Get Me Out Of California

Shortly after passing the halfway point, we entered Lassan Volcanic National Park. We hiked a couple short side trails to see Terminal Geyser and Boiling Springs Lake. Then we headed to Drakesbad Resort, where we spent the better part of the day soaking in the pool fed by the hot springs. It was so relaxing! This is also where I got my stove. That's right....I have bought a stove! No more cold soaking. About a week before I bought the stove, I was eating my regular dinner of cold soaked ramen and tuna, when I simply could not stomach another bite. In fact most of my food at that point had become unappealing and slightly revolting to me. Due to the high amount of calories I am burning, I took drastic measures to assure that I would be partaking of a good portion of needed calories. And I haven't regretted it yet...hot meals are amazing!!!! Who knew?!

Terminal Geyser

Boiling Springs Lake

Hot Spring fed pool!!

Northern California has been extremely dusty!

One of our favorite things to do is find lakes to break at and take a dip in!

So hitting Northern California has been like going back to the desert. Just hotter and dustier... It felt like we were somehow transported to a safari.

Breaking at a water cache. So we stopped here for lunch at 12:30....and then didn't leave until 5:30. It was extremely hot out....topping out somewhere in the high 90s. We laid under this tree sweating and whenever we stepped out into the sun (for whatever obscene reason) we immediately sought cover again. We chose to night hike the 13+ miles we had left.

We took a short side trail to see Burney Falls. It was absolutely beautiful! Then we all jumped in...because even though it was ice cold, we had been pouring with sweat the last few days!

Once past Lassan, we could finally see Mount Shasta! It was rather exciting to get a view of a different volcanic mountain. However the excitement has worn off after still being being able to see it a couple hundred miles later. I believe we have gotten views of Shasta from almost every angle! And about the time you think you have actually walked far enough that you should be long past seeing it, you turn a corner and there it sits. No matter how stunning it is, I will be excited to say goodbye to it and be able to stare at another mountain for a few hundred miles. :)

After we passed the town of Mount Shasta, we crushed miles. Our daily average over the last week has been 30 miles! Needless to say Butters, Wild Turkey, and I are whipped! Not only did we do big miles, but we still took plenty of long breaks (our favorite part...😁). This meant that we did a fair bit of night hiking...getting to camp late. We were all ready to get to the Oregon border and then into Ashland where we planned to zero.

After 1500 miles, I decided it was time to retire my shirt...

So then I went thrift shopping for a new one...!

One of the best things about hitching, is that you literally have no idea who will offer up a ride. Thus, you meet some of the most interesting characters doing so. On this occasion we were picked up by an older hippie lady who kindof lived out of her van...? 

Hiker Trash. Yes, we look like and act like bums most of the time. The crazy and cool thing is though that people looking at us would never guess that in real life one is a fireman/emt and one a master's in Biomedical engineering. See on trail, hikers arent just transient people with no aim in life. There are doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, researchers, and social workers all out here to take in an unbelievable experience. We learn from the trail and the people we meet. And yes, we frequently look homeless while on this journey.

Yesterday morning we FINALLY crossed into Oregon!!! After nearly 1700 miles in California and over 3 months, I have never been so ready to bid farwell to a state! It's like a movie that had a lot of good scenes, but just went on too long. Everything needs to have an ending and some sooner than others. 😊

We made it to Callahans late morning where we got the all you can eat spaghetti for $16. We ended up hanging out there for several hours before catching a ride into Ashland. We are staying at a trail angels place tonight and then will be zeroing tomorrow. I seriously can't tell you how excited I am for this zero, or how long I have waited for it!! It's been many a mile since we had a zero and we plan to take every last second of it in!:)

Until Next Time....

Halfway Somewhere

Officially crossed the halfway point this morning!! Mile marker 1325!! I was filled with both great excitement and also sadness. Excitement at the accomplishment, saddened to think that it's almost over. Although I am just reaching halfway in miles, the time it takes me to do the second half will be considerably less. Thinking back to the halfway point on the AT, the time seemed to fly by and before I knew it, it was over. I am not taking a day for granted though, I realize just how special it is that I get to so something like this and I don't know when the next time will be.

Oh, big news...we have finished the Sierras!!!!! So far I am enjoying Northern California. It has been really nice to be able to crush out some miles and I have absolutely loved how I can walk on almost all snow-free trail! Seriously, you have no idea how exciting this is. No more post holding, no more staring at Guthook to try to find where the trail is, noore excessive amounts of time spent "off-roading," no more accidental glissades. Ahhh... We still have only had one day completely snow free, but the days since have been pretty close! Also, now that we are at a lot lower elevation, the temperatures at night have been more reasonable and I am no longer finding myself curled into the fetal position by morning to stay warm. :)

Life on trail is always one adventure after another. Seriously, you never know what the day is going to bring (or the night....) It is probably one of my favorite parts of trail because you can't plan how things will go ahead of time. Because things are never quite as expected. Rather it has taught me how to just go with the flow and take it as it comes.

Take for instance, yesterday.  We had plans of hiking a 31 mile day. It was a typical day to start.  I had everything packed up and started hiking around 7. We had a 8 mile uphill from the start, which was...fun....and we hit the 1300 mile marker just .4 from the top of the mountain. We stopped there for a long break before hiking another 4.5 miles to the next water source, where we planned on taking lunch. At lunch, I pulled out my tortillas, cheese sticks, and summer sausage to make myself my standard lunch wrap. The sausage looked a little funny, so I smelled it and it didn't smell rank....so I tasted it and it wasn't terrible (I mean it wasn't great...) So my thought process was that I should definitely eat all of the summer sausage now, before it gets any worse. After lunch we hiked on and around 7 miles later we came across a road where a couple guys were set up doing trail magic! Stopping to chill, they made us BLT's and served us chips & guac, cookies, donuts, and pop. After sitting there for awhile, we realized that there was no way we were going to be hiking another 12 miles....so we changed the plan to 6 miles and set off.  All was well to start, but for some reason my stomach (which had been feeling slightly off) started to really gurgle and I was so gassy! I soon realized that I was going to need to find a place to use the bathroom. Unfortunately, the area we were hiking through was the WORST! We were hiking along a ridge, and the trees that were around all had their branches high up. So there was really no secluded areas. I kept hiking hoping that I would come across a nice area, but then it hit... and it was all I could do to keep it in as I frantically dropped my pack, grabbed my toilet bag, and dashed off the trail. It was close... After surviving the attack, I gathered myself together and hiked on.  Only to be hit two more times within a mile....once again barely making it off trail to a half way hidden spot. Mostly I was just hoping that nobody would walk by....or if they did, that they wouldn't look around. Finally, I arrived at camp, feeling fully cleansed of any possible item in my body and still slightly nauseous. Upon arriving at camp, the water source we thought was there, turned out to be dry. So two of the guys ended up hiking 3 miles back to get water, arriving back at camp around 10pm. As night set in, there were the deer.....  Seriously, the most aggressive and obnoxious deer I have ever seen! I was awaken out of a deep sleep to a deer standing over me doing something (possibly licking?!) to my legs. I flew straight up out of my bed as the deer slowly trotted off just a little ways. I turned my light on and chucked some rocks at it only to have it look at me like I was an idiot.  And that's how the night went... I would wake up to deer running/walking literally right next to me and I would have to chuck rocks at them to scare them off.  It got to the point where I had my trekking pole ready to go next to me and I was determined to smack the deer so hard the next time one approached me. To my amusement and sanity, I was glad I was not the only one suffering that night.  At some point in the night I saw Avalanche's headlamp go on and soon after I could hear him chasing the deer off into the woods. As it turns out the deer had started chewing on his backpack and then started carrying it off into the woods!! Hahaha

When the mosquitos get bad...

Tinker Knob

I ran into Red Stripe on a section of trail that runs the same as the Tahoe Rim Trail. She was hiking the TRT and had stopped to take a break when I walked up. Upon exchanging hellos, she suddenly said "I know you! Did you hike the AT last year?" As it turns out, we met and summited Katahdin on the same day!! It was so cool running into her and getting to hang out with her for a bit!

A group of day hikers were passing out these bags to us the day before we reached the halfway marker! The cuties were the best! Seriously miss fresh fruit.

When we reached the road to hitch into Chester, there was a group doing trail magic there. They were grilling up burgers with all the fixings, then had potato salad, plums, watermelon, brownies, cookies, chips, lemonade,.....and milkshakes!! That's right...they had brought out a small milkshake machine and a generator to run it. A-MAZING!

We took a short side trip into Yosemite over July 4th. Seeing the Valley in person was incredible!! Pictures seriously don't do the place justice. Tracks & Hubert came up from San Diego to meet us there, bought us pizza, and hung out. We hiked one trail to see a waterfall and then hiked 4 mile trail to get a 360 view of the valley. So cool!!

Yosemite Falls

Half Dome

El Cap in the background

I would write a whole lot more, but it is a painstakingly slow process to post from my phone. I mean...I got miles to make;)

Until next time....