Monday, July 23, 2012

#24 Hike the Pacific Crest Trail...by Juli

              



The Pacific Crest Trail is a 2,650 mile trek from the Mexican to Canadian border crossing California, Oregon and Washington. It takes approximately 7 months to backpack the entire diverse trail if you are keen on having a lot of alone time and don't mind the smell of your own funk. Well, I am happy to say that I have officially completed 8.4 miles, only 2,641.6 to go. The hubs and I started off with a map clenched in our first as we proudly hit the dust with the utmost confidence. That was all until about five minutes later, when we ran into backpacker who was giddy with excitement at the sight of the first humans he had seen in a few days. He then proceeded to tell us that he just saw a baby bear a little ways up the trail. Oh. You mean the kind of baby bear that has a ferociously over protective mama bear at it's heels?  Oh yes, that kind of bear. From that point on we let the music blast from the iphone while the Hubster had a curveball grip on his weapon of choice...a rock.

Now here's the thing about the trail, there is no GPS signal...you are a map reader. I will admit, we really do lack in our topography skills, and had major doubts that we were even on the right trail, but soon enough we realized we were on the right track and were making incredible time. We goofed off in a meadow exploring shiny things that caught our eye, but little did we know that our frolicking was the start of a major detour off the trail. Looking back at the map, we see clearly where we faltered, but at the moment of intense heat with massive horse flies swarming your head you make decisions that make you look like complete morons. Lets just say that at multiple forks in the road we tried all of our options until we ended back in the exact same spot 4 miles and 2 hours later. We literally walked in circles making me verbally panic {putting it nicely} - a sure sign of hunger and dehydration setting in on this blood-sugar-mood-sensitive gal. In the end we reached our destination {Lookout Rock} and just took in the sights being thankfully we survived without being killed either by a bear or each other.
look at the hubs. now look to the left of him.
that is the trail we couldn't find for 2 hours.  

Ironically at the spot we continually got lost at, the hubs
found two hideous gray hairs.brought me straight back
to the reality of my list...30 before 30. yuck.
This adventure has just begun and I hope to chip away at the trail over my lifetime. When I asked the hubs if he had fun he said "yes" "even when i was yelling at you?" "yeah, that was my favorite part" Gotta love that guy.

We want to send a special shout out of thank you's to Joe and Ruthie {and Jude & Jet} for picking us up at the end of the trail, having search and rescue on speed dial, and giving us a weekend that we will never forget.


7 comments:

Ruthie said...

You guys still made really good time for getting a bit turned around!! We had a blast too, and Jett is having "Dit and Duelie" withdraws!

Anonymous said...

That looks amazing! What a great hiking plan. Glad you got to cross another thing of your list.

Becky said...

You are so brave!

Anonymous said...

Wow good for you! Sounds like an exciting goal!

Jessica said...

This made me laugh. Did you not eat your snacks in a timely manner?
Ruthie if you're reading this, you need to ask Joe when he's going to give us an update on his blog. Has the deal been abandoned?

Anonymous said...

looks like fun

jboudreau said...

Crazy but I has never heard of this trail. What fun! Altough the bear thing would have had me totally freaked! Anyway good for you!