Back To The Trail!

April 9th, 2012
Day 9
Today's Miles: 17.7

Today we got back to hiking! After a few days visit with family, we picked up the trail where we left off at Scissor's Crossing last Thursday evening.

We got a good early start a little before sunrise,


but with that Easter ham sitting a little heavy, we took longer to make the day's climb to 3rd gate than anticipated. The climb was slow going but I had a good back and forth with a wild Turkey to start the morning (Twist thought I was screwing with her) and our Rattlesnake count rose to two shortly after. But as usual, views were great,









and the cool morning weather was awesome...until our friend the Sun came out.









We hit the water cache, which was a sight for sore eyes (and feet) at about 1:30pm. We're still trying to figure out why it took so long, but we paid the price for it as the sun seemed to stare at us all day long. Our thermometer read as high as 99.6 degrees.






We sat and enjoyed the small patch of shade we managed to find and discussed our options for camp. We settled on doing a total of 17.7 miles for the day and ended at PCT mile 95.2. We were a little skeptical of the camping, but suddenly we came upon the ideal spot and enjoyed a great view, the sunset, and our first successful HAM radio contact over the WIN System!









Other than the heat, we both ended the day feeling strong considering the 4 hours of sleep we were running on today.

Tomorrow we will hit Warner Springs and pick up a resupply package before making the trek to Idyllwild. Soon after that will be Fuller Ridge, and with the two storm systems coming in this week we are hoping conditions will allow us to pass....but we'll see.

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Pictures & Videos: Campo to Scissors Crossing

We uploaded all of our pictures and videos that we have taken so far. You can view our "Campo to Scissors crossing" album HERE.

Below are just some pics of us enjoying Easter weekend:

Soaking my foot and drinking my "twisted" ice tea (perfect name right?!)

Seth enjoying Easter dinner.

We hit the trail tomorrow morning at Scissors Crossing.

-Twist

A Push To Scissors Crossing

April 5th, 2012
Day 5
Today's Miles: 18

Got a later start today (about 8am), but that was because we were only planning on hiking 9 miles to the next water/camping. Although we trekked along without too much stopping this morning, we did have to pause more than once or twice to take in some great views.

Loving these views!

In this shot, the boulders by the small lake looked like sheep from afar.

Small field of wild flowers.

Even with the late start and the slow going down hill, we were able to do the 9 miles we had planned on fairly quickly and arrived at mile 68.5 a little before noon.

We were originally planning on getting picked up from Scissors Crossing on Friday. However, with the rest of the day ahead of us, we decided to see if our ride could pick us up a day early (Thursday evening). With the 'ok' given that our ride could make it, we loaded up to hike another 9 miles to get to Scissors Crossing by 5pm.

With the promise of a bubbling hot tub and cold beer pushing us on, hiking 9 more miles seemed like a great idea. The trail was very rocky, the cactus looked very poky and the wind had been pushing us around all day. I had been looking at my feet trying to avoid twisting my ankle on the rocky trail and all of the sudden I looked up about a foot ahead of me and saw a snake. A BIG snake. My first thought was "oh cool a snake". My second thought was "oh S#*! that snake is rattling at me!!". The 4ft. rattler had coiled, rattled and struck at me. I let out a scream and turned around to scurry down the trail to safety.

Can you spot the snake in the grass?

Seth HATES snakes! I think he would rather take on a mountain lion than a snake. He reminds me a little of Indian Jones with his hat and his sever hatred of snakes. We tried to wait for the snake to move, but no luck. We had woken him up and he wasn't too happy about it so we eventually had to scoot up the side of the mountain to go around him. Needless to say we were on snake watch the rest of the day.

We finally dropped down to the desert floor. It was a glorious feeling to have soft sand under our feet and flat trail to walk on.

We called our ride (my dad) on the HAM radio to let him know we had about three more miles to go. He told us there was a cold beer and a lawn chair waiting for each of us...we have never hiked so fast in our life! We ended our push to Scissors Crossing by enjoying some beer and homemade jerky with my dad and a few other hikers. Another exciting day!

We will be spending Easter weekend with my parents and will return to the trail Monday morning to begin our climb up to Warner Springs. We will make some gear adjustments and upload tons of pictures this weekend. But for now, it's time to enjoy some time soaking in the hot tub!

Blowing Up Alcohol Stoves (or at least trying) Above The Desert

April 4th, 2012
Day 4
Today's Miles: 16.5

Today we woke up and got off to our earliest start yet. We hit the trail feeling revitalized out of Mt. Laguna at about 6:45am. We banged out 6 easy miles before the sun got too high and stopped to cook at one of only two water sources for the day at mile 49. Twist and I kicked off our shoes and sat down for a little break when she suddenly found a Geocache in the side of a tree trunk where we were resting. Actually, truth be told, I spotted it and thought it was someone's trash they had left behind in a little Tupperware container. But naturally, Twist had to investigate and find out just what was inside. Turns out there was a really interesting PTC pin in there along with a note. The note basically said we could keep the pin as a prize for finding the cache.








Meanwhile, while Twist was relishing her find, I was doing my best at attempting to blow my hand off using our alcohol stove. Since the flame of an alcohol stove is very hard to see and we were cooking In the sunlight, I at one point saw there was no fuel left in the stove. So what did I do? Well went to add more, naturally! However, apparently there was still a bit of a flame burning and when I went to pour more fuel in the stove, the whole bottle ignited in my hand causing a huge flame to shoot out to my right and a loud WHOOOOMP that caused me to jump back about ten feet. Those of you laughing at this point (much like we are now) will be happy to know that the only casualty was the plastic bag my pasta noodles were in. It died a quick and painless death though as it was instantly melted.

The rest of the day was pretty warm and dry as there was no water until we camped at mile 59.




This source was empty, so was the cache.

The views today were really spectacular looking over the desert.








These photos don't really do it justice, so hopefully the videos we will be posting soon will. Twist is getting stronger as we were going to camp at mile 56, but suddenly she decided she wanted to do 3.5 more miles to where we are now. It felt like she was able to run them!

As for our HAM radio use, we haven't been close enough to any repeaters or IRLP Nodes to get to talk yet, but we have been listening. Based on our signal strength though, I think we will be able to start transmitting around Scissors Crossings.

-Seth

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Location:Sunrise Trailhead (PCT Mile: 59.5)

Our First Trail Name!

April 3rd, 2012
Day 3
Today's miles: 10.6

Today was awesome! Slept well and started hiking bright and early. We climbed and we climbed at a great pace. We got our first glimpse of pine trees up on a ridge. Then a few miles later it felt like we stepped from the desert into the forest.



We enjoyed the pines and our first glimpse of snow!


We got into Mt. Laguna around 1pm. and checked into the Mt. Laguna Lodge. We resupplied our food and fuel supply at the store here and bought a few snacks for tonight (actually a ton of snacks). We showered and rinsed our clothes. Bliss.

The biggest news of the day: I earned my trail name! TWIST. I got named "twist" because if there is anything on the trail that I could possibly twist my ankle on, I'll find it! I have spent a lot of time thinking of what my trail name might be, but I guess it's just something that happens out on the trail. I signed my first pct register with my new name, and will have to get used to going by "Twist" for the rest of the hike!

Tomorrow we're aiming for our earliest start yet after resting here at the lodge, which by the way is quite relaxing and the man running the counter was extremely nice to us. We would recommend stopping at the store or for a room as well to anyone.

-Twist (Kristin)



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Location:Mt. Laguna

A More Relaxing Day

April 2nd, 2012
Day 2
Today's Miles: 11.8

Last night at Lake Morena got pretty cold, so cold in fact, we woke up to ice on our tent. But surprisingly, we both got up with a huge amount of enthusiasm for the coming day. Because we got in so late the day before we decided to get a late start and ended up hitting the trail about 9:30am.

It got warm quickly so we had to contend with the bright sun all day, but compared to our first day, we had a very relaxed hike. The morning gave way to relatively level trail and beautiful desert views. We had hiked maybe an hour and a half when we came to this bridge with very cool PCT art and hiker signatures on it.




Kristin left our mark on it too.




After filtering some water we met up with two hikers that we're at the monument when we started and another who camped a few spots over from us at Morena (who we would later come to know as Hawk). We flip flopped with them over the next few miles until we camped with Hawk at Fred Canyon for the night.


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Blood, Bees, Benadryl, Bear Spray and Burritos

April 1st, 2012
Day 1
Miles 20.6



We may have started our thru hike on April fools day, but this is no joke. We did the ceremonial picture taking at the monument and hugged my parents good bye. We were so excited to actually be on the trail I think we skipped the first mile. Then, about 2 miles in ... I fell. I felt my ankle rolling so I decided I'd rather have skinned knees than a sprained ankle. They got tore up pretty good. We had to stop a few times to bandage them up so we didn't scare off the other hikers with the blood running down my shins. So our first "b" of the day was blood.
We hiked a few more miles and we were really getting into a grove. It sure didn't look like the desert or feel like Mexico was only a few miles away. It was actually pretty lush.



Now a few miles later we were cruzing along and I heard a buzzing. Mind you, I am very allergic to bees. I carry two epi pens with me just in case I get stung. One of my biggest fears about doing this hike was getting stung some place like the throat and having my airways close up out on the trail...ek! So what happens to me my first day...... I get stung by a bee in my THROAT! The bees were so angry, after i got stung seth got dive bombed too. Luckily he had his beanie on and didnt get stung by the bee that tried to sting him in the head. Seth got the bee off of me really quick and it didn't feel like much poison got in me. We had to franticly grab our stuff and run up the trail to get away from all of them. Seth was ready to jab me with the epi pen, but I opted for 4 Benadryl. We continued on and could only hope for the best.
We hiked with a few other hikers during the rest of the day. Seth realized a few miles later that he lost his bear spray during the bee sting fiasco. Bummer. We later ran into another hiker who picked our bear spray up a ways back down the trail. Yay!
We made it to hauser creek. We took a little break with one of our fellow hikers here. Most of the water sources have been running so far. The break was glorious. The Benadryl was well kicked in by now. Benadryl pretty much could knock out a pony and I had to hike about 10 miles loopy on the stuff. Seth says it was like hiking with a zombie. From hauser creek we had a huge climb up to the lake Morena Camp ground. And we made it! We got into camp a little late because of all the stops for my knee and the Benadryl stuper I was in, but we set up camp and ended the day with our final "b" of the day BURRITOS! We made some steak fajita rice and wrapped that up in a tortilla and of course added hot sauce.
It was freezing at night, literally. I think it got down to 30 degrees. We went to bed full and warm in our bags. While the day had a few curve balls I think we handled them well. What a memorable first day of our thru hike. On to tomorrow for more adventure.

-Kristin

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Location:Lake Morena