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! 

The three Amigels

I'm not going to make this one as long nor am I going to break down everyday, but I hope you find it interesting. 

I'll pick up where I left off, actually about 10 minutes after I posted my first blog my tent stake ripped out and my tent collapsed with me inside. The wind had to be about 35-40mph it was howling. So after I fixed it and tied out two extra guy lines I tried to fall asleep, except my tent sounded like I was on a sailboat so I ended up collapsing it myself and just connoting camping (sleeping under the stars) on top of it. The next morning I woke up and and got going, I had planned on only doing 13 miles, but when I got there Willie was around and he introduced me to this awesome guy named Dude. Dude is a triple crowner which means he's hiked the Appalachian trail, the continental divide trail, and the pct. He's acrually done the PCT twice before, this is his fifth start. He's about 55 and hilarious. Imagine a real life TheDude  from the Big Lebowski. Anyways they said they were going a few more miles and camping up on Eagle Rock so I decided to join them. It was awesome, this rock looks like a giant eagle with its wings spread and we cowboy camped right between his wings.  

That's what the rock looks like, I wish I had a better picture. Here is one with Tom and willie and how we slept. 

I woke up the next day and had only a 3 mile hike into Warner Springs where I had a resupply package and I was taking the entire day and night off. This town is literally a center for hikers and a post office not much else. The place we were at was great though, run by a bunch old ladies who took care of us like they were our grandmas. There was food to buy and they even drove us to the post office be lounged around all day and i finally had a chance to open up all these blisters and let them dry out. We camped under an oak tree and in the morning we had breakfast and got out of there around 11. 

I met up with a few people who I hadn't seen since mount Laguna, Bentley, Gaven who has now been named camel because he never drinks water, and Julia. Bentley, Camel, and I took off and Julia stayed behind. We were only going to do 14 miles that day, but when we got to where we wanted togo there was no where to camp! We decided to cook dinner there and move on to a trail Angels house 3 more miles down the trail. We were expecting heavy winds and maybe our first rain so we basically ran those last miles. When we got to the house we couldn't believe what we saw. We expected to just be able to camp on there lawn but they had a cabin built just for hikers and a camper as well. The camped was full so we took the cabin. It had army cots so we wouldn't have to sleep on the floor. After settling in for about 5 minutes we heard a loud car horn and a lady showed up at our door saying dinner was ready. We had no idea that was coming! We went into a warm house and had lasagna and BEER! Finally I've been craving a cold one since I've left and it was everything I wanted! We sat around and talked with the trail angel for awhile and then went to bed. The next morning we awoke to another car horn meaning it was food time. This time homemade breakfast burritos and coffee! We each are a few and headed off, my feet weren't feeling too good but after about 20 minutes everything warmed up and I was moving. It usually takes me about 20-30 minutes of hobbling down the trail till my feet are really ready to rock and roll. That takes us to where I am now, mile 144 and in a tent in a boulder field. I'm camping with Bentley, Camel, and Nathan (the one born in Fairfax). The neat thing about me Bentley and camel is that we are all Eagle Scouts. We've decided to call ourselves the 3 Amigels. Too bad camel gets off at mile 210, he's only section hiking. 

Here is all three of us, camel is on the left and Bentley on the right. I guess this post was just as long but I hope you enjoyed reading. Tomorrow we have an 8 miles walk to the Paradise Valley Cafe and then a long hitch into the town of idlewild.

 I forgot to mention I'm having my dad ship me my Nikes to try and see if walking in what my feet are used to being on will make them feel better, they're alright for now but just not great. 

Happy trails everyone,

Nick

First 5 days!

Alright sorry it's taken me so long to post something but I'm finally at a spot that has good enough service. I'll start from the beginning and try not to forget anything. 

Day 1 was rough, I started off around 9am with my adrenaline pumping and start off with a 3mph pace. I caught up with some other hikers and eventually we ran into our first rattlesnake! It was about 4.5 feet long and had to be 5 inches around. It was very aggressive and we stood there waiting for it to move for about 15 minutes. After that I tried to keep up with a guy named Eric, but he was too quick and I eventually fell behind very exhausted and still having 8 miles left to go. I began getting a headache and thought I was becoming dehydrated so I started to chug water which then only left me with about 1.5 liters for the night and the 5 mile hike to the next water source to the next day. Luckily when I finally rolled into camp, extremely sore, a trail angel left about 30 gallons at our site and I was able to fill up. I camped that night with 4 other people, a father and son, Eric from earlier, and a lady section hiking. 

Day two was a much better day. I woke up and started the 5 mile trek uphill to lake Moreno. It went a lot smoother than I expected, the views were incredible. When I got there I filled up my water supply at the ranger station and headig to a designated pct hiker campsite to rest my feet for a bit before I continued. I ended up grabbing a burger from the local store and headed out with the lady from before that is section hiking. The terrain was noticeably different and extremely sandy, almost like walking on a beach. I ended up getting ahead of that lady and descended the moutain and began walking through a gorgeous meadow with oak trees and wild flowers, it looked like something out of a movie. After that I ended up meeting two older guys probably upper 60s, named Al and Richard. I hiked with them for a bit and Al cursed like a sailor and Richard never stopped talking so it made the walk very enjoyable. I ended up passing them and made it to camp in a small meadow about half a mile off trail under 3 large oak trees and by a creek. I thought I was going to have to camp alone for the first time until a guy came by just as I was about to go to bed. Funny enough, he was born and raised in Fairfax. 

Day 3 I began hiking and eventually ran into Al and Richard again. We hiked along for a bit but they ended up getting ahead of me. They're pretty fast for some old guys. Eventually I came off the moutain and into a pine forest, I couldn't believe the change of scenery! It was a super easy walk into the town of Laguna where I resupplied my food at the local shop and rested my feet for about two hours. After that I had a 4 mile walk into the Laguna campground where I split a campsite with 6 other hikers. I finally got to shower and did some laundry in there as well. Two people hiking together we're actually from southern va, one of them just graduated from Virginia tech! 

Day 4 I took my time getting ready and eventually started off around 8. This campground i was at was full of car campers and I love their reaction when they ask where you're going and you say Canada! I got on the trail and eventually caught up to a guy that camped with us. We hiked together for a long time and saw some incredible views that day. Eric came off a side trail and stayed with us the rest of the time. We decided to make it all the way to the next water source so ended up going 21 miles that day. Rolled into camp pretty sore. I slept with an incredible view of the mountains to come the next day. I had to filter a ton of water that night because the next 30 miles are completely dry besides a possible water cache under highway 74. 

This finally brings us up to today. I woke up very stiff from the last day and then realized I had to carry 14 pounds of water. I set off feeling uncomfortable but finally got my stride. I was hiking alone so I decided to play music and that helped so much. It made time and miles go by quick and I eventually reached the highway. I had about a half mile to scrissors crossing when we go under the highway and had service so I finally got a chance to call my sister and see how she's doing on her hike! Basically, she's kicking ass. I got to the bridge to find some new faces and some familiar ones. Eric was there, and a brother and sister out section hiking were too. The were incredibly nice and gave me a big piece of summer sausage and a baby bell cheese, it was incredible. I stayed for about an hour before decided to head back up into to mountains. The cool thing about being in the desert is that you can see the trail carved into the hills for miles. Unfortunately, it was uphil for a long time and also the hottest part of the day. I took off and behind my climb. After about 2 miles of switch backs it leveled off for the rest of the time. I planned on doing only 17 miles that day but when I got to where I thought I was going to camp, I didn't see any good spots so I kept going and ran into a dude named Willie. We hiked together and I ended up going another 20 miles that day total and ended up where I am now typing this at mile 88. Tomorrow should be an easy day for me as I only plan on hiking till I hit mile 100. That'll make Monday and easy day into my next town where they have showers, food, and laundry! 

Thanks for reading and sorry it took so long to post! Happy Easter everyone! I actually forgot that it was tomorrow until my mom told me on the phone today. 

You can just barely make out my tent. This is where I am tonight to super windy hope I don't blow away!