photographias!

on the infamous aquaduct! all that water, open to the hot air, roaring through the desert. strange.

my old hat, desentigrated by the wind, and my new hat from hiker town. it didn't stay on my head in the wind though...

kennedy meadows

i love this town! just a small town off the trail, with a general store that is the center of everything. well, the store is the town. hikers and locals all hanging out. potlucks. maybe an outdoor movie tonight. outdoor showers and a river not far away.

we survived the last of southern cal! well, i'm sure it will still be hot and dry from here (91 in the shade here now!), but at least we'll only need a few liters of water at one time, and usually only one. doesn't make all the food weight so bad. with food for almost 7 days, our packs will be heavy once again.

i am sooo excited to head into the mountains. we're leaving 2 days behind schedule (i'm planning on heading out the morning of the am), but will add another day before independence to climb mt. whitney. (the tallest in the lower 48! but it's really just a walk.) so...may be as much as 4 days behind schedule by the time we leave independence, but everyone we've talked to says not to rush the sierras because it's the best part of the whole trail. we'll see, as all of you north cascade snobs might be thinking, if the sierras really are better than washington.

the care and gear packages from our parents have been great! and got a letter from shoe, but now we want more letters from friends! where are you? i know we said not to send too much, and didn't provide many addresses, but we can handle a bit don't you think? treats and notes and homemade things (and i do like some sweet things...especially if they're not cliff bars!). but you know what would be even better? meeting us out here!! or in a town!!

so if you're ever trying to find us on the trail, here's the deal. call and let us know where you're planning on being. we'll let you know more about our timing when we get closer. and if you're waiting at a trail, ask other hikers if they've seen us (spiff and six toes). sometimes there's trail registers on either side of the road, and you can see who's been through. i know this probably won't matter until washington where most of you are, but it's kinda like a people scavenger hunt. fun, eh?

also, if anyone knows folks in ashland who would like to have us for a night or two, let us know. and thanks for the notes on the blog! i love reading comments from you all. and michael, i will certainly think of that song now as i hike thousands of feet into dramatic end-of-the-world mountains.

been slow on sending blog letters out, but will try to soon so you can have more detailed stories. it's just so tiring at the end of the day, that writing seems a bit daunting!

thinking about you all lots. i do, afterall, have all day to think about something other than putting one foot in front of the other.

Windy Tehachapi II

Yes, it's windy, and everything that Sye said, but I just want to note that it is only Sye who is getting tired of sweet food. Not me. I like sweets, and at this point, if you were to send us, say, some cookies, I would get to eat my share AND Sye's share. Yum.

But some other mile markers of the trip include passing mile 500, which was written in the middle fo the road in small pebbles. The trail is full of stuff like that. Messages hikers in front leave for hikers following, whether they be specific or general. One group of hikers is having a ton of fun leaving penises everywhere. Trail humer is not that different then, well, dumb humor.

There's also has been an amazing amount of trail angel presense in the SoCal section, though we here this dwindles as we head north. But the photo of Sye and Tecate is a classic example of little oasises stocked not only with the all-important water, but also with soda and beer and sometimes even fruit. The folks who truck that stuff in there are unbelievable. I love them all. And have I mentioned I'm developing a taste for cheap beer? Used to turn my nose up at it. I'm loving it now, especially in the middle of a long, hot day.

windy tehachapi!!!

here we are, just walked into techachapi, and we have a few hours to eat, shop for food, and get to the post office before 5:30. so we decided to split up, and try to get more done in less time. and while i was walking the mile to the store, i found a library! this town is very spread out, and i'm just realizing that i should run to catch alex because we were going to repackage at the post office...but here i am distracted by the internet. so i'll keep it brief!

the past few days have been hot and windy. we successfully crossed the infamous aquaduct section of the trail, which transports a rushing river of water from the sierras to LA, but through a scorching desert. it's bizarre. hearing a rushing river below the desert sand, and just wanting a tall glass of water. but we were lucky- it was definitely cooler than usual. and windier. in fact, so windy that last night as we were trying to put a few more miles in, we practically got blown off the mountain. this was different than in the san jacintos because, well, i think the wind was stronger. i had to run to keep myself from falling over. and this was on a very narrow trail on a very steep hill made entirely of moving sand. and yes, the sand blasted us. luckily, we only had three miles to go between one canyon to the next, and were able to hunker down out of the wind by the time it got dark. windy again today, but it's different in the morning, when it's sunny, and it can be especially fun when it's a tailwind. (carlyn, i thought about us biking, and sure was glad i was walking instead of biking).

we'll skip out of town tomorrow. probably change plans a bit up the road. Instead of resupplying in Vermillion Valley Resort, we'll probably push through to Mammoth Lakes. Still a day behind right now.

and if anyone wants to send us care packages....we sure love them! i'm craving your favorite salty snack (energy bars are sweet...and i'm so tired of it!). also i changed the settings here so that anyone can post comments, so comment away! it's nice to hear from you when we get the surprise chance of internet.

trail angels...did we say they're amazing

we've been basking in the glory of trail angels the past week. first two amazing homes in wrightwood, now two amazing houses on this section of the trail. a few nights ago, we stayed at the saufley's- horses, dogs, tents, cots, kitchen and all. now we're at the anderson's briefly before the mohave. more dogs, good people, food... it's hard to hike the trail with all these comfortable places to sleep! on to tehachapi tomorrow. still about a day behind. we'll try to pull some long days, but doesn't look like there's much of a rush. still snow at kennedy meadows, and now a closure due to fire! bye for now.

a few pictures from this week

all those balloons...can you guess the day?














the hiker's oasis, c/o the anderson's. can't get better than a lounge chair, shade, tecate, avocado and fritos!

mail from the trail....

5/17 Mission Creek

We’ve been hiking along Mission Creek all day and it’s the most water we’ve been around yet. We cross the creek at least every mile it seems and have gotten in the water 3 times today. (Its not big enough to swim in, just lye down in and slip over to get both sides) Around 6:30 this morning, we saw 2 black bears up ahead! I don’t know how they survive out here, since it’s HOT and really still desert. We are heading into mountains today, but they’re not full of lush vegetation or water. The bears lumbered off when we started hollering and we haven’t seen them since. – sye

5/23

Desert hiking is a completely new animal for me, but most of the time I like it. It’s different to plan my day around where the next drinking water is rather than where the next lake to jump in is. Of course, we’d love to plan our days around lakes, they just don’t exist out here. Mostly it’s one well to the next, or piped spring, or tiny creek. Or recently, rivers even. And of course, there’s sometimes the surprise cache full of good water. Or a cooler (full of oranges) tucked under a tree. Sometimes soda or beer. Once tequila even. Mostly we’re looking for water. And most days have been real hot. Like last week, we came down from the jon jacinto range, 9,000 ft. to a hot valley, ~1000! The desert took all afternoon, 10 miles of long switchbacks, and we could feel the desert heat rising from the valley as we got closer. At the base of the mountains was a drinking fountain, and we didn’t get there till after dark, around 8:30. A bunch of folks were already camped and we joined them, set our sleeping bags on a rock road, and cooked a quick meal before our warmest night yet.

We got up at ~5, and began trekking across the already hot sandy valley. By 10, we’d made it through the worst, and stopped at mesa wind farms because they’d left a sign to come by, get water, say hello. We sat outside in the shade for a bit, gulped down energy bars and finally knocked on the door, the person inside told us to come in to the air conditioning, drink cold bottled water, use the bathroom, sign their PCT book. Even shower. Oh, and have a donut if you like it was already 93 degrees, in the shade.

We headed back into the scorcher, knowing we had a climb but eventually a river (white water creek and canyon) ahead in 5 or 10 miles. Most days we stop by 1pm to wait out the heat until 4ish, but today we were looking for the water so we hiked until 2:30. completely exhausted and hot, I first sat in the creek, practically bath temperature, lay down on my back then my stomach, washed off, and relaxed. It was really only ~6 inches deep and warm, but that’s enough. We had plans of hiking further but this creek was such a novelty, our friends convinced us to relax all day and stay the night.

Only a few days earlier we’d run into a completely different kind of adventure. We came off another high desert onto the pines to palms highway. The next 30 miles of trail was closed due to a fire. We walked the mile to Paradise Café. Waited an hour till they opened, and then had a delicious meal with 10 other hikers. (Alex and I both had veggie burgers with bacon and avocado) after at least an hour of debating (hitch vs. road walk vs. hike the fire stretch) plus a local’s insider information, we had a plan. 5 of us hopped into the back of the local’s truck and headed up a back road to the trail since the regular PCT entrance was blocked alternately by a fire truck and a sheriff. We went up all sorts of back roads, bushwhacked, then found the PCT just a mile or two from the highway entrance. Our local friend left us and we hiked into some of the most beautiful mountains we’d seen yet. Pines and rock and cliffs, more like home than any of the desert. As three of us climbed the rides higher, the wind picked up, and I began doubting all the corralling I’d done earlier to get a crew to hike this piece (we knew all the danger from the fire was pass and trail work was being done) We stuck together as evening came on, but were being blown sideways, we think 60 mile/hour winds w/even stranger gusts. Each time we crossed a valley-bound trail, I asked my friends if they wanted to hike down, practically wishing they did but knowing we’d all be too stubborn to. So instead, we hiked higher, into more winds and darkness. With all the mist billowing through, our headlamps barely worked as we hiked down to a saddle w/ more shelter. We camped there, along with a pile of gear for trail workers, and hoped for a clear morning.

The next day was clearer and we had a long hike out to idyllwild, a short section through the burn, but mostly beautiful mountains all around us. We all agreed the most beautiful yet.

Tonight we’re camped in yet more unusual weather. Not a windstorm this time, but a rainstorm. We hike all morning, and by the time we caught up to a friend of ours, we had to hole up and dry out. In the desert?!? And its 40 degrees?! It does allow us a day to write, play cards, sit in a pit bathroom out of the rain, and really give out tent a good test for the first time.

- sye