LA - what a trip

The flight out to LA went very smoothly. My father was kind enough to drive me to the airport which simplified the heck out of things. One never knows about possible traffic pitfalls so we got an earlier start than we needed to and got to the airport so early that had I been taking an international flight I would have been early even for that. But I managed to talk him into buying me a coffee roll from the airport Dunkin Donuts even though he knew it was over priced.

I couldn't have asked for a smoother flight. There was virtually no turbulence.

I set my watch to Pacific time when I landed so when Michelle and I finally had dinner at 10:00 I wondered why I was so tired. By the time I went to sleep at midnight it occurred to me it was really 3:00 according to my internal clock.

I'm building a pergola for Michelle. That and other home improvements is the whole idea behind this trip west. So far so good. We spent the morning at Home Despot and a lumber yard getting the necessary tools and material. I spent the rest of the day measuring and cutting parts.

LA is just like it's seen on TV. Only on TV we are used to seeing everything from Armageddon to aliens. So LA doesn't seem too crazy.....until one actually gets here and realizes this ain't TV any longer and LA is still just as over the top. I don't actually have any great stories yet, but from Michelle's back yard I could hear a whole army of sirens on what must have been a chase of some kind because it continued to move in direction for half an hour or more. It was complete with helicopters.

And yeah, it's warm here. 60 at night and mid 70's to 80's during the day. Thank goodness I could hug the shade while I worked!!

Catching Up

I've been back in New Hampshire since mid September. I am usually able to pick up my old job right where I left off but this year is the first time in 9 years that it wasn't possible. It's a sign of the tough economical times. I have been waiting for another job to begin - a painting job that will take me through the winter, but when that job begins is out of my hands.

An LA friend of mine, Michelle, has offered to fly me to her place in CA to do some home improvements. I know her from Burning Man and we've been good friends for perhaps 4 years. We both benefit from this arrangement as she'll end up paying less for the work even with airfare included than she would if she hired an LA contractor. And of course I finally get a positive cash flow. The biggest worry for me is that I don't like to fly. Many know that I'd rather drive across the entire country if it takes me a week than fly. But time won't allow it.

I'll be gone for 2 weeks and will be returning to New Hampshire on Dec. 3rd.

Perhaps My Favorite Day

I like the idea of Winter Solstice better than Christmas. I used to enjoy Halloween when it meant nearly unlimited candy. My favorite "holiday" is still New Years Eve because it is a time of reflection on the past year and all it has meant. But I think nothing can compare to the day we turn back the clocks and get an extra hour.

If only we could do it every day.

Fixed??

OK, for any and all of you what wanted to visit my flickr account but couldn't I hope that the problem is now fixed. I'm also hoping that you will NOT have to create an account just to view the photos.

I would like to take this opportunity to state that the flickr staff are fascist dogs and incompetent. I wrote to them to find out why my account seemed to be malfunctioning. Instead of telling me that my account had been censored because of some of partial nudity, they told me that they'd get right on finding out what was the matter. I didn't hear from them for a week. In the mean time I spent hours tracking down the problem myself.

My account is: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nomadphotos/ . Once my subscription runs out they'll only see my back as I'm leaving.

Photos From This Summer

It's been a large task, but I finally got some photos on the interweb from this summer.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nomadphotos/

Or you can follow the flickr link in the column to the right. I hope you enjoy them. They make me homesick for the trail.

Perimeter Haiku

I got a chance to look at the Perimeter haikus I wrote. Most all of them include some inside reference that wouldn't make sense to others except this one. But this one is one of my favorites anyhow:

drop below radar
lay in the dirt and cower
night vision finds you

The Ride Home to New Hampshire

At some point on my ride west in the spring one of my tail lights has stopped working. I assumed it was just a loose connection and I'd just have to jiggle a wire. It didn't work. It wasn't the bulb either. I did all I was able to track the problem but I never got it fixed and resolved that I'd travel mostly during the day to avoid the faulty light from being spotted by the cops.

So when it came time to leave Burning Man I traveled mostly during the day and avoided driving til the wee hours of the night/morning as I usually do. It was nice to actually get decent sleep for once on this cross country trip. I was astonished when once in a while a cop would pass me by at night and NOT pull me over. I figured that an old VW bus would be high profile for carrying some weed and any thin excuse would be used as a pretext for getting a look inside the bus. They would be disappointed if they wanted to find any drugs inside the hippie bus, but I certainly didn't want a defective equipment ticket for the trouble.

It wasn't until I was at the PA/NY line that I realized that as of Sept 1, my bus was no longer registered. I didn't leave Nevada til Sept 10. Back in April I had sought to register my bus in advance but I was told that it was too far in advance. My plan was to have my father register it for me in August, but motorized transportation was not a big theme in the past 5 months of my life and so registration seemed like a distant abstract by the time I was driving home in Sept.

After I realized that I was unregistered I became so paranoid I might as well have been smoking big bags of weed. Unfortunately it was already past dark when I came to the realization that my bus could be impounded several hundred miles from home. For the next 50 miles, until I could find a place to park for the night, every pair of headlights that came up behind me was a potential cop that was going to pull me over.

It was a miracle that I somehow managed to drive from coast to coast in an unregistered '71 VW bus with a tail light out and not get pulled over. But in the end I arrived safe and sound mid day in Sanbornville, NH.

Burning Man - Post Event

I stayed for nine days after the event to help clean up the desert. Cleaning up the desert involves removing all traces of the event. First the participants go. The responsible ones do a fine job of leaving no trace. The irresponsible ones leave behind their garbage knowing that 'someone will take care of it'. What gets left behind is sometimes more than just a bag of garbage. Bicycles by the hundreds are left. There was even an abandoned vehicle - the engine was blown - and a camper was left as well at another location. All this stuff has to be removed somehow.

After all the participants have gone it's up to the remaining staff to remove all structures - trailers, small wooden buildings, all vehicles, container units, and massive generators. In addition all the cable that's been buried needs to be hauled back to the surface. Posts that were once a part of larger structures need to be pulled up. And of course there's the 17 miles of fence that needs to go.

While all that is going on there's another part of the clean up going on as well. Every little piece of MOOP (Matter Out Of Place) needs to be lifted from the dirt and removed. This is a meticulous job and has to be done over several square miles. I participated in doing this combing for debris over the area where we camped and I picked up even individual strands of hair at times. Nothing is felt if it is seen. The trouble often arises with all the shifting wind and dust we had that can bury things under a light layer. So we even raked the ground to help us find things that may have been missed the first time over.

After nine days, I decided it was time for me to hit the road. There was a staff that would stay til the beginning of October. But I'd been there for 5 weeks already. I'd been traveling since early April. I hit my wall and needed a change of scenery.

Burning Man - Photography

I got the opportunity to talk directly with two of the best known photographers on the playa. I asked each one of them for the one bit of advice they had for someone who is a beginner at working with people. It was great to see their different style and approach and listen to their advice. One of them snapped my photo while we were chatting and you can find it at: http://webbery.com/galleries/burningman/bm08/faces/index15.html .

I also got the opportunity to work with some friends of mine who volunteered to model. I learned a great deal from the experience. I hope to be able to post some of the photos on-line soon. I have those to upload as well as thousands from the hiking trip.

I found it hard to go out and take as many photos as I wanted because of a combination of work schedule, dust condition, low energy, etc. It was a challenge this year.

Speaking of dusty conditions - one incident of note was a particularly bad dust storm we had this year. It started with a cyclone of dust that went right by my camp - just one hundred feet away. It was a opaque tower of swirling dust. About seventy feet up was a four-person tent. It's door was open and it had been plucked from the ground. The wind continued to keep it inflated so that it had little chance of coming down any time soon. I watched as it passed by and headed for the open desert. When I last saw it, it was about a thousand feet in the air and a quarter mile out still dancing around the shifting column of dust. It was at that point that a wall of dust overtook me from behind and blotted out everything that was more than twenty feet away. It didn't let up all afternoon after that.

Burning Man - The Work

It's been so long since I last wrote that I'm assuming my only reader left is my mother. That being said, here's an update.

Burning Man this year was a mixture of good and bad. From the working side it all went remarkably smoothly. There were a few key individual co-workers who's lack of work ethic hampered things greatly and were a constant frustration. But despite them the operation has been fine tuned over the years and is starting to run quite well.

I have worked on the radar for a number of years. In a nutshell I watch a radar screen and can spot people trying to enter the city from any direction other than the gate; thereby avoiding the cost of the ticket. I can spot vehicles, but also bicycles, and even pedestrians as far as two miles out walking across the open desert in the dead of night. The night shift is the one I enjoy most.

This year prior to the event the shifts were extremely uneventful and boring. One night for example the biggest excitement we had was one car load of stoned people who simply missed the turn and had to be redirected to the main entrance. They all had their tickets and so were definitely not trying to break in.

I expected the excitement to pick up once the event was actually going and people were arriving in far greater numbers. It never happened. Each shift passed by as slowly as the last. I work alone but I'm in radio contact with the folks outside the fence that do the actual chasing of the would-be fence crashers. To keep ourselves awake and amused we turned to writing haikus about working Perimeter. I didn't copy any down to share, but hopefully I will have some to print later.

Going Out To The Desert

I'm leaving the pulsing metropolis of Gerlach tonight and heading for the dusty desert of Black Rock. This means I'll be harder to contact.

Off The PCT

I'm officially off the PCT. I had originally planned on going all the way to Canada. Back in '04 when I did this trail last I was able to get far enough north that I could make it to Burning Man, return to the trail, and complete the remaining amount before the weather closed in on me. This year however, I was traveling with a group that wasn't putting in the miles necessary to make it possible this year. I was faced with going on without them to complete the trail, or staying with them, enjoying their company and giving up completing the trail. I opted to stay with them. I left the trail at Castella, CA, at mile 1505. I actually hiked 1400 miles of trail because there was 100 miles of trail that was closed because of the wildfires out here this year. It's been a fun and eventful 1400 miles and I got to meet some great people.

I put out my thumb to catch a ride down to Yuba City were my VW bus has been with a friend. By wild coincidence the driver that stopped was someone I'd met 10 years earlier while hiking the Appalachian Trail. He drove me quite a ways and dropped me off. My next ride was with a young guy fresh out of the Army who was interesting to talk with. Now I'm at a friend's house in Yuba City and reunited with my beloved VW bus. I've been trying to wade through an over-stuffed e-mail inbox, eating junk food, and staying up WAY too late watching pulp TV.

In the next day or so I'll head out to the empty dusty location of Black Rock Desert, NV where I'll spend the next six weeks helping to build the city, protect it from would-be gate crashers, and then tear it all down again and restore the location to it's former emptiness. So while one adventure is at an end another is about to begin. I've taken thousands of photos of the PCT and look forward to sharing them once I get home and can process them. I'm also looking forward to taking many more photos at Burning Man.

My Obscure Fame

I just found out on the trail that to a small group of people I'm "that guy" who was outstanding enough in a way as to make a lasting impression. Though my name wasn't remembered, my deed was. Here's the background...

In 2000 I worked a summer job for an outdoor adventure group that led wilderness trips for teens. I was on a 3-4 day trip on the Lost Coast with 2 other adults and 8 teens. The Lost Coast is one of the last (THE last?) parts of the California coast to be undeveloped. It's a narrow band of beach between the ocean and steep rising cliffs. At high tide the water will come right up to the base of the cliffs in places. It's also known for having an active bear population so food must be properly stored.

I was out with two other adults and eight teens. One of the girls was reprimanded by another adult for breaking a cardinal rule. She took it upon herself to sneak out that night and run away. We didn't discover that she ran until the very next morning. She had all night to get ahead of us. We had two factors working in our favor - there was really only two directions she could go because of the water and the cliff, and she was most likely to go in the direction we came from because she wasn't trying to run for good so much as just pull the rip chord on her own time in the group. She wanted to go home, not evade us forever.

It was decided that one group leader would stay with the kids, while another would scout in the opposite direction just to rule it out, then return to help watch the remaining kids. I was chosen to go in the direction the girl had most likely gone. I had hiked the Appalachian Trail the year before and I was still in pretty good traveling shape. I took some of the gear from my pack for so I could travel lighter and off I went.

I found the girl once I got back to where civilization touched the beach again. She had gotten to a phone, made her calls and was simply waiting for one of us to catch up. My boss (back on the east coast) had already received a number of calls on the matter from the girls parents and understood what was going on. So when I called him to tell him that the girl was back under supervision he said "I didn't expect you to catch up for at least another half an hour". At that point I transported her to the airport and she was flown home.

Fast forward to 2 weeks ago. I was chatting with another hiker and mentioned that I had once worked for a small outfit that did outdoor adventure. She asked what it's name was and I told her. (Here's the small world moment.) She began working for that very same company the following year. It was quite a coincidence given how very small the company is. I mentioned the incident above and she got excited. She told me that the girl remained the one and only runaway the company has ever had. She also said that that incident has been used as a training scenario every year since. Lastly she went on to say that she never knew who it was that went after the girl, but it was always emphasized that "that guy could really run!" That guy was me.

Another Rattler Story

I was spending a quiet afternoon inside my tent writing in my journal and waiting for my hiking partner to catch up. I caught a motion out of the corner of my eye and turned to spy the back portion of a rattle snake going by just 4 feet or so away. I've seen bigger by far - the ones on the Appalachian Trail easily reach 5 feet long and bigger through the middle than my wrist. But a rattler is a rattler and seeing one in the wild is always exciting. I moved to get a better look at it and the snake realized for the first time that I was nearby. Rattlers are not aggressive by nature though so it didn't coil and rattle at me, but rather it froze to assess the situation. I got out my camera and the snake started moving again. At one point it was only about 2 feet away. The photo is a bit grainy because I took it through the mesh in my tent, but here's the shot I took. You can see the edge of my tent in the upper part of the photo.

The following day I saw a rattler in the process of eating a bird. I hadn't seen so many snakes since the southern desert. It was surprised because I was traveling through a forested area and not in the open rocky desert where I was used to seeing rattlers.

A Bear

I forgot to mention this closer to the time it happened, but it's new to all you. I was hiking close to Yosemite with about 5 others. We were at the end of our day and it was time to cook dinner. We all cooked and ate. It's a general practice not to cook and camp in the same spot because of the large bear population, but it was very close to getting dark and so we thought that we might just stay. One in our group shouted "bear!" and I turned to see a very large bear wandering toward the clearing we were in. I shouted loudly and forcefully at the bear, but it took no notice at all. Normally bears want nothing to do with people. I've seen them run away as quick as they can when they see me, but in this case the bear was very used to people. It wasn't skittish. It got within 100 feet or so and circled 1/2 way around our camp and wandered off down a river, but it knew where we were. I had little doubt that if we stayed it would be back and looking for our food after we bedded down. So with that in mind we collected all our stuff and moved on another mile and into the night that had descended. We found a suitable place to camp and never saw the bear again. I've seen a number of bears over the years, but this was the biggest. I have a healthy respect for bears. I know they hold all the cards in the wild. They are surprisingly fast and very powerful. If they decided they wanted to hurt a person there's little that could be done, but always there's the knowledge that bears generally run away. This one didn't. It walked away but not because it was scared.

The Latest From The PCT

Things are still going well. I'm feeling strong and the miles are getting easier. It's getting hotter though and the humidity is up. The mosquitoes are bad at times, but they have been far less of a problem of late. The big news has been the number of fires out here. There's a 100 miles section of trail that's closed because of a forest fire. The group I've been traveling has been wondering for a over a week what we'd do about it - road walk around it? Hitch ahead? We hoped that by the time we got to the closure area that the situation would have changed and we'd be able to just continue on. No such luck. We go to Sierra City ( a sleepy little town tucked in the hills) and a ride opportunity dropped in our laps. The hitch was reputed to be rather difficult so we jumped at the chance still not knowing if we should go ahead a little more and walk all the trail we possibly could before going ahead. However, the ride we took paralleled the trail and once we got further ahead and saw just how thick the smoke was we decided that we made the right decision in taking the ride. Visibility was down to about a half mile, and had we walked through all that smoke it wouldn't have been very good for the lungs and no fun at all. So now I'm in Chester, and looking to get back to the trail in about an hour. Lassen Park is coming up next and I look forward to that section as it's very beautiful. My time's about to run out, so more when I can find the time.

From South Lake Tahoe

The last time I had access to the Internet was also the last time I had the chance to shower or do laundry. Check the last post to see just how long that was. I think this makes an ALL TIME record for me for being dirty even on other thru-hikes. I got into South Lake Tahoe last night and was finally able to get clean. In desperation I hiked 37 miles in a day and got to a road crossing early enough to still hitch into town. I was pretty tired afterward, but it was all worth it.

Since I last wrote I have faced the worst of the mosquitoes on the trail so far. All in all it was not as bad as the hike in '04, but that is by no means to say the bugs weren't still horrible. I have been trying not to use DEET. But one morning I would have happily applied it with great zeal if only I didn't have to stop and pull it out of my pack. I hustled for 7 miles that morning before I could find a place with enough breeze to even stop. To stop for more than a heartbeat meant being swarmed by a cloud thick enough that it sounded like the mosquitoes were harmonizing. But the worst of it is behind me now.

That's it in a nutshell. My time at this library is about up. More when it happens. Oh yeah....the scenery has been spectacular, but it almost always is.

Mile 906

It seems like it's been a very long time since I've had access to the Internet. I've been up in the high Sierras for a while now. It's been eventful and beautiful. I took a side trip up Mt. Whitney (14,490 ft), the highest point in the 48. The following day I went over Forester Pass at 13,000+ feet which is the highest point on the actual PCT. I've crossed at least one mountain pass each day, and sometimes more. There has been snow I've had to cross - sometimes miles at a time and sometimes just a hundred yards. There's been many water crossings - sometimes I can rock hop and keep the feet dry; other times I've waded across and soaked the feet. And at last it seems that the mosquitoes are here. They have been not so bad in some spots and truly frightening in others. I think they will be worst of all in Yosemite which I'll face in a few days. I don't know that I'll have the chance to slow down enough to take any photos in Yosemite because I'll be running for my sanity from the mosquitoes but I hope for a break here and there. I've been getting some good photos of the spectacular scenery in the Sierras so far.

The trip is going well, and I'm in good spirits. I'm traveling with small group of hikers that are a lot of fun. At the moment I'm in Mammoth, CA. It's good sized town with everything I might need for resupply.

Mile 702 Kennedy Meadows

I'm not dead yet. I'm at mile 702 at a remote place called Kennedy Meadows. The only thing here (besides a meadow) is a small general store. However, it has a special significance to hikers. It marks the end of the southern desert section and the beginning of the high mountains. Everything changes at this point. We go from being always concerned about where to find the next water to being concerned about how do we cross the rivers safely without being swept away. Before any of you panic, I've crossed every one of them before and haven't been swept away yet. Starting now we also will have to face steep snow fields and and high altitude. The highest place on the PCT at 13,000+ feet is a few days away.

The immediate concern is yet another forest fire. This on is only a few miles from here. There's no danger of it coming this way, but it has closed another section of trail that we have to get around.

My feet are doing well. In fact I feel pretty good over all. I'm traveling with a small group of people and we're having a good time. They are all entertaining in their own ways.

I'm taking a zero mile day today and another tomorrow. After that I'll be on the move again. I look forward to taking lots of great photos. This next section is going to be spectacular.

Mile 558 - Town Of Mojave

I bought a new pair of running shoes in LA. I didn't want to hike without a safety net so I kept the old shoes with me just in case something went wrong. As it turns out the new shoes work great - my feet and legs were less fatigued at the end of the day. However, I also developed a new blister on the ball of my right foot. It's a deep blister that formed under the existing callous. The other foot was just fine so I only switched the shoe on the problem foot and I've been hiking in two different shoes.

I just went through the Mojave Desert. Much of that section is flat and follows the LA aqueduct. I got a late start - heading out at 8:30 but tried to make up for it by being consistent. There wasn't much to do out there but walk anyhow. The next spot to resupply for water was 16 miles in. I took a good long break there and then went for another 7 miles to the next water source where I set up camp and planned on calling it a day. However, at 10:00 the wind kicked up and shook the tent violently. I've seen this movie before and I know how it ended, so I packed up camp and struck out for some night hiking. I didn't know how far I'd go, but I knew I wasn't going to sleep in the wind.

The section I night hiked through had been burned in a fire a couple years ago and it destroyed ALL vegitation. The mountainside was literally just soft sand. It was like trying to walk across the side of a dune in many places. The trail was just inches wide. My flashlight could only shine so far and the light got lost in the great gulf of darkness yawning to the side. I had no way of knowing how far down it went. But the night was comfortable for once and I hiked until midnight at which point I found a nice level spot on a ridge top. It was a little breezy but not windy. In the distance there was a large city that stood out in the darkness like a sea of light. It was a nice place to camp.

This next section is daunting in that I have to resupply with 5 days of food AND carry enough water to make it for 23 dry miles. The combined weight of a full resupply and 12 pounds of water isn't a good combination and I'm worried that it will cause further trouble with the blister on my right foot. Such is the trail though.

In a week I'll be at Kennedy Meadows which marks the end of the desert section and the beginning of hiking in the high Sierras.

454 miles in

I'll be honest, this trail has been anything but easy so far. The weather in particular has made it difficult. I expected extremes heat but instead it's been cold. Cold is one thing but it's also been extremely windy.

A few nights ago I was set up at a trailhead. After dark the wind kicked up and became stronger. At midnight my tent came down. I could hear the wind gusts coming through the tree tops before it hit me. Staying put wasn't an option so I had to pack up everything which took a long time because of the wind. I moved to the other side of the parking lot and slept in front of the concrete outhouse which was the only place that protected from the wind. Needless to say it was a rough day following.

Two days ago when woke I was on a mountain top and thought it chilly but wasn't sure if I was just exhaustion and reduced body fat making me wimpy. Not long after when it started to flurry I knew it really was chilly. Later on thunder clouds built and it began to rain. Keep in mind that I'm in the desert and this is extremely rare for this time of year. There was a continued mix of snow and rain, but my frustration grew when the trail lead up and over a bald peak while the thunder grew in frequency all around.

I was determined to get down in elevation by the end of the day no matter what it took. I'd had enough of the wind, cold, and wet over the past few days. I did a total of 26 miles that day to insure that I was down to 2600 feet by the time I set up camp in a burned out section of trail. The following day I was grateful that I had dropped in elevation. As the day dawned cloudy once more I looked back from where I'd come to see the clouds hanging low and heavy on the mountain tops and lots of precipitation soaking them. Hikers that came in behind me showed me digital photos of inches of snow that fell on them.

However, took my first zero-mile day yesterday since mile 100. I spent the day with a good friend from off-trail and it was relaxing and rejuvenating. I bought new pair of shoes in hopes that my knees and feet survive the long days a bit better. I'm nervous that they may cause more blisters, but that's a risk that comes with changing shoes.

I'm at a hiker hostel today and I'm going to take my time getting out. It's still cloudy and cold, but the weather is supposed to improve later in the week.

360 miles in

OK, I have a few moments now to update.
I felt my first ever earthquake. It registered at 3.5 and was located just 2 miles from where I was sitting at the time. It was one single tremor and felt much the same as when a sudden powerful gust of wind hits a wood-framed house. It was there and gone so fast we weren't sure what happened til we had it confirmed on the news. I was in a town when it happened.

I finally have my hiker legs under me. I've increased the mileage substantially from my earlier days. In the last 3 days I've knocked out 75 miles. Yesterday was the hardest at a 28 mile day with 5000 feet gain in elevation and carrying 12 pounds of water over a dry 22 mile stretch. I didn't get into camp til 9:00 pm and was fairly exhausted. I'll be slowing down a bit after I reach the next town in 90 miles.

I'm in Wrightwood, CA at about 360. I'm here for a simple resupply and then I'll be out again tomorrow morning. Next stop Agua Dulce.

The heat has finally kicked in. Up until the last few days it has been unseasonably cold with occasional frost on the tent. One day I even hiked all day with an extra long sleeve shirt. But now it is stifling hot outside with temps in the 90's. It's a bit better at elevation, but not much.

I've hiked through several burned out sections of trail. One section was a burned out in '04 when I was on it. In fact Sarah and I were among the last ones through it as the fire chased us up a steep sided canyon. We saw the smoke behind us and didn't dare stop til long after we would have otherwise. This time I got to hike through the devastation and get to see the extent of the damage and it was considerable. I didn't know that so much had been burned in '04.

I had to skip a section of trail this year since it was closed for a fire. The fire was out but it was still closed to hikers. As in '04 this fire was started by a careless PCT hiker. I don't think that some hikers can really comprehend just how explosive the grass and other plant matter is in this area. It really takes next to nothing to start the fire ball rolling. I hope that in the future the hikers will stop setting fires. The resulting destruction will take decades to heal in such a water-starved area.

I've seen 6-10 rattlers. I don't usually jump at the sound of them, but a week ago one scared me right off the trail, which wasn't all that good since one side was a cliff and the other side was a drop-off. The rattler was right at chest height in a niche on the cliff-side and didn't rattle til I was right next to it. The snake was black as night and coiled. Once I was at a safe distance I got a photo of it. Oh, when I jumped off the trail I was able to pick a rock to hop on and didn't plummet down the hill side.

I haven't seen much other wild life except for a grey fox and hundreds of 5 inch lizards and a few horned toads.

My time is about up. More from further up the trail.

A Brief Update

This has to be short. I'm in Big Bear City. I spent most the morning trying to get into town and the rest of the day doing errands so I can get out. It's now past dark and I still need to hitch to the trail. I wanted to let everyone know that I'm alive and well. The feet are much much better, but still have a little way to go, but for now it's tolerable. I have much more to write but it will have to wait til I hit the next town. I'm at about mile 250 or something like that. The next resupply point is in 100 miles.

Evil, Thy Name Is Post Office

My feet are feeling much better today and I was confident that a different pair of shoes Toby mailed to me would arrive today since they only had a few hundred miles to travel and 2-3 days to do it. However, they didn't arrive today. That means that I have to take 2 more complete zero-mile days to wait for them. This is the exact reason why I hoped to distance myself from relying on the postal system this time around. I could have had them forwarded to the next town up the line but had I walked out in the running shoes I'm now wearing my feet would have been torn up again in no time and this past day of rest would have been for naught. So here I am in Warner Springs waiting til Monday morning. On a bright note - this is a really nice place to spend some time - there's an Olympic sized pool that is fed by a hot spring and it's a real treat to soak in after the sun goes down and the air is cool. And though my feet are much better than when I limped into this place they aren't 100% and will benefit from the extra time off. It's hard to hike such a short distance and then have to take this much time off so soon.

On another good note, it sounds like the fire is now under control and the trail may be open by the time I get to the effected area which means no detour and no road walk. I won't have to miss any part of the trail yet.

First 100 Miles

It has been a very challenging start to this hike. A Burning Man friend, Jill picked me up at the San Diego train station, fed me well, gave me a place to crash and generously drove me all the way to the start of the trail.
I got a late start for doing a 20 mile day. I over-estimated my ability given that the last time I did a 20 mile day was 3 years ago. It didn't seem that long ago, but my body sure knew it by the time I finished. I didn't get to my destination until 9:00 pm, and by that time I was hiking in full darkness. I have a headlamp (flashlight) but didn't want to take the pack off to get it. By the end of the first day I already had a rather large blister.
However, my destination that first day was Lake Morena Campground where I could get a hot shower. I also planned on resting for the next two days for the PCT kick-off. I hoped that by the time the hiking would start in earnest I'd be healed and well rested.
I was rested, but the original blister was still giving me trouble by the time I headed out last Sunday morning. My shoes only continued to give me more grief along the way. I tried many solutions to prevent the growing number of blisters but each solution was only temporary. I stopped many times each day to tend to my feet.
The last two days have been particularly entertaining in the challenges they offer. Water has been scarce which has forced hikers to carry a lot of water weight while covering large miles each day. I hiked a 25 mile day while carrying 6 liter for the last 9 miles. 7 of that 9 was described in the guide book as "undulating". Undulating meant that it was routed needlessly over a section that had many pointless ups and downs (PUDS). By the time I got to the end of the day it was well after dark and I was exhausted.
The wind was strong and I set up the tent to stay out of it. I slept like the dead for the first two hours. When I woke it was 11 pm. The side of the tent was buckling in and nudged me awake. The wind had grown strong with powerful gusts. The tent was being buffeted in all directions and I worried that it might be get torn. Not only that but it was too loud to get any sound sleep even though I already had in ear plugs.
Marshalling some energy to cope with this situation I tried a series of solutions which lasted for the next two hours. I tried looking for a location that was more protected from the wind. I didn't find one. I tried pulling out all the tent supports but leaving it staked down - effectively giving it a much lower profile for the wind to catch. But it was like trying to sleep under a flapping flag. I eventually took the tent down completely and found adequate shelter under some low scrub brush.
At 5:30 I got up and began breaking camp. I had to cover 24 more miles due to water scarcity. I wanted to get an early start for two reasons: 1) it would take a long time to cover that distance, and 2) the section I needed to cross is infamous for being baking hot. I felt fortunate that it was still cool that morning and I was ahead of the heat. The wind was still blowing ferociously. I knew I had a few hours before I'd start consuming much water. As it turned out the wind hardly let up all day and it stayed downright cold for most the day as well. There were some places where the trail was quite narrow along the mountainside and the drop precipitous. The blowing wind made it exciting.
After the worst of it was over, all I had to think about was how much my feet hurt. There's so many places that hurt that it's become a generalized pain. New hot spots are hard to detect because they have to get pretty bad to be noticed. It's never been like this before on any of the other hikes and I believe it has to do with the shoes mostly. Another pair is in the mail to me even as I write this.
I am currently writing from Warner Springs where there is affordable lodging. I took a zero-mile day today to rest and heal up. I hope the change of shoes arrive tomorrow.
The other big news is that there's a fire up ahead on the PCT which has closed a section off. There's a strong possibility that I'll have to do a road walk around the closed section but I'm hoping against it. It will bypass a section I'd really like to hike. The rumor is that the fire was started by a careless hiker. There's a few boneheads each year that don't seem to really grasp that fire, desert, and high winds are an explosive combination.

Mass Transit

Last night I saw Reruns, my friend from the Appalachian Trail ('98) and his wife Sara at their place.  I was glad that I got the chance to see them.  Reruns is one of those guys that makes me laugh even when he's not trying.  We went out for a great meal and then back to their place for the night.  It was great to hang out with them and share stories.  There's a chance that I'll run into them again on the trail as I make it up to Yosemite.

We were up til 11:00 pm and up at 4:45 a.m. so that Reruns could get me to the bus.  Getting up at that hour was rough but Reruns didn't flinch.  I rode a train for 6 hours and a bus for another 2 which has landed me in L.A.  The train is definitely the way to go and beats Grey Hound (The Dirty Dog) by a long shot.  

Just one more day of travel by vehicle and then it'll be just me and my feet.

Leaving Yuba City

I've been in Yuba City, CA for about a week now, staying with Toby and her husband, Allen. They have been super about letting me crash here. I didn't plan on staying in one spot for so long - thinking that I'd be out seeing other people, but it didnt' work out that way. I've enjoyed the time I've had here though, and in the end it was a good thing that I had this time to tie up some things. It seems that I still had some details here and there to take care of before I begin hiking. Now it's down to sink or swim. I'm leaving my bus here and taking public transportation down to the southern end of the state. I'm bringing only my backpack from this point on.

Toby and Allen have been wonderful hosts. They made me feel right at home and I gave me open access to the internet which has proved invaluable on many occasions. We've went on a hike, ate great food (Toby is a wonderful cook and has done her level best to fatten me up for the trail), and watched movies. Allen donated a MP3 player so I'll have music on the trail. It's been a good time, and I've been able to get things done without feeling pressured by time restraints.

There's one fly in the ointment which is that I have another electrical problem in the bus. This one isn't as easy to fix as the last. The drivers side tail light is out. I tried all that I knew how to fix it. I hoped it was a simple dirty or loose connection that would take 60 seconds to fix, but I was wrong. I spent the best part of the day eliminating some possiblities, and in the end it's still not working. I no longer have time to work on it so it will have to wait til August or later.

This afternoon Toby and Allen are dropping me off in Sacramento where I'll have dinner with a Trail friend from my original trek 10 years ago, Reruns and his wife, Sara. Tomorrow I'll be taking a train further south and will be actually on the trail Thursday.

Yuba City

When I woke on the mountain pass I noticed a ski lift across the highway from me. It wasn't visible at night when I'd parked. I don't know the elevation where I stayed but I seemed to go down in elevation rather steeply for many many miles. Crossing Utah and Nevada it had warmed up considerably, but those are dry desert states without much vegetation. When I dropped in elevation out of the California mountains I seemed to drop suddenly into Spring time. The trees were full of vibrant green leaves, and the roadsides were alive with large patches of wild flowers.

I made my way to my friend's house in Yuba City just north of Sacramento. Toby and her husband, Allen, have been kind enough to put me up while my start date approaches. Since I got here the day before yesterday I've been taking care of still more details involving this trip - checking e-mail, checking finances, buying last minute equipment, and trying to figure out transportation down to the start of the PCT.

Crossing Nevada

I still had a long way to go to get to California. I had a hundred plus miles of Utah and 400 miles of Nevada just to get to California. I was in no hurry though and with warmer temps the drive was fairly pleasant.

I left the radio on "scan" hoping to find a good radio station. Last year the dust of Burning Man killed my CD player so I've been at the mercy of the air waves. Unfortunately in the unpopulated area of Nevada there's mostly religious and country stations if there's any reception at all. I left the radio on scan for hours listening to just three seconds of each radio station. It became background noise. I'd climb to the top of a mountain pass, going from just 2 stations to maybe 5 or 10! only to drop on the other side and lose them all.

I'm used to crossing Nevada since I've done it annually for the past seven years on my way to Burning Man. It was strange to get to the turn-off I'd normally take but continue on I-80 towards Reno instead. The turn-off is in a tiny town called Fernley. Fernley actually made it to the national news last year because of a flood which swamped the town.

I crossed over into California and made it past Truckee before I stopped for the night at a rest stop at the top of a mountain pass.

Traveling West

I finally made it out of Colorado. I fought a head wind for hundreds of miles which slowed the van and killed the gas mileage. At times the head wind slowed me to 40-45 mph when combined with long inclines. When it blew from the side it threatened to lift the camper top. Had that happened it would have torn it from the bus. Fortunately, I noticed it lifting and took measures to better secure it.

After heading up Rt 25 from Denver to Cheyenne I turned west again to face the vast open space of Wyoming. It was still winter up there and though it wasn't snowing per se the wind was still driving snow across the road. There was nothing but open rolling empty plains for hundreds of miles. The only notable features were the snow fences which prevented the drifts from migrating onto the highway.

Wyoming came and went and I found myself in Utah. Eventually I dropped in elevation out of the snow and wind and down into Salt Lake City. With the warmer temperature and calmer air my mileage increased significantly. The warmer temps also made the VW more comfortable inside. It was 2:00 a.m. before I stopped at a truck stop for the night somewhere between Salt Lake City and the Bonneville Salt Flats.

Didn't Make It Out

I'm still in Colorado.  The weather closed I-80 yesterday so I couldn't get on the road.  I'll leave today after I get some sleep since it's 1:00 a.m. 

Got Milk? and I went for a short hike today to get some exercise.  I was happy to find that I'm not the sorry load I feared I might be.  We saw several large herds of mule deer.  

I have been planning on taking a Greyhound bus from Yuba City where I'll be leaving my VW down to San Diego.  From there a friend will get me from SD to the start of the trail.  I just now took a look at the bus schedule for the first time.  I'm sad to find that it will be a 24 hour ride on the dirty dog.  I've done it before.  I don't like it.  I was hoping it wasn't quite that long of a ride.  That's the way it's gotta be though.  I'll have to make the most of it.  

Golden Colorado

I got to Colorado after just two days of driving - arriving here Wednesday evening.  It's been great to see my friend from the AT, Got Milk?.  It's been a long time since I saw him last, and it's nice to catch up.

I love Colorado.  There's something compelling about this state.  It could be that herds of elk and deer can be seen just outside.  Or it could be the grandeur of the mountains with so many of them topping 14,000 feet.  I'm not sure what it is exactly, but in another life I could see me settling down here.

I'll probably be on my way Friday.  I'll be cutting up to I-80 and run straight for Sacramento.  I'll most likely be there by Monday.  I will take some more photos along the way.  The Bonneville Salt Flats are beautiful in the mornings.

Leaving Louisville

I'm moments away from leaving Louisville. It's been a good visit, but it's time to continue down the road. My next destination is Denver where I'll find an old friend from my very first hike ten years ago. Tonight I'll find myself in a different time zone.

Louisville

My visit here in Louisville has been a blast. Sarah and I made the most of the weekend - going for walks, watching movies, and eating out. Yesterday was the first nice day in this area in quite a while and we took advantage of it. We went for a walk down by the river which is flooding. I brought along the camera and got some photos of partially submerged park benches. Afterward we went to a nationally known skateboard park. There were kids of all ages and skill levels. I got some great action shot of skateboarders high in the air.

I took apart the signal switch on the VW and feel that I have a good understanding of what the trouble was. I made a phone call to my uncle, Kevin who's understanding of things great and small never ceases to surprise me. He's like having my own hotline to Click And Clack. With his advice I hope that the electrical problem will be fixed and that I'm good to go. I spent the morning tuning the bus and hopefully the mileage will improve.

From Louisville

I'm in Louisville visiting with Sarah. I wasn't sure if I'd be stopping here or not for reasons I won't go into, but as it turned out I'm here for the weekend and expect to be back on the road on Monday. Louisville isn't as warm as I though it would be but that's supposed to improve tomorrow. It's been consistently rainy here for a while apparently because local water ways have been flooding. I went for walk today around a park and saw signs of the water way being 6 feet higher - which represents exponentially more water than what's now flowing.

A possible hitch with the bus which has me worried is an electrical problem with the turn switch. If I turn left the wire starts to smoke. I will look into the problem tomorrow during the day. The last time something like that happened the main wires that connect the starter fried and I was dead in the water. Fortunately that happened while I was still at home. I'm hoping it's just a simple ground and easily fixed.

Leaving Akron (April 3)

It was great spending time with Summers, Allen, and newborn Ellie. Summers and I went for a couple walks for a few miles each and got me to realize I need a little more exercise so I can hit the trail running. I'm a loaf at the moment. Summers fed me well and sent me on my way with more food for the road.

From The Road

I made it 650 miles on my first day out. That may not sound like much, but imagine doing that at 50 mph (or less average). It took a while. I drove til just past midnight. For those of you that know VW's you know that the bus has no heat and it was down to about 48 after dark. I slept in the bus at a truck stop. It was upper 30's when I woke. I slept toasty warm though.

I haven't made time to store things throughout the bus, so all that food I mentioned in a previous post is piled in the way. I'll take care of that soon by tucking it in all the storage places built in the bus.

I'm visiting a friend, Summers, her husband Alan, and her newborn Ellie in Akron, OH. I met Summers on the AT in '98 my second night on the trail. Alan teaches photography at an academy and it's been great talking with him. He's been encouraging and has given me some great advice about how to find more info on photography. I learned that there's places on-line that put together professional looking hard cover books of photos. I'm looking forward to making one of these once I get done hiking.

I'll be back on the road heading west again tomorrow. I'll either swing down to Louisville, or head more toward Colorado from here.

It's Finally Time

I've been looking forward to this date for half a year. It's finally here. The VW is packed and all there's left to do is warm it up and leave. My next post will be from the road or trail.

More Visuals for the PCT

The maps above show the Pacific Crest Trail in greater detail. The green pushpins indicate towns that are significant mile marks along the way. The distance between towns is usually between 70-110 miles.

The Pacific Crest Trail - A Map

For you visual people, I wanted to include a simple map of the PCT in its entirety.

It's Official

I have my framed photos hanging on the wall of a local restaurant. They are out for the public to see and are for sale. This is a first and hopefully it will generate some interest.

August Has Left The Building

I've spent the last two days digging frozen/granular snow from in front of the warehouse where my VW (August West) is stored. I had to clear a path about 60-70 feet long and wide enough for the bus to fit. My back is feeling it, but today I was able to get into the warehouse and start the bus. It started like a champ. I have to run it around town for a bit to make sure that it's still reliable enough to take across the country, but so far so good.

Seeing the bus was like seeing an old friend. I look forward to the travel west.

Food For Thought

One thing I learned from my last hike is that there's more places to buy food along the trail than I originally thought. Sarah had much greater flexibility in her resupply than I did because I was locked into going to certain places to pick up the food I mailed.
That being said, there are certain places where mailing oneself food is still a necessity. This time I have only 9 mail drops spaced out over the entire trail. The total number of days that I'm supplying with mail comes to about 40.
Here's some stats on what I'll carry and consume in that 40 days.
Pop Tarts - 160 which total 21 pounds
Potato Chips - 9 bags @ 6.5 pounds
Peanut Butter - 20.25 pounds total
M&M's - 9 bags @ 12 pounds total
Energy bars - 75 @ 15 pounds total
Lipton Rice meals - 40 @ 11.25 pounds total
Cheddar Crackers - 60 packs of 4 @ 7.9 pounds total
Jerky - 9 bags @ 2.3 pounds total
This total doesn't include other miscellaneous items - some candy bars, trail mix, and granola type bars. The total weight comes to 96.2 pounds. Again, I'll be splitting this up in 9 different packages along the trip.
The total calories for this 40 days comes to 205,765 or 5,144 per day.

Happily Unemployed

I up and quit my job. I was going to be leaving in a week and a half anyhow, but I wanted the extra time off. I won't be looking at another paycheck for 6 months. Fortunately I still have my tax return in my future.

Now I have to focus full time on taking care of all the details around planning my hike. Planning is not my forte, and details are gremlins to me. I have to think not just about the hike - where to send food and maps, but also think about other things like registering the VW now because the official time to register it will be while I'm still on the trail.

I recall the natural high I'd get when I was in grade school and I'd get out the last day for summer vacation. That trend carried right up through college when I was in my early 20's. It's a pattern that's hard to imagine doing without later in life. The 1-2 weeks of vacation most jobs offer is really only a tease. It's never enough for me.

I've been asked when I leave. I don't have a hard date set. I'll be heading out when I get everything done. I know that I'll be starting the trail on April 24. I'll be spending time with friends as I make my way to the Left Coast.

Fully Loaded and Half Cocked

I have finally found the right backpack for the next long-distance hike. I loaded it with every bit of gear I need to make sure it would actually all fit.

Here's the stats:

Base weight: about 21 pounds

With food and water: about 37 pounds

I'm including 2 quarts of water in this measurement, but there will be many sections where I carry twice that amount or more.

At present, the loaded weight is about one quarter of my body weight which is a reasonable amount to carry. As I loose weight the pack weight will creep up to about one third my weight which as a rule of thumb is about the most one should carry. I'm not quite sure how losing fat around my waist means that I should carry less in my pack, but that's the rule of thumb.

Life On The Farm

I'm farm sitting for Nate while he's in Texas with the Mrs. visiting her family. They go once a year about this time because when there's been nothing but cold and snow for months on end she gets homesick for the warmth and sun of Texas. Ironically it was snowing there last night. It was probably warmer here since it was raining.

Taking care of the farm entails feeding and providing water for all the animals - pigs, goats, rabbits, chickens, and cattle. The thing that requires the most time is milking one cow, Isabelle. It's not all that difficult, it just takes time. The most remarkable thing though is how hard it is to get the smell of "cow" off my hands afterward. I've washed them about 6 times now and need to try again.

A side note: The bulls name is Isabull.

Tired of Shoveling Snow

For those of you that aren't in NH, we are about 10 inches away from setting an all time record for the most inches of snow to fall in a winter. That means a lot of shoveling. I shoveled and used a snow blower for 7 hours yesterday. The banking beside the driveway is so high now that I had to knock it down a bit so the snow blower could get the snow over it. It's the first time this year I've resorted to using the snow blower. I don't want to pollute for what can be done by hand. But after pulling the snow off 2 roofs I had a 4-foot deep cone of snow in the driveway of packed snow.
Today I shoveled the roof of a large home with many dormers, valleys and a wraparound porch. It took me 6 solid hours of shoveling to remove the snow. I'm exhausted. I'd be OK if I don't have to do this again this winter.

The Date's Been Set

I now know what day I'll begin hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. The annual kick off gathering will be held on April 25th thru 27th at Lake Morena County Park. The gathering is held 20 miles north of the starting point on the Mexican border, so I'll be starting on the 24th.

I plan on driving west and visiting people along the way so I'll be leaving at the end of March. I don't have a date set in stone for that yet.

I have most my equipment and only a few more things to get.

Went Skiing Today

My sister, Beth, and I went skiing at Attitash today. It was on the cold side, but the conditions were great. The mountain was practically deserted, so the snow didn't get skied off and there was never a wait at the lift.

Fun With Flickr

I've been spending more time uploading my photos to my flickr account lately: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7663945@N05/ . I've been having a good time getting the photos on-line but it's harder than I thought to get them viewed. Hopefully things will change and more people will find them of interest.

Snow Snow Everywhere Is Snow

I don't recall the last time I saw it snow this often or this much. It reminds me of when I was a kid. I've got to go out and shovel it some more. I think I'll be shoveling all day tomorrow at work.

I took the opportunity to wander around a bit with my camera two days ago. I'm hoping that this new snow will provide even more photo ops.