Pacific Crest Trail: Mile 265-277

We got dropped on Friday around 11pm. It was in the 30's, the moon high, three quarters full. The four of us zip up our respective wintery gear and start walking, climbing to 6855' and then 6680' and so on. The night views catch us off guard around a certain bend and we stare out over the landscape, the mountain behind casting a shadow on the valley below.

This is the Pacific Crest Trail. It runs from the Mexico border fence straight into Canada, some 2600 miles all said and done. Yes, if you can imagine it, there is a trail that stretches across the entire United States. And ever since I heard of such a miraculous thing, I wanted to walk on it, all the way. Or attempt to anyway, over the decades. This little weekend jaunt started where I left off in 2009, at mile 265 out of 2663.

My tent partner and I swallowed a benadryl and we were off to dreams. We woke up to the sun and food and many miles in our immediate future. At 8am I won a bet about snow, and scored seventeen pringles.

As we climbed up, the temperatures dropped down, almost secretly, like it wanted to catch us off guard. The snow fell lightly, and then fell all damn day, inch after inch, covering the place magically. It looked exactly like something fabricated you might see at Disneyland, except it was real and hard to walk through. And it made everything wet, which created a nice entry point for potential frostbite.

One of us, the partner of this friend, took pictures from time to time, lucky for us.

By 4:30, we had stepped through 17 miles of forest. Night was rising. We were freezing. And despite the fact that being in our tents for the next fifteen boring hours seemed like torture, it also seemed like a smart idea considering the elements. So we pitched some tents and shrugged off the concern. Let's get warm, we all said to each other.

Then we heard some guys running, literally running, in shorts and stocking caps. And they stopped and offered help. And Bob and Micky came back with a truck an hour later to pick us up, and fed us homemade cookies and spaghetti, and let us display our wet gear all over the living room and staircase and bathroom, and cleared off the ping pong table so we could play, and brought out blankets and pillows, and let us crash on the couches and mattresses, and then went to the store in the morning to buy orange juice and syrup so we could have home made waffles. And then said, "thanks for coming" on our way out the door, as if our whole misadventure and rescue had all been planned.

The next morning, from the comfort of Bob's living room.

Pacific Crest Trail: Mile 210-265

Last year my sister Julie and I hiked the first 210 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail, from the Mexico border to Interstate 10 near Palm Springs. And since one of my life goals is to hike the entire trail, all the way up to Canada, I set out again this year. Veteran hiker Paul Kind and I began our modest fifty-five mile trek last Thursday and walked from Big Bear Lake (mile 265) to where Julie and I finished last year (mile 210). After what seems like many days of walking the trail over the past four years, I have only completed 1/8th of the PCT. :)

We spent much of the first day in the woods at 8000 feet. The second day took us along Mission Creek as it carved its way through a burn area. And on day three we found ourselves in the hot desert, walking our way through wind farms to the end.

Day 1: Mile 265-245

- Mount San Jacinto in the background. We saw it for the first time near mile 250. The PCT actually crosses near the top of San Jacinto at mile 185.

Day 2: Mile 245-222

- Can you find Paul?

Day 3: Mile 222-210

Pacific Crest Trail: Mile 1-210

These are the best of our PCT pictures, in mini. If you'd like to see these photos a little bigger, here is the slideshow. [The pictures are in order from mile 1 to mile 210]

Pacific Crest Trail Hike

We started at 8pm off Highway 18 (free parking) and hiked by the moonlight for 5 miles. It was incredible! We went to sleep (on our comfy PILLOWS & EXTRA LONG sleeping pads) at around 10pm. We woke up just before hiker noon and spent the next 6 hours walking 15 more miles. Yes, that's right *name* - 15 MILES in 6 hours!! The PCT near Big Bear Lake was unbelievably EASY...huge switchbacks!! We kept laughing because every time we came to a turn in the trail, our natural instinct was to take the hard way - straight up...instead we'd take a sharp turn and continue on our lazy stroll in the woods! And best of all? The PAY-OFF was incredible!!

We decided that for any LA Patagonia-clad yuppies that we met, we had been hiking since Mexico and were well into a month on the trail. :) One lady yelled, "WHAT? You've been hiking for a month?!" Yep, and we've lost some weight too.

The bad news is two-fold. First, since our hike together in recently drenched NH, I've had a re-occuring sharp pain on the left side of my stomach (closer to my waist). Since the AT hike, it becomes painful after a long walk or a hard work-out. And after 20 miles, the pain kicked in hard core. So we walked to the nearest road (a dirt track at best). After an hour, the first car drove by, stopped, and drove us all the way back to our car. Typical, right? Second, a winter storm came in a few hours later!! The snow and 30 degree temperatures would have made us stiff. We had shorts and a t-shirt for clothing!

So we headed to Big Bear Lake for some thrift shops and a sports bar. We crashed in the car, woke up to giant flakes of snow and drove back down the mountain to 75 degree sun.

It was perfect.