Day 1

(Stud) Our first day of hiking on the PCT and we have much to tell-but are totally drained of all energy. We got a lift to the trailhead from Tattoo Joe with several other hikers and after the prerequisite picture taking at the marker for the southern terminous--started hiking around 7am. Several other thru hikers started today as well--maybe as many as 30. The temperature was 62 at 7--and was 94 by 9:30. The high was around 96--and surprisingly there was some breeze most of the day.

The desert had much more plant diverse than I expected with wild flowers of numerous types in colors in peak bloom. I drained one camera battery taking pictures.

We leaped frogged other hikers all day--as we each took turns taking breaks wherever we could snatch a bit of shade.

Around mile 15 we managed to miss the only signed turn in the section. Luckily, with the openess of the terrain, we spotted hikers in the distance obviously on another trail--and retraced our steps back to the missed turn.

The uphill section from Hawser creek around mile 16 was definitely the most challenging part of the day with an elevation gain of 1000 feet in 1/2 ml. We did this at the hottest part of the day with no shade to be found. When we reached the top I sat down on a rock to rest--then nearly passed out. I noticed there were 2 buzzards circling low. They probably hang out there waiting for fallen hikers. Elevating my feet, resting 20 minutes, drinking some water and eating a snack got me back on track and rest of hike went fine.

We arrived back at Lake Morena around 5--just in time to cop a free meal from 2005 thru hikers. Then on to the showers. I do believe my feet and legs have never been dirtier. (The trail was so dusty, everyone looked like Pig Pen going down the trail.)

All in all, a good start...oh, and no blisters for either one of us.

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End of airport hell

(Dr Bug) Rescue from airport hell came in the form of brother Tim sitting patiently in the baggage claim area in Ontario CA. He took us back to his house, with a warm welcome, a soft bed and perfectly cooked steak dinner.

This morning it was fresh mangos and apple/pear/orange juice fresh from the juicer.

Around 11am Tim drove us up to Idlywild to meet our ride to Lake Morena. We got a lift from a 2006 thru-hiker named Trawler from Truckee, CA. This weekend is a traditional gathering of past and present thru hikers. Enroute to lake morena we drove through some of the first areas we will be hiking through. Trawler shared his memories and experiences from last year. He also stopped to pick up another hiker,Out of Order. He is hiking with all borrowed gear. His was lost by USAir when he flew from th east.

The terraine at Lake Marina is much greener and the plants more diverse than we were expecting. Some of the plants we're seeing are Mesquite, sage brush, poppies and a type of oak we ae not familiar with. Tomorrow we will get a ride to Campo for the start of our hike. Lake Morena is 20 miles from the southwestern terminous of the trail.

Tim dropped us

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Another Day of Travel

(Stud-Thurs 4/24) Nearly 24 hours after our original flight was supposed to leave Charlotte, we were finally airborn and enroute to Ontario. That, after a 2 hr wait at the American Airlines checkin counter caused us to miss an earlier flight that we had been rescheduled on after yesterday's flight cancellation. But when you spend 2 hrs in any line, you meet a lot of interesting folk. For example,from the guy in front of us from Western NC we picked up a lot of tips and info on responsible coon hunting like: you hunt coon for the pelts and not the meat (at least he did), and income from the pelts can be used to repopulate your hunting area with coon pups--which gives you something to hunt next season--if the pups can survive demise from the growing coyote population which is becoming a big problem; and (not specifically related to coon hunting, but a definite "good to know"), the rattle snakes and copperheads are extremely aggressive this year in Western NC. And to think t!
he a__ in line behind us missed out on this pleasant conversation because he was too busy yelling at the gate agents--apparently unaware that the other 150 or so people in line around him were missing flights and being inconvenienced as well.

Around 9pm we finally made it to Ontario where my brother-in-law Tim was waiting to pick us up. Boy was it good to see him. We arrived in his house in Hemet around 10 pm where we had a great meal and were finally able to meet Brittany, Serena and Aidan--who'd we heard so much about over the last few years. They all made us feel welcome.

Bed will feel good tonite.

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Stand arms extended, palms up.

(Dr Bug) This is what the TSA agent says before a full body search--"Stand with your arms extended, palms facing upward." I do my best to look like anything but a terrorist, but airport security still finds a reason to violate my personal space. The metal detection wand was sensitive to zippers. I was wearing convertible hiking pants (zippers, now, in the most inconvenient places). The wand got very excited. We were fortunate to arrive at the airport early. I was praying I wasn't directed to enter 'the booth'. The booth is a wind tunnel in a telephone booth. It is used to detect gas from explosive material. You see, we had mexican last night and there was the potential for flashing signals and explanations that no one wanted. Lucky for me, I passed the wand test. 'Excessive zippers' is not an act of terrorism. This TSA agent was a perfect gentleman. (I promised to keep in touch). After a 3 hour delay in Charlotte, due to severe storms and tornadoes in Dallas where we're connecting, we've just found out our flight has been cancelled. So Southern California will wait another day.

Canada says OK

The trail ends in Manning Park, British Columbia. Canada requires paper work from folks entering their country via the PCT. We received our entry papers today. As best we can tell, we don't need a passport, only the stamped application which was returned to us. There are conflicting opinions about whether one should carry their passport. We're going to double check with Canadian consulate to be sure.

Also, Canada requests that we do not apply for work while visiting their country - this is not a problem for us!

PocketMail

Today we received our new PocketMail device--a PDA that we will use to maintain our journal while we are hiking. This entry is being typed on this device. Our entries will emailed to this blog. The email transmission occurs by holding the pda up to a telephone and dialing into the Pocketmail service. The data--in our case, saved emails--is transmitted in the same manner as a fax machine and our little pda makes the same type of chatter as the emails are being sent.

As this is my first time using the device I'm finding the keying a bit awkward, but I'm sure I'll get used to it as time passes.

The pda weighs 8 oz--so I'm sure we'll be fighting over who has to carry it.

A simple container to spice up the thru-hike

Hang around long distance hikers for any length of time and conversation turns to food. Quantity, Quality, variety – lets face it – during a hike, food can become an obsession. There are only so many acceptable types of pastas, or hot foods an ultra-light hiker can deal with. Spices become one way to jazz up those noodles.

That's why, when Stud told me about this creative, ultra-light, spice container, there was a unanimous nods of approval – sweeet!

It is so simple and lightweight. It is a plastic straw filled with spice.

You cut a plastic straw into three pieces, two short and one long. Stick the straw into the a spice container and pack the spice in. Fill the straw with a spice, leaving enough open space at either end to create 'doors'. Fold one end of the long piece over itself and slide a short piece over it. This is a door (see photos).

Here you have it! Functional, lightweight, simple, cheap, amazingly sturdy - what's not to like.

One final specification for the anal-hiker, Cut your straw spice containers to a length where they fit nicely in a Ziploc bag and you have a clear plastic, Ziploc, spice 'cabinet'.

Some of my favorite hiking spices are: ground ginger, curry powder, ground nutmeg, parsley flakes and garlic powder. Finally, when it comes to camp grub, you can never have too much pepper.

Preparing Food Mail Drops

This hike will be different from our AT thru-hike. In the past we prepare most of our own food drops in advance. We had a wonderful support team that did the mailing. On this trip we're going to mix it up a little. We've asked friends and family to 'Adopt a Mail Drop'. Basically we've ask others to do ALL the work! With some simple instructions, our new expanded support team will be asked to build and mail a predetermined food drop.

For Stud and I, the mystery of unknown food items will be exciting, and I hope the sender will have fun creating the package.

Logistically this involved a mailing to each support team member:
- schedule
- mailing labels
- buying suggestions
- trail map

It'll be interesting to see if generous family members can restrain themselves and not send enough food to feed an army division for a month, when 2 hikers for 3 days is the need! We are going to do a few drops ourselves. Included are photos of the food items that 'do well' on the trail.