The plan for September!

Many of you have asked about where we'll be over the next few weeks! Ask no more, the schedule is here!! We are in Seattle today, about to begin an epic journey out to the trail tomorrow morning!

Elapsed Mileage	Estimated Arrival Date	Location	Resupply Address	Notes
900	8/27/2014	Hart's Pass	START WASHINGTON STATE!
1054	9/2/2014	Skykomish	Jennifer Albinson, General Delivery, Skykomish, WA 98288
1128	9/7/2014	Snoqualmie Pass	Jennifer Albinson, General Delivery c/o Chevron Station, Snoqualmie Pass, WA 98068	Write on package in big bold letters "PLEASE HOLD UP FRONT AT THE CHEVRYON" (yes, apparently the gas station in town holds packages for thru hikers. Trail towns are amazing).
1227	9/12/2014	White Pass	Jennifer Albinson, c/o White Pass Rural Branch PO at the Kracker Barrel Store, 48851 US Highway 12, Naches, WA 98937	Again, the local Kracker Barrel Store (sadly different than the southern chain "Cracker Barrel,") will hold my mail. Awesome.
1375	9/20/2014	Cascade Locks	FINISH!

Guest blog from Timmy C.

What's up everybody? Breakfast Sandwich here. In my non-trail life, I'm Tim, one of Jenny's college friends, and I just had the pleasure of joining Jenny and Justin for 103 miles of awesome hiking. Jen and I have been long-time travel buddies (more on this below), but this trip will no doubt rank at the top of the list of our best adventures together. At the same time, it was awesome to get to hang out with and get to know the bearded man they call Lance-a-Lot and, in particular, to learn how a real man eats on the trail (the answer - a lot).

My plan to join Jenny and Justin was rather late in the making, and it wasn't until mid-July that I figured out a plan to meet them for a section in Northern California and took the plunge and bought tickets. A week or so before I was supposed to leave, I got the ominously titled email from Jen: "pct is on fire." This obviously complicated matters, but I'm grateful to Jenny & Justin for their flexibility and creativity in coming up with the plan that we eventually ended up doing.

Bag packed with the finest in camping cuisine, I flew to SF last weekend, picked up a sweet rental Prius (Travel tip: Always try to blend in with the locals), spent a night in the Oak-town hills with my college roommate, and then headed to the Sierra last Monday to get rolling. Monday was a day full of logistics -- meet in Truckee, drive to Sierra City, leave car there, drive to South Lake Tahoe, return rental car, meet sweet cabbie Luke, learn all about wilderness in Poland, and then finally get to the trailhead at Echo Lake -- but it was all worth it when we got to experience some of the finest hail that California has to offer.

Our rain gear came through, though, and we settled in for a nice night at camp with a fine Sonoma wine (tastefully carried in Jenny's dirty gatorade bottle) and a selection of fine cheeses. From there, weather was essentially great, with a slight windy hiccup, and the rest of the hike was amazing. We split up for the first few days, giving Jen and I time to catch up and Justin time to sleep in and fish. Following this, we reunited and crushed the last 60 miles before making it back to the bay yesterday.

A few highlights / things I have learned:

- Alpine lakes are the best. The first few days of our trip were a constant string of awesome alpine lakes, and I did my best to swim at as many as I could. There is nothing quite like a cool dip and then stretching out on the rocks to warm up.

- Alpine streams / creeks are also awesome. I have no idea what the difference is between streams and creeks, but I know I like both. On our last day we hit three pretty beautiful ones, and our push to get to the car was delayed for one last swim.

- Jen does not like water very much. She does not like to swim in it. She does not like to drink it. I have known this last fact for many years, but it rang especially true this trip, when I probably filtered four liters of water for myself for everyone one for her.

- Cheese rocks. We joked that we were doing a 'cheese cleanse' on our trip, but this was not that false. There was a lot of cheese consumed, and every bit was delicious.

- Justin can eat like a champion. We started off the trip by dropping my car in Sierra City, where, ravenous from sitting in a car all day, he proceeded to demolish the 1lb burger with avocado, bacon, and probably a bunch of other extra toppings. This pattern would continue all week, and I came away impressed and humbled. True hero among men.

- Dehydrated veggies are delicious. I clearly need a dehydrator.

- I earned the name Breakfast Sandwich as my trail name, after I ate most of a (mostly) delicious breakfast sandwich at Donner Ski Ranch (see below). This name also pays homage to the morning of Jen and my college graduation, when many breakfast sandwiches were consumed. I didn't think a mere week on the trail merited a trail name, but I was very pleased with this moniker and couldn't say no.

- Donner Ski Ranch is the greatest place on earth. I spent my 31st birthday on the trail, and I expected a celebration of mac & cheese with some extra dried poblano peppers, or something of the ilk. Little did I know the wonders that awaited me at Donner Ski Ranch (a small ski mtn just off the PCT that has a small restaurant / bar). After realizing the possibility of beer & burgers awaited us, we powered through a tough day to get there in time. On arrival, we were greeted by Lincoln (the greatest barkeep to ever live) and Ricky, his trusty sidekick, who immediately pour complimentary beers and made us feel right at home. The night continued from there and culminated with a delicious few BL^2 (Bud Light Limes) that we ordered 'to go' (wasn't aware that was thing) and drank on their deck. We then lounged most of the next morning on the sunny deck. Donner Ski Ranch was not just delicious food and beverages though; whatever we needed, it provided. We didn't want to walk far after dinner to find a place to camp, and lo and behold, we could camp right behind one of their buildings. I was out of sunscreen and chapstick, and of course they have both for sale. My sunglasses are broken, and, without fail, they have a stylish and affordable collection. I wasn't feeling so hot the next morning, and of course here's Lincoln with free baked goods for the post-birthday boy. All in all, clearly the best place ever. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Ask for Lincoln, and tell him Breakfast Sandwich sent you.

- On the eternal debate of thru-hiker vs. thru-hanger (see prior blog posts), I am squarely on the side of the thru hangers. I enjoy the mileage as much as the next guy, but I am all about stopping for a swim, lounging on the rocks in the sun, and making the delicious meal.

On a more serious note, this trip was an amazing opportunity to spend a lot o time with one of my best friends. As mentioned above, Jenny and I have been travel buds for almost 10 years now, and together we have explored Yosemite, Sequoia / King's Canyon, Joshua Tree, various spots along the Eastern Seaboard, Nicaragua, and many places in between. What was so amazing about this trip, though, was to see her so completely in her element. Over the course of this summer, the Sierra have become Jenny's home, and there's no better way to describe this trip than a visit to one of my dear friends in her home.

So that was my walk in the Sierra with Jenny and Justin. One of the best trips I've done in a long time, and I've got the bug a little bit -- can't wait to hear about the Washington adventures coming up next!

Captions:
1. Breakfast Sandwich in Heather Lake.
2. Sunset at Dick's Lake. Little did we know the windiest night ever was about to start.
3. Middle Velma Lake.
4. Stoked about the sweet ridgeline.
5. Selfie. We can add it to the collection of selfies we've been taking since 2001. #Trendsetters.
6. The Greatest Place on Earth.
7. Sunset by Richardson Lake.
8 & 9. 103 miles in the bag. We want a beer.

So the trail is on fire...now what?

Back on the trail. And man it feels good. As of my last entry, Justin and I were stuck at the Reno airport, waiting for my brother Tim to come save us. We went back with him to his Tahoe house (3rd time this summer, I feel so seriously lucky to have a support system in the Sierra), spent a night, and tried to develop a plan. My college friend Tim Churchill had planned to join us for a week of hiking in Northern California, but the section he was supposed to join was now on fire. Daaaang. We went through literally about 8 different ideas for what to do with Timmy C. and what to do in the meantime, but were thwarted by forest fires, monsoon rain forecasts, no flights, and someone's "I grew up in Manhattan and I'm proud of it" lack of a drivers license. Finally, Justin and I decided on a mini road trip to Sonoma for a few days, then meeting up with Tim, then re-doing the section around Tahoe. We picked this section for three reasons: it is epically beautiful, it had a decent weather forecast, and, most importantly, it was logistically easiest.

Sonoma was both awesome and awful. We spent a night at Point Reyes, another in Mt. Tam state park, and a few nights in the town of Petaluma. We hiked, wine tasted, did yoga, and ate Cowgirl Creamery cheese! We went thrift store shopping so we had something to wear besides our hiking outfits! We biked through vineyards with Andrea! Basically, it was a perfect little vacation and we should have been thrilled. But where we really wanted to be was on the trail, putting in the miles and seeing the Sierras turn into the Sierra Buttes and eventually go volcanic on us. Mourning that was pretty hard. It took some real quality time at the Petaluma Outlets to cope. Ok that last sentence was sarcastic, though I did drop by and buy a business suit. Because what self-respecting thru hiker doesn't pack a suit?

But fortunately after a few days of moping in Sonoma, Timmy showed up!! We headed back to Tahoe to start in on a 100-mile section. The cab driver who drove us to the trailhead gave us a 50% discount on the (otherwise significant) fare, once he heard we were hikers. The return of trail magic!!

Tim is going to recap the hike itself in the next day or two. And Tim, from here forward, will be called by his trail name, Breakfast Sandwich. I eagerly await his recap, as I'm sure it will touch on many themes of our week, including copious cheese consumption, Dixie Chicks sing-alongs, and one very special night of camping in the parking lot of Donner Ski Ranch.

As for what's next: Justin and I are going to be off trail for a few days. We have a wedding to attend, and we need to reconfigure the plan. Since Northern California and Oregon are such a mess with forest fires, we've set our sights on a new destination to finish out our trip: WASHINGTON. Now just need to plan a resupply schedule!

Captions:
1. Waiting for my brother Tim at the Reno airport. He saved the day!
2. Wine and cheese for dinner at Steep Ravine.
3. Nothing like being at actual sea level to keep the altitude acclimatization up.
4. I think this picture perfectly encapsulates how it's possible to be so sad about spending a week in a beautiful place eating delicious food. Stupid fancy jam! You're way too heavy to carry in my pack.
5. But biking with Andrea was a huge highlight!
6. And then Timmy/Breakfast Sandwich arrived and we returned to the trail!!!

Forest fires everywhere!

It was hard to leave Tahoe! But leave Justin and I did, resuming the trail at Sierra City. We were meeting Timmy C in Castella on the 11th, and it was going to be a push to get there. We did 90 miles over 3.5 brutal days. One day, we did 27 miles, including a 3500' climb. We were both hurting, with aching feet, new blisters, and some very suspicious bumps (poison oak...noooooo!!!!). On Sunday, we woke up and the first words out of my mouth were "I would like to boycott today." Spirits were not high, especially because we had to continue the 25+ mile days for another week to get to Castella. Ouch!

Then we ran into fellow hiker PigPen. PigPen let us know that Northern California had suffered 1900 lightening strikes over the last 48 hours (huh? We just had blue skies!) and wildfires were raging. One section of trail was already closed. Well, the next civilization was a spot called Belden, so we figured we'd make sense of it when we got to Belden Town. If nothing else, we actually had a bit more pep in our step heading down (and I mean down... 4500 feet down!) into Belden Town - maybe a 20 mile stretch of trail was closed!! This would decrease our mileage into Castella and allow us to ease our Death March. Woohoo!

Before I continue the tale of The Fire, allow me first a paragraph on Belden Town. We had heard from our guidebook that "Belden is creepy," and that there were weekend raves. As usual, the guidebook did not lie. We started hearing music about 6 miles out of town. Then, about 2 miles out of town, we saw two wandering free spirits, one wearing a namaste poncho and the other with feather earrings. Both had a dazed look. Welcome to Belden! As we got into town, we discovered ourselves in the midst of a music festival! People wandered around wearing tie dye shirts, fringed bathing suits, and fake tails. Dogs were dressed up. People were dancing on floats in the river. Vendors were selling marijuana accessories (medicinal, of course). We emerged from the wilderness and found ourselves ... here? So disorienting!!

Fortunately after a few minutes, we heard someone yell "hey! Hiker Trash!" We knew this affectionate name could only be for us. We turned around and there was a fellow thru hiker! We chatted for a minute and in short order learned that there are actually 3 sections of the trail that are closed, that their locations make a walk through Northern California impossible, and that most hikers were planning to hitch ahead to Ashland, OR, skipping over 400 trail miles. YIKES!

To digest this news, we needed some real food. A Sprite and a Popsicle later, we found ourselves sitting alongside about 10 other thru hikers, all asking ourselves the same question: now what? Some people were going to wait it out at the music festival and hope the news improved. Others were figuring out transport up to Ashland. Justin and I, well, we decided to go into the next town, Quincy, cross our fingers for cell reception, and go from there.

It was the hardest hitch we've had to do yet. Surprisingly, something about the thumping bass and the crazy rave scene behind us made most cars disinterested in picking up two scruffy kids. We quickly augmented our "Quincy or Chester" sign with another sign that said "we are nice PCT hikers!" Had I a third arm, the next sign would have said "we are extremely well-educated and are good conversationalists." Anything to distinguish us from the festival folk! Finally, two people who had been hanging out by the road approached us. Their dad had just dropped off a sandwich for them - did we want a ride to Quincy? Heck yes we did! That is how we met Phillip and Bo. Phillip has the sweetest car EVER (see picture below!) and Bo is his pitbull who I shared the backseat with. Bo mostly licked my face and when he got tired of that, he fell asleep in my lap. As Phillip said, it's a shame that Bo doesn't like people.

Quincy is a great town!! It's got a nice little restaurant scene (we highly endorse Pangea), a hotel with very reliable wireless (whew), and is easily walked. What Quincy lacks, however, is transit connections to the rest of the world. We had about a week to kill before we were to meet Timmy. What to do??? We had just made the decision to stay in Quincy for an extra night when we met a thru hiker who had paid an exorbitant amount for a car service to Reno Airport. We gladly shared the cost with her... At least in Reno, we would have the option to rent a car or even fly somewhere for the next few days.

And that's where we currently are. The Reno Airport. Thought we'd be in Lassen National Park right now. Sometimes, the PCT taketh away. We thought about doing the Tahoe Rim Trail or heading back into the Sierra. Forecast for both: rain every day. We thought about flying to Seattle or San Diego or anywhere really. Flights are a nightmare. Apparently trying to plan an instant vacation in August is not so easy. So we're staying put for the minute. Maybe we'll end up spending the week at a slot machine in Reno. Who knows!! Always an adventure.

**update** my oldest brother (also named Tim!) coincidentally is flying into Reno tonight from a business trip!! He's going to take us to his house in Tahoe where we'll hopefully have a better time making a plan than these plastic chairs by the American Airlines check in desk. Tim, you saved the day.

Captions:
1. Start of the hike. Everything seemed possible then.
2. We were in the land of the huge pinecones!
3. Beautiful inside of a green pinecone
4. View over a lake whose name I forget
5. A chipmunk ate the crap out of that pinecone! It's like corn on the cob for little critters!
6 and 7. The scene in Belden Town.
8. Confused thru hikers, trying to make a plan.
9 and 10. Attempting to hitchhike. Justin's beard may also have hindered our luck.
11. Phillip and his awesome ride.
12. Stuck in the Reno airport....

Guest post from Lindsay

The post we've all been waiting for... GUEST POST FROM LINDSAY!!! Sorry for the delay. Unsurprisingly, Internet is not the most consistent out here!  Take it away, Linds!

I am Jen's friend from business school and joined Jen on the trail for 5 days near Tahoe. While I have glamped a few times (three to be exact), I have never had to set up my own tent or cook my own food. However, I trusted Jen's past experience and figured we would be ok. Plus, we had more than one hungover run/walk in business school so I figured this couldn't be much harder than that.

We started out easy – with some tubing down a river with Jen's family. We got to enjoy the hot tub at Jen's brother's house and had a leisurely morning before we hit the trail. My vacation was off to a good start. 

Jen already provided an update on our week in the woods, but I thought I'd add a little color from my perspective. Here are a few things I learned on the trail: 

1. Lakes and views are awesome. I am definitely in Matthew's camp that it's worth hiking a few extra miles to find a great place to enjoy a meal, swim, or camp.

2. Make sure you know the total mileage you need to do before you plan your trip. Then you don't figure out at 3:30pm on Day 2 that you need to walk 8 more miles, for a total of 17 that day. That's ok Jen – now I seem pretty impressive saying I walked that far – twice!

3. Instant meals taste pretty good out on the trail. Thanks to Jen we had dehydrated vegetables, which elevated couscous and ramen to my favorite meals on the trail. Also hot chocolate was a perfect way to end each night. 

4. I learned on Day 4 what to do if we ran into a bear. Glad I asked this question on the second to last day. Luckily, there were no encounters. But now I'm ready in case I see any back in Dallas.

5. The keys to bear-bagging are to a) find a good branch (strong, high enough and far enough away from the tree to be out of a bear's reach, and some distance from your tent), b) wrap the rock like a present, c) help hoist up the heavy food so there is less friction on your (hopefully strong) rope, and d) hope a bear doesn't come by. 

6. Try to drag yourself out of your tent at least once to see the sunset. You don't need to be in bed at 7:30pmevery single night. Especially when you're sleeping 12 hours a night. 

7. Modesty goes out the window. Barely-clothed swimming in front of strangers or even relatives of friends is totally ok. As is sharing spoons, baby wiping in the tent, not wearing deodorant, cleaning bowls with your fingers, and swallowing your toothpaste. 

8. The community of PCT hikers and the respect it garners from day-hikers is pretty cool. Everyone who asked Jen what she was doing was super impressed. That's because… 

9. Jen rocks!! 

All in all, it was a great trip. Not surprising to anyone reading this blog, Jen is extremely competent and I felt totally safe and comfortable the whole time. I emerged feeling slightly more confident in my own backpacking capabilities, though I'm not sure I have the courage or confidence to ever do a long hike by myself. Way to go Jen!

I'm very sad to be leaving Jen and Justin tomorrow as they set out on the next section of the trail. Not that I envy the mileage they are going to do in the next few weeks or the time away from showers and varied meals, but the 5 days I spent on the trail were really great. It was so nice to step away from the world, enjoy beautiful scenery and nature without material distractions, and spend quality time with a really great friend. And for those reasons, I could definitely see myself doing something like this again.

Especially when it ends with more hot tubs, boat rides, and fun Albinson family meals! Thanks Tim and Heather, Sharon and Dave, and Matthew! I've loved meeting the rest of the Albinson clan. 

Jen & Justin – I don't need to wish you good luck, but I wish you good weather and good health. I know you'll take care of each other out there and will enjoy the experience more together. Have fun! Take lots of pictures. And I can't wait for the next blog post. xoxo

 

Photo captions:

Jen & I near the start. Clothes are still clean! 

Jen, Matthew & Alicia on this awesome ledge at Aloha Lake. Skinny-dipping experience #1 

First bear bag attempt. May not look too good, but luckily we had a boy scout troupe nearby to scare off the bears.

Mmmmm couscous 

Sunset worth staying up until 8:30pm 

We did it! Friends forever. :)