Day 22: June 15, 2012

June 15, 2012.

Day: 22     Daily Miles: 42.5    Total Miles: 938    Hours Hiking: 16   6:30am-10:40pm

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Day 22

Just a small taste of the downed trees around Mammoth.

June 15, Day 22. Lets see. I made it to mile 938. About 4 miles outside of Tuolumne Meadows. Total day was 41.5 miles. I stopped at point 0298344E 4191761N. I stopped about 4 miles out because I didn't want to have to deal with trying to find camping at like, a spot to camp in "civilization" at somewhere around oohh 12am if I had kept going. I stopped about 10:40pm and found a nice little spot nestled in the big giant valley in some trees. And yeah, it was a good night. I knew I could sleep in because the store doesn't open until 8am, the post office isn't until 9am. So technically I may be able to get my package around 8am, but I might have to wait until 9am. So I slept in until about 6:30am and started walking at 7 to get there around 8am. Anyways, yesterday, I started off right around, a little bit before the Duck Lake Pass/Trail area. I plodded my way past mile 900 and made it down past Reds Meadows. The blow downs there, they weren't kidding. WOW. It's just like a bomb went off and trees just laid down. They've at least have cleared ohh 95% of all the blow-

downs. So there are a few little reroutes, places where a tree will fall more or less parallel to the trail where you have to dodge it. There's actually one section for about 100 yards, they just made a new trail because it's just not worth trying to go through the masses of trees stacked on top of one another. I passed two trail crews. The first trail crew was in the wilderness area using the cross cut saw, they were SCA. Then passed Reds Meadows, right around Devils Postpile, I passed another...actually I passed 3 trail crews yesterday. The second one was PCTA it looked like. They were making the trail into a highway, versus just the rough-hewn path that some of it was. So like raking and completely widening the trail to more than the couple feet that they hacked through with the chainsaws. So I wandered around through Agnew Meadows, which wasn't a problem. I had though there might be a detour there because of {tree removal} equipment or whatever. No problems whatsoever. I got rid of a bunch of trash there which was awesome. Then headed up the hill across from 

Descending Donohue Pass - HDR.

the JMT up the valley. Then uhh, right around that time the thunderstorms were growing pretty well. I got into clouds which was great because I was on a climb and they, the thunderstorms, lasted actually until the evening about 6 or 7 o'clock or so, keeping the sky pretty cloudy. It started sprinkling as I got up to about Thousand Island Lake, a little bit before that, but it never really turned into anything major, which I'm really happy about. I didn't have to get my rain gear out. The climb just kinda kept going and going. It wasn't super steep, which was awesome. Ya know a few parts make you get out of breath because you are actually going up to 11,000ft. But made it to the top with great sunlight, great shadows. The evening is the best time to hit a pass, so I took a bunch of photos. Then I came down the back side, into first little upper meadow. I met three other thru-hikers from England. They're going to resupply tomorrow too, but they stopped way back there. I just kept plodding along, I knew I had to get down to the valley floor before it got dark to make my life much easier. I barely made it. Right as it got pretty much dark, I hit the long like 6 or 7 miles of more or less 

Climbing up to Donohue Pass.

just flat walking through a big open green valley next to a creek right at the tree line. So that's where I kind of camped out. I'm actually walking to Tuolumne right now. I'm going to make a few phone calls, I'm gonna get a bunch of stuff to eat, because it's all I've been dreaming about really for the last 6 days. That's how long it took me to get through the Sierras. I went basically 242 mile to Tuolumne, so I call it 242 divided by 6 I believe, is what I just did, which would be an average of 40 miles a day. The next few days, well actually up until Echo Lake, I think are gonna be some of my least favorite {miles}. I don't know. I just don't have a good..{memory of them}... I don't remember them as being fun. Lets put it that way. There are a few places like Sonora Pass, where I've been {before while not hiking} and like, there's a climb there but otherwise I don't remember a whole lot and I don't remember them being particularly good. I think in 2009 I didn't feel good one of the days and so that just adds to the memory. But we'll see. I feel like once I get to Echo Lake, life gets easier, you're not nearly at as high of elevation and I don't know, it just feels like home. {I'm grew up 1.5 hours from Donner Pass}.

Donohue Pass at sunset, looking north towards Tuolumne Meadowns.

Day 21: June 14, 2012

June 14, 2012.

Day: 21    Daily Miles: 38.25   Total Miles: 895.5   Hours Hiking: 15.5   7:25am-10:45pm

Listen to the audio journal above or Download June 14th Audio File Here

Day 21
Evening

Selden Pass!

June 14th, about 7pm. I just came over Silver Pass. I'm actually walking in one of the areas that LINT and I in 2009 glissaded down into and, there's no snow. It's so remarkable how different it is. It is one of those really really rare years. But anyways, the sun is getting lower, and I've had a pretty good day actually. I slept in and in 2 miles I hit the 1/3 mark of the PCT. Annnddd, I don't know. The evenings are my favorite time to hike, especially if you get to go over passes because you either get above tree line or are in sparsely treed areas and you have these views that just last. Massive granite mountains that are still all around you. There's water everywhere. I'm constantly jumping over streams. Like right now I'm hopping on rocks to get across a stream. The sunlight is low and makes shadows and contrast and...everything is golden. It's my favorite place in time pretty much. Lake of the Lone Indian is off to my left. I believe Mark {my brother} has gone fishing there. Ya know, a good day. I think a lot of it has to do with sleeping in a little bit really. I had an extra hour of 

Super low Bear Creek crossing.

sleep. Didn't leave until about 7:15 and I'm actually doing pretty good on miles today for the Sierra at least, for what it's worth. I've had to go up basically the equivalent of three passes today already. Not as big a change as my other three pass day, but if I go as far as I hope too, I have to go up again. I'm going down now. So, I'm a bit hungry actually. I'm a bit worried about my weight and if I'm only 1/3 of the way done, what it means for the rest of the trip and how much I've already lost. Hopefully I can keep this up. I've vacillated so much over the last few days, whether I want to continue on or not. The thunderstorms tried to come in today a little bit. They stayed on the east side of the Sierras, I could kind of see them cropping up more to the south. I wish they were more around me so they would block the sun, because my watch said it was 80 degrees today. Which when you're at high altitude and it's 80, it's hot. It just kind of bakes. Enough to melt my candy bars, how about that hot? Granted they are in a black backpack. It's just I love being in the mountains in the evening with low light and big masses of rock and trees, especially being high, so you get the views. It's just been a good day. So part A of June 14th.

Selden Pass 180 degree panorama, north is left.

A few miles after the VVR trail junction.

June 14th, Day 21. Made it to mile 895.5 for a total of 38.5 miles for the day. I stopped at point 0325950E 4156150N. I camped pretty much right next to the Duck Lake pass and trail turn off. So I was close to Mammoth, but not quite to Reds Meadow. You can go over Duck Lake Pass and drop into the ski area and take the bus into town. Which would have been my first technically easy out had I wanted to leave the trail. Lets see, yesterday was a pretty good day actually. I slept in until about...well I got going at about 7:30am, which is about an hour later than most normal times, but I think that actually improved my overall speed and mental clarity and happiness throughout the day. So I got about 7 hours of sleep instead of the 6 that's normal. I did 2 pass and 2 extra other climbs. Lets see, I started off down by the Muir Ranch trail turnoff, probably about 1.5 miles before that. It was pretty flat for a little bit, then climb, climb, climb, climb, climb, climb, climb, climb, climb, up to Selden Pass. Just before getting to the pass itself, I met a woman named 

Descending from Silver Pass.

Silky, who I was chatting with, who's a JMT'er, and said that she was hiking with a few other folks, and they came down, it was actually Joe Anderson from Casa De Luna, a trail angel down in southern California, who is hiking back to kind of go through all the thru-hikers again and experience the JMT. So that was cool, he was really excited to meet me. He knew about me and said that Scott Williamson was hiking again this year and also said that he had hiked with Scott Williamson last year and told him that he'd really like someone to beat his record, whether because he wanted someone to just do it or he wants some motivation to try harder or I don't know what, but that's he told me. So that was a little bit of a boost. Silky was pretty cool actually. I'd like to go hike with her, I'd be fun. She's going the wrong way though, toooo bad. On top of Selden, the mosquitoes started getting bad. I had to deet up for the first time. But it was nice and beautiful, zero snow pretty much. Easy walk down, down, down, down. Then you hit Bear Creek crossing which wasn't bad at all. A little cold, but what do you expect, its pretty much all snow melt still. I got going again, and had to climb up to Silver Pass, which is just another long approach. But beautiful once you get up and out of the trees and it opens up a bit more. The worst part of it is actually that you hit the actual pass then you have to go up higher up this little shoulder because the pass itself cliffs out. It was pretty, I hit that around shoot, I skipped a whole 

On top of Silver Pass!

bunch.... After Bear Creek, you have to go up over this ridge, probably a climb of 1,500-2,000 ft and then drop down into the VVR Valley, Lake Edison, Vermilion Valley Ranch. That was in the afternoon, then you have to do the climb up to Silver Pass. It was steep at first then it grades to be a bit better. I hit silver at about 6 o'clock, maybe 7 o'clock maybe..it's when I did the other recording at. It was beautiful up there. The perfect time to hit passes is the late evening. I plummeted off the back side and made it to Tule Hole kind of around 7:30 {had to be later}, the sun was just giving alpenglow to the tops of the peaks around me, as I did the switchbacks up up up up. The sun was down by the time I got to Virginia lake and was winding through the little isthmus. I met a bunch, about 6-7 thru-hikers camped out a little way past Virginia lake and chatted with them for about 10 minutes. And then I kept going. Just plodding along. My goal was 900 but I only made it to 895.5, but by that time it was already 10:45pm and there was no real reason to keep going. When today I don't actually have to make a bunch of miles. I have to make 38 again, which would put me on top of Donahue 

Wet (snow melt) and callused feet..the horror so far.

pass, and basically leave me at I believe 8-10 miles to get to Tuolumne, which is fine. If I get up early enough and leave at 6, I should be there right around when the store opens, which means I can get my package. If not, then I'll have to wait around until 9 when the post office opens on Saturday. Last night, I don't know, yesterday, I ate my normal stuff and planned it out, but I was just super hungry. For dinner I had an extra dinner because I was arriving a day early, so I had two boxes of Mac N Cheese. And I didn't feel super stuffed after I ate them, which is a hell of a lot of food. I mean damn, I saw my pot full, and had to take a little break between eating it all, probably for a couple minutes, because I was like "ohhh too much cheesiness". This morning I really wasn't even hungry for breakfast, which granted, was fine six hours later. I ate my breakfast and my stomach felt all weird, probably because it was super stuffed still. But we're going to pass Reds Meadow, actually should be approaching mile 900 right about now, lets see what the GPS says...the GPS says, we are ohh about 1/4 mile away from mile 900. That's my goal, that'll be good, get that out of the way. I did the math 

Sunset from Tule Hole.

actually yesterday again, to see whether, or to see what the actual average is for the current record per day is, and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it was 41.2 miles a day, which I had always thought it was 42. So that means, me being at roughly at 43 miles a day, I'm still a good ways above the record. Especially considering that I'm in the Sierras. So if I can continue on just with the pace, ya know 43, 44, hopefully 45 pace, I will do just fine. I did the math also, that If I kept a 44 mile a day pace or that's my average, that I would finish in 60.5 days. If I do 44.5 or even 45 a day I'll break the 60 day mark. I'll have to make up some miles, but that's a definite possibility. We'll see how far I get today. Hopefully the blow downs will stop at Deer Creek like one of the guys said and I'll have to stop vaulting over these damn downed trees that are EVERYWHERE.

Nearing the top of Silver Pass.

Day 13: June 6, 2012

June 6, 2012.

Day: 13    Daily Miles: 46.5    Total Miles: 577.75    Hours Hiking: 20   6:45am-6:05am

Listen to the audio journal above or Download June 6th Audio File Here

Day 13

Windfarms at the end of the Antelope Valley crossing.

June 6^th, day 13. I spent the night, well kinda of two places. But the coordinates for where I stopped the day 0386625E 3893631N. I stopped at mile, or no, the day stopped at mile 577.75 for a grand total for the day of 46.5 miles. Lets see, I started off at about ohh about 5 miles away from the Cottonwood Bridge and the water source on the big desert section, hike on the aqueduct. I took it easy actually for most of the day, just hiked at normal pace, didn't really try and push it fast. I knew there were ups and was just kinda happy with wherever I got really. So it wasn't terribly hot, it actually really nice. The wind was breezy, the temperatures probably didn't get really above 75-80 and it was great. I passed about, ohh 15 people or so, most people were going to go into Tehachapi or Mojave. The windmills were everywhere, that was kinda of the slowest part was weaving through them. The actual valley or little foothills before the climb coming off the aqueduct since 2009 has been filled with windmills, that was a big change. But I got to Highway 58 with water, I was hoping for trail

Windfarms just west of the town of Mojave, before Hwy 58.

 magic at a bunch of places, but there was just water, which was nice because of the big long dry stretch and I didn't want to carry a lot of water. I had 3 liters and every time I found a water cache, I would drink some and keep my water intact. That way, I actually made it the 25 mile dry stretch with only 3 liters, and probably only drank 2L, that was overnight too. That worked out well. I powered up the hill after Highway 58 in REALLY strong winds. I had taken half a caffeine pill so that helped a lot, but I knew it would, thats why I did it. Otherwise it would have been painful. I saw sunset as I was climbing up, the lights of Mojave, Lancaster, California City, all glowing out in the desert. I crested the ridge and got to see the lights of Tehachapi. I made it to about mile 44 for the day and it was probably about 10pm and was just feeling tired and hungry. 

Sunset from atop the climb after Hwy 58.

Yesterday I was actually hungry ALL day and it never went away. That could have been because the night before I did not really have a dinner right before I went to bed. We'll see if the HUNGER has started yet or not. I'm hoping not. But if it is, it is, no big deal, you're just going to be hungry for the rest of the time. I went to bed, I had planned on trying on getting up early and making it a few more miles, maybe in the middle of the night, just to cut down on some more miles – get a little rest and make it a bit further. But I didn't wake up until 5am. I made it 3.5 more miles to get my 46 and that was the end of my day. Not just going to keep on trucking.

Day 18 Panorama - Looking W-NW just after Chicken Spring Lake.

Pre-Hike: May 21, 2012

May 21, 2012.

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

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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...