Expectations - Tuesday, April 8

Pre-Flight - Monday, April 7

Pre-Flight - Monday, April 7

It is 9 PM, Monday April 7. The PCT experience is starting out wholly different than I expected . . . In a good way. "Scout" picked us up in a mini van at the airport about 12:45, soon after our plane landed. Already in the van were Phillip and Angie, PCT aspirants from Great Britain. Scout had picked them up just minutes earlier at the Thrifty car rental where they were returning their car. We drove to Frodo and Scout's home in the suburbs of San Diego and were given a bedroom for the night. Scout is about 62 years old, thin and athletic looking, quick with a grin and full of enthusiasm. He gave us a quick orientation to the house. All the kitchen cupboards and drawers are labeled so us PCT hikers can easily find plates, spoons etc. He had snacks laid out, fuel for sale, a computer to use, a food bagging area and every amenity a hiker about to leave on a trip would need. He prepared lunch for us-luncheon meat, cheeses, breads, fresh baked cakes, carrot sticks and more. Sal and I finished lunch then sorted our gear for the hundredth time and walked to the post office to mail some extra things back home (when faced with the reality of carrying a Garmin GPS and extra batteries and some luxury clothing items the extra weight seemed daunting) and threw out some food to lighten our load.
All six of us helped prepare dinner with Frodo, (Scout's wife of 37 years) leading the endeavor. Avocado dip, smoked salmon and cream cheese on baguette for appetizers, homemade beef stroganoff, asparagus and green salad for the main meal and brownies, fresh strawberries and whipped cream for dessert. Truly a feast by any standards but doubly delightful because of it was so unexpected and was shared with such great company. Frodo retired from teaching AP Biology in June and still helps with the Science Olympiad team she was head coach of and Scout was a Boy Scout leader so we had a lively dinner conversation around common experiences.
After dinner Scout pulled out his guitar and we sang songs, after which Frodo and Scout performed two songs for us.
Wow!
What a great way to send us off on our way tomorrow! They are serving us breakfast of French toast at 5:30. Our packs are to be on the front deck at 5:50 and we are to be loaded up and driving to the trailhead at 6:00. 75 minutes to the trailhead and we will have begun.
I can't say enough about the kindness and hospitality we experienced today.
Are we nervous about tomorrow and the days ahead? Yes. Our packs seems too heavy. The weather is predicted to be hotter than we hoped for. Water will be scarce. But with such support as we were shown today and the promise of new friends on the trail ahead we look forward to putting our feet on the southern most tread of the PCT at the Mexican border tomorrow.

Interface - Sunday, April 6

We passed through it. I was anticipating it. I knew it was coming and for the past few days had been getting grouchy as I knew it was coming and was tired of waiting for it. But just 20 minutes ago, at 11:36, Sally and I broke through the surface to the other side. The most difficult part of the trip is now behind us. We passed through the interface.
Nerd Alert! Read at your peril!
An interface is the boundary between two media, such as where ocean water meets the atmosphere or ice touches the water it floats in. Crossing interfaces can be difficult. Think what happens when an airplane tries to enter the water or a ship like Titanic tries to enter an iceberg. At the interface some parts makes it through and some bounce off. Pieces of the plane penetrate the water's surface, but on initial impact most of the plane bounces off.
The greater the difference between the nature of the two media, the more difficult to penetrate the interface. Titanic might have left a few shards of metal and flecks of paint imbedded in that iceberg, but most of the ship bounced off.
Sometimes a "surfactant", a type of "impedance transformer" is used to "smooth" the difference between the two media. Clothes in a washing machine are quite different than the water that surrounds them. The water cannot adequately penetrate the clothes and therefore it cannot remove the dirt embedded in the fabric. A surfactant is needed to lessen the boundary between water and cloth, so we add soap. It allows the water to wet the cloth thoroughly and remove the dirt.
End of Nerd Alert!
So what does this have to do with Sally and I hiking the PCT? The interface we crossed this morning was from the media of home: drawers full of clothes, electricity in plugins, food in cupboards, cars available at the turn of a key . . . to a pack with a few essentials and a pair of feet to walk on.
We all cross these interfaces everyday. Leaving a warm house to get firewood from the adjacent woodshed. Leaving a warm car to go skiing in the snow. Diving from a sun warmed boat into an icy lake. Sometimes we use an "impedance transformer" to help us make it through the interface. We pull on barn boots and a warm coat to slog through mud and rain to get our wood. We twist and contort to put on warm clothes and heavy boots in the car seat before opening the door of the car and stepping into the snow storm. And a wet suit makes diving in a cold lake more tolerable.
Sally and I were dropped off by Jeff and Jackie at 11:36 at the Kelso Train Station and as we walked away from the car with our packs on our backs we snapped from one media to another, both familiar, yet very different. And the impedance transformer that eased the transition? The past five months of frantically packing food, buying and repairing gear, obtaining maps, plotting routes, mailing resupply packages, finding someone to live in our house (thank you Mr. Huffman!), getting finances and paperwork in order and contacting agencies for route information and water sources.
We are here. It feels great to FINALLY be on the other side!

Notes in a Bottle - Friday, April 4

Our first "bottle" set adrift in the Postal Service ocean

Here is a demographic study question.  Do you remember the carton series on TV called "Rocky and Bullwinkle" staring Rocky the Flying Squirrel and Bullwinkle the Moose?  If you are over 50 it is probably a yes. Under, probably a no.  Anyway, they had this lead into a commercial where Rocky and Bullwinkle are fishing in a boat and a bottle floats by.  Rocky says, "Look Bullwinkle, a message in a bottle".  Bullwinkle replies, "Fan mails from some flounder?" and Rocky responds, "No, this is what I really call a message!" and then they break for a commercial.

Isn't it amazing what trivial junk our minds sometime latch onto?  Why doesn't my mind remember important things like combination locks, people's names or important dates.  Nope.  Gilligan's Island theme song, Doublemint gum commercials, etc.  You know what I mean.

Tuesday Sally and I boxed up our first food resupply box. We stuffed it with 8 days of food, snacks, extra suncream, baby wipes, a laundry soap pod, dryer sheets and more, wrapped it up in bright yellow paper and addressed it to ourselves at Mt. Laguna, CA.  All the while that Rocky and Bullwinkle routine was on a repeating loop in my mind.  We are sending "Fan mail to some flounder".  Us. 

Those 8 days of food will feed us while we hike the 64 miles from Mt. Laguna to Warner Springs.  We metered it out so we will have food if we hike 8 miles each day.  We would ideally like to hike about 12 miles each day which would only require 5 days of food, but this early in the trip we are playing it safe.  It is not a good idea to run out of food before you get to your next food drop. If the 12 miles/day works out it will lighten my load appreciably, both in food and water.

When we leave the Mexican border Tuesday morning I will be carrying 2 & 1/2 gallons of water and Sally will be carrying 1/2 a gallon (actually 12 liters altogether).  The next water is 20 miles away at the reservoir, Lake Morena.  At 8 miles per day we need 2 1/2 days of water.  The 3 gallons gives us a gallon each day-pretty skimpy-but doable.

We will pack another bottle to send out into the ocean Sunday with Sally's sister, Wendy, our queen of resupply.  This one goes to the Post Office in Warner Springs, at about mile 110 up the trail.  How many days of food she packs into that one waits to be seen as we see how we do on the first 100 miles of our hike.

T-minus 2 days and counting.

Kindness - Tuesday, April 1

Food bagged, boxed and ready for shipping to our resupply locations.

About a week ago - that would be about T-minus 10 days until we hit the trail in "Mission Control Speak" - Sally and I were in Costco purchasing yet another mound of food to be measured, portioned and bagged for the hike. It was near dinner time, so while Sally headed to the restroom at the far end of the checkout area, I stood in line at the food service area intent on scoring two slices of pizza and a pop for supper. As I stepped to the counter I placed my order, then extracted my debit card to complete the sale. Oops. Costco food service only takes cash or check. I pried open my wallet to see empty space-not even a lone dollar bill. I did not feel embarrassed in my predicament, rather I asked the cashier to void my purchase and I would reorder when Sally returned from the restroom with our horde of cash. Before I could finish my sentence a bright eyed 30ish year old woman behind me said, "That's alright. I can get that for you." Before I could register she was talking to me about my dinner she had peeled a $5.00 bill from her money clip and completed the deal. I thanked her profusely and told her my wife would be by shortly and I could repay her. She waved me off, made her own meal purchase and headed for the exit before Sally had returned.
I related to Sally my story and we enjoyed our free dinner, glowing in the thought that kind people populate this earth. It is amazing how that simple, spontaneous act of kindness put a smile on our faces and a glow in our hearts. A few days later we were to encounter another random act of kindness.
To get to the start of the PCT one must get to San Diego and then make their way to Campo, CA about 50 miles east right on the Mexican border. We booked our flight back in November and fleetingly looked into transportation from San Diego to Campo.
Sunday of this week, just T-minus 8 days, I pulled up the bus schedule for the county, found our route from the airport to the bus terminal and what time the busses run to Campo. Our plan was to exit the airport via city bus to the El Cajon bus terminal, stopping en route to buy fuel canisters for our stove (you can't fly with a propane canister in your carryon or checked bags), then board the 3:15 for Campo. Once there we would find a place to camp, hike the two miles south to the border and back and make an early start Tuesday morning.
I had remembered reading on the Pacific Crest Trail Association website that "Trail Angels" in San Diego were available to help PCT hikers get to the trailhead. What the heck, let's see if they think my plan is solid. I found the email address of "Frodo" and "Scout" (those are the trail names this couple had adopted for themselves) and related my plans to them, asking if they thought them feasible. Scout's reply came a few minutes after I hit send. He said he and his wife would be glad to pick us up at the airport. They would take us to their home just north of UCSD, feed us dinner, let us stay at their house, sell us fuel canisters at their cost, feed us breakfast and drive us to the trailhead at 6am. They firmly stated they did not want gifts nor money. They were also picking up another couple that day and would do the same for them. They did the same for over 250 PCT hikers last season!
Their kind offer quickly removed the hassle of negotiating downtown San Diego with 50 pound packs on our backs and reduced the level of complexity of getting the trip started. Plus, since they had hiked the PCT in 2007 it presents us with the opportunity to meet people with experience and to meet our first fellow 2014 PCT hikers.
If these two random acts are a portent of the interactions we will experience once on the trail this adventure promises to be all we hoped it would be. T-minus 5 and counting.

PCT Preparations 1.0 - Sunday, March 30

The PCT - 1st Posting

The plan: (1) Find a good steward for our house.  Mr. Huffman, the principal at Toledo High School will take up residence in our absence. (2)  Fly to San Diego, take a bus to Campo, CA on the Mexican/US border and spend 90 days hiking north (in retirement we can only afford to fly one way, we have to walk back  ;-)   ).
The preparation: There are two ways to solve the getting food to eat while on the trail problem, (1) Gather food from stores near the trail as we hike north or (2) Buy and prepare all the food before the trip, package it, box it and find a kind soul to mail it to post offices encountered along the route.
Both techniques have their advantages and draw backs. (1) requires little preparation but lots of time hitchhiking to local towns and shopping in stores for foods appropriate for the trail. (2) requires tons of preparation, but once the food is packaged and prepared, one only needs to pick it up at the post office or local business and get back on the trail. We chose option (2) and have spent the last month buying food, drying food, measuring out portions, bagging and organizing. It is a ton of work, but hopefully we will feel it is worth it once on the trail.
We hope to be on the trail for about 90 days; what Sally and I refer to as our "90 day spa trip". All the food for the 90 days had to be purchased in advance, portioned, prepared, bagged and distributed to boxes addressed to the various post offices enroute. It presents a problem. What if we hike slower than we plan and run out of food before we get to our next resupply? Or, what if we hike faster than we plan and end up carrying extra food that keeps accumulating with each additional food pickup? To alleviate these predicaments we have enlisted Sally's sister to meter out our food into the mailing boxes and send them off a week before we are due to arrive at the next pickup location. This way we can call, text or email her, letting her know how much food to put in the box to supply us for the next leg of our journey.
I am sitting in my living room surrounded by 90 gallon sized zip lock bags stuffed with food. Each bag represents a day's calories-1 bag for each day of the trip. It is a lot of food (3 months for two people worth) and represents a fair expenditure of money and time.
What is in those bags, you might ask? What are you going to eat? We have 4 different breakfasts-Oatmeal, Cream of Wheat, freeze dried scrambled eggs and granola-each with side additives to make them more calorific and/or tasty (walnuts, brown sugar, powdered milk). Lunches rotate through 5 selections: Triscuits with cheese, Pilot Bread with PB&J, Tortillas with humus, Wheat Thins and cheese and "fancy" crackers with salmon or tuna. Again, fruit snacks, mixed nuts, powdered Gatorade, dried apples, dried bananas and almonds add flavor and calories. 13 different dinners grace our menu: Curry rice with chicken, mashed taters with hamburger gravy, Parmesan Couscous, Alfredo Noodles with salmon, Sweet and Sour Pork (Mtn House Freeze Dried), Cheddar and Broccoli Soup, Parmesan Noodles, Chicken Soup with Dumplings, Pine Nut Couscous, Chicken and Mashed Potatoes, Mac and Cheese, Broccoli-Cheese-Rice and Top Ramen. To supplement these main courses we have dried 20 lbs of broccoli, 20 lbs of carrots and 6 lbs of spinach-no calories but good nutrition. For calories and protein we added nuts, beef jerky, olive oil, pudding (twice a week) and muffins or biscuits every night.
You might have the same question I did, "How do you cook muffins on the trail?" No campfires are allowed. No dutch ovens (heavy). Mix the muffin mix in a plastic bag, put 3/4" of water in the pot, put a 1" spacer in the bottom of the pot to keep the plastic bag out of the water and boil the muffin mix in the bag for the prescribed time on the package. Amazingly, it works great! To save fuel we made a "cozy" for our pot from closed foam sleeping pad material. Once we boil the water we can move the pot off the stove and into the cozy and the cooking will take place sans fuel. Pretty darn cool!!
Okay, enough. If we make it the 90 days we will have lots of time to write about the preparations and the trip and you will have ample sleep inducing reading to ward off the most virulent insomnia. We are a week away from takeoff. I will keep you posted.