The HikingFools on the PCT

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Summer of Trail Magic....and the Final Post

Angel

After our grand trip to Utah, we came back home, gathered up our dog Angel, and headed down to California for some real trail angeling for other PCT hikers. We always have a blast doing this, but have never done it outside of Oregon. We were headed to Lake Tahoe, as a lot of our friends were probably going to be in that area right about then, the 2nd week in July. Gummi Bear (Anne) was also interested in helping us, and as she was off the trail by this time and still hanging around central California waiting for a flight back to Norway, we welcomed her help. She was never able to get out to help us though. We missed you Gummi Bear!

Signs, Signs, Everywhere are Signs

All along the whole road trip, we came across a wide variety of animal crossing signs. Each time we saw one, we kept our eyes peeled for the animal that was depicted. We either wanted to see one, or we wanted to avoid hitting one. Either way, these signs would keep us alert.

Canyonlands-4Wheeling

Canyonlands! Wow, what a totally different experience! Located just a few miles from Arches and Moab, we descended down into a totally new and unique adventure.

The Green River in Canyonlands

Mark heard from a friend (Roger our resupply person) that there was a very scary road down in Canyonlands, and he had to check this road out. Mark said that Roger called this road the Knifes Edge, and that section of road became our mission to find. Arriving at the visitors center, our first question to the ranger was, "Where's the Knife's edge?" His reply was that there is a place down in the canyon that some people might call the knife's edge, but it isn't generally called that. That sounded good enough for us, after all, if some people called it that, it must be the place we were looking for.

Capitol Reef and Arches National Parks

Mid morning, after getting some rest and feeling somewhat refreshed, we broke camp and headed for the national parks. First on the agenda: Capitol Reef National Park. The description on our ipad indicated that this park has rock formations that resemble the nations capitol buildings. Huh. Didn't see those. I think we missed the loop to drive out and see those particular formations.

A Break From the Desert

Now back to our road trip! Finally!

A pretty little flower in the middle of our campsite

As we got into Loa, Utah, we were curious about camping opportunities among trees, considering that we were growing a little bored of the desert. We needed a time out. The hotel keeper knew about what he said was a great lake area just above Loa, called the Fish Lake area. The pictures looked great, and they claim that this is home to the biggest Quaking Aspen groves in the world.

We Interrupt this Regularly Scheduled Blog.......

O.K. It is now official, I, Pocahontas, am now declaring that I'm going to make another bid for a thru hike in 2014.

I think that with

On to Utah con.

Cathedral Gorge

As we left Cathedral Gorge, we hit Utah in just a few miles. What struck me is that as soon as we hit Utah, the roads really got bad right away. They were very bumpy, and I just wanted to say "Way to go Nevada" for the great upkeep on your roads. But we had to enjoy Utah, for once we got to the interstates, we could open up the gas and go up to 80 miles per hour! What fun! What is wrong with you Oregon, for keeping us at 65 here and there? Guess what, we can handle higher speeds! And it's fun!

We decided before we left on this trip to catch all of the National Parks in Utah, to include Arches, Capitol Reef, and Canyonlands in addition to Zion and Bryce. We have already seen Zion and Bryce Canyons, but they were pretty awesome, so what could it hurt to see them again?

The Loneliest Road in America

Typical Eastern Oregon Scenery

Our second day through eastern Oregon and into Nevada was much sunnier! Yeah!! The weather was still on the cool side, the night in Burns was in the mid 30's. As Mark started the driving this morning, I found the opportunity to take a quick nap. I grew weary of watching the side of the road for ground squirrels who were ready to dart across the road, right into our path. Mark couldn't see them quick enough to avoid hitting them. I love all wildlife and hate to see any die, so for a while I was on edge looking out for them. But as the day progressed, I resigned myself that if a few died, it would be population control as there are many squirrels out there. As it happened, we didn't hit a single one, mainly for the blessing that when one darts out, they usually head straight across the road and don't turn back into the cars path. The only one I almost hit did just that, it stopped in the path of the car and headed back from where it came from.

And Away We Go!

As usual, we are without photos. We took a few today, we just can't get them to translate to our blog. We will add them as they can be found, they eventually work their way to the portal.

We left the Willamette Valley this morning around 11:00 in a light rain. We were so eager to get to the other side of the mountains where it is much dryer. We have been anticipating higher temperatures and blue skies. Alas, it was not to be. True, there were somewhat bluer skies, but it was still stormy and rainy here in the high desert.

UFO Bob

One last post we wanted to do was a thank you for the fun we had spending time with the creator of UFO Bob. We have enjoyed keeping up with the exploits of this character, and felt honored that he wanted to do an episode about the PCT.

If you would like to see for yourself the episode about the PCT, go to our sidebar under favorite websites, click on UFO Bob, then find the episode titled "Aliens on the PCT" it is short but fun, and we were proud to have a part in this production. It was shot at Scissors Crossing and we found it very interesting seeing how an episode is filmed. (By the way, the green alien is a fixture on my backpack. He goes on all of my hiking trips).

The $64,000 Question Answered

Well, we now know the answer to our questions posed on a previous post. No, we don't have what it takes to complete the most awesome trail in the world, at least not right now. Some plans are just sitting over the horizon, not fully formulated, yet worming their way into our brains.

We are still in a fog, it was just beginning to lift as we left the trail, but it has now slammed back down onto our brains. We are hoping that the future plans may help alleviate this state of being.

All this being said, we have not lost our grip yet on realizing our dream, the hope of their being another shot in the future is what we are holding onto right now. Without that hope, our future would appear very bleak indeed, at this moment in time.

The last post left off with Legasorus arriving in Big Bear Ca. He snagged a ride into town, got a room at the Motel 6, and collected his resupply package. He was given a heads up to look for another package from our friends from Alaska, Lyn and Steve. That package was filled with all kinds of goodies, which really gave Legasorus a much needed boost. They had included pop rocks, licorice, Jolly Rodgers candy, and some really good chocolate that had different flavors in them, including raspberry, lime and orange. So good! Thank you Lyn and Steve, for being so thoughtful. By the way, for whoever was praying for Lyn and Steve during their difficult time, it so totally worked, they are doing great now, and they wanted you to know they appreciated your prayers and thoughts.

Legasorus, Dona Saufly, and Pocahontas

On the day we returned home, Legasorus got to thinking that just maybe he would like to go back out to the trail. After all, he really wasn't doing as badly as he thought, and he was feeling pretty good. That got me to thinking, maybe I would head back out with him. I too was feeling pretty good again, and we could still manage to pull this off. But after thinking about it, I realized that it would be an awful lot of work to get everything worked out, such as getting all of our boxes back to our resupply person. I had picked up all of our boxes in preparation for resupplying Lego myself, and I would be valuable for resupplying him as I know the trail forward and backward. So I decided to stay home, and enjoy the time to myself.

Here is the draw at Cajon Pass! McDonalds!? Seriously? Yeah!!! Priorities must be established, and this was the priority of the day for Legosaurus. Next on his agenda was to call me. A little sad and messed up those priorities were, but that's the way it is.

Tale Of Two Hikers II cont.

Whitewater Trail House

I have to write these posts in shorter segments, as this is all my computer will allow me to do.

As I was crying on my friends shoulder, they were thinking of all the ways I would be able to continue on, including hiking out with them the next day. I knew I wouldn't be able to, I still wasn't feeling well, and they are faster hikers than I am. Plus, after leaving Legasorus, I did turn around a few times to see if hiking at my own pace would allow me to continue, but I still wasn't able to muster up the energy. I was defeated! And I wanted to go home!

Tale of Two Hikers Part II

As I headed back to the trail angel refuge, Lego started wandering off on an adventure of his own. He was climbing out of the canyon we were in, trying to stay ahead of the rain clouds. As he got to the top of the climb and was looking around, he decided that he needed to film a video so that I could later share in the views we had started hiking for.

Trial Angels Ziggy w/hat, and The Bear

A Tale of Two Hikers Part I

One Hiker

So we find ourselves winging our way back to Palm Springs on May 5th. We are excited to be getting back out to the trail after having been off for nearly a week. Our finances are back in shape, and the weather looks like it will be cooler as we head for Big Bear!

We grab a taxi and hightail it to Ziggy and The Bear's house, where the now 2 year old Whitewater Trail house is providing shelter and footbaths for the trail weary coming off the long drop of the San Jacinto Mountains and over the desert floor howling with the wind that races through the Palm Springs area nearly everyday. We are excited to meet Ziggy and The Bear again, as these were our first two trail angels we met in '99 when we arrived in Anza.

A fine reunion was had by all, plus we got to get reacquainted with Ron Vaughn, who is helping the trail angels, and who we hiked with on our last attempt at this trail. Then much to our surprise and delight, our friends KOKO and The Bald guy showed up as the sun was setting. They were cold and hungry, but still in good spirits as they settled in for the night. This would be our first meeting with them on the trail.

The next morning, Lego had us getting up before light, and since the wind was still roaring, I found a quiet spot with a light in the bath house to eat my breakfast. Now, I'm not such a hearty eater in the morning, and this morning was no exception. I was having a difficult time choking down a huge bowl of cereal. Ziggy got up at 4:30 am and made coffee and put out cereal and fruit for whoever was leaving early. After taking pictures, ( I'm having problems with picture again, I have them, they are just inaccessible right now) we started out over the desert and into the canyon we would have to traverse today.

Paula, this post is for you!

This is Paula, our superb parlor car attendant on the train ride to the border. We promised to post her picture, then when we got to San Diego, we couldn't figure out how to post pictures. We are so sorry it took this long, but here you have your own page.

You took great care of us, told us stories of your wonderful family, (very talented boys by the way) and generally saw to it that we were as comfortable as we could be on the long train ride.

Thank you many times over for doing your job well! (Amtrak really should give you a raise)