Running for the Border (The Oregon border, that is!)

Just a short time ago we checked in at 1400 miles--we've now reached the 1600 miles marker in northern California and have about 150 left before we finally arrive in Ashland, Oregon. Since we were not able to post pictures last time from the pizza place in Burney, the we wanted to catch you up with one of the big milestones of the last couple weeks--reaching the PCT midpoint of the trail--1325 miles. We were expecting a signpost and maybe a bench to celebrate the occasion, but alas all that was there to greet us was a cement marker and a geocache box. Ah well! That is what you get when you are hiking a trail through the wilderness (smile!).

Ashland here we come!!!

Volcanoes and Lava Flows in Northern California

1400 miles in and we are still in the same state! Well, technically we are, but we've decided the northern California is quite different from the rest of the state (It sits better with us that way too. Come on, how could it possibly take over 3 months to walk through just one state?).

In the last week we've traveled through some of the strangest towns and terrain. We'll start with the towns:

Towns
1. Belden consisted of 18 residents and any weekend residents at the 'resort' (aka RV park). We heard that every weekend the 'town' hosted raves along the Feather River, including the latest rave of bikers. Luckily we came on a weekday and stayed just a couple hours...

2. Chester was a small town with local fast food place that had 30 flavors of milkshakes and was the place to be. It was routine to see people run into the Post Office or store and just leave the car running. That was crazy for a weathered Baltimorian to see!

3. Our current town of residence, Burney, can be summarized by the fact the the only public computer is at the local pizza place where the Rotary and Citizens Patrol meet on a weekly basis.

Terrain
In the last week we've seen quite a few interesting sites as we've hastened our journey northward. We hiked through Lassen Volcanic National Park and northward. Lassen is very volcanically active. We've pasted a steam vent, a lake that was boiling, took a dip in a hot spring pool, and walked through a tunnel formed by an old lava flow that really looked like a subway tunnel, and hiked over more lava rocks than we would have liked. This morning we just completed a 30 mile odyssey on what is called the Hat Creek Rim. It is formed by an old lava flow that sits several hundred feet above the surrounding terrain. We hiked it mostly at night because this high plataeu has very few trees and no water. We heard strange things at night including toads that sounded like growling bears, and ran into one ton beasts that scared the living daylights out of me. I should have been familiar with them because there were cows! Even though we tripped a lot over the lava rocks, we still managed to hike 35 miles in less than 24 hours.

We are looking forward to finishing up northern California and head into Oregon before mid-August. Then we will finally REALLY be in a different state!

As the miles go up, the donations do to.

I just wanted to let everyone know that as Maya and I have been working hard to make the miles toward our goal of Canada you have helped show your support through the donations to the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy.

Through your help we have raised over 700 dollars.  We thank you for our support.  At this time we have hiked just over a thousand miles.  So help us stay motivated as we hike and give some support to the WVHC. 

Thanks, Maya & Garrett

PS. We love when people leave comments!!

Dine' (Navajo) Poem

"With beauty before me,

may I walk

with beauty behind me,

may I walk

with beauty above me,

may I walk

with beauty all around me,

may I walk.

Wandering on a trail of beauty lively, I walk."

One of the many people we have met along the trail gave this poem to us after spending an evening camping with us and chatting about the trail. Even though the trail has at time provided us with many challenges, I think this really sums up why we persist and continue on our journey northward.

1,000 Miles!!!

Ok..so we've actually hiked another 95 miles since this photo was taken...(Smile!)

We are on a time crunch here at the public library in South Lake Tahoe so I will summarize the last  400 miles with this:

Hiked on snow, more snow, and yet more snow and then when we thought we were getting out of snow with the melt finally arriving, we hiked through creeks, lakes, creeks and more creeks, sometimes wading in up to our chests in the creeks and if we were so lucky to have a bridge, we sometimes had to wade up to our knees on either side...Never fear, we are ok and know the worst of it is behind us. Oregon here we come!!!

A Letter to Mark

July 3, 2011
       I said goodbye to you today on top of Donahue Pass. While you were back in Maryland, I knew you were following our journey closely and living it vicariously through us. You can imagine how surprised I was to hear the news...You always seemed most content when we talked about the mountains. You were so excited about our plans to do the PCT that you did what you did best, and researched the trail and gave me all sorts of info about it before I left. I actually think you knew more about the trail than I did!
      I cried a lot in the few days between Mammoth and Yosemite as I took you with me on our hike. It took me a while to figure out the best way to really say goodbye from out here. Finally I realized that since you would have loved to be here, it would be appropriate to build something in your rememberence. So when we got to the top of Donahue Pass, I built a small cairn in your memory. Its not much but you just can't beat the view down into Lyell Canyon in Yosemite National Park. And be sure that while I said goodbye, I still keep your memory with me.

You are missed dearly.
Your friend,
Maya

Traveling with Good Friends, Old and New

The Sierra have proven to be quite challenging this year, more so than most years mostly because of the immense amount of snow we've been hiking through. This last section was the most difficult yet with several mountain passes (low points between mountain ridges) that were above 11,000 feet in elevation coupled with and countless ice-cold creek crossings at the lower elevations. We are ever vigilant about safety and have been traveling with two tough women. The four of us have been traveling through the Sierra together and have looked out for each other in navigating through the tough spots on the trail.
During this last section, Garrett got a break from the constant estrogen from one of our close friends here who has been helping us out logistically since before we started in Campo. Dave joined us for 4 and a half days of fun and kept up with us as if he had been hiking the entire trail with us. His comic relief and level head during stream crossings and ascents of mountain passes helped keep spirits high as we continued our journey northward through the snow.