#pctrail

[swamptosierras-blog]

Nick has been playing with the GifBoom app on his phone, so check out some of the short flip book images he's compiled here: http://gifboom.com/pct2013

[swamptosierras-blog]

How hillbilly hand fishing fed 20 hungry hikers

Leaving Kennedy Meadows -- and more importantly the California desert -- put every hiker we met in good spirits. The Sierras have been beautiful, and we’ve started taking our time on the hike to enjoy the scenery. On our second day hiking from Kennedy Meadows, we arrived at the South Fork of the Kern River, where we met a hiker and fisherman named Posey. Posey had walked from Kennedy Meadows to the bridge where we met him by following the river rather than the PCT. He offered to bring us back a mile or so to a good fishing hole, and we (Jared, Nick, Steven and Darren) gladly took him up on the offer. When we got to a nice spot along the river, we saw mostly two types of fish -- trout, which are good eatin’, and suckerfish, a bottom feeder that’s not worth the effort of cleaning. In the first three or so hours of casting lines, we caught a four or so trout that we were excited to get to cook. But one elusive fish hid under the river bank with a large tail teasing us. Steven and Posey decided spearfishing would be a better way to catch the beast and began sharpening sticks and fashioning weapons. When a few stabs in the water didn’t work out, Jared decided to try to grab the fish with his hand. Though Jared didn’t catch the one we had our eyes on, he almost immediately pulled a nearly 18 inch trout out the water with his bare hands. The price catch prompted the rest of us to jump in the river and begin sticking our hands in holes along the bank. Within an hour, we had more than doubled our haul and had enough trout to feed our group. Furthermore, we also snagged the massive suckerfish that hid under the water and promoted us to try methods other than rod and reel. We decided to take the next day to fish as well, and a group of 15 or so other hikers who saw us chowing down on fresh trout that night decided to join in the fishing trip. One hiker, Charlie from France, was brave enough to be the first of the new fishermen to try our “noodling” method. After Jared assured Charlie that no harm would come his way, the Frenchman stuck his hand in a hole and pulled out a snake, which was thankfully harmless. By the early afternoon, we had helped the group catch more than 20 trout, mostly with our bare hands (though Steven and Darren did have a lot of luck fishing with the old school way). We took the trout back and cooked them in an array of ways, though the buttered, grilled and covered in french-fried onions was our favorite. Other hikers in the group helped us boil some of the sucker fish to remove bones, and we then mixed the mushy meat in with some potatoes and breading to make “sucker fish cakes,” which were surprisingly good. The suckerfish were easier to catch than the trout, and for every seven or so suckerfish we pulled out the water, we caught a trout. In the end, we caught maybe 40 trout over two days, and a every person in a group of 22 hikers who slept at the river the second night got to eat some fresh-cooked trout.

[swamptosierras-blog]

Notes from the trail: An update from Cajon Pass (PCT Mile 342.1)

We arrived in Cajon Pass, which is at PCT mile 342.1, on Monday and have been on the trail for a full month now.

Jared and I (Nick) hiked in with Steven and Darren, two other thru hikers we've been walking alongside for the past 100 or so miles. We are spending three nights in the Best Western hotel here. 

Steven's mother and father drove in from their home about an hour away and took us to a nearby WalMart for a resupply run and a Steer 'n Stein restaurant for steak and ribs. 

Lacking cell phone and 4G signal on top of the on-trail mindset of focusing on miles, food, water, finding a suitable place to sleep and enjoying the ride have made it difficult to update frequently, so here's a rundown of the past 100ish miles:

--A STORM AND A MOVIE: From Paradise Cafe, where we last posted about Dr. Sole before mile 200, we went into town in Idyllwild after climbing to about 10,000 feet in the San Jacinto mountains. Crossing Pines to Palms Highway after the cafe came with a refreshing, and not at all subtle, change in landscape from desert like mountains without much shade to groves of pines and even a small section with Southern-style oaks. 

To get into Idyllwild, we hiked 2.5 miles on the "Devil's Slide Trail," which wasn't too bad going down, but the nearly 2,000 foot elevation gain going up sure kick started our calf muscles. 

We wound up spending three nights in Idyllwild at the Apple Blossom Inn to wait out a storm. As we were coming down the mountains toward town, we got some hail and saw snow patches on the ground. One day later, however, the skies were stormy and looked pretty rough. The ranger station's fire warning sign changed from "Severe" to "Moderate" as the storm rolled toward the trail. The extra night in town allowed us to dodge the bad weather, and we had cool, cloudy skies leftover from the rains to help us through the start back through the mountains. 

The folks in Idyllwild were all helpful and nice. A trail angel, David, gave us rides from and to the trail, and the community welcomed us into a small movie theater where we saw Iron Man 3.

--ZIGGY & THE BEAR: We eventually made it to Ziggy and The Bear's house. They're two trail angels who run a large-scale hiker support operation at mile 210.

On the night we arrived at their house, they hosted more than 60 hikers, most of whom slept in the back yard under a large open tent with soft carpeting. We, however, set up our tent outside their house closer to the trail to avoid the crowd. The food, and immediate foot bath given to hikers upon arrival, made the stop at mile 210, which came after a long, steep descent from the San Jacinto mountains.

--BIG BEARS OUTSIDE BEAR COUNTRY: Bear canisters, which lock food and other scented items in a "bear resistant" jar (see: http://www.bearvault.com/), aren't generally required along the PCT until miles 700 to 1,000, approximately. People always ask about bears, and we can now saw we've seen bears, though not in a wild setting or in the way people imagine,

First, the trail runs adjacent to Randy Miller's Predators In Action (http://www.predatorsinaction.com/), where he keeps some large animals in cages. We saw a tiger and a bear, but both seemed sleepy and uninterested in the nearby hikers.

Then, we made it to Big Bear City and Big Bear Lake. Darren's family has a cabin there, and we spent three nights relaxing while overlooking the lake. Adam, the Disco Pickle driver (see: https://www.facebook.com/DiscoPickle) spent one night at the cabin with us and taught us some new card games after grilling steaks.

Both towns were covered with wooden statues of bears in all shapes and size. The statues covered lawns and promoted businesses, but they're not quit the wild bears for which we'll need the canisters.

--HOT SPRINGS: From Big Bear, we made it to Cajon Pass. Along the way, we stopped at a Hot Springs. We arrived on a Saturday night, and many locals were spending the weekend there. One woman warned us the partying would last late into the night and pointed us to a quieter campsite further from the spring where we slept in peace.

The spring was of the "clothing optional" variety and showcased some older male's features in manner we could have gladly gone without. The spring, however, made up for the view - it didn't have a sulfur smell, and it pooled up in places where you could comfortably sit and enjoy the hot-tub temperatures. 

--BREAD CRUMBING: We had a small issue with our Spot Connect and syncing it to our smartphone to update the live tracking map. The helpful tech support folks at Spot (which, coincidentally, is a Louisiana-based company), helped us do a simple reboot, and it should be up and running when we start hiking in the morning. To see where we are, follow our live tracking map: http://bit.ly/ZbC3HC

--WILDLIFE REPORT: We've seen more lizards and bugs than we can count, and we've seen a few different types of snakes. While Darren has spotted seven or so rattle snakes, I've only seen three - two baby ones and one that rattled loud enough to hear from 20 yards down the trail.

While hiking one night earlier in the trip we saw a tarantula the size of my palm sitting in the middle of the trail unfazed by our steps and lights. Then, we saw a kangaroo rat hopping along the trail. A small group of bats fluttered around our cowboy camp one night as well.

We've also spotted a bunch of birds, from blue jays to hawks flying in pairs. One hiker we met carried binoculars around his neck and photographs birds. He said he had 30 or so species to identify when he reached Big Bear.

--LOSING IMPORTING THINGS: Both Jared and I have had the opportunity to learn from losing import hiker items. 

First, early in the trip, I took my hat off and stuffed it in a pocked. Somewhere in the five or so miles to camp, it fell out along the trail. Thankfully, Tattoo Joe, a super experienced PCT hiker showing Steven the ropes, was behind me on the trail, and he picked up the hat and brought it to me that night at our camp where he was also staying.

Jared didn't quite have as much luck. He lost his sunglasses somewhere in Big Bear and hiked until Cajon Pass without a pair. Luckily for him though, his dad sent a new pair of sunglasses in a package here. 

--THANK YOUS: Apart from all the trail angels, other hikers, community members and people out here, we'd like to especially thank some people back home. Both Jared's and my parents for sending packages with an array of surprises; my amazing girlfriend Tori for sending Oreos; my Aunt Susan for writing a letter and treating us to an ice cream treat; Steven's parents for driving us around Cajon Pass and giving us some home-baked goodies; Darren's dad for mailing out some of our packages; and Darren's step father and step uncle for letting us stay at their cabin in Big Bear. 

--A FINAL CHEERS FOR CHESTER: Unfortunately, Jared's longtime canine companion, Chester, faced rapidly declining health in recent days and is no longer with us. From our high-school days through living together in college - with Meg and her dog Shelby and with Kenny and his dog Jack - and from runs around the block to stealing chairs at Red Zeppelin or the Bulldog, Chester was the coolest dog in town.

--COMING UP: From Cajon Pass, we'll make our way another 120 miles up the trail in the next six to seven days to another trail angels. Before leaving here tomorrow, though, we'll post some pictures and videos from the stretch described in this post.