Day 108, Mile 1732
YES! FINALLY! Made it to Oregon at mile 1698 and it only took three and a half months to hike the entire length of California.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Etna
Day 102, Mile 606
The last 100 miles have be beautiful! I have been up on the ridges getting all the wonderful views of Mt Shasta, alpine lakes, and huge rock walls. I have to admit for the last couple weeks I felt like I was just trudging along down in the trees with only a few peaks of the hills here and there. But there is just something about being up high on the ridge tops that motivates me and keeps me going. I think I needed the lower sections in the trees though just so I can appreciate what I am seeing now. Sometimes I would just get in the mode where I put my head down watching the trail trying to make miles and not looking up enough to really take it all in. But you don't want to do that around the Castle Crags and the Russian Wilderness!
Gator and I have been putting on the miles the last few days. We wanted to get into Etna a little earlier so we could spend some time in town getting all our resupply stuff done and maybe even relax a couple hours. Which would be nice considering we did 72 miles in 3 days. Hope to start getting between 20 and 25 miles a day now (if the terrain is in our favor), so we can get done in time and maybe even have a few days off to recoup before going back to work.
The last 100 miles have be beautiful! I have been up on the ridges getting all the wonderful views of Mt Shasta, alpine lakes, and huge rock walls. I have to admit for the last couple weeks I felt like I was just trudging along down in the trees with only a few peaks of the hills here and there. But there is just something about being up high on the ridge tops that motivates me and keeps me going. I think I needed the lower sections in the trees though just so I can appreciate what I am seeing now. Sometimes I would just get in the mode where I put my head down watching the trail trying to make miles and not looking up enough to really take it all in. But you don't want to do that around the Castle Crags and the Russian Wilderness!
Gator and I have been putting on the miles the last few days. We wanted to get into Etna a little earlier so we could spend some time in town getting all our resupply stuff done and maybe even relax a couple hours. Which would be nice considering we did 72 miles in 3 days. Hope to start getting between 20 and 25 miles a day now (if the terrain is in our favor), so we can get done in time and maybe even have a few days off to recoup before going back to work.
Friday, July 13, 2012
Old Station
Day 90, Mile 1377
We are now just past half way! In another two to three weeks we'll be in Oregon. It was great to get to spend some time with the fam in Sierra City and Portola along the way, what a morale booster! To top it all off Train brought us some cookies n cream ice cream, oreos cookies, donuts, and sodas at the trail junction by Chester. Of course I ate a bunch of everything and even was able to hike another ten miles uphill. Surprised I didn't get sick after that though. So midway celebrations have been great, but now its back to making some miles. The next few are supposed to be hot with little water and shade again so hoping to cruz through.
We are now just past half way! In another two to three weeks we'll be in Oregon. It was great to get to spend some time with the fam in Sierra City and Portola along the way, what a morale booster! To top it all off Train brought us some cookies n cream ice cream, oreos cookies, donuts, and sodas at the trail junction by Chester. Of course I ate a bunch of everything and even was able to hike another ten miles uphill. Surprised I didn't get sick after that though. So midway celebrations have been great, but now its back to making some miles. The next few are supposed to be hot with little water and shade again so hoping to cruz through.
Monday, July 2, 2012
Sierra City
Day 79, Mile 1197
This last section I have been trying to make some miles and stay on task to meet up with family. Besides Gator, it has been a while since I have seen the familiar face of someone I haven't met hiking. So it will be such a great morale booster for being close to the halfway point. Hmmmm, I have hiked almost 1200 miles and I am still over 100 miles short of the halfway point. But technically I am in Northern California now and looking forward to Oregon and Washington.
Gator and I ended up hiking about 100 miles in 5 days which is a pretty good pace for us. I am hoping to continue that pace since we are now through the hard part of the Sierra's. But so many unexpected things come up on the trail that it is hard sometimes to keep a steady pace. The other day I was hiking down from some rocky switchbacks by Donner Pass at the end of the day and ready to be done even though we still were going to try and hike another couple miles before setting up camp when I heard Train shout "trail magic"! Right then I knew we were not going any farther that night. Ok so Train is our friend we met in Big Bear and have been hanging out with on and off and trail magic is when you get something wonderfully unexpected on the trail. This time it was a neat couple from Tennesse that did the Appalachian Trail last year and wanted to pay forward some of the trail magic they got hiking. So they had come across the country in their camper and parked there at Donner Pass to make hot meals and offer rides or whatever else they could do to help out the hikers. Wow! It was great! So there was a handfull of hikers just sitting around a camper at Donner pass telling thier stories while listening to Frost (another hiker we know) play the Ukulele. How could anyone pass that up?
Sorry about spelling, spell checker wasn't working.
This last section I have been trying to make some miles and stay on task to meet up with family. Besides Gator, it has been a while since I have seen the familiar face of someone I haven't met hiking. So it will be such a great morale booster for being close to the halfway point. Hmmmm, I have hiked almost 1200 miles and I am still over 100 miles short of the halfway point. But technically I am in Northern California now and looking forward to Oregon and Washington.
Gator and I ended up hiking about 100 miles in 5 days which is a pretty good pace for us. I am hoping to continue that pace since we are now through the hard part of the Sierra's. But so many unexpected things come up on the trail that it is hard sometimes to keep a steady pace. The other day I was hiking down from some rocky switchbacks by Donner Pass at the end of the day and ready to be done even though we still were going to try and hike another couple miles before setting up camp when I heard Train shout "trail magic"! Right then I knew we were not going any farther that night. Ok so Train is our friend we met in Big Bear and have been hanging out with on and off and trail magic is when you get something wonderfully unexpected on the trail. This time it was a neat couple from Tennesse that did the Appalachian Trail last year and wanted to pay forward some of the trail magic they got hiking. So they had come across the country in their camper and parked there at Donner Pass to make hot meals and offer rides or whatever else they could do to help out the hikers. Wow! It was great! So there was a handfull of hikers just sitting around a camper at Donner pass telling thier stories while listening to Frost (another hiker we know) play the Ukulele. How could anyone pass that up?
Sorry about spelling, spell checker wasn't working.
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