers. I also saw one day hiker who was hiking barefoot. To each their own. Then I saw two more thru's after supper.  Very scant.

When I woke up this morning, I had the blahs. Day 8 of re-hiking the desert. Don't get me wrong, there is beauty to the desert. But it is a beauty that could eaily be appreciated within a two day hike. I still have a month of it. And I have already seen it once two years ago.

So what to do for motivation? Well I decided to break my long standing  rule of only using music on hikes as a last resort. The decision to plug into music all day was also aided by the fact that I had "Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer" on an endless earworm loop yesterday. Luckily it was the Billy May samba version, but still endlessly annoying. Anyway, long story short, it worked. The blahs were held at bay for the day.

I must admit that I can only bring myself to put one earbud in because I want to be able to hear any warning rattles.

The first half of the day was spent on a gradual downhill which was nice. But when I got to the bottom of Nance Canyon (notice how I place that name out there like any of you have the foggiest of where Nance Canyon is) at mile 140 the trail turned uphill. And it will remain uphill until around mile 180 when it gets as high as it is going to go on Mt San Jacinto. That is one long uphill grind.

Early morning light

Yet another very welcome water cache

The upcoming Mt San Jacinto

Hiking on the edge

The highlight of the day was the Paradise Cafe. It is a decent burger joint located within a mile of the trail. Hence the two bonus milea today. I had a rather good burger and beer before tackling the last 4 miles of the day.

The Gus Burger

Home for the night

PCT 2019 Day 7 May 10/19

Dailey mileage 22 (plus 1 that didn't count
Total mileage 131
Hours hiked 6:00 am to 5:00 pm

A day spent mostly in the clouds.

Having gone to bed (and not to sleeping pad) around 9 pm last night, I was very surprised when the alarm went off at 5:30.  Ugh I could always take another zero!  But no, Canada remains the same distance away when my feet are not shuffling up the PCT.

The hotel is located about a mile from the trail. There was a cheat available that would have shaved a couple of miles off my day, but once I start cheating at this PCT thing, why not do the Big cheat and fly back home!

The day's hike began with a flat fast stroll through some fields. A very fast hiker jolted me out of my daydreams when he asked to get past me. It was a young guy who goes by the trailname of Machine. I had not seen him since just before Laguna. We caught up with some trail chat later in the day.

There were some serious rain storms around here this winter

The trail meandered up a stream valley before turning it's attention to the Big climb of the day (around 2,000 feet).  As I climbed higher, we (we being the trail and I) got closer and closer to the high fog or low cloud that had been just above the trail all morning. Then I went into the mist.

That made for nice cool hiking but adios to any vistas.

Cruiser trail

Climbing into the mist

Limited views

The rest of the climb went fine. I stopped to get a couple of litres of water from a trail angel' s place before tackling the last of the climb.

Water provided by Trail Angel Mike H

There are not many camping spots in this part of the trail so I grabbed the first one I saw. Funny part is I think I camped in this exact same spot in 2017 on the 7th night of that hike.

Home for the night