Anxiety Central

May 27th 2016
Day 3:
            Day 3 has definitely been the most stressful day of all.   Unknowing where the next road we'd encounter to escape the fire closure, we were faced with the decision to continue on with the next water stop being 20 miles away and the fire closure being 30. The current camp, where we slept last evening, did have an address, so we knew we could get a ride out now to avoid the closure.  However, the nearest place to get service was a 3 mile hike up the mountain along the trail. Since we are inexperienced, we decided to follow Moses and Torstan because they seemed it was the best decision. So, the 4 of us we made the ascent.  Finally, reaching the top, we had no idea if Uber even reached this far.  Let's face it, we were literally in the middle of nowhere. After downloading the Uber app, we soon learned that Uber did not reach the address where we were located (of course not).  Just when we didn't know what else to do and we were going to continue on, Torstan pulled out a taxi company service card he received earlier on the trail. So, we gave it a try. Lucky enough, they did agree to come pick us up!

Happy after we got a ride out of the desert

 The problem was that we didn't get service back at the camp where we planned to be picked up. We hiked the 3 miles back to the camp and waited anxiously. He was supposed to be there at 11:45, so at 12:00 Moses walked up to the entrance to the house.  We were back 7 miles on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, I remind you.  When he hadn't showed yet, Lex and I began to pace. We just hiked a wasted 6 miles to try to get a ride out of this place. At 12:30 I was so anxious that I had to walk up. Still no sight.  At this point I was freaking out.  I walked all around the area to try to get service and finally, in one miniscule spot, I got it long enough to call this taxi driver.  Here he had turned around because he couldn't see us!  He didn't even try to come back the dirt road at all! At this point, my anxiety was through the roof.  I hate wasting time and we just hiked 6 miles out of the way to make a phone call. We begged him to turn around to come back and he did, but just as he was turning around another random lady was going up to the boy scout camp 5 miles above us and offered to give us a ride down. Yet another trail angel had presented itself in our time of need.

Trail Angel who gave us a ride down the dirt road

 Incredibly thankful.  It was an hour drive into the next town of Idyllwild. After arriving, Lex and I split a room at the Strawberry Creek inn bed and breakfast.  It was the only thing we could do and it was such a stressful day, not to mention we haven't showered in 3 days. It feels great to lay in this clean bed and not smell my own stench.
       At the end of the day, we were faced with an obstacle and had to make a decision to leave or stay on the trail. In my opinion, this was the best decision for us considering we had no idea where we were going to be able to get another ride out to avoid the forest fire. Also, looking at safety side with the water situation and traveling with these 2 older men, I felt that this was the best decision.
-Thankful for another day with minimal injuries.
Grimmzlybear

Hanging in Idyllwild

Cute Coffee shop in Idyllwild

Thirsty Thursday

May 26th 2016
Day 2:
             Today was another rise in elevation of about 4,000 feet and then begun the descent. I found the downhill to be much harder on my knees compared to uphill. I think it has something to do with the fact that I only have a piece of my ACL left in my right knee. When talking about fatigue, it was much harder walking uphill for sure.  It takes the breath right out of you, but walking downhill requires much more focus mentally and physically.

              We ended up hiking around 12 miles fairly quickly today, ending at about 2:30pm. We first stopped because this was the next water sighting for about 20 miles give or take.

Although risky, we followed the sign because we were low on water. After about a half mile hike, we ran into Torstan and Moses, who were actually the 64 and 39 year olds we met earlier on the trail. Eventually we ran into the giant basin of water that was placed there for hikers.

As we all sat around filtering our fresh ice cold water, Moses informed us of the upcoming fire closure. Lex and I had no idea what they were talking about.  So, we decided to hang around with them a bit because they seemed much more experienced than we. There was a sign with steps behind the basin we decided to follow down into, which led into a hikers heaven!  This campsite is run by a man named Josh, who is literally the nicest person ever.  He's letting us sleep in this camper tonight.

Bed in the camper

Although it's old and run down, I am excited to sleep in a bed and out of the cold temperatures. He currently is cooking us this homemade pizza, which sounds delicious! Unsure of what the plan is tomorrow, but we do plan to stay with Torstan and Moses for a little while. They are even sleeping in the living room of the camper with us, which makes me feel a little safer, considering there are about 15 other male hikers in the camp.

-Praying the pizza is good

Grimmzlybear

Trail Virgins

May 25^th 2016

Day 1: Trail Virgins

                12.miles.later.  I can’t wait to pitch our tent.  I am literally exhausted.  Natalie drove us down into warner springs from her house in Anaheim, which is about a 2 hour drive.  We arrived in Warner Springs at about 12:00pm today feeling nervous and unprepared. I prepared so much for this hike, I kept reminding myself, but once it actually came down to it, it was nerve-racking.  It didn’t help that all the other hikers in the area stared at us like we were idiots, even the people in the community center looked at us strangely. Like “2 girls hiking the PCT?” “Really?”  After this, we even struggled to find where the trail exactly started. 

Warner Springs is in the middle of nowhere with pretty much a population of like 20 it felt like anyway, so how did they expect us to see the tiny PCT sign along the dirt road?  Who knows, but after finally finding it we were off!  The first 2 miles or so was flat dry desert with the mountains quickly approaching in the distance.

Today’s hike was mostly uphill, so we will see how our legs feel tomorrow. After encountering a beheaded snake along the trail, my partner, Lex, had a mental breakdown and did not want to push on. However, I quickly influenced her that everything would be okay and that we could do this. Today, we encountered a fair number of people on the trail, who I was able to talk to about their own muscle fatigue and preparation for the trail.  All of the people we met today plan on hiking the whole thing and all started from Campo, right next to the Mexican border. We first met two men one being 64 & the other 39, who we didn’t talk much with, but found out that both thought hiking downhill was harder.  We then ran into a man named Diego, who told me that his whole body was destroyed and he used a method of breathing techniques to cleanse himself.  He told me he carried an 80 pound pack, which is utterly ridiculous, but I guess if you can handle it, why not. I think that is maybe why his whole body is destroyed. He also informed me that he had to take two 0 days (days where you hike 0 miles) just for his body to recover.  After chatting with him for about 10 minutes, he finally came to the conclusion that hiking downhill was harder for himself.  Lastly, we ran into Witt and Graysville (I call him Graysville because his 1^st name is hard to remember & Graysville is where he’s from), waiting for their friend Jared, who was a little behind them. Witt told me that he doesn’t get sore because he had been preparing for the hike with a much larger pack.   Graysville told me that downhill was harder for him because he had been in many motocross accidents and his knees weren’t exactly as good as new. Graysville ironically ended up being from the east coast only an hour from W&J and had a bunch of friends go to school there! How funny! Their friend Jared, who they gave the trail name “Team Leader” because he was always right, was the odd ball out and found that hiking uphill was harder for him.

Our packs are packed to the absolute max and our bodies are absolutely empty.  We didn’t eat much today because we were busy hiking and didn’t seem to notice hunger much at all.  After finally stopping, I am ready to try out our propane stove and our first mountain house meal. I think we are camping next to Witt, Graysville, and Jared tonight, which makes me feel a little safer in these rugged mountains.

-extremely tired and sore

Grimmzlybear

Journal info

I did not blog directly during my trip, however, I did keep a journal and from that I will publish blogs in order of my days while in Cali.

Tuesday May 24^th 2016

Flying Fiasco

                Well, my plane flew out at 6:15am this morning and it’s been the longest day ever to say the least.

Sunrise from Pittsburgh airport

We had to leave my house at about 3 am just to get to the airport in time to check all my baggage in. Nothing seemed to be running smoothly as I had no idea how to tag my bag or go through the TSA security check. Turns out I actually got into the TSA pre-check in line, which I am clearly not on the checklist for, but they pushed me through anyway and I got to avoid a very long line of regular TSA security check people.  (YAY) Once I finally figured out where my plane waiting area was, I decided to play around with the SIM PIN on my phone. With the SIM PIN on, it allows for your phone GPS to be activated, while all other features/apps are dormant.  I planned to use this on the trail when I used the PCT half mile app, which will show me exactly where I am on the trail and where the nearest water is.  Little did I know, you need a code to unlock your phone from this mode.  So, there I was, at 5:30 in the morning locked out of my cell phone in Pittsburgh airport flying to LAX.  What a great way to start this trip I thought to myself.  However, I was able to figure everything out and quickly get my phone back to normal directly after arriving in LA.  My friend Natalie picked me up from the airport and showed me around LA for the day, taking me to the Hollywood sign, a cute French café, and a restaurant in downtown.

Tonight, I am staying over at Natalie’s and she is taking me to begin my journey on the Pacific Crest Trail tomorrow at Warner Springs with my hiking partner Lex. -Excited to be in nature instead of the city.

-Until after the trail

Grimmzlybear