All done!

I can't believe I'm finally writing this post. I remember in the beginning wondering what it would be like and what I would be feeling once I'm all done. I'm currently sitting in my friends apartment in Seattle watching tv; basically as far away from backpacking as possible. This post will probably be very long, but it'll be the last post of this trip. I'll sum up the whole thing and finally explain my reasons for why i decided to hike the PCT in the first place. 

The end of the hike was not anything like I had expected. It felt very rushed. All these fires popped up out of nowhere and by the time we settled on one plan another fire would pop up and something would have to change. Basically the PCTA closed the trail down for about 50 miles and gave us a 97 mile road walk instead. We decided to just do it and by the time we got 40 miles into it we found out there was another fire and even more trail was closed. This bumped the road walk up to around 130 miles. This only left 30 miles of trail left open for us and we were worried they would close that last 30 and we would be unable to finish. So after walking 50 miles of road we hitched to the last road on the pct, Harts Pass. It was very eary feeling. They had been evacuating all hikers south of Harts, but luckily we got to go through northbound. They ended up closing north of Harts Pass the morning we finish, so we got through just in time. That second to last day we got stormed on and it rained al night. The next day it was a weird feeling knowing it was the last day on the trail. Unfortunately we were fogged out and did not have any good views all day. We finished our last climb and started our final 6 mile decent down to the northern terminus. We wound ourselves down long switchbacks and at the last tenth of a mile we could see the cut in the trees that divided the U.S. from Canada. 

We rounded the last turn and there it was, Canada. It was such an odd feeing to be seeing that statue. I remember watching videos and seeing pictures of it and now I'm actually there! It was just an overwhelming feeling of accomplishment. It was also a bit sad knowing it was over. 

I finished with Ice Cream and Redbass. I had met Red Bass on day one and we have been hiking together for around 1700 miles. Ice Cream and I have been continuously hiking together for 2200 miles. We became extremely close and the best of friends, and she will definitely be the person I miss the most; you get to know someone pretty well when you walk and talk with each other 24/7 for 3 months. 

I know I've made some friends for life and this trip would not have been the same without them. Who knows maybe we will do another thru hike together...

Afte we had lunch and took dozens of pictures at the terminus we signed the log book and had to head off and do another 8 miles into Canada to get to civilization.

It poured on us the whole time and the trail was shitty but I don't think any of us cared. We finally got to Manning Park and got a room. Ice Creams parents were driving up and meeting us the next day to take us back into the states. When they arrived they brought a scale (my request) and champagne! I lost 51.5 pounds, from 220 to 168.5.

This pretty much brings us up to where I am now, hanging out in Seattle until my flight into Dulles on the 25th. 

The second part of this post I want to talk about my take away from it all and just explain why I did this trip. When I first told people about my hike everyone asked why. My generic answer was I just graduated college and had some free time, but that's only a tiny part of the truth. There's actually 4 reasons I hiked the trail and I didn't realize them all till I was part way into the trip. Reason 1 was because in 2013, when I first decided to hike, I had just gone through a break up and my original plans to move somewhere post college were no longer there, so I had the time and no tie downs and could do some big trip. Reason 2 was because of my dad. He had thru hiked the Appalachian trail in 1981 so I've always known what thru hiking was and I loved hearing about his stories growing up. Here's my dad at the end of his hike

I used to brag to my friends in Boy Scouts about what he had done and I think that might be the thing I'm most proud of him for. Also, my dad and I werent as close as I would like. All we would really talk about before this was either school, work, or finances. I really liked that this brought us closer together and it was truly something we could bond over. Reason 3 was the stories and adventure. As I mentioned previously, I loved hearing my dads stories and I wanted that for when I have kids. I met some absolutely incredible people on this trip and had some amazing times that I know for a fact I will never forget. I met people from Ivy League graduates, political consultants, owners of companies, to people that go from job to job just to save up enough to hike the next trail. The people, the stories they tell, and the stories we made are what made this trip memorable. Reason 4 and the last reason was the personal development and challenge this adventure was. As most people know, I love goal setting. I set tons of goals from tiny ones throughout the day to huge goals for my life. This trail became one of my dreams and goals to accomplish and I knew that the feeling of finishing would be a euphoric experience. The best part about setting goals is the feeling of accomplishing them. It was absolutely incredible walking into Canada knowing I had walked FROM MEXICO! It's just crazy to think that. I had some rough times on the trail, I had to push myself pretty hard, but I loved it. I loved being brought down physically with all the blisters in the beginning and overcoming that and being able to do 30 miles in a day without question. From walking in the first day after 15 miles basically crawling to having my longest day of 41 miles and feeling great afterwards. 

This trip taught me a lot about myself and just about people. It was truly a life changing experience and even though I pushed towards the end to finish because I was tired of it, I already miss the trail. The trail becomes your home, it's where you feel safe, believe it or not. I remember those last days hitching up to Harts I felt super uncomfortable moving in a car at 70mph. You can see my face in this picture, I was not happy about this whole hitching situation. 

All I wanted to do was be back on the PCT, where I was free and home. One thing the trail definitely showed me was how badly I want to be a successful strength coach. Ice Cream has heard me rant, more than a few times, about how badly I want to get back to training people. I missed lifting and coaching so much while I was gone. I'm 100% certain that training is what I'm here on this earth to do and I'm going to strive to be the greatest coach I can possibly be. I can't wait to get back to work and my own personal lifting. I'm starting a new chapter of my life. I'm moving down to Blacksburg, Va to live with a few friends and will be, hopefully, working at a facility in Roanoke (interview is coming up). 

I'm going to try and wrap this all up now, if you're still reading thank you. Overall this trip was 100% positive. I know during it all I wanted to do was be done with it, but I already miss the trail so much. Sure, I love not filtering water and having a toilet to use, but there's just something about putting yourself in a difficult situation and overcoming it. I challenge everyone to find some way in their life to challenge them. It doesn't have to be a thru hike or anything related to it, just find some way to push yourself. To bring yourself down so you have the opportunity to overcome. I told my mom I would never do a long distance hike again, but now I'm not sure. Maybe the AT in a few years and then finish up with the continental divide a while from now. All I know for sure is that I will never forget my time on the PCT nor the people; it will always be home for me. For now, life is about getting back to work and being a coach, but the lessons I've learned will forever be remember and I'll use them to push people. I just can't wait for the next adventure. 

Thank you for reading this blog and all of my blogs along my journey. It's been an awesome time reading everyone's comments and support and I couldn't have done this without knowing everyone was behind me. 

Happy trails everyone, 

Thunder Thighs 

Two Down, One to Go

I can't believe Oregon is over. I've walked 2,155 miles and completed two of the three states. The section since my last blog was pretty awesome.

Hiking through the Three Sisters Wilderness was probably one of my favorite parts of the entire trail so far, but after that section was over, the trail turned into a sea of lava rocks. It was the worst part of the trail. It looked and felt like you were literally walking through Hell.

We knew that the Timberine Lodge had an incredible breakfast buffet so we pushed hard to get into there for it. We did our longest day of 41 miles. We didn't really need to do that big of a day, but me and Ice Cream always joked about doing a 40 and this was probably our last possible opportunity to do it. Overall, it felt pretty good except the last mile was uphill through sand that was as thick as a beach. Of course the last mile of our longest day was the hardest. This lodge was built in the 1930's as a way of creating some jobs during the depression and is a beautiful ski lodge right on Mt. Hood. 

My mom flew out from Virginia to come hike with my for a day and do an overnight. We hiked the Eagle Creek trail, which is a 15.5 mile alternate that nearly ever thru hiker does because it is incredibly gorgeous. You walk along Eagle Creek and see multiple waterfalls. You even walk behind one of them. 

We did the whole trail in one day and ended up in the town of Cascade Lockes.

This town is right on the Columbia River which seperates Oregon from Washington. We stayed at a trail angels house; his name was Shrek. 

My mom survived the night (it was her first time sleeping in a tent). The next day my uncle, who's from Portland, came and picked us up. Before we headed into the city we all walked across the Bridge of the Gods. This is the official PCT and the way into Washington. 

It felt incredible crossing over into the last state. I only have 509 miles to go, and I will definitely be done by mid August. My plane ticket is booked for the 25th and it looks like I'll have quite a few days to hang around in Seattle. I have mixed feelings going into Washington. On one hand I can not wait to finish the trail and get back to my life, but on the other hand it's going to be extremely sad to say it's over. I've met some incredible people and have done things I never thought I would do. 

I've taken 3 days off in Portland and I'm pretty sure I've gained back at least 20lbs; my mom has made sure to feed me well. Tomorrow I start hiking again and start the final stage of my PCT adventure. 

Getting Close

I know it's been a long time since I've posted a blog, but I've just been completely consumed by what I'm doing. Currently I'm writing this blog sitting by Odell Lake. I'm at Shelter Cove Resort and have been here for two days waiting for my resupply package to come.

If I wasn't ahead of schedule I would've just left and bought snack foods out of the store, but I have time to kill. I'm at mile 1912 with only about 750 miles to go. The end is somewhat in sight and it's all I can think about. Oregon is pretty gorgeous, though it's been rainy basically everyday we have been in the state. The Mosquitos are vicious and I probably have around 100 bites over my legs and arms. My group and I went really fast through Northern California because we had various people to meet in Oregon and thought we needed to speed up, but we ended up over shooting it and now we are all ahead of schedule and needed to slow down. We were averaging somewhere between 28-30 miles a day and now we do just around 25. Since I had to wait around here for my package, my two friends, Ice Cream and Red Bass, headed out yesterday without me. This is the first time we have been seperated in nearly 1500 miles.

Hopefully, I should be catching up with them this coming weekend. Next weekend my mother is coming to do an overnight with me and walk across the Bridge of the Gods into Washington. I'll then take two whole days off with my mom and uncle who lives in Portland. I'll finally get my tooth fixed! Overall I'm getting ready to be done. My motivation to finish is at an all time high and I'm loving being out here, but I'm ready to get back to lifting and training. That's what I miss most besides my friends and family is the ability to train whenever and whatever  I want. Thanks for reading and I'll hopefully post another blog when I have just one state left!!

1094.5 done, 1555.5 to go!

I'm sitting in an awesome hostel called the Mellow Mountain Hostel in South Lake Tahoe. It was started by two buddies that are only a few years older than me. We've hiked 1094.5 consecutive miles. The sierras are almost over and we will be going back to big mile days. Hopefully averaging 22-28 miles a day. I can't wait to be out of California and into Oregon. My goal is to be done with California by the end of June. Everything has been going pretty well over all nothing too exciting happened in this last section from Mammoth. When we came into Sonora Pass we saw people skiing down the mountain.

When we got to the bottom we talked with the skiers and one guy was a pro who skied for Atomic. He drove us into the town of North Kennedy Meadows (if you saw Wild, this was the Kennedy Meadows they showed). He also made us turkey sandwiches, hung out with us for a few hours, and then drove us back to the trailhead. At Carson Pass the two nice older gentlemen at the visitor center gave us cookies, apples, and carrots. Here's a picture of our group at Carson Pass. 

We are starting to see all the people that skipped up ahead of the snow and are now south bounding back to Independance or Lone Pine. We are also seeing a lot more day hikers because the summer is kicking off. It's so exciting to see new people on the trail! I love talking with day hikers and weekenders. The terrain is definitely changing and the trail is gettin really rocky. The Tahoe Rim Trrail follows the PCT for the next couple miles. Luckily we can finally send our bear cans home! The Mosquitos are starting to get bad, I got bit up in northern Yosemite; I must've had 25 on my arm at one time. 

That's pretty much all the exciting things  I can think of that happened! I'm really ready to up the miles and start cruising again. Thanks for reading and I'll try and post some pictures! -Thunder Thighs 

Do you even Sierras bro?

Finally out of the desert! I'm currently sitting in a hotel room in the town of Independance, California. I'm around PCT mile 789. It's been awhile since I've made a blogpost, so I'll try and remember everything that has happened. 

Leaving Wrightwood, me and Mista Blista split off from each other. I met up with Flying Fish and Icecream. We stayed together till Agua Dulce and then me and Icecream continued on as Flying Fish stayed behind for a day. From there we hiked on into the trail angels house called Casa de Luna. This place was great, hikers just lounging around and the only rule is that you have to wear a hawaiin shirt. They had two huge racks to choose from. 

Theres a picture from their house. From there, me and Icecream did a 21 mile roadwalk to Hikertown. This place looks like it was out of a western movie. All the buildings had a fake front that looked like a movie set. We only stayed there for a few hours to eat some dinner and continues on to night hike for a few hours across the LA aqueduct. 

The next day was incredibly boring with an all day walk across a long, flat, and boring piece of concrete. Luckily there were clouds out so it wasn't too hot. 

This brought us to the town of Tehachapi. The local airport opened up their pilots lounge to hikers. It was great, couches and tv for 5 bucks. We zeroed there and by the time we left, there was probably 15 hikers there. This was the last stop before Kennedy Meadows (KM) which marks the end of the desert and the beginning of the section that made me want to do the trail in the first place. It was 6 days from tehachapi to KM, and the driest section as well. Packs were really heavy starting off. Icecream and I met up with Squeeze, Par 3, Redwood, and Little Spoon. We did some big miles in this section, with out longest day being 27 miles! I never would've thought a stocky bodybuilder like me would be walking over a marathon a day. That same day we did 27 was the day we saw a bear. This was my first bear encounter ever, I came around a corner and there was a giant brown gorgeous lookin bear looking right at me. I believe my exact words were, "Bear, bear, that's, thats a bear." The bear took off up the hill and I backed off a bit. I have to admit, I cowardly asked Icecream to go first, she's had bear encounter experience. So we walked on by with this bear staring us down as we crept on by. That was the end of the excitement for that day. The next day it started snowing on us as we arrived into camp, but we were only one day away from Kennedy Meadows. I've had getting to there as a big goal in my mind since the beginning. We flew into KM doing 21 miles by 2pm with snow on the ground. 

Kennedy Meadows was great, it's literally in the middle of nowhere with no cell service and no electricity in the town. I had to use a pay phone to call my mom on Mother's Day. Everyone had either a generator or a personal windmill in their yard. The sign says there are 200 people in the town, but after talking to the owner of the general store, there is really only like 35 full time residents.

All the hikers camp in the back of the General store. We walked up and there are just hikers hanging out drinking beer and lounging around. Inside there are more people hanging out around a wood stove. 

This is where everyone gets their gear for the Sierra section. Everybody got their bear canisters and some got ice axes and crampons. All night, everyone just hung around a campfire and talked. It was nice to see people I hadn't seen since the beginning of the trip. 

We zeroed there staying in a huge teepee.

When we finally got going you could tell the desert was over! 

I decided to push hard coming out of KM to catch up with the people I wanted to
hike with that left the day before. I finally caught them after doing a 20 and 25 mile day. Icecream and I finally split from each other after hiking together for about 2 weeks. I wanted to hike Mt. Whitney and she had already done it. I met up with Mr. White and Red Bass who I hadn't hiked with since day 4 of the trip. 

They had already started the day hike up Mt. Whitney when I got to the base. Whitney is the highest mountain in the continents US at 14,508ft. It was a hell of a climb through ice, snow, and wind. The altitude gave me a headache and made me nauseous. I finally got to the top after about 5 hours and it was incredible. 

I only stayed up there for 20 minutes and started my climb down, it went incredibly faster. The next day we carried on to Forrester Pass which is the highest point on the PCT. Whitney is just a side trip most hikers do. Forrester was intense, it was uphill snow fields for miles until you start the real climb. About 20 feet from the top, it was covered by ice and we couldn't get over the actual trail. Red Bass and Mr. White put on their crampons and grabbed their ice axes. I literally climbed up and over the icy rocks to get through the pass. We finally all got over. 

Climbing down wasn't too easy. The trial was completely covered with snow so we had to make our own, basically straight down the mountain. 

We finally got down and the snow had started to fall even more. It has been snowing since 6:30am. We ended up hiking 23 miles in order to make the next day into town easier. It snow on is all night and we had about 6 inches around our tents the next morning. That brings us to today, we had 7.5 miles up and over Kearsarge pass. It was a gorgeous hike this morning, it literally looked like I was walkin through a painting. 

I was the first on the trail and trudged the path through the snow. The view from the top was incredible. 

We got to the campground at the other side and called the hotel we are staying at for a ride. That finally brings us up to where I am now. I'll try and post more often, but I've been so consumed with takin everything and everyone in. I finally feel like I'm in the groove of things and it's awesome. My life is just wake up and walk and I can't believe it. 

Halfway Done With the Desert

This'll be a short piece, nothing super exciting happened over the past 105 miles since Big Bear. I'm currently in Wrightwood, mile 369.5 and heading off in the morning. 

The past week since leaving big bear went by really quickly. I hiked and camped with a guy named Jake aka "Mista Blista" the entire time. We stopped at a "clothing optional" natural hot spring along the way and hung out there for about 4 hours. It was ok, a lot of kids were there doing various substances and just being a bit trashy overall. About 2 miles later I almost stepped on another rattle snake and fell over because I tried to stop quickly while going downhill. I ended up falling down right in front of the snake and lost my 2 liter water bag that was strapped to the back of my pack, oh well. Nothing too exciting happened in this section, we went into Cajon Pass and stopped by the McDonald's in town.

We did 13.5 miles that day in under 4 hours! The next day we did 23 miles to bring us into Wrightwood. It was mostly uphill and it started hailing on us when we got to around 8000 feet. I hitched a ride alone with a nice old man and rode in the back of his beat up Toyota pick up. I ended up leaving my trekking poles in the back of his car; realizing this about 30 minutes later, I bought a new pair from the local shop and as I'm walking out of the store there's the guy holding my poles. It's amazing how nice people are. We took a zero here in Wrightwood and spent the day watching crappy tv and eating food. Tomorrow we are summiting Mt. Baden Powell; if you don't know Baden Powell was the creator of Boy Scouts. Considering I'm an Eagle Scout, I'm pretty excited for it even though it's supposed to be a bitch of a climb. We are shooting for 26 miles tomorrow, but we'll see if that actually happens. Anyways, that's about all I have to report, thanks for reading! 

Thunder Thighs

I Well, I'm at mile 275 for the night, I spent last night at a hostel in big bear lake. The days leading up to going into town were rough. I'm not going to start from where my last blog left off because I'm losing track of the days to be honest. Everything is a mile number now, not a day of the week. 

I took a zero in iddylwild and coming out of there was brutal. 13 miles basically straight up and we got too around 8900 feet! The next day was straight down, except not really. It was 15 miles of switchbacks and trail that was extremely overgrown. It was frustratingly slow to go down, even though I went quickly, you could see the road we were trying to get too all day which drove me crazy. When we finally got to the bottom, around noon we sat around for about 2 hours in a tiny bit of shade. I had been hiking with two guys, Michael and Chewey. We finally mustered up the effort and got on with the last 5 miles of our day into a trail Angels place called Ziggy and the Bears.Those 5 miles were brutal, extremely hot with zero shade cover and we hauled ass. I ended up getting a little dizzy towards the end, but we luckily got to an interstate overpass and there was trail magic. Soda, beer, and fruit! Ziggy and the Bears was pretty nice, they carpeted the entire backyard for hikers and there was places for us to chill, do laundry, shower and just recharge. Just as we were about to go to sleep a camel spider crawled over Gavin's face. That blew any chance of us having a good nights sleep. The next day I headed out alone around 9 and it was already 85 degrees. I had a terrible day hiking. I felt like I couldn't breathe and I was gaining in elevation. The hills looked relatively level but it kept climbing and climbing. I didn't realize till a day later that I was taking way too much ibuprofen which was thining my blood plus going up to 8600 feet or so. I did 18 miles that day, but it took me forever. The next day I took the same amount of ibuprofen and had just as terrible of a time but only did 10 miles. A guy named Tucker caught up with me and helped me realize it was ok to only do a few miles if that's what you're feeling. I was feeling guilty for only doing 10, but after talking about it and seeing who I would get to hang out with it made it worth it. I camped that night with Chewey, Tucker, Emma and George, Gavin, and Jake. Gavin and Jake came in late around 8pm. They told us when they left Ziggy and the Bears the day before there was 3 guys shooting guns parallel to the trail, even when they asked them to cease fire while they walked through they kept shooting. Gavin tried called 911 but the connection was terrible. Apparently a little while later a sherif came by and arrested the guys luckily no one was hit. The next day I didn't take any ibuprofen and felt 1000000 times better. I actually led the group most of the day. I stopped for lunch at a water cache and about a mile after that there was a giant dumpster painted with the words magic on it and a couch. Chewey, Tucker, and George had already taken their seats and I cracked a cold soda.

I had been talking about and craving a soda all day. We all had a massive sugar high after that and basically ran the last 3 miles into camp. The next day I got up and didn't stop walking until I got to the road into big bear lake. I got picked up by Bently and he took me to the hostel. I had never stayed in a hostel before but it was nice. Atleast for hikers, I could never see my mother staying in one, but it was perfect for us and the owner "Sarge" as we called him was super chill. We all hung around and resupplied and had a few beers. That brings us up to today. We got up and got a ride from Gavin back to the PCT. Hes done hiking now, he was just doing a section as I mentioned earlier. It was an easy but boring 9 miles to camp today. My pack weighs a ton because I have 6 days of food till my next town. I'll have to start averaging some 20 miles days this week. I also upped the amount of food I'm eating, I got to weigh myself at the hostel and am already back down to around 200lbs. I started the hike at around 218. So now it's two dinners everynight and a lot more snacks during the day. If you haven't realized from the title I have gotten my trail name. I'm now known as Thunder Thighs. Thanks for reading!