Sunday, December 2, 2012

Day 1: May 25, 2012


May 25, 2012.

Day: 1     Daily Miles: 49     Total Miles: 49     Hours Hiking: 14.5     6:05am -8:35pm

Listen to the audio journal above or Download May 25th Audio File Here

Day 1
Morning
May 25, 6:15 in the morning. I just left the border about 10 minutes ago. Little bit less, a little bit of a later start and somewhat hectic. I can still see the border actually, and my mom will be driving by shortly. But anyways, I'm excited, oh my gosh! (Laughs) It's beautiful hiking weather, around 50 degrees out. It's cloudy – low clouds, there's a breeze and it's misting with a chance of rain for the next couple of days, where normally it's blazing hot down here. So I'll have a good first three days, as long as the fire that I'll encounter on day two {Banner Fire} is gone and out and I can actually get on the trail and/or kinda sneak by. So yeah, it's one of those feelings that it’s taken me four months of training and planning and trying to figure out and remember every little detail. This last month has been hectic with just racking my brain making sure I have every little thing covered, checking and rechecking and all that good stuff. It feels great to be on trail, and I'm looking forward to the next two months, no matter how hard they're going to be. So yeah, I'll catch ya in a few.


Just passed Lake Morena campground.
It's May 25, 11 O'clock at night. I did a 49-mile day today. It's about 37 degrees with 30-40 MPH winds. You might be able to hear the roar in the background. I'm currently at my camp, which is at UTM 0550851 3641044, Somewhere around 5500 ft on Mt. Laguna. The nice weather that was here today, is well, not so nice right now when I'm on top of a mountain on a ridge. There's no way to get away from it because I either hike 10 more miles forwards or backwards to get off the ridge so, not so good. I spend about 40 minutes to set up my tarp/shelter and basically it's so windy that it’s pulling the stakes out of the ground. I had to go try and find rocks (there weren't many big enough to be useful!) and its still not right, so I took down half of it (laying it on top of/tucked under me) and about to go to bed. I am sooo tired, I should have been asleep about 2 hours ago. 


Climbing up from the Interstate 8 crossing.
Today overall was good, nice clouds, a little breeze, not hot, made a lot of distance. I had lunch at Boulder Oaks Campground at mile 26, a little over halfway. I met about 6 people and had them sign my logbook. Otherwise it was just fine until I got up to the ridge where it was just windy and windy and it hasn't stopped and I don't foresee it stopping. I remember in 2009 it was windy windy windy up here as well. So I hope to drop the hell out of here quick and early tomorrow morning and go and see if I can make it through the burn area. So that's my day, I had one blister. It looks like it was just from toes rubbing together and not from my shoes, so I got that duct taped and we'll see how it goes tomorrow. I'm ready for bed, so goodnight!


Panorama overlooking Interstate 8 and Boulder Oaks Campground area.

Pre-Hike: May 21, 2012


May 21, 2012.

Daily Miles: n/a     Total Miles: n/a     Hours Hiking: n/a     0:00am -0:00pm

Listen to the audio journal above or Download May 21st Audio File Here

May 21st. I'm hitting Davis coming back from the Bay Area, from visiting Jeanette and I'm finally getting close back to 'home', Scott's. It's just one of those...I keep thinking over questions people have asked me, or will ask me and some of them are just the simple question like 'Why do you want to do this?'. And, I've played with the idea of why for a while...and I've come up with 2 answers. One is the kind of short, flippant answer of 'because it's there!' I mean what other reason is there to do anything in life...the trail is there, I can do it, I've done it once, so why not do it fast? It's actually a direct theft of a quote from George Mallory in the 1920's when a reporter asked him 'Why do you want to climb Mt. Everest?' and his answer was 'Because it's there.' And I think it's quite apt, but the long answer is really that... I want to test myself. I've done it once before. I want to find out where my limits are and just exactly what I can do. The record itself isn't necessarily the objective, it is the bar against which I can measure myself and see how well I do compared to others. And if I make my personal goal of completing it in under 60 days, then that's something I feel is remarkable, and the fact that it actually breaks the current record is something that shows me that I've done something that no one else has done yet. Not to say that it will never be broken, I not that naive, someone else will set that as their goal and do exactly what I'm thinking of doing right now. So it's just one of those things, it will take a person of similar character, similar willpower to endure 60 days of just extreme physical activity and the mental capacity to keep pushing and keep pushing and to not let the day-to-day life ruin you. Another question I've thought of is, 'Did you have fun, did you enjoy it?' And, day-to-day, I can only assume, that no, I will not enjoy it. I mean some days will be good, some days will be bad, it's just one of those things that, just like life, some days you have a good day, some days you have a bad day. I really look at it from past experiences. Certain days you can do a 15-16 hour day where you go 14 hours and have a terrible day and then all of a sudden you crest some little ridge or something and you see the most spectacular sunset ever and that day just became a good day. All of the suffering and not fun part of the day - the heat, the miles, the sun, whatever, it all evaporates at that point and you are thankful you are exactly where you are at that moment. The same goes the other way. You can have a great day then something goes wrong and whether it's you running out of energy or losing something, or whatever, your day just takes that turn. But overall, I really feel like I am going to enjoy it... just because it's physically demanding and a ridiculous feat in itself doesn't exclude the fact that I am trying to accomplish something that I have set. Having a goal that I want to do, and in so accomplishing it, or trying to, I will enjoy it. If I didn't enjoy it, why would I even be considering it? *laughs* This isn't one of those things that is going to be for fame or fortune...out of all of the things.... I mean very few people wouldn't want those things, and I'd love recognition for it, that'd be great. But am I expecting it? No. Am I going to get any from it? No. So few people really know about the Pacific Crest Trail that this record is just really for people that are of like mind and care about the trail. Maybe there will be some newspaper article, but that's really it. I don't plan or even expect to be any kind of famous. This is, as in any personal...any goal, any record, they are really personal, it's not something that's for everybody, it's for you, that you can do the fastest thing, that you can be the best. It seems a little selfish, but that's what it is. It's for you; it's not for anyone else. The moment it becomes for somebody else, it's really not what you want to do. I don't think it's necessarily enjoyable, the record itself wouldn't be enjoyable for you, the record for others and the admiration they give you, that's what you'd be going for and not the actual physical part. So, you know these are just things that I've been thinking about, and I'll have plenty of time to be thinking about such things while on trail. Time goes by, and you get to examine more and more about yourself. We make so many decisions in our lives that are split second and don't put a lot of thought behind them, and whatever decision was made, it occurs and you never think about it again. But, I've had plenty of time to kind of sit back and really try to analyze why am I doing this, what for, because it is such a...tremendous feat if I do pull it off. No one has done it before in under 60 days—it is 2660 miles. I am going to try to hike an average of 42 miles a day. It's really just one of those things that... *laughs*... is hard... I'm going to have to suffer. There is going to be some pain. There are going to be some non-fun areas, but when I am done, I am going to look back and say 'that was hard, but it was worth it.' And that is all I can hope for.

Pre-Hike: May 18, 2012


May 18, 2012.

Daily Miles: n/a     Total Miles: n/a     Hours Hiking: n/a     0:00am -0:00pm

Listen to the audio journal above or Download May 18th Audio File Here
View from the Hat Creek Rim Overlook on trail.

May 18th, it's about 11am and I'm just driving through Old Station {on my way to my parents’}. I stopped off at the Hat Creek Scenic Overlook, where I know the trail crosses and hung out for a few minutes. I took some nice photos of the trail sign and Mt. Shasta to the north and Mt. Lassen is just right behind you to the south. Basically I did the math and figured out that at that point it's about 50 miles, or one day, past the halfway point. Standing there comes with such a strange, really strange thought that, literally a month from the day I start, if I stick to schedule, I will be 1300, almost 1400 miles north, at that specific point. And I can just foresee myself when I get there, thinking back that little over a month ago I was here in my truck with a whole bunch of shit, and now I've got just what's on my back. *laughs* It's...yeah. It's ridiculous to say the least. I don't know...it's cool though. I'm really, really excited to start and to do things like that and to have that other perspective. I'm almost to the parents’ house, to finish up my mail drops and finally see the place.

Mt Shasta and the trail marker at Hat Creek Rim Overlook.

Pre-Hike: May 17, 2012


May 17, 2012.

Daily Miles: n/a     Total Miles: n/a     Hours Hiking: n/a     0:00am -0:00pm

Listen to the audio journal above or Download May 17th Audio File Here

May 17th, I'm driving back from Colorado to California to my parents’, to drop off all of my food boxes and actually do a little bit of preparation with them. It’s a good old-fashioned 20-some-odd hour drive across the desert, which I don't mind. It's nice. I've done the drive before and I love the southwest, so I can't complain too much. It gives you a lot of time to think about it {the hike}. I'm finally on my way back to the start...and in a week and 1/2 a day from now I will be on trail, starting a....ahhh...very difficult journey to say the least. *laughs* I..It's...I try and prepare myself and it, it’s, just like, WOW, that's a lot of miles in one day, and that's a lot of days consecutively...the average is supposed to be 46.2 miles per day for 60 days, in order to complete the trail...which will break the record by 4 days, but still...I mean that's...*laughs*... that's quite a feat and I know that the first week or two is going to be hot and I'm going to be sore because my body isn't going to be used to it day in and day out. I've trained a whole heck of a lot, but...you know, you can't train exactly for it, unless you do it. I couldn't train for hiking for 60 days unless I was to hike for 60 days prior to this. The other day while running, this build up before, it kind of feels like the analogy of you sitting at the rim of the Grand Canyon looking across this big vast open place and you saying 'well, I'm here and I need to get all the way across to the other side'. You are just waiting to start... you have to pick your own path and take it and that's where I'm at. One week to go. It's *laughs* I've prepared mentally as much as I think I can and it's going to be one of those, just take it day by day. I know how far I need to go, and I will deal with the problems and the little things as they come up. Just don't worry about them. Once I've got everything set, it's out of my hands really. That's all you can really hope for... Otherwise, it'll be enjoyable, not in the sense of being really really fun like a normal thru-hike, because you're hiking with other people and hanging out and literally making the most of a summer, but it will be enjoyable to me in the way of...it being a goal I've set and it's a goal I really want to achieve, and I like to push myself. So, in doing this, I'm really pushing myself, which no matter how I do, I'll know whether I can do it, whether I can't, where some limits are and what I am more capable of and generally know myself more. I mean I know I can push myself and push myself and push myself, and I've really as of yet to find a good breaking point and this, this might do it. This might be the thing that finally lets me know where I cannot go and what I cannot do. So, man, it'll be good. Spending 2 months of my life to do something that no one else has done before, basically. I think that's a fair trade. We'll see what I can do *laughs, see if I can break a record or two...

About The Speed Attempt Journal


Tuna Helper's 2012 PCT Speed Record Attempt Journal
The text in the following posts has been painstakingly transcribed from over 411 minutes (almost 7 hours) of audio journal entries that I recorded while hiking on the Pacific Crest Trail. In most instances I was recording the previous day in the morning of the day that followed it, therefore some 'today' and 'yesterday' references may be confusing or inaccurate. The style may be difficult to read at first because it was spoken rather than written. Because it is more or less flow of consciousness, thoughts can occur or change mid-sentence with with little regard to proper sentence structure and punctuation etc. I've done my best to try to separate thoughts and convey feeling etc that are expressed in how the actual words were spoken. To me, some of the most interesting parts are my thoughts before the trip and how they compare/contrast with what I think after I am off-trail. Not every day is adventure-packed, but most days have at least a few gems here and there. In the whole, I think it is a good representation of what it was like. Having the map page of the trail with my camping locations marked might make some of my references/descriptions more relevant and easier to imagine.

Each of the following posts has the transcribed audio text and a playable version of the original audio file. I have inserted photos taken on the corresponding journal entry date. I would recommend listening to the posts rather than reading them, as the voice inflections indicate how I was feeling and thinking much better than just the straight text. Look for the media bar above the text and hit the play button.

I hope you enjoy!

Hiking Logistics

Logistics:

The glorious snack attack.

Planning is an essential part of any thru-hike. The ease of planing highly depends on ones experience with backpacking/camping/outdoor as well as if they have undertaken another thru-hike before. If one is a complete novice, it reasons that they will need to do more planning and research to feel comfortable with what they are about to undertake. Thankfully, there is a large PCT community to ask advice from as well as a great deal of helpful books and websites.

A few sites and books I've used and would recommend are: Yogi's Guidebooks (great for all around knowledge and info on towns), Craig's PCT Planner (an amazing resource that will 'plan' your hike, giving you a rough schedule and resupply points), Postholer.com (PCT map overlay on Google maps, snow reports and more), Halfmile's PCT Maps (free maps to print and for GPS of the trail with water and other points - they rock!), AsABat's Water Reports (AsABat, the person who made these possible died this year, so they may not be updated, and thus useful for 2013 and on), Pacific Crest Trail Association (for hiking permits, guidebooks, and trail conditions), the PCT Data Book (mileage and water sources) and the PCT-L (a PCT community mailing list where you can ask questions/advice and get all sorts of PCT info - some good, some bad).

2 months of dinners.
For a normal 4-5 month thru-hike, logistics may seem to be overwhelming. At face value it is overwhelming, however, one must remember that life on trail is much, much simpler than a normal day at home. When you're on trail, the primal things of life take the forefront - food, water, shelter and how far you'll go. Most folks use the resupply strategy of shopping in stores along the trail and supplementing resupply towns with minimal facilities with pre-mailed food boxes aka 'mail drops'. Water is where you find it. In dry southern California it takes a little bit of planning from spring to spring, but once one hits the Sierras, water is a minor concern. Shelter...you should have this with you at all times! Distance - you'll go as far as you feel like or need to so you don't run out of food, don't stress it too much. For the most part, if something goes wrong one has the leeway of time - taking however long it is necessary to fix the problem.


The logistics of my speed record attempt were vastly more structured and detailed than a typical thru-hike. Because time is the ultimate commodity on as speed hike, the leeway of taking days off to rest or fix problems does not exist, especially when trying to set a new record. This fact imparted the special need to plan EVERYTHING and to try and prepare for any possible problems. Of course, you can't plan for the unplanned and problems and situations occur that one can never imagine, so a degree of flexibility is needed in combination with a strict schedule. It took well over a month to fully prepare the logistics for my trip, from calculating how many calories a day I wanted to consume vs weight carried, to how long between resupplies, to where will I take showers and do laundry, to how many batteries do I need for my GPS? Each aspect of planning was ruled by the overlying theme of time efficiency and saving weight.


The living room full of 2 months of food! Packing mail drops.
One doesn't truly comprehend how much food is consumed in 2 months until it is piled up in their living room. I opted to resupply from mail drops for my entire hike, thus removing 'shopping' time. I scheduled each resupply/town stop for 3 hours, usually taking only 2. In all I had planned 14 resupply points, each with a box specifically tailored for the next section. At the time of making the boxes it was a nightmare, but when on trail the boxes were perfect and all the work payed off handsomely. The real effort is in the details.


Distance on paper is just that, a number. When that number is translated into real miles, it's both an amazing thing and a horrible thing. One of the hardest things across my hike was the fact that I knew I had to make about 42+ miles a day, everyday for 60 days. If you didn't make the miles one day, you were behind overall and had to make them up another. Each morning I'd awaken at 0 miles and throughout the day be nagged by a constant 'deadline-like' stress because I knew how many more miles I needed to go. The first 10 miles always seemed alright, the middle 20 were always the hardest and the last 10+ were either easy or hard depending on the day. Sometimes the last 5 were absolute hell, since I had to keep going regardless of what my body and mind wanted...gotta make the miles. Because of the constant stress and need to make big miles, the hike itself became work and not fun. I knew this would happen, but just like the distance on paper, you can never fully imagine how it will be until it is happening.


Overall the predetermined schedule I made sitting all cozy in my home was just about right. In fact, I was ahead of my schedule when I got off trail, something I'm still surprised I was able to do!
About 10 miles from Sonora Pass hwy crossing, just entering the volcanic terrain from the Granite of the Sierra's.