Coming soon, adventure 2012!

Trying out this new app!

Some Photos From the Final Bit

Spiff's spiffy rain outfit, crossing one of the many torrential rivers in the Glacier Peak wilderness. We took the original PCT through the area, which was pummeled by floods in 2003 that washed out many bridges and other portions of the trail.


Basking in the sun in the Pasayten wilderness. The last leg of our journey was lovely and sunny.


Kissing the monument!



The fair folk we finished with. From left to right: Spaceman Spiff, Six, Panties, Kim, Brent, and Dimmer Switch.

we were just gone for 5 months?

well, here we are, sitting in a room with music and warmth and no rain or mice! we made it, all 2650 miles, and it is indeed odd to be back. back around people and all my stuff that i don't need, and warm beds at night, and good food. if you don't hear from us, it's probably because making plans is overwhelming. unless you want to make plans like- i'll see you at second breakfast after 5 miles.

i'm sure we will post more after we've settled in a bit. hope to catch you seattle-ites as we readjust to city lifestyle. my phone is back on, but unfortunately doesn't work. anyone got an extra working sprint phone lying around? in any case, i can always check my messages and see you all soon.

sye

At Stehekin!

Sye and Alex have arrived at Stehekin - their last re-supply stop before completing this amazing trek. Snowy trails likely rewarded by a trip to the Stehekin bakery. They plan to resume hiking tomorrow or Friday, depending on the weather. Then only 3 and 1/2 more hiking days until their final destination in Manning Park, BC. They look forward to seeing friends & family soon!

from 9/5/2008

Another post from the Spiff...

9/5/08 Crossed OR/WA border TODAY

If today is any indication of WA, I think the last of this trip will be incredible- clear and warm. I expect it won't be that way all the time, but we only have under 500 miles to go!

Alex and I have been reunited just in time for WA. I did indeed find my parents in Breitenbush, but only after a storm fiasco, where I was forced (and encouraged by Nick) to turn around near Mt Jefferson and backtrack (unheard of) several miles to go down a six mile trail to a road. We had hit a very windy and rainy ridge followed by a snowfield and couldn't find our way down. good thing Nick was with me and helped me let go of stubborness and turn back. When I got back on the trail, the snowfield was indeed mild in clear weather, but it was terrifying at the time. All in all, Oregon, we found out is often wet and mosquito-y. And, I still never got a good view of Mt Jefferson, the mountain I didn't know existed until a few weeks ago.

In our separated states, Alex and I made quite opposite plans- me to see Seamus in Portland , her to hike with our friend Kelsy from Timberline to Cascade Locks. So we did both, but i didn't catch the two of them until the morning before Cascade Locks-still in bed at 730 am!! Our daylight hours here dwindled to 630 am - 8 pm. And 8pm is pushing it. But, from what I hear Kelsey was an amazing hiker and only slipped into granpa grunts of sore feet a few dozen times a day! I'm just kicking myselft that I missed most of the whiskey and 3 tasty bite meals. Yesterday, we had five visitors, including my brother and his girlfriend, and it was great to see so many familiar faces. I expect WA will be a bit like that. And a bit rushed by trying to say hi and get our miles in before snow. Just hold it back until October.

from 9/8/2008

The blueberries are incredibly distracting. Glo-worm rolled into lunch with a purple mouth. Found our first chanterelle just after crossing into WA. Delicious charred on my alcohol stove...

A couple updates from Spaceman Spiff

Hi all-
Sye just sent me a few pages to post which are updates from the past month or so.

8/19/08 North of Crater Lake
I was surprised to find that the CA/OR border may not completely be on an arbitrary line. OR has frogs hopping across the trail, afternoon thunderstorms (our first rain since Wrightwood), no poison ivy on the trail to speak of. There are still those pesky mosquitoes, but as the nights are getting considerably colder, I'm hoping they will disappear. Of course, the days are also getting shorter and I'm noticing our hiking time is diminishing too. But the current six-pack have become quite good at hiking 20 miles after noon!

Alex has been apart from the group for awhile and we're missing our cool factor. And Eric, our leader, has also been gone. Somehow we've managed without them although they are sorely missed. We're calling our current faction the "ginger brews' because there's four of us (sometimes 5) and ginger brews come in 4-packs.

I am surprised I'm still hiking with the group b/c I've become much more of a loner on this walk. But, I think it works because the six pack is made of mostly loners. And, I've deduced, mostly drifters in high school. People who drifted from one social group to another. SO I think we let each other drift in and out of the pack, doing our own thing when we need to, bunching up for the road walks.
Especially with Alex gone (now just barely behind), I thought I'd hike alone, being behind after Seamus' visit. But, Seamus hiked so fast I was barely behind at all and caught the town-dwellers (hikers caught in the overstimulating town life). Seamus visited for maybe 5 days and it was so nice to have his company and share what our every day life is like. A lot of walking. And drinking hot chocolate.

today we passed Crater Lake and it was so beautiful to gaze at it as we walked around the rim part of the way. The lodge has a great breakfast and it's cheaper than the cafe at the Mazama Village restaurant. Also, I talked to the info center rangers, who were super nice, and they contacted someone to bring me a little box our friend Jacqui left for us when she worked here this summer. I left most of it for the 6-pack because I had already re-supplied, but I do love care packages. We alsmot got the 4-lb bag of brown sugar ino Jellybean's bag, but she showed up just in time. So, Jacqui, the brown sugar and couscous didn;t make it with use. But the chocolate sure was yummy.
Still "behind schedule', but should be to the Mt Hood area at the beginning of September and to Canada by the end of September. That's not much longer in the woods! Hoping to see my family at Breitenbush and Portland friends at Hood or Cascade Locks. Anyone who wants to find us and bring the 6-pack drinks and treats at a highway...trail angel work is very rewarding. Hikers are incredibly excited to see small yummy & refreshing items! And, we aren't a bad group to hike with, especially when we're doing the 6-mile half of the day instead of the 20-mile half.

just moments away...

we are sooooo close to home, just an hour away. in skykomish right now, and looking forward to visitors tomorrow. we had amazing visitors at hwy 90, but didn't make it to the highway until long after dark, after getting distracted by an amazing trail angel who made WHATEVER we wanted 6 miles before the highway. i finally called marta to see if anyone was coming, because otherwise we would have stayed and eaten and drank until the morning. but marta and the boy and the baby were already on the road, so we ran down the rest of the trail, met them in the dark, and drove back up to hang out more with the trail angel. marta and the boys brought amazing food- sushi especially. and we got more amazing food from alex's grandparents and lucy the next day. so, we are incredibly spoiled in this northern part of WA. before highway 90, we had two visits from eric and maureen and yakima peaches, saw and hiked with jon, saw my parents. and unfortunately saw my dad because of a fall my mom took which broke her knee and perhaps made mine feel better (i'm so sorry mom!). i'm sure i owe them services for many months to make up for the trouble i've caused them.

hoping for the weather to hold for our last week and a half, but that's all we have left. can't really believe it. i think the city will be a bit overwhelming. but we will try our best to be social, eat a lot, sleep, watch movies, and maybe finally turn on our phones. hope to see y'all soon.

Spiff and Six at Snoqualmie Pass TODAY!

Alex and Sye plan to arrive at Snoqualmie Pass TODAY - Sunday, Sept 14 - between 7-9 pm. They will stay until noon tomorrow (Monday, Sept 15).

They hope to see lots of friends. You can meet them tonight at the Summit Lodge (check the Family Pancake House) at the top of Snoqualmie Pass. Their tentative plan is to spend the night at the Denny Creek Campground, which is at Exit 47 off of I-90 (about 6 miles west of Snoqualmie Pass), before returning to Snoqualmie Pass to start hiking at noon.

I just got off the trail, hiking with them (and Tree Beard and Glow Worm) about 70 miles through the Goat Rocks and William O. Douglas Wilderness areas. Yesterday, Chrystell and I met Marta picking berries by Chinook Pass! It's a small world.

After tomorrow morning, the next chance to meet them is at Stevens Pass (along US Route 2, about 1 3/4 hours from Seattle) on Thursday, probably mid-day.

Two Oregon visits with the Syester

I had the pleasure of meeting up with Sye twice in the past week.

The first was in Portland on 9/1, where Edith and I stopped off for lunch and visited with Sye and Shoe and ate tacos on the front lawn of their friend's house.

The second was in Cascade Locks on 9/4. I found Sye, Alex, Jellybean, and Kelsey walking along the cycle path with NO PACKS and the pleasure of an iPod boombox. Luxury hiking for sure. Here the crew shuffled around various items between their packs, bump boxes, and care packages. They really liked the my little pony stickers!!!

Also, our dear wonderful mother had sent down FIVE DIFFERENT PAIRS of hiking poles, replete with individually bagged identifying notes and a ONE PAGE typed letter describing the various benefits of each pair of poles. Sye's task was to chose the most suitable set of poles. From Sye's expression in this picture, you may wonder if this was the most challenging task faced thus far in their adventures.

We also ate amazing burgers and malted shakes at the little dive burger shop in town (the menu is in the background). Sye and Alex proudly ordered gardenburgers with bacon, to the fascination of the employees.

snow on the hood!

howdy from ptown!  i'm here just briefly, getting out of a snow storm on mt hood and getting rescued and swooped away with six-toed and jellybean from the scary out of doors by our favorite seamus.  recently got out of a different storm near breitenbush and met my parents for an amazing few days of hot springs and good food.  short end of the story is that oregon is rainy and buggy and i can't wait for a good run of sunny days.  also...my knee is sore and needs a rest because i was doing too many miles and tripped a few times.  but on the incredibly good side of things, pterodactyl caught me!  and although she is now back on the trail hiking to cascade locks, with luck i shall catch her and our friend kelsey tomorrow or the next day.

we have only one month of hiking, and i just hope the weather holds out, and our sleeping bags don't get soaked, and my knee feels dandy, and we will be in Canada so soon!  and please come find us.  we've been dillydallying, so we can't take long breaks, but some breaks and picnics are good.  and if you call our voicemails and say you want to meet up, we can give you our friends phone numbers and mooch off of them and try to call you from the trail.  

see you soon!!

spaceman of the spiff

Yeah, Meet us Soon!

So, I know there are sooooo many of you clambering to come see Spiff and I in Washington, and I highly suggest you pull out a nice big road map, and check out all of these places you could potentailly meet us that my Dad so wonderfully wrote down for yall. What he did not highlight, however, is how VERY close the I-90 crossing is to Seattle. Perhaps 60-90 minutes drive from the middle of the big city.

NOTE: The PCT crosses I-90 at Snoqualmie Pass, which is a 60-90 minute drive from Seattle. This is the easiest place for all you city folk to see us in all our trail glory.

Now that that is clear, I should also mention how very close Steven's Pass is to Seattle. Again, maybe an hour and a half to two hour drive from Seattle. Very close. And these passes are only 75 trail miles apart from eachother, so you could come visit us at Snoqualmie Pass and then three days later come find us at Steven's Pass. Sounds like a lot of fun, eh?

So. About this timing thing. We are DRASTICALLY behind schedule. I'm not too worried about snow yet, but it has been cold the last few nights in Oregon. Currently, I am planning on hitting Cascade Locks on September 2nd. Spiff might be there before me, but hopefully we'll be together again by then. All dates will be moved back accordingly. I'll try to update the itinerary, but I'm running short on computer time at the Sisters Library.

Ways to meet Sye and Alex as they hike in Washington

Sooo, Sye and Alex are coming to Washington!! Alex asked me to write up a few places you can meet them as they hike the PCT. She will post more information on when they will be at these spots.

These ideas that range from easy (drive to meet them) to challenging (hike with them):

A. Easy ways to meet them

There are five easy and close places to meet Sye and Alex along a road:

1. Highway 12 at White Pass (PCT mile 2303) – White Pass is beautiful, and you can combine this with a berry picking outing. Heck, you probably can fall out of the car at White Pass and find good berry spots.

2. Highway 410 at Chinook Pass (PCT mile 2332) – This is east of Mt. Rainier and close to Crystal Mountain Ski Resort. Combine this with a visit to Mt. Rainier National Park, or just drive down for the day. It is about a 3-hour drive from Seattle. Oh, and ditto that line about berry picking.

3. Interstate 90 at Snoqualmie Pass (PCT mile 2402) – It’s Snoqualmie Pass. Need I say anything (except you have to hike or drive a bit to find good berries)?

4. Highway 2 at Stevens Pass (PCT mile 2476) – Everybody knows Stevens Pass.

5. Highway 20 at Rainy Pass (PCT mile 2594) – The North Cascades Highway is a tourist destination all by itself. But by this time of year the tourist buses should be gone and the fall colors should be out. About a 3-hour drive from Seattle.


B. Sort of easy ways to meet them

1. The PCT crosses a lot of logging roads. If you want to meet Sye and Alex along a remote logging road, let me know and I can offer some suggestions.

2. You also can camp overnight close to where they will be hiking. Campgrounds that might be attractive include the White River campground at Mt. Rainier National Park and the Lake Wenatchee Campground near Stevens Pass. Especially up by Lake Wenatchee, there are places you can meet them as they pass by trailheads to interesting day trips.


C. Challenging ways to spend time with them

You can hike with Sye and Alex for a few miles. Here are a few ideas. These are all really nice day hikes.

1. Sand Lake: Join them at White Pass on Hwy 12 and hike north 2.8 miles to Sand Lake. Say goodbye to them and hike back to the car (5.6 miles round trip).

2. Dewey Lake: Drive to Chinook Pass on Hwy 410 and hike south 3.2 miles to Dewey Lake, to meet Sye and Alex as they hike north. Then hike with them north back to your car at Chinook Pass (6.4 miles round trip.)

3. Ridge Lake: Join them at Snoqualmie Pass and hike north about 6 miles to Ridge Lake. Say goodbye and return to Snoqualmie Pass (12 miles round trip).

4. Hope, Mig, and Josephine Lakes: Hike 1.6 miles up trail #1061 (near Stevens Pass) to intersect the PCT at Hope Lake. Meet Sye and Alex there, and hike with them for 8 miles past Mig and Josephine Lakes to Stevens Pass (10 miles loop trip). You will need a ride back to your car (about 4 miles down from Stevens Pass along Hwy 2).

5. Valhalla Lake: Join them at Stevens Pass and hike north 5 miles to Valhalla Lake. Say goodbye and return to Stevens Pass (10 miles round trip.) Or, if you want, go an extra couple miles to Janus Lake. You will be tempted to keep going north as the crest trail really does follow the top of a gorgeous crest north of Janus Lake.

6. Cutthroat Pass: Join them at Rainy Pass on Highway 20 and hike north 3.6 miles to Cutthroat Pass. No lakes (although you look down on one), but high and open country surrounded by rugged peaks. (7.2 miles round trip.)

This is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many, many other hiking opportunities if you are willing to meet them at other spots. I list these because they start or end where the PCT intersects a major highway. If you want more information please email me at jon@pscs.org.

i love oregon, and i love new outfits

yes, i too have made it to oregon! and i was fortunate to hike the last 4 days with seamus into oregon. (he, by the way, has hiked probably 80 miles over the past 5 days. that, for a hiker or not, is very impressive). now i'm getting ready to fly through oregon so i can take it easy in WA and beat the snow. i'll send more if i get the chance. and here are our outfits!

OREGON!

We did it folks. We hiked ALL off California. All 1,699 miles of it. Fires and bees and endless stretches without lakes could not stop us!

Actually, I should not be using "we." I made it. I have no idea if Spiff made it. He's back there somewhere on the trail with Shoe, and they were "taking their time."

Anyhow. OREGON!!!! I'm soooooo excited! I was convinced that I was going to break my leg or head or something right before the border and have to be helicoptered out and then I would never be able to say I'd hiked all of California. Of course I could still break something and leave the trail but at least I'll be able to say I hiked from some arbitrary political boundray to another arbitrary political boundray. YAY!

And let me tell ya, Oregon is lovely. On one side of the border there were bees chasing us and cows mucking up our water supplies, and brush obscuring the trail, and then we crossed over and there were no cows (okay, there were footprints) and no bees (perhaps because it was 7pm at night) and the trail was newly cleared. And there was NO SMOKE! It's sunny and clear and beautiful here and I love Oregon. Now I'm going to see how fast I can blast through it. I'm thinking 426 miles in 15 or 16 days. Washington here I come! Who's gonna meet me there, huh?

Dear everyone -- here is the latest blog entry from the great adventurous duo of Alex and Sye, typed by their faithful friend Alison. The little scribbles on pieces of onion paper came accompanied by a beautiful picture of these two grinning like eejits above a lovely rockfall. Below is from Spiff/Sye [some cap letters snuck in, but those are me, not Sye].

7/8/08
I think it's been a very long time since I wrote anything for the blog...have I told you about the Sierras? Ah yes, I mentioned our visitors. How bout the stream crossings? Those were one of my favorite parts of the high Sierras. We have such minimal route finding on the trail, so stream crossings are the biggest mental puzzle so far, and I loved them. Looking for the best rocks to hop across, hoping that gap isn't too big, with several feet of rushing water thundering underneath. Often we had logs and sometimes we just broke down and took off the shoes. Sometimes our pants on the deep ones. And in the mornings especially, that water was ice cold. Numbing. The guide book mentioned several times that 'with one slip this crossing would be fatal." I don't think that was really true this year. A slip would only mean soggy gear and a cold day or night.

7/15/08
The moon is SO bright here (well, has been this entire time), and I swear it's brighter than in the northwest, but I have no idea why. Sure makes nightwalking east, and I can almost read by it, and it definitely wakes me up at night.
___
Although I haven't spent nearly as much time studying mosquitoes as I have ants, I have noticed a thing or two. And while my bite tolerance has improved (I often don't find evidence of bites) they are still *extremely* annoying. This is the most mosquitoes I think I've been around, though Jon got to see the worst of it. While I'm not a fan of killing bugs, these ones are very satisfying and easy) to squash. But I haven't found any method to their location. I thought maybe they were bad at 9000 feet, but now we're at 6000 and they're still here. And they disappeared completely for a few days, but tonight they came back. The only reason I can figure for that one is that they're spooked by Donner Pass. Yes, of the Donner Party. We passed it today, and no mosquitoes the entire day before, or for a few miles after. hmm.
____
7/25/08 Just past Old Station
Hiking with a sixpack of people just doesn't do much good for my writing. There's people around constantly while hiking, eating, sleeping -- we might have to instigate a quiet time in this crew, right before story time, so we can read and write. But I'm not complaining about the people. We've hiked with others before -- Doug in the desert, Tex and Karen in the desert and snow, shaken'bake and lo-rider in towns, jellybean often [not sure about this word], vic, nick, and mr. potatohead through the sierras. But this crew has a name. That says a lot, doesn't it? As well as a call. And it's certainly the first time I've felt really at ease on the trail. So while we may hike a little slower with so many people, and write less, maybe even sleep less, it's certainly worth it. And I definitely can't give up story time -- books at bed and this american life podcasts while filing asleep is just too good to be true. And the fact that I can say -- the 80 mile road walk was great! -- doesn't just happen any old day.
____
Tonight, we hiked up the first part of the half creek rim, and where Mt. Shasta was supposed to be, we saw thick white smoke. I was told we'd be looking at Shasta for a month -- we shall see if we see the mountain at all!

new outfits, roadwalks, and bees

well, i have tried very hard to post a few pictures, but perhaps this computer won't do it. so you'll just have to imagine our new outfits: a flouncy bright orange/pink skirt for the pteradactyl underneath a turquoise lacey short backless lingere dress. and for spiff, a metallic silver and light pink one piece that we don't know the use of. half swimsuit, half football suit. and a pink and brown tie.

since we're heading out on our second long road walk, we thought we needed to spice it up a bit. and the etna thrift shop has it all (except what i expressly went there looking for). we'll try to give you a visual soon.

this road walk will be partly supported by jellybean's support team (a friend in a truck), and we'll head to seiad valley on the road to be there by thursday. and sooo soon...we will be in ashland oregon.

still hiking with parts of the six pack. missing a few key members, but we're holding it together. i did a few days of solo hiking out of castella, and boy was it different that hiking with a dramatic six-pack. the quiet, the one-person decision making, the secluded solo lake swimming, the long stints of reading by the lake...i'll probably have to do more of that in oregon. but the six-pack caught me after a few days, and a bee sting, and i'm sure glad to have the company for the road walk.

yes, i did get stung by a bee! don't know what kind or why because it came out of no where, but guess what? no hives, no excessive swelling, no swollen neck, armpits or scalps. immuno-therapy must really work because all that happened was a bit of local swelling. so i stopped hiking for the day, jumped in a lake, took a little benadryl, and walked 28 miles the next day. not bad, eh? my epi-pen is complete, unused, and very happy.

Oh, the Luxuries . . .

We made it to the Heitman's in Old Station, and we haven't left yet. But that has nothing, I assure you, to do with Evie's Birthday Celebration last night, nor the several beers consumed, nor the fact that we stayed up 'til midnight playing "I Never" in a tree house.

I'm telling yall, this trail is fabulous. Literally, when we finally, after 60+ miles of roads, found the trail again, I wanted to kiss it. But I couldn't because I was too full of barbecue and wine, and it was getting dark, and we were trying to hike at least a few miles. I was full of barbecue because the trail goes right to Drakesbad Resort in the middle of Lassen National Park and Drakesbad has a hotsprings pool and showers and barbecue on Wednesday nights, which is when we happened to be there. And they LOVE hikers. Everything but the food was complimentary, and food was half off.

And this treat of a trail stop happened right after our road walk, and the road walk, which was so hard on my body, was delightful in many other ways because I had the Six Pack around, and folks were still wonderful to us even though we weren't on the trail. When we passed through Greenville we collapsed on the high school lawn with strawberries and coconut Popsicles from the store across the street, the caretaker let us into the boys locker room where we got to take cold showers. He even provided us soap and towels. So when we got to Drakesbad we weren't even that stinky.

And now we're in Old Station at the Heitman's house and we've showered and eaten wonderful food yet again. If we're not careful, we might get too used to these creature comforts!

Lucy reminded me on the phone the other day, that she rarely hears about the trail. Instead she hears about all the soft beds and the margaritas and the big breakfasts and the ice cream and really, I assure you all, we are hiking! We see trees and dirt and rocks every day! We eat lots of nasty bars and Mike N' Ikes and sweaty cheese with dirty fingerprints on it. We find lakes occasionally and jump in, and crash in the bushes at night time, and then we get up in the morning early early early (Evie has a new little ditty he likes to sing at 5am as he throws pine cones at all of us still peacefully sleeping) and hike some more!

And speaking of swimming holes, we swam in Lower Twin Lake (another goddamn Twin Lake) and it was incredible! It was warm enough to actually swim, and the bottom was hard packed mud and the water was crystal clear so we could see all the way to the bottom when we were swimming, and we could see the light playing of the water reflected on the lake bottom. It was idyllic! Another place to go back to. And today, when we finally leave the Heitman's, we shall hit a long waterless stretch in the hot, dry sun. But we hear there are caves to take refuge in, so maybe we won't really hike until evening anyway.

Oh this trail is full of woes . . .

Six Pack back on the Trail!!!

Space Man Spiff called today to let me know that the crew has finished the road hike through the fire and come out on the other side unscathed. He said it was hard, but a good bonding experience for the Six Pack and they are all glad to get their feet back on the trail. YAY, SIX PACK!!!!

A HAPPY BIRTHDAY POSTING ON SPIFF'S BIRTHDAY!

A HAPPY BIRTHDAY POSTING ON SPIFF'S BIRTHDAY!

Spiff's 'Rents ascended to PCT
From sea-level north to Yosemite.
Mammoth Lakes to Tuolumne
The 'rents were mightly impressed with all to see.

Strong confident hikers striding across the meadow at the end of a day, 900 miles into the journey;

Other parents bringing treats and hugs, enjoying the celebration and feeling appreciated!

Fellow hikers forming a helpful family, watching for each other.

Devouring mail and treats freshly extracted from the post-office.

Siblings immensely happy to see each other again.

Six Toed Pterry resting with Daddy Longlegs, wondering....

But he was still able to keep up!

And he still had a few side-trips in his tank along the 80 miles to Sonora Pass.


That's what we did see, and hope you enjoy the glimpses here!













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A newbie on the PCT

I joined Spiff and Six Toes for 3+ days on the trail from July 3-6. We hiked 76 miles from Tuolumne Meadows to Sonora Pass. It is AWESOME, AWESOME, AWESOME! Join them for a day or two. Be trail angels for them or someone else. It could reorder your priorities. It has for me. I can’t wait to join them for another stretch later this summer.

I posted more pictures at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/11311360@N08/sets/72157606179092051/. The terrain drops your jaw like a ton of bricks. What I’ve heard about the high Sierras is true: they are like the Enchantments in Supersize mode. It is granite country, and lake country, with Montana-sized meadows and temple-like ridges. Spending a few days away from concrete and cars, and in a place like this, raises fundamental questions about what is important and what is not. (Important: Food, water, sun, bugs, being kind to your feet, sharing, friends and loved ones; Not important: Almost everything else.)

I met up with Six Toes, Spiff, Charles, Judy, Andrew, and Edith, in Lee Vining, CA. We had a great dinner, heard tales of the trail, and laughed a lot. It was like a birthday party – which is a good thing because it was in fact my birthday. Andrew, Edith, and I visited Mono Lake the next morning as Spiff and Six Toes got their supply boxes ready. In the afternoon we all walked north on the trail until Charles, Judy, Andrew, and Edith said goodbye and turned back to Tuolumne Meadows.

That’s when it hit me that I really was on the trail – with hardened trail veterans and 75 miles to go. In my haste to get ready I impulsively bought new shoes. This is not usually a good idea before a long hike. Six Toes and Spiff had to keep moving and it was my job to keep up. I had images of emerging 75 miles later with bloodied stumps where feet used to be.

Fortunately, things turned out pretty well and my feet survived intact. This is a good thing because I needed all my blood for the mosquitos. Mosquitos are industrious little buggers, and those of you who care about them will be happy to know that we donated many, many liters of blood for the hatching and rearing of mosquito babies.

*

The first thing to know about hiking the PCT is that everyone has a nickname. I first met a woman who called herself - with no sense of irony or need for explanation - "Shake 'N Bake." Her husband is Low Rider. Spiff and Six Toes have shared a lot with them, including, as far as I can tell, hot tubs and motel rooms. But they do not know their real names.

On our first day out we were joined by Jellybean, a wonderful woman with whom I went skinny dipping in lakes and slept in a broken down motel room before learning her non-trail (i.e., real) name. Later we were joined by Lil' Wrangler, who is not little at all, but who got his name because he ordered four corn dogs off the Lil’ Wrangler children’s menu at a restaurant in southern California many weeks ago. Lil’ Wrangler’s cap even has a nickname, as the words “Super Visor” are written across the bill. Maybe it is the thin air, but this type of humor works on the trail.

Later I met Squatch, Nibblewill Nomad, Barely Legal, Llama, Johnny Two Stoves, two of the Three Amigos, and – apparently because he is from Italy and needs no additional nickname – Lorenzo.

Nicknames are sort of given and sort of chosen. Despite having the unquestionably best name of all, Barely Legal was trying to change her nickname to Wild Child. You tell me which works best.

The second thing to know is that hiking the trail is a metaphor for life itself – you travel with others, but ultimately you are on your own. Groups form and dissolve without any communication that I could discern. Jellybean simply was part of our group. Then Lil’ Wrangler was too. Llama could have joined us, but he hung back and I did not see him again for two days.

A third thing to know is that hiking the PCT is not like backpacking as I know it. When I go backpacking, we lug a ton of stuff up to a pretty spot and look around for a nice area to make home for a couple days. We set up a kitchen area, set up the tent, and find a spot to stash food away from rodents and bears.

Through-hiking, in contrast, places no premium on finding the “right” spot. Instead, when it is time to get ready for bed, everyone flops on their own plot of gound like puppies and pulls out their books and journals. Tents, if used, pop up in a minute.

I slept without a tent for two nights. The stars and constellations are tilted compared to what we see up here in Washington. Cygnus the Swan, Lyra, and Aquila the Eagle soared overhead throughout the night. My sleeping bag got wet, but I copied Spiff’s lead and hiked in the morning with the bag draped over my pack. It dried up in no time.

For many people, hiking the trail comes to define their lives. Shake N Bake told a story about a friend who hiked the PCT four years ago. When asked by a mutual friend what she had been doing lately, this friend began, “Well, I recently hiked the PCT…” The trail was that important, that much a defining experience in her life.

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We had a car waiting at Sonora Pass, and drove to Bridgeport for the night. After breakfast we drove back up and hung out as Gordon – a trail angel in a white van – blasted the song “Out on the Crest Trail” over his van’s speakers. We danced – I caught Six Toes dancing on video – and hung out until there was no longer any excuse to stick around. We said goodbye and Spiff and Six Toes shouldered their packs and disappeared into the trees of Sonora Pass. It was a hard moment. I considered dropping everything to join them on the trail. Gordon’s song says, “There’s a strong wind, and it’s pulling me northward. To the Canadian border. And I’ll soon be there.”