post please!

Callahan’s
ETA: Between July 16 th
Ron & Donna Bergquist
Please hold for Dan & Anna Pizzo
7100 Old Hwy. 99
Ashland, OR 97520

Crater Lake Post Office resupply, mile 1834
ETA: Sunday July 26th
Crater Lake National Park
c/o General Delivery
Post Office
Crater Lake, OR 97604

Shelter Cove resupply, mile 1912
ETA: Friday July 31st
c/o Shelter Cove Resort
West Odell Lake Rd., Hwy. 58
Crescent Lake, OR 9742

Yosemite

Days 84 – 86  We arrived in Tuolomne Meadows only to find out food box hadn’t arrived… but amazingly enough we’d gotten packages with delectable goodies from Stuart, D&P and the Italy girls. Plus the JMT hikers we’d met at VVR had told us we could have food they left in a bear box. And with some pop tarts & ramen from the hiker box we barely had to buy any food at all!  Big G provides!

In Yosemite we faced some treacherous river crossings, swampy meadows, more snow and our first mosquito mob attack. But we also saw some young bucks and does, crashing rainbow waterfalls and the grand glacial-carved granite that Yosemite is famous for.  And it was warm!

Plus we passed mile 1000!

1000 Island Lake

Day 83 We arrived at Thousand Island Lake where we fought off an aggressive marmot at dinner and met up with Andy & Jean Michele. Day 84 it was horrid post-holing up Donahue Pass to enter Yosemite National Park.

Mammoth

Day 81 Mammoth is an upscale ski resort town with cute (and more importantly FREE) trollie buses that go around town.  On the way to town we passed by the impressive ski resort, which had actually just closed for the season the day before. The weather was cold & rainy which everyone constantly remarked was SO unusual for this time of year. Thanks, everyone. I know, I know, usually the weather’s sunny and 75 right now. Thanks for reminding me that I’m the lucky one who is here the one year that the weather in June SUCKS.

But thankfully the library in Mammoth is AMAZING and actually had high-speed internet. And some generous friends of the family – Debbie & Bruce – had offered to host us for the night. Debbie picked us up from Mammoth and drove us to their lovely home by Lake Crowley. Amidsts the rain and clouds we could see lots of fresh white snow on the high mountains to the west… delightful! We enjoyed chatting with D&B and making Shrinky Dinks with there 2 adorable boys before crashing for the night.

The next day Day 82 it was due to rain all day so we took a second 0 and drove with JM up to Echo Lake in a rental car so he could retrive a box he’d mailed there but needed now. The drive along 395 north passed Mono Lake and Bridgeport. It was beautiful but also a bit surreal to be arriving at a place in a few hours and knowing when we repeated the journey (on foot) it would take us over a week. Even stranger, after a day of sitting in the car I felt more exhasted than a 20+ mile day of hiking. Even my muscles ached. It was good to be getting back on the trail that night, even if it was just to camp.

Hasta Luego

Day 79  Across some ICY cold rivers and then up and over Silver Pass in driving snow and by Day 80 we had arrived at Red’s Meadow where we camped with Vincent & friends and enjoyed the free hot springs. Oh to be warm! Those days of overheating in the desert seemed like a lifetime ago!

It was a sad night around the campfire as our group of 6 was seperating. Indi & Adam would be headed back on the trail the next day but Dan, Andy, JM & I were headed into Mammoth. The good thing is we were learning that “good-byes” on the trail are usually “see you laters.”  So with a “hasta luego a dos” the 4 of us we took the bus into Mammoth the next day.

¡Viva VVR!

Day 78 Arriving at VVR was truly sublime. Free stay in a bed(!) the first night, free first drink and amazing little cafe with a talented chef who used to cook for President Regan. I made good use of my $5 shower and surprisingly still had a few strands of hair left in the end too. I had a delish bacon grilled cheese and then Andy & Indi discovered Dan’s extensive vocab (of made-up words) in a game of scrabble.

I devoured the National Geographics as well as lots of yummy snacks from the phenominal hiker barrels they had of free stuff left behind by other hikers. Usually we’re too early to find any good stuff but this time we hit the jack pot. When combined with the food package my parents had mailed we had a enourmous amount of food. But it would still be hard to stave off hiker hunger.

The staff was very friendly and to be full, warm and clean was truly sublime.

Lone Pine to VVR

Day 72 to day 78 – June 6th we headed back over Kearsage Pass. Our group had grown to now be Andy, Adam, Indi & Jean Michael. Half American, half European. Half boot wearers, half trainers. Half with “A” names, half with names from later letters.

Andy, from the UK, would entertain us with stories of the Continental Divide Trail (CDT), British accent impersonations and his hunt for edible plants. Adam, from Oklahoma, would tell crazy tales about being a Marine and a child cowboy in his southern drawl, and was a veritable wealth of film knowledge. Indi, from the Seattle area, would beat-box along the trail, telling us of his family’s Alaskan adventures and wicked college pranks. Jean Michael, a retired quintessential Frenchman, would be eagerly asking when we’d come across a restaurant and constantly consulting his GPS.

Together we traveled over the snow covered passes of Glen, Pinchot, Mather, Muir and Selden. We helped each other navigate the trail-less terrain, alternated who cut steps in the snow and glissaded (like sledding without a sled) down a few lovely hills. More often than not, though, we were post-holing, not glissading. It was slow going. After a dozen miles we were dead tired.

Every day we faced precipitation – rain, snow, hail. But every day we also had at least a few brief moments of sunshine. I managed to break one of my hard contact lenses, so when it was sunny & snowy I had to don both my sunglasses and glasses to avoid snow blindness. Oh so hip!

Mostly it was cold. Only in rare moments did I bare my arms. And some of the stream crossings were so bone-chilling it made us groan in agony.

The sights were breath-taking… layer upon layer of mountains so jagged they looked like they’d rip open the sky. Deep green valleys with boggy meadows and cascading waterfalls blackening smooth granite rocks. We’d sing Flight of the Concords songs and talk about our favourite films. We chatted over bondfires in the evening to warm up and dry off. The scenery was stunning but we were we thrilled to finally arrive at VVR on June 12th.

mail!

Belden resupply, mile 1289
ETA: Monday July 1

Post Office
Belden, CA 95915

Castella resupply, mile 1505
ETA: Sunday July 7th
Post Office
20115 Castle Creek Road
Castella, CA 96017

Sweet home Alabama

Day 69 – It did indeed seem providential that we were headed off the trail as it began to snow harder and harder as the morning progressed. We passed pines dressed in snow all ready for Christmas at Bull Frog Lakes, then up and over Kearsage Pass as snow fell furiously from the dark sky.  On the way down we saw Vincet, Indi & Burning Daylight (BD) headed back into the mountains… in shorts no less! I was glad I was headed OUT not IN.

Once down at Onion Valley Trailhead and 13 miles from civilization we had a tea part in the toilet while hoping to catch a ride with some of the campers fleeing the snow. But as car campers they were decidedly not lightweight and had full cars. In the end we had to pay a ridiculous price to get a shuttle, but at least that way we were able to go into Independence to pick up packages & then to Lone Pine where were stayed at the Dow Villa.

Lone Pine & environs is where many old Western Films were shot. It even has a saloon with swinging doors! The next day (Day 70) was gorgeous and we lounged about by the pool & hot tub in between doing all the boring logistical things town stops require. We were also surprised to run into Vincent, Indi & BD again… they’d faced a white out in Glen Pass and decided to come back to town till the weather improved.

With the solid deep blue sky above us it was hard to believe the weather would be bad tomorrow so we arranged to get back on the trail on Day 71. Everyone said it was freakishly bad weather for June. But after a massive breakfast at the Alabama Hills Cafe the High Sierras weren’t even visible due to ominous dark clouds.  And after talking to my mom who said there was a Severe Weather Alert for the area, we decided it’d be best to stay in Lone Pine one more day.

We made the most of our second Zero day…. scrambling around Alabama rocks and then drinking cocktails in the hot tub. It’s a hard life being a thru-hiker!

Finding Forester

Day 68 To really wake us up in the morning we had to cross the icy cold waters of Wallace Creek, then cross a massive snowfield of sun cups (where the sun has melted the snow into a dimpled sea of difficult-to-cross ridges of snow) before we began our ascent to Forester Pass, the highest point on the PCT at 13,153 feet. To avoid some icy snow fields we scrambled up big loose boulders to hit the switchbacks. At one point we were scrambling up a vertical wall too far to the right of the switchbacks but thankfully Dan spied the path (which is literally cut into the cliff wall) and after a slippery icy patch we were up and over the cornice to the top of the pass.

Unfortunately we’d been so concerned with getting UP Forester, We hadn’t given much thought to going DOWN. We were on the edge of a spectacular ring of jagged rock edges that looked like dinosaur teeth gnashing at the sky. Below us everything was a smooth white and snow covered. Following footprints (and the map) we contoured round the steep mountain slope down to a rocky ridge past ice-covered turquoise lakes and then the post holing began. Post holing is when you’re feet sink down in the snow, up to your ankles, knees, or even crotch. At first the difficult was amuzing. Adam tried dragging his pack like a sled, Andy had a “skiing” technique. But after a while all humour was lost and we were exhasted. And then it began to snow. And the trail was no where to be seen, even when the snow became patchy.

At last we found the trail and stumbled along the path through evergreens in a steep valley of granite cliffs. We even heard the terrifying rumbling of a rock fall nearby. But at last we made it to camp at Vidette Meadows where we ate and dried our wet feet by a roaring fire. Also camped there was Jean Michel, who’d passed us when we’d done Whitney.

We were in dire need of a zero day (when you hike 0 miles), and thankfully tomorrow we were headed into town to have one.