One Week of Trail Livin’
Well folks, it's been one week since that fateful morning at the Campo terminus where we put one foot in front of the other and headed north. I can hardly believe it. There was just no way to know what I was getting myself into when I signed up for an adventure like this. This is true both for the moments that are better than I ever could've imagined and also true for the moments that are more challenging than I could've anticipated. It's all right there - the good, the bad, and the blisters.
Our stats:
We've hiked 78 miles!
My fundraiser has raised $2,055 before all donations will be matched by Easy’s family! I'm so amazed by everyone's generosity and support! Folks from every corner of my life are coming out to support The Breathe Network. It's incredible. ❤️
We have 2 blisters among us (both already healing, yahoo!)
We've made 7 new trail buddies
Here is a breakdown of our last week. I made it a practice to write a few notes in my phone each night in the tent so I could remember all of the wonderful and wacky happenings. No guarantees that I'll be able to be this meticulous going forward but I've enjoyed the process of re-capping each day.
The night before Day 1
We took the train from Santa Monica to LA and then another train to San Diego. Then we hopped on the 105 bus to PCT Trail Angels Scout and Frodo's house. I'll never forget the voice on the bus when a rider pulled the cord to indicate their stop. It said in a loud and monotone voice what sounded like "stop requeshted." Now that's become our code phrase when we need water, food, or a break on the trail!
We arrived to Scout and Frodo's house a bit late, but in Scout's own words, "just in time for dinner!" He greeted us with a warm smile and a fun black and purple Hawaiian shirt. Easy had met them before - they are both incredibly generous and knowledgeable hosts.
We made our way to a big tent in their yard with 4 other hikers and tried our best to sleep! We realized updated unpacking that my headlamp never made it out of Easy’s buddy's house in Santa Monica. An unfortunate miss-step, but one we could certainly overcome.
Day 1
Loooong first day. Whoa. We hiked almost 12 miles (although my Fitbit says 15 - I think it's counting every single step as the same size pace when in all honesty many of the steps are smaller since so much of the trail is rocky). The day was super hot and most of the trail was unshaded. I will admit that during those scorching hot sections I was wondering was in the H-E-double hockey sticks Easy had gotten me into.
I was feeling lots of pain in my right pinky toe and left hip. I also had a sore back from a pretty heavy pack.
Wildlife Report: Just before Mile 10, I decided to give our battery-powered radio a try. It seemed like the perfect distraction from the heat and the pinky toe pain. Of course with only one earbud in so I could remain alert. Not even four 80's hit songs in, we came across a swarm of bees that tried to sting Easy’s hat and trekking poles (luckily they didn't get him)! And within 10 steps of the bees, we heard the rattle of a rattlesnake. We never saw it, but we sure sped up quickly down the trail. I thought I was sweating a lot before Mile 10, but the bees and snake really amped up my anxiety and sweat levels. Sheesh!
It isn't even 7:30pm yet and it feels like midnight. I slept horribly at Scout and Frodo's last night... maybe 2 hours. After lunch, feeling tired + the heat + the pain really caught up with me.
Day 2
Easy says we hiked 8.5 miles, I say 10, Fitbit says 13.
We camped near Barb and John from Seattle and Wesley from Europe. It was nice to have a little mini-community on our first night.
We made the descent into Hauser Creek, then had a big climb in the sizzling heat up a mountain, then came down into Lake Morena campground.
We got bacon cheeseburgers and fries at the local deli and the kind cashier said a couple of times "you can do it" when we talked about completing the full trip from Mexico to Canada.
At one point while we were eating, a young local zoomed up on his motorbike to have a soda and a burger and said he'd like to hike the PCT someday. He didn't realize the trail went all the way to Canada. The look on his face when we told him might've indicated that he might not be as interested.
We camped at the Lake Moreno campground where 75 cents bought me 6 minutes in the campground shower. Totally fine when you have no soap, shampoo or conditioner on hand!
Day 3
16 miles!
Up at 5am. I was cranky at first but then Easy made coffee. Usually I like cream but some coffee was absolutely better than no coffee. We motored for 8.5 miles before 11am through a beautiful stretch of trail with two small water crossings.
We met "Snowshoe"/Tim from near Sacramento and were leap-froggin with him most of the day.
We ran into Barb and John near a creek. Unfortunately, Barb's feet were hurting pretty bad. At this same stop I realized that I had the beginning of a small blister on my left pinky but it was small and not very painful.
We also met Valentine, a photographer from Belgium, who took our picture and wrote down our names. She asked me for one sentence to sum up the trip but I couldn't come up with anything insightful. Maybe next time we run into her down the trail...
Today was tough but we kept going despite heat and switchbacks. I have a feeling my shoes are too small and that if I keep going with these I'll lose both of my pinky toes. Yikes!
Wildlife Report: Saw 10-12 nudists on the climb just before Fred Canyon. The brim of my hat blocked all of their faces but I did catch a lot of unintended weenie peeks. There was one woman. We certainly weren't expecting that view today! It was fun to ask the PCT hikers that we ran into later that day if they too saw the nudies.
We set up camp at Mile 36 near an old oak tree with one other couple, two older guys, Valentine and her friend with some weird foot problem, and then outta nowhere Snowshoe showed up. It's so great to see someone who wasn't sure if they could keep going show up at camp with a smile (and possibly a limp).
We realized today that my hiking peak is in the morning and Easy’s is in the afternoon. I could've really let 'er rip this morning but we didn't want to get out of each other's sight.
I still have the same cough I've had since Scout and Frodo's. It's really dry and hurts when I cough. It seems to be worse at night when I lay down in the tent. I don't love feeling like I'm waking nearby campers up with my cough. We'll need to buy cough drops in Mt. Laguna.
Day 4
We woke up at 5am, left at 6am. We hiked about 7 miles through magical mist and fog and got into Mt. Laguna about 9am.
We secured the last cabin at the General Store (#13 for $113)! The best part was that I scored the room while someone else was on the phone with the lodge trying to make a reservation!
Mike from the mountaineering shop joked that "No Reservation" would be a good Trail name for me.
We went to Blue Jay Lodge for breakfast, they wanted us to leave our packs outside. I understand that it's probably a sanitary or spatial issue, but it didn't feel great. Some of the Mt. Laguna business owners seem annoyed (or perhaps overwhelmed?) by PCT hikers. I must say it's a surprising approach to customer service. I'm certain that they could make a ton of money if they were slightly warmer to hikers. It must be due to the seasonality of the PCT and the huge volume of hikers coming through in the spring and summer.
We bought me some new Altra trail shoes - they run small so I got a 10.5, whoa nelly! Normally I wear an 8.5 or 9 so this was a bit unsettling. Easy says the trail makes your feet flatten out and grow... not exactly what I'm hoping for, but an okay tradeoff for a big adventure. We watched a "Say Yes to the Dress" rerun marathon in the cabin and caught up on social media. Felt nice to be "plugged in" again! We went to a local cafe for dinner and ate some big meals. We experienced bizarre service again here, but the upside was that there was an awesome local bluegrass band playing that night! It was so fun to see other hikers show up at thand restaurant. Barb and John popped in for dinner too!
Day 5
15 miles!
We woke up and got organized at the cabin. Shortly after our start, we ran into Snowshoe. He was happy to have also found a cabin and a hearty breakfast in Mount Laguna. We leap frogged a bit with him all day.
About five miles in, we rant into a huge Trail angel setup. These are folks who voluntarily help out hikers out of the goodness of their own hearts.
This huge group offered us grilled cheese, fresh strawberries, tacos, burgers, soda, desserts (both baked and frozen). We took them up on some soda, grilled cheeses, fruit and coconut balls. To be honest, they seemed like good looking evangelicals till I realized they had booze and a fella on the couch shouted "we got weed!"
We hiked near a big group for a while, but passed 'em near Mile 50. We hiked with Snowshoe and a couple from Washington for a while.
We found a great campsite by a little creek for the night. We were talking about trail names and Snowshoe said I should be something fun like "Sunshine" or "BeBop." He suggested Sunshine because He said I "brighten everything up." I told him that I really do go by "Stacy Raye of Sunshine" in real life. He was amazed at the coincidence , it was very nice. Easy didn't consider Snowshoe's suggestion to be a legitimate trail name since there wasn't a story that catalysts the name. I must admit that I'd love "Sunshine" as a trail name but I also don't want to be the type of PCT hiker that makes up their own trail name. It's important to earn that trail cred!
The creek flowing next to us is very peaceful. The downside is that it makes you need to pee. Not as cozy as staying in the sleeping bag and tent.
Day 6
Today was the hardest and longest day so far. We hiked 20 miles - this is by far the most I've ever hiked in one day.
I slept horribly last night. The sweet little campsite by the creek turned into a wildlife horror movie for me. I was certain there was a mountain lion slurping water from the creek and sniffing around our tent. I kept seeing weird shadows too. In hindsight, I realize this isn't very likely, but I went into non-logical anxiety attack mode. When I woke Easy up and he stuck his head out of the tent to see if there were any critters, I was worried that his head would get ferociously decapitated. Of course he didn't see anything and he popped his head back into the tent fully attached.
Today's hike was very hot and painful for me. A couple hours into our day, I realized that my legs had turned to stone. This was likely because I hadn't been drinking enough water in the last 24 hours. The pain was so bad that I started to cry as we made our way through the desert. Succumbing to tears was not great for a few reasons: 1) I felt like a major wimp to be crying on Day 6 of this 5-6 month trip; 2) The sunscreen started to get into my eyes, which made trying my best to look out for rattlesnakes pretty challenging. 3) Easy (half-jokingly) mentioned that crying dehydrates you. Not exactly what I was hoping to hear but I could laugh about it later in the day. That's another thing about hiking - I find myself going through a roller coaster of almost every emotion each day. Feelings seem very concentrated.
At our lunch break, I asked Easy to give me a mini back rub and his instinct was to pat my back like he was burping a baby. It made me laugh, which in turn inspired a more gentle touch from my sweetheart. Maybe all I really needed was to laugh anyway. I'm getting better at asking for exactly what I need from Easy instead of hoping he'll guess. I know it can be tough to determine how to help someone who is in a lot of pain.
When I realized we had cell service at lunch, I decided to employ my "phone-a-friend" option and called my best friend Sarah B. I immediately felt better to hear her voice and get an update on her life. She's someone I can say absolutely anything to. Nothing shocks this gal, thank goodness! It was fun to say hi to other KDUR radio folks that were near Sarah B when I called (especially one of my favorites Nancy)! When I told them I had "statue legs," Nancy had the perfect line to make me laugh: "Well Stacy, you've always been so statuesque!"
Snowshoe's electrolyte pills, Easy’s steady support, Sarah B's voice, the support of so many of my loving friends (via social media posts and likes and comments and donations... so generous!) and the stunning desert cactus blooms got me through this tough day. I went from struggling to strong in 20 miles.
Day 7
Zero miles! We hitched a ride into the charming little town of Julian, CA. This kind of reminded me of a Colorado mountain town with tourist shops and one Main Street.
We got a perfect little room at the Julian Hotel and had lunch at the Miner's Diner while Patsy Cline serenaded us.
It was fun to run into other hikers throughout the day. We had picked up our "bounce box" at the Julian post office so we were able to change into our fresh town clothes. We weren't sure if the other hikers would even recognize us. We looked so dapper!
We learned today that Barb (of Barb and John from Seattle) broke her ankle. We both felt sad for them and all of the pain and disappointment of not being able to continue the hike. There are so many huge steps and decisions that happen in preparation for a big adventure like this. We also felt sad that we wouldn't get to see their warm and bright smiles further down the trail. An injury like that could happen to any of us at any time. Every moment we get to be here is one to be grateful for. Even the hard moments.
A ribeye steak (with a dinner and a claw foot bath tub made for a perfect town evening. It's a real treat to get to relax and replenish!
