Day 8, Amazing day of rest 

Posted by James on March 20, 2015
Posted in: PCT. Leave a comment

March 18, Day 8. 

Pct 101.5. Rest
“Can’t you see the love people are (trying to) pour all over you?” – Big Eden
I slept pretty well last night as I walked 23 miles the day before.  I had anticipated the Warner springs resource center to open at 8.  This would have worked out perfectly.  I could have showered and taken care of house keeping before Brian Austin and the rest of my cotton crew arrived.  This turned out not to be the case however.  I misread the information I had.  The center is open Mwf 1 to 4.  It’s only open 8-4 m-f starting April 1st and extending through the end of May.
I was pretty upset. I was hungry, stinky, and wanted to do laundry before my friends arrived.   So I waited in the adjacent park.  And waited.   They weren’t due to arrive until around 11.  Around 930 a thru hiker named Ironman I had passed the day before came walking up.
We struck up a conversation and the time passed more quickly.  He’s from Colorado and the LA area.  It seems be bounces between the two.   He too wanted a hot meal and to use the Internet the resource center provided.
Around 1045, the group arrived.  Out of two cars rolled 5 people and Simon, my dog!  They all looked amazing!  And CLEAN!   As I walked up, I made the comment they had to stop meeting me on the trail in packs else my trail name will be “entourage”.  Not that I would mind.  It’s great having their support.
We exchanged hugs.  I introduced them to ironman and we all loaded up to head to Julian to eat.  Unfortunately Warner Springs has had a rough go of it and no longer have a restaurant or store to speak of.
When we arrived in Julian, Brian found the first Mexican restaurant we could find.  I wanted so good hearty, stick to your ribs kinda food.
After ordering Keith pulls out his laptop and says, I have something to show you.  He put the laptop in front of me and said, “push play”.  I complied.
What followed was nothing short of spectacular.  Since December my friends and Brian and Austin had been putting together a short “newscast” of 8 hikers that all attempt the PCT.  All of them meet their demise in one comical way or another except me.
The film was 7 minutes and 40 seconds of fabulousness.  Keith is working on getting it up on the web so I can show everyone.
To all those involved in making the film, thank you. You guys really outdid yourselves.    I can’t begin to imagine the countless hours and painstaking editing that went into making it.
Soon after the film ended our food arrived.  It was delicious.  We all caught up and told stories.
When lunch was over we headed back to Warner springs so I could grab a shower and do laundry.  O M G. It felt so good to be clean!
I also set about the task of resupplying my food from a box I had ore packed at home.  I packed way to much food.  I have no idea what I was thinking lol.  But one good note.  I will be very popular on the trail as I give away A LOT of food.
With my laundry completed and Resupply accomplished it was time to eat again.  We headed back to Julian. Brian just happened to glance over about a mile outside Julian and see a restaurant called Jimmy’s on the hill. The food was nothing short of amazing.  We will definitely be patronizing this place again after I’m finished with my hike.
After dinner it was about 6:00 and time to say goodbye.  I wanted to get back to Warner Springs and find a place to camp before it was too dark.   I said goodbye to keith Tate and Scott and they headed out.
Austin and Brian drove me back to Warner Springs where we said goodbye.
Yesterday was the perfect zero day. I was able to let my body rest and recover a little while enjoying great company from home.

Day 7, On the Move

Posted by James on March 18, 2015
Posted in: PCT. 5 Comments

March 17, Day 7

PCT Mile 109.5, Warner Springs

I woke up about 5 this morning. I drank a bit of water because I was very parched.  I tore down camp and hit the trail at 6:15.  At 6:45, I stopped to watch the sunrise, and made a birthday video for my good friend Molli.
At this point I was in the northern half of the San Felipe Hills and the vegetation changed from that of cactus to scrub oak and chapparell.  This area of the mountain range must get more rain.
After hiking 5 miles, I can to a water cache at 91.2.   I had just enough water to make it to Barrel Springs, but not enough to cook any food, and certainly not enough to be fully hydrated.  So I hiked the small side trail down to the cache.  There was a good supply, So I took two liters and made breakfast.
I really needed to eat.   I never rely on water caches so last night I ate jerky and dehydrated Mango.  Not exactly filling.  This morning I had some trail mix and jerky before heading out.  Again, not exactly a full meal.  At the water cache I made oatmeal with nido and carnation instant breakfast.   Nido is a brand of dehydrated milk that is actually pretty good.  Unlike a lot of dehydrated milks it doesn’t have that sour after taste.
Its amazing what a warm meal and being hydrated will do for a person.  I felt completely revived.
 After eating I rested in there in the shade for about 45 minutes.  The cases of water worked great to elevate my feet and allow some of the swelling to go down.
 
I had spoken to Lets Party the night before.  She was about a day behind because her pups feet were bothering her.  They were taking things slow.   I told her I would let her know if there was water at the cache.  She was thrilled there was water.  Fortunately for her the weather had changed a little when she started San Felipe Hills.  It wasnt nearly as hot as the day before, and there was a nice breeze.  This is a far cry from the gauntlet I went through just 24 hours before. 
 
She also let me know Connor had caught up to her.  He had hitched from Mt Laguna to Julian to swap out some gear.   He also informed her he planned to stay at a hotel that was 8 dollars a night.  So was born his trail name “8 dollar”.  However upon further conversation later, his trail name was changed to “Freebie”.  The details of why will remain a mystery to my readers, at least until the statue of limitations is up.  
 
About 3:30 this afternoon I rolled into Barrel Springs.  On the water report it was stated water was abundant, but tasted like sulphur.
I filtered two liters, and sure enough, it tasted like sulphur.  The taste wasn’t overpowering, but it gave me heartburn like nobodies business.  I shall refrain from drinking sulphur water in the future if at all possible.
After a short break and reviewing my maps, I decided I would hike the remaining distance to Warner Springs.  It was an additional 8 miles, but I was feeling pretty good.  Also it was early enough that I would arrive just after dark.
The next 8 miles were pretty easy, lots of open planes with small hills.  It was beautiful.
I arrived in Warner Springs around 7:30, made camp, and checked in with home.
I passed the 100 mile mark today!  I also hiked my first 23 mile day, ever. A very good day.

Day 6. No water

Posted by James on March 16, 2015
Posted in: PCT. 2 Comments

March 16, Day 6

PCT Mile 86, Saddle Ridge.

Short blog today, as I am exhausted.

This morning when I woke up my left foot had a decent amount of swelling and was pretty sore.  Last night I read about the particular type of tendonitis it is, and its generally caused by the shoe continuously rubbing the top of the foot.  The regular recommendations RICE (rest ice compression elevation)  Additionally they recommended relacing your shoe to skip the eyelets over the affected area.  I did that and it seemed to help a tiny bit.  It was tender all day and I had to be very deliberate about my foot falls.

today I carried the most water I hope to ever carry.  The section I am in the middle of is a 32 mile dry section.  Its also HOT.  I should have done this stretch at night.  There was no wind today, so all 91 degrees bore down on me as I ascended the San Felipe Hills.  Its a never ending maze of switchbacks and turns.

By mile 9 tomorrow I should hit the highest point (4400 feet) and then descend down.  Right now I have 4 liters of water, and if today is any reflection of what the weather is going to be like tomorrow, I am going to need every bit of it.   Im really dehydrated now.

Today was very hard and tiring.  I wish I had more to say, but I spent most of the day focused at the trail 3 feet ahead of me so I could put my feet in the perfect spots.  And also thinking about water.

Which does remind me of a thought I had.  In the movie Waterworld with Kevin Costner, in the opening scene, it shows him urinate in a filter type device.  He then pumps it a few times and out comes clean water, he then drinks.

I have news for you.  Urine contains a lot of salts as well as metabolic wastes, urea etc.   If the filter can remove all of that, he could have used it to purify sea water.  Had he done that, a main point of the movie wouldn’t have worked.

Anyway, that’s how much I thought about water today.

Drink well my friends.

Day 4. Resupply, bank fraud and chafe. 

Posted by James on March 16, 2015
Posted in: PCT. 5 Comments

March 14, Day 4

PCT mile 53.48, Gainer Ridge

Last night I camped at 5000 feet elevation,  I suspected the morning would really cold but it turned out to be 51 degrees first thing in the morning.
I had a pretty rough nights sleep.  The wind blew most of the night.  After trying to go to sleep for an hour, I popped a half a ambien.  That did the trick, until about 2 in the morning.  Then I was wide awake again.
I slept on and off until 6am, at which point I started the water for my coffee and breakfast. Having not really eaten I was pretty hungry.  By 630, I had finished breakfast and my coffee and started to tear down camp.  I’m getting more efficient. This morning it only took about 20 minutes.
We camped about a half mile from the creek crossing and I was running low on water, so I met up with Lets Party there and refilled my bottles.   I only took 2.5 liters as I was only about 4 miles for Mt Laguna.
We said our goodbyes and hit the trail.  The hike this morning was mostly through pine covered meadows.  It was beautiful.   Bird song was abundant.  I heard the report of a couple woodpeckers.  I really like wood peckers, they are natures original jack hammers. haha
I pulled ahead of Lets Party pretty early, and rolled into town around 9:45.  The first thing I saw was a little cafe,  So I stopped for breakfast.
I walked in, forgetting I had been on trail for two days and probably didn’t look ‘presentable”  i walked in to the dining area and the waitress looked at me and kinda sized me up.  That was an interesting feeling.
She said, “you can drop your pack over there and I will get you a table, okay?”  I must have looked a little baffled.  She then said, “so you have a little more room at the table”
I dropped my pack in the lobby area and sat at a table within eye shot.  I definitely couldn’t  afford for someone to steal my pack and make a break for it.  I ordered coffee and food and headed to the restroom.  Much to my surprise I didn’t look that bad.  I combed my hair and washed my hands and headed vack to the table.
I turned on my phone and received an alert from my bank saying my balance was low.  I thought that rather odd since there was plenty of money in the account two days prior.
I logged into the mobile banking app to discover multiple fraudulent charges.  Someone had gotten ahold of my debit card.   I called the bank and sat on hold for 10 minutes before speaking to a human being.   She was very apologetic and worked to get the charges disputed.  The kicker is, it can take 10 to 90 days to get the charges refunded.  Oh well what can you do.
I went outside to attend to my conversation with the bank and of course half way through the call the server came out and said my food was on the table.
Fortunately for me the food was still warm and delicious when I was finally able to eat. About the time I started eating Connor rolled in.  He joined me and ordered food.  I finished up and headed out.  That was the last I saw him today.
After breakfast, I wandered over to a sports outfitter.  There is a really nice guy named Dave working there.  We chatted for a bit and then I asked him where he kept the anti-chafe.  The store was wall to wall merchandise pretty  much floor to ceiling.  I could have spent an hour looking and never found it.   He pointed it out and I purchased it.
We started chatting about the trail and he made mention there was the potential for a storm on the 24th on the  long range forecast.  It has the potential to hit Idyllwild, and the 24th is about the time I should be there.  I thanked him for the info and headed out.  I will definitely be keeping an eye on the weather the next two weeks.
So the anit-chafe…  Im chaffed in an area I have never had chaffing before (children, please skip ahead to the next paragraph).  My taint is chaffed!  Fortunately it’s not ‘that’ bad, but there is definitely a reminder to put some anti-chafe frequently in the nether region.  Hopefully this heals quickly, as it is very uncomfortavble.
From there I headed over to the lodge to pick up my resupply box.  It was a simply process.  He handed my my box, I handed him 5 bucks.
Now I know Ive said I havent been hungry.  Well I havent. At all.  In my pack I had roughly half the food I started with at the vorder.  And my resupply box?  Loaded with food.   I ended up giving about half my food to Lets Party, as she is resupplying as she goes.  She was grateful.  The one downside to resupply, your pack weight increases. No Bueno.
Toward the end of my time in town, I started to feel really weird physically.  It felt as if I had a low frequency vibraion in my body.  It also felt as if my pulse was a little elevated.
I could understand my pulse being elevated. For one Mt Laguna is at 6000 feet.  Two, I had put in three days of relatively strenuous activity.  But the low frequency vibration had me a little freaked out.   I downed a couple liters of water, chocked up my physical maladies as the elevation and hit the trail.  Fortunately the vast majority of my mileage was a very moderate downhill.  Easy on the lungs and muscles, but somewhat brutal on the feet.  After hiking for an hour I began to feel better.  I believe elevation and dehydration were the culprits
From a blisters perspective, they have remained mostly unchanged or healing, with the exception of the one on my right heel.  It grew a bit today, and became slightly painful later this afternoon.
It was a rather strange sequence of events today, but I did get 16ish miles in the books.
Emotionally today was very challenging.  I miss my cotton crew.  I miss my husband and Austin, Simon and Chris.  I think today was particularly difficult because its the weekend.  I tried not to dwell to much and think about other things, but it was definitely a challenging day.
Tonight I hiked to nearly dark and snagged a great sunset photo.  The downside is I was setting up my tent in fading light and in gusty winds.  I few choice profane phrases may have been uttered by yours truly.   Also tonight is the first night I will be camping alone.
As Lets Party and I left Mt Laguna, it wasn’t long before I was out of her sight.   I wonder if I will see her again.  Shes a cool lady.
Im off to slumber.  As always, your comments are always welcome.
From the PCT, Goodnight and have a pleasant tomorrow.

PCT Day 5. Wind water tendonitis

Posted by James on March 15, 2015
Posted in: PCT. 3 Comments

March 15, Day 5

PCT Mile 68.4. Rodriguez Spring Road
Wind wind wind.
I had a rough nights sleep last night, yet again.  The wind blew most of the night and even though I staked out my tent well, it flapped a good deal of the night.   I slept on and off until about mindnight, at which point, I was wide awake.    After about 45 minutes of staring at the ceiling of my tent, I decided to take half ambien.  Sleep was still fitful, and now full of dreams.
I awoke at 6am with quite a start after having a very vivid dream about Brian and I separating.  oh good.  I guess it’s time to go hiking.
I watched the sunrise over a cup of coffee and some oatmeal.  It was quite beautiful.  The beauty quickly turned to savage fury however.  Once the sun came up the wind began gusting,  It made it hell to tear everything down.  In the haste of getting getting my tent taken day vefore it was blown away, I didn’t realize I had left my sunglasses inside.
I didn’t realize it in fact until I had shoved my pack full and was ready to leave.   I pulled my tent out to retrieve them.  Fortunately they weren’t broken, but they were definitely bent in the ordeal.  We just can’t have nice things….
Today the hiking was good.  The wind was blowing until about noon.  Again I was glad to have the wind.  It would have been a scorcher otherwise.
I ran across three water caches today.  All of them dry.  It just goes to remind me of the fact.  NEVER RELY ON WATER CACHES.  It will certainly get you into trouble.  Today I carried 10 pounds of water (5 liters) because I knew it was 16 miles to the next reliable source.  The interesting thing, last night I retrieved those 5 liters from a horse trough!  If my friends can see me now.
About 11, I realized I had seen  no one all day.  Within 15 minutes that changed when a young fellow passed me on the trail.  His name was Calille (probably not spelling it right), and hales from Austria.  He started the  trail on Thursday.  He was a fast hiker. At the time he passed me at mile 60, he was hoping to make it to Mile 77.  He wanted to hitch a ride into Julian to resupply.  I told him my day was done at 68.  We exchanged goodbyes and he headed on his way.
About noon, I caught up with him while he was enjoying some lunch.  I gave him about a pound of trail mix, as I knew he was running low on food.  I still have too much food and i didnt want him to feel he HAD to push a 30 mile day to resupply.  He thanked me, and I carried on.
About 45 minutes later he passed me again and said he was still going to shoot for mile 77 (HWY 74) and wished me well.  I’m pretty sure I’ll never see him again.  Hes SOO fast.
Rattles.  Rattles. Rattles.
For anyone that has spent any time with me in a car knows I hate rattles.  It’s one of my pet peeves.  In my old Nitro the dashboard ratted frequently and I had about 75 cents worth of change jammed into the nooks and crannies to make it stop.  When I new one would appear, I would jam another coin in it, and so the process went.  I haven’t the slightest idea where this quirk of mine came from, but its annoying to me and all those involved in my automotive life.
Today, I had a similar occurance with my pack.  I have a titanium cup strapped to the outside of my pack.  Normally it rides along without make a peep.  Today, it seemed no matter what I did, I couldn’t get the damn thing not to rattle.   It seemed to be enjoying annoying the shit out of me.
(Spoiler alert)
In Wild, there is a scene in which one of her boots falls off the ledge to never be recovered.  In her frustration she throws the other one off, and screams, ” FUCK YOU!”   Let’s just say if the cup carries on with its shannigans, it will meet the same fate.  I think I have figured out how to abate its incessant clank, but only time will tell.
Over the last few days, when looking at the map set I have, it lists possible camping sites.  Its useful when you’re planning your day or are tired and just want the closest place to sit.  To depict camp sites it has a little tent.  When I see these icons, I envision a nice little camp ground with a picnic table and a fire pit.  WRONG.  And the sad thing, I know better!  But everytime, i come to a camp site, I’m disappointed there is no picnic table.  And the only reason I want a picnic table is so I don’t have to hunch over in my tent to write my blog.    Basically the PCT definition of a campsite is a 4 foot by 5 foot level spot you could pitch a tent.
Ive been with this particular set of gear for 5 days now.  I’ve figured out its ins and outs pretty well.  I’ve been hiking before, and back packing, but never to this extreme.  The one piece of gear that is the most useful thus far?  My orange hanky.  I use it for everything from cleaning up spills, to covering my neck in the hot sunny .  It has hundreds of uses.  I was quite surprised by this.
For those of you familiar with the old gay hanky code know orange stands for, anything anytime.  I would say it fits the bill to a tee.
I put in 15 miles today and stopped at the last reliable water source until mile 101.  Thats roughly 33 miles without water.  This evening Ive been drinking copious amounts to “camel up”.  I am going to try and get an early start tomorrow to avoid the mid day heat and get as many miles in as possible.  Around 1 I will attempt to find shade and wait out the afternoon, and hike on into the evening hours.  I hope to put in 20 tomorrow, so I will only have 12 to go the following day.  I plan to take 8 liters of water with me. This should be adequate, but will also be very heavy.  Slow and methodical will be the prescription for Monday and Tuesday.
The best news?  I’m expecting visitors in Warner Springs on Wednesday.   Depending on how I feel Tuesday I may try to bust out the additional 5 miles to take a zero day in Warner Springs, but we will just have to see what my body is up for.
My feet are doing ok at this point.  Only one small new blister today.  However, several years ago I developed tendonitis in the top of my left foot as a result of an overuse injury from running.   Unfortunately, it appears to be making a come back.  It made itself known about 2 miles before I finished today.
Anyone following my blog know of a stop gap measure for helping tendonitis?  If any of you say, REST, I will slap you when I see you.  That really isn’t an option until Wednesday.  If you have advice, please leave it in the comments or email me directly if you have my email.   I took a couple ibuprofen and loaded my dinner up with tumeric which is an outstanding anti-inflammatory.  Let’s hope that’s enough, else I will walk into Warner Springs with Hiker Hobble extreme.  Thanks for following along!