San Jacinto approach

4/28

Today was the most physically demanding day of hiking, and also the most epic and rewarding so far. Ryan and I left paradise cafe around 4:30 pm and got a ride with a nice couple who had been out fishing all day. We hiked until 10 pm and crashed as fast as possible at the first applicable camp we found. We hiked 8 miles and climbed at least a thousand feet.

We woke up around 5:30 which is a little later than usual and started hiking. Something like 3000 feet of elevation gain happened here over the 18 miles we put in and I am absolutely spent. 

Had 2 more rattle snake encounters putting the total to 4. The first one was about 4 feet long laid out in the middle of the trail parallel with the direction of travel. I was 6 inches from stepping on the thing but a squirrel was going nuts in the trees and his alarm was the only reason I avoided stepping on the snake. 

The second encounter was a little baby rattler and, despite what it will grow to become, I can't help but call it cute.

I ran out of water towards the end of the day. First time that has happened yet and it wasn't a lot of fun. Ryan gave me some which was awesome and my pack is pretty light when it's out of water and low on food so I flew down the trail to the next creek. Best water of the trail yet!

Tomorrow most hikers go down into town via a trail called the devils slide trail. It deserves the name. I elected not to do that, but instead carry extra food to hold me over to the next town after that. I think I'll be the only one hiking the fuller ridge pass tomorrow unless there are hikers that I meet coming up the devils slide.

Dinner was excellent as well. Backpackers pantry Mac and cheese with an added ounce of olive oil, freeze dried veggies, aged white cheddar and some dry salami. Boom.

 

 

 

Paradise

4/27

Hiked my butt off from 6 am to 11 to get to paradise valley cafe and eat myself a burger.

 

 

 

Full moon night hiking

4/26/13

Longest day of the trip yet @ 24 miles and I am exhausted. I did the miles largely without any pain which shows that larger mile days should be possible soon. 

Instead of zeroing at Warner Springs yesterday I neroed out of town. A Nero is a day where you nearly do zero miles. I left town around 3:30 pm and hiked till well after dark. I even got to watch the full moon rise over some distant mountains with a couple new hiker friends from Warner Springs, Joe and Ronan. 

Today was hot and exhausting. 

Luckily there was a trail angels house along the trail who had free water, beer and soda. A life saver.

Heres the water tanks above his house:

They have it crudely written on the side in spray paint to filter the water... I did :)

Tomorrow I have 11 miles until I get to the paradise cafe which is 1 mile off trail. Burgers and milk shakes. Super excited. 

 

 

100 miles, and Warner Springs

4/24/13

100 mile barrier broken today!!

Smooth Operator with some cattle guarding their position.

 Hikers congregating outside Warner Springs community center. I took a shower here and ate a burger. I also decided to camp out nearby in order to take a zero tomorrow ( a day where I walk zero miles) in order to recover a little bit and strengthen up for the next 100 miles. 

Matt is a few days behind. Heard from him today and he is also taking a zero tomorrow to heal his knee. Hopefully we will both heal up well and be able to continue strongly. It's best to rehab before small problems become trip ending injuries. 

Inside the community center in Warner Springs hikers relax and eat breakfast.

 

-Luke

http://hike4hope.org 

 

 

 

Progress so far

Here is the progress we have made so far. It's astonishing looking south to the mountains we have already crossed. It's also humbling to see how small of a dent we have put into California. 

3,4,5

When we arrived at pioneer mail picnic grounds on the evening of 4/20 Matt wasn't sure whether or not he should continue or take the next day off due to a knee injury that was bothering him. He was about to cook breakfast the next morning and told me to hike ahead. Didn't see him that day (yesterday) or today so he must be taking it slow. I'm sure my turn will come to fall behind at some point.

Ryan and I have been crossing paths and hiking together every day. Yesterday we hiked most of the day separate then met up at a water source (Rodriguez Spur) and hiked by moonlight in the night. The desert is much more forgiving at night.

Finding a place to sleep at night was difficult though and site selection was important because it was very windy. Ryan had already picked a spot about a mile back so I was on my own at this point. I ended up sleeping behind a small California Juniper on a desert wash in the bottom of large flat valley. It was far from ideal. I had laid down all of my gear when I realized I was sleeping right next to a large black widow with the classic red hour glass back. It wasn't the best nights sleep I've gotten out here... I ended up sleeping only for a few hours before waking up at 4:30 am to push on to the next water source and tackle one of the more notorious hikes of the pct, the climb between scissors crossing water cache and third gate water cache.

It was hot, and tiring. I was walking slow due to my blisters and a sore hip that I think is largely due to tightness in my hamstrings and glutes. I'm making a point to stretch more, but in the end the pass wasn't so difficult and I had put in 16 miles by 1pm. I took a 2 hour nap at third gate and then Ryan showed up and we hiked on for a ways before cooking dinner on a ridge at sunset. Once again he camped about a mile before I did and it seems like we will reach Warner Springs tomorrow. That'll be 109 miles in 6 days. Not so shabby of a start. Hopefully we'll see Matt there as we haven't heard from him. 

Another interesting note is that we have begun to catch up with slower hikers. Almost everyone I saw today was a new face and all had started in the couple days preceding out start. I want to rest my body a bit in Warner Springs in order to be able to keep bagging good miles. I've dreamt about my dog every night since I've left, but overall I've slept well enough to keep chugging along and am greatly enjoying the simplicity of a foam pad and a lightweight bivy sack. 

Cumulative miles so far: 95

Day 1: 20

Day 2: 18

Day 3: 17 

Day 4: 22

Day 5: 18

 

 
 

 

:)

Apparently a black hawk helicopter crashed in the area... Sketch!

Ryan, Wendy, and I 

Relaxing at the pioneer mail picnic grounds where Matt, Ryan and I camped out among a few other hikers.

Day 2

4/20

This is Mike. He graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in English, runs ultra marathons, surfs and likes to collect stones. His brother is the one who sparked his interest in understanding the metaphysical properties of different rocks, and he is through hiking with a US army surplus bivy and backpack. 

I hiked 18 miles today and camped alone under some oak trees next to a small creek. I am very tired but all is well.

 

The border and onward

A picture of the pct southern terminus with all the hikers that were staying with Scout and Frodo who started with me, and a panorama of the border just behind it (yes of course I touched the wall!!)

 

The first day on the trail has been excellent. Yes it hit 95 degrees and yes I have a terrible blister on my right foot, but I successfully hiked the first 20 miles to Morena lake and have already met some amazing people.

Enough cannot be said for the generosity of Scout and Frodo the trail angels that picked Matt and I up from the airport, fed us two meals, and then dropped us off the next day at the border.

And let me tell you... The desert is not flat.

Well I'm 20 miles in and couldn't be happier. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be here and for all of the kindness I have already encountered. A group of us are currently camped out in a hiker's uncle's back yard. Matt, Ryan, Mike, Greg, Jules, Kasha and I. 

Ciao for now.

Actually

P.s. I had a dream last night that I forgot my pack and was in the car to the border to start hiking. The woman driving the car wouldn't turn around because of strict rules, and told me I was out of luck. All of a sudden who else but the Lorax shows up and grants me the one wish of having my back pack appear. Thanks Lorax.

 

Airplane!

 

 

 

 

Time for Take Off!

Everything is set for the plane ride down to San Diego tomorrow. From the airport there are two very kind trail angels who will pick us up and put us up for the night before driving us down to the border very early the next morning. Thanks Scout and Frodo!!

In other news my dentist offered to give me a ride into town in the Lake Tahoe area when I arrive which is a wonderful thing to hear right before getting a cavity filled.

It's hard to leave home as I've found a great deal of happiness here in the past many months, however, I don't expect saying good bye to be overly difficult as I have so greatly appreciated the world and people around me during this time. 

Watch out Border Patrol here I come!

-Luke

http://hike4hope.org

I swear it's Nutella!!

 

T-3 days!

With only three days till the start I'm realizing that I'm pretty well prepared at this point and have some extra free time to hike with my dog, slackline, watch workaholics, and go on some bike rides. All is well and I am very excited.

The first two boxes went out on the 13th. My second box weighed 20 lbs for a 150 mile stretch which makes me think I've over packed the first few boxes. Oh well!! 

I also cut off my beard in anticipation of my PCT beard-off challenge, and found an old sketch book from the philippines.

-Luke

http://hike4hope.org

What I'll Miss

7 days til take off.
I think more than anything I'm going miss my dog. Buddy has been on all of my training hikes with me and it's a little sad to think he isn't going to be along for the whole journey.

The next thing I expect to miss is my practice of slacklining. It has become a very spiritual exercise in silencing my mind and balancing myself in a physical and philosophical sense. I largely credit my progression in slacklining and my many consistent hiking with my sustained and grateful state of happiness.

Here's a timelapse of the line I set up today in my favorite park in Sausalito:

Training

Gotta get those legs and feet ready for the long haul. Hey, this is kinda fun!

-Luke

http://hike4hope.org

What does 4 months of trail mix even look like?

I made a trip to Costco the other day and bought up some supplies to make some trail mix.

Before it went in the giant mixing bowl I added up all the weights in ounces, and the total number of calories to come to a Calories per Ounce measurement.

This trail mix clocks in at 144 calories per ounce. Not too shabby!

After it was all mixed up it was time to bag it up and calculate the number of calories in each bag. It was pretty easy to do this by just weighing the full bags, subtracting the weight of the bag, and then multiplying the total by 144, which is the calories per ounce number I had arrived at before. 

So there you have it. Each one of these bags will be going into a resupply box. The post title was a bit of a lie, because I am only getting mail drop boxes about half of the time. The rest is going to be store bought along the way. So 2 months of trail mix. Whatever. Enjoy your day!

-Luke

http://Hike4Hope.org

Snickers

And M&Ms

-Luke

http://hike4hope.org

Oasis in the Desert!

It's a dry year on the PCT. That means low snow through the Sierras, but it also means that the desert section through Southern California is going to be rough. Luckily, I'm pretty excited about my water system for that portion of the hike.

My max water carrying capacity is 6 Liters. This is composed of two 3-liter Platypus BigZips. These are relatively heavy compared to their lighter cousin the Platy Hoser, but the top opens wide making them more convenient to clean and fill.

They also have a detachable hose system (that the hoser does not have), which is the crux of my water system.

This water system is totally modular. The valves allows me to only bring one drinking tube. I fill the bladders with dirty water, plug in the hose and my Sawyer InLine filter to one bag and drink til it's empty then switch the hose+filter combo to the other bag using the valve system. Simple, and easy. I never have to stop to filter as it's all on the go.

A lot of people have lighter water systems by 5 or even 6 ounces. I choose to carry this much weight in my two water-bladders and my Sawyer InLine filter because it saves times and adds convenience, and I can be mighty lazy when it works to my advantage.

The ULA Circuit, my chosen pack for this adventure, has massive side pockets and can hold the 3-liter Platys on the side, using the compression straps to hold up the tops.

P.S. A lot of PCT hikers choose chemical filtration for their water. This takes 20 minutes to really do its work, and that's 20 extra minutes of carrying a full water bottle. That could easily equals the weight increase of always carrying a filter (The sawyer inline is only 3 oz. on my scale). And it's going to be hot, and I'm going to be thirsty. I'd like my water now thank you very much.

-Luke

http://hike4hope.org

Resupply Madness

Each resupply box (12 in total) has enough food, in theory, to get to the next resupply point be it a super market or post office.

The way to figure out whether it has enough food is a very in exact science. First I took the number of miles in that resupply (usually about 100) then divide by a rough estimate of how many miles per day I'll be doing (usually 15-25) depending on the section, weather expectations, etc. then I roughly estimate that I'll start eating 3000 calories a day and increase from there.

The picture shows a 4000 something calorie bag of snacks for a 89 mile resupply toward the end of the trip.

-Luke

http://hike4hope.org

PCT prep!!

Hey all this is the blog for my 2013 PCT thru hike attempt! Hope you'll follow me along the way!

The hike is 2688 miles long and spans all of California, Oregon and Washington. It's starts at the U.S. Mexican border and ends about 7 miles into Canada in Manning park.

The attached picture is of the 12 resupply boxes that I'm currently working on filling with enough food for the 12 sections of my trip where I won't be buying from a supermarket. T-18 days till take off!

Also make sure you check out my fund raiser page over at Hike4Hope.org

-Luke

http://hike4hope.org