Months 2 and 3 on the PCT: the end of the desert and the mountains

I am in my store at the Vermillion Valley Resort; My hands freeze, but I am waiting for the breakfast of pancakes.

(Let’s try again …)

I am currently lying on the floor of the Church of the Multipurpose Life Word in Burney, California. They let the hikers stay here for free, and there is a kitchen and showers. It is all that a hiker could desire.

(Okay, this time. The third time is the charm. As you can see, I have been very busy).

I am currently lying on my bed on the Bluebird Inn in Etna, Ca, waiting for a trip from Paula. We zero here for Courtney’s birthday, and we desperately need extra free time.

(This is also not true, but I have given up. Now we are in Oregon).

The last months they saw us until the end of the desert, the mountains and half of Northern California. From Recently we crossed the midpoint (!)We have finished with California (!!!), here is an update of everything that happened between the desert media and the end of the mountains. Later I will inform Nortal with the rest of Oregon. The desert already feels like a year ago.

The end of the desert

Although he could not imagine that the path is more than the cactus and Joshua trees at that time, the desert is now a distant memory.

Courtney had to get rid of Ridgecrest a day before due to his back. Later we find out through Blaze PT’s PCT lesion trends EBOOK (I strongly recommend it!) That this was a common stretch to have back pain due to the long water halves.

The notorious bear

We also met a bear the night after we left Tehachapi. Fortunately, this was the first night I had a bear bag (from Adotec Gear). Unfortunately, it was the first night we decided to camp on our own, and also dine in our sleeping bags. That was also the last time we ate in bed.

We listened to another group in a nearby camp shouting at a bear, and then began to walk in our sleeping bags while we held our hot dinners. I felt like a bear burrito. We quickly leave our bags and start screaming and walk to the bear. He returned to the other group. They did the same and the bear was from one place to another among us a couple of times. I was generally not afraid of bears during the day until I realized how without fear it was this particular bear of us.

The other group moved to sleep by our side and was happy that my food was tied to a tree. We saw the bear looking at us from the forest. Later at night, we listened to what it sounded like Cougars crying. I didn’t sleep.

Theresa and Courtney look back to the bear

A heat wave in the Mojave

More markedly in SocalWe cross the mojave during a heat wave. People fell like flies and almost a dozen people we met or listened to them through the vine who had to get out of the way to go to the hospital or rest in the city. We were not sure if it was heat exhaustion, Giardia, Norovirus or something else, but it was an awkward moment.

Trace magic at a road crossing where many people were being rescued

In Ridgecrest, we met the group of people with whom we stayed in Idyllwild for dinner in their Airbnb. They adopted Courtney and my third musketeer, Theresa, for a road to the Sequoia National Park. We plan to get ahead to be able to connect to the weekend of Courtney’s graduation.

The Sierras: Kennedy Meadows A Bishop

Courtney and I in the general store of Kennedy Meadows, marking the end of the desert section

700 miles flying, and we hit Kennedy Meadows before the rude schedule he had imagined. What a strange place is Kennedy Meadows. I asked for a giant pancake in Grumpy’s, and then I knew that a stranger tried to immerse his pancake in my pancake syrup while I was in the bathroom. All were excited to be out of the desert and nervous to enter the mountains. The feeling was palpable. In the middle of the bubble, we saw what seemed to be 50 new hikers every day.

The giant pancake in Grumpy’s

We met with other desert friends on the first day we were there, the baby Yoda and his friends from the trail of the Apalaches. We spend hours talking to all of them and thought about entering the mountains with them. However, they planned to be a little slower than the rhythm I needed to get to school in time in September. We end up meeting again with our original Idyllwild friends, including Theresa, whom we are glad to see again despite losing our leadership. It turned out well.

Entering the mountains was magical. The desert landscape quickly gave way to rivers, meadows and pines. At that time, we were approximately an 8-10 group: OMA and donkey from the Netherlands, Oregon Travis, Hannah, Theresa, Courtney and I from the PNW/BC area, the best friend of Germany and the sweets and Barbie of North Carolina. Travis and the best friend entered and left the group, but the rest of us stayed together to Truckee. It was comforting to make decisions as a team and know that we had the other’s back.

Forest pass

The team set out to aorgiar Forester

The day before reaching Forester Pass, the highest point throughout the PCT, Courtney fought with what we thought was the evil of altitude. She was nausea all day, and we took breaks every mile or two towards the end of the day. I gave him a little zofran of my first aid kit and we drag ourselves to the camp. I wasn’t sure if I could get to Forester. I was worried, I’m not sure if it would be better for her to return to the lone pine or try to push Kearsarge and go out in Onion Valley. The next morning, we both knew that the clear answer was that she returned to the mountain to a lower elevation and sit.

To give the end, he had Giardia and was very happy to have his own hotel room. The rest of us prepare to face Forester.

Forester is one of the only passes I have heard before starting the PCT, so I filled with emotion and fear. None of us sleep a lot last night, and «we woke up» at 3 to leave at 4.

We decided to stay together as a group, without knowing what the conditions of the path were. Due to the high heat the previous weeks, most of the snow in the mountains had melted and was relatively safe. However, it was still very fun to experience the pass as a group.

The rocky panorama and snowfields felt like another planet

Perhaps the biggest challenge was still altitude, since the air is quite thin to more than 13,000 feet. In this elevation, the mountains looked like another world. This was the only time I really used my microSpikes, especially to climb directly through the curves buried in the snow at the end. Finally we did it, we take photos and rejoice in reaching an important milestone along the way.

Shortly after, I went through my first and only glissade with my ice ax along the way. He felt like a right of passage.

The majority of the team in Kearsarge Pass (Travis agreed after Forester and Courtney were in solitary pine)

Because we also approached Kearsarge that day, I was able to upload my flight one or two early and surprise my father for Father’s Day while Courtney went home for his doctoral graduation (still with Giardia). A man named Kurt picked us up from the camp of Onion Valley and we crowded from his jeep. He took us to a small motel aimed at hikers in independence and stayed to talk with us. It was one of the most memorable days along the way.

Barbie, sweets and I put me in the back of the Jeep of Kurt

The Sierras: Bishop to Truckee

Fortunately, our group decided to duplicate zero in Bishop, so we could easily join them from the PAIute River path. We stopped a couple of days later at Vermillion Valley Resort, and then a couple of days later in Mammoth.

Devil’s postpile after mammoth

Climbing the high alpine passes daily was brutal. Near the end, I could fit all my hand through a hole on the side of my shoes. I slipped through a rock for Donahue Pass and twisted my knee, twisting my meniscus. For a couple of weeks, the pain in my knee occasionally made me wonder how it would be possible to finish the path. (I called Blaze PT and Dr. Morgan assured me that I would probably heal in 6 weeks). Regardless, the opinions were incredible and my spirits were still high.

One of the many passes from the mountains

The highlight of this section for me was Yosemite. We were able to get a last -minute yurt in Camp Curry in the Valley, and then another Yurta in the cleaning camp for the first night. Although we didn’t have a place to stay the second night, we knew things would work.

The entrance to Camp Curry into the Yosemite Valley

After waiting for an hour or so a hitch in the Tuolumne Post Office, we took a trip in the Yosemite Valley of someone who worked in the park. In general, our group was divided into three cars. Our car trip was pure joy; Buddy offered us coffee cake and told us funny stories all the way in his sub -u.

Upon arriving at the valley, we were able to extend one yurt the next day, and Courtney’s friends had a more empty yurt they reserved a year ago in the cleaning camp. Magic.

In our zero in Yosemite, we met the group and the treats and the friend of Barbie de At, Trail Jesus, for breakfast. Trail Jesus is now a tourist guide for Yosemite, so we call him through Jesus. Courtney and I rent bicycles to travel, while the rest of the group was carried out from one place to another. It was one of the most beautiful mornings in my life. We gathered again For the best (and most expensive) pizza on the road so far. I also tried … banana water! It is still a mystery to me. The rest of the day involved swimming in the mercy and mandados.

Courtney and I by bicycle through the Yosemite Valley

From Yosemite, we hurried to Tahoe to do it on July 4. We stayed at the last camp in the camp, in a RV site. We did not have the opportunity to swim, but we saw the fireworks on the lake. The next morning, we went to a healthy coffee and ate on a beach next to the lake. It was the epitome of pure joy.

After that, we enjoy the mountains, but we started waiting for our zero in reinde. From Truckee, we rent a car and stay in a house with a cinema above. We took full advantage of everything you can eat, which had taken me forward for hundreds of miles. It was the grand final for an arduous but beautiful trip through the center of California.

And now?

Since then, we have passed to the waterfalls, we cross half on the way and now we are in Oregon. Be attentive to listen about our adventures in Nortal and Oregon soon!