Tag: pacific crest trail

PCT Menu: Throwback Thru-Hike Edition

by Molly O'Rourke, posted in Pacific Crest Trail Thru Hike

Food was an early theme. I skipped ahead a bit in the journals and came across CD’s daily menu. He defined eating as job #1 and hiking as job #2.

Please note that I have never personally known CD to eat a pop-tart.

“Job #1: Eating:“

Breakfast: 1/3 lb of granola and re-hydrated soy milk
Second Breakfast: Pop-tarts (may be substituted by something else with 500 calories)
Eleven-sies: gorp or other trail mix
Luncheon: bagel and cheese or Nutella or peanut butter – whatever gets it up to 750+ calories, frequently snack a bit, too
Afternoon Tea: clif bar, gorp, granola, recently twix or snickers bar
Dinner: 1/2 a bag of Bear Creek Cheese and Broccoli Soup mix (4 servings), 6-8 oz of pasta, and 7 oz of tuna (the tuna is every other day recently) – usually fills about to the 1 liter mark on the pot and totals 1000+ calories. SNACK: Twix bars or Sourpatch kids

He was eating 3 lbs of food per day; it sounds like most other hikers were averaging 2 lbs per day. Since I don’t weigh my food, I have no idea what that means.

Just in case you wonder how big CD is and why he needs all of this food. His self stated goal was to walk to Canada and not lose any weight. Here he is on a pair of skis that he found in the Southern California desert. #PCT

Food Inspired Quotes from the first thirty days:

  • I heard about a Mexican restaurant near the highway up ahead, I hadn’t intended to walk that far but I was hungry for margaritas and good food, so I pushed on. It was Del Taco.
  • For breakfast I had four eggs, toast, an orange. Lunch was most of a large pizza and a pint of Ben & Jerry’s Mint Cookie.
  • “After breakfast, snack, ice cream, errands, and fixing the rub spots, we hung around at the grocery store”
  • “I had a veggie burger, a 22 oz. Arrogant Bastard Ale, a fudge ice cream dessert thing, and a small pizza”
  • Buying the whole apple pie with ice cream was cheaper than piece by piece, so I did that
  • I carried the Five Iron of Love for two consecutive days so they owe me a pint of Ben and Jerry’s.
  • “Another town, another pint of Ben and Jerry’s”

Stay tuned for the Pink Palace, The Saufley’s house, all kinds of trail magic, and Kennedy Meadows!

#PCT

CD also has a hidden talent that he apparently picked up on the trail. He can open the ice cream freezer at any gas station and know exactly how many calories are in each option. I thought it was kind of bizarre until I read this record of his daily diet. Please follow our blog if you are interested in hearing more. Thank you!

PCT Thru Hike: Warner Springs

by Molly O'Rourke, posted in Pacific Crest Trail Thru Hike

CD’s PCT thru hike trail journals are interesting. The common themes are food, water, dust, heat, sleeping, walking, and people. It all seems pretty basic really.

Meadow track to Warner Springs. #PCT

Warner Springs offered CD an introduction to the thru hiking community. He left town with a group of 15 or so hikers and they stayed together through a hot springs North of Lost Valley Road, I think.

Looks like Truffula Trees. #PCT
Hot Springs North of Warner Springs. #PCT
#PCT

They rinsed clothes and soaked their joints. Local characters gathered there as well included a local stripper and a guy that carried his pipe, which he preferred to light with a magnifying glass, on a string around his neck.

CD and the pipe guy went to town and returned with watermelon. Apparently watermelon is not common on thru hikes and it was a big hit!

Phlox in the burn. #PCT

That time that CD left me on the road in order to give some thru-hikers a lift to town.

I have had only one experience on the PCT in southern California. CD and I were driving from Palm Dessert to San Diego. As we approached the PCT, I could feel CD’s excitement. I could tell that he really wanted to be a trail angel for someone.

We rolled over a hill in our Honda Civic hatchback and saw two hikers waiting for a ride to town. CD pulled over before he could even tell me his plan. Next thing you know, the two hikers, their packs, and CD were out of view and I was standing on the edge of the road.

It was me, tumbleweed, and the hundreds of rattlesnakes that obviously lived there.

I was out of place in clean clothes, sandals, and with my purse over my shoulder. Another set of hikers showed up from the South. They stopped to chat. They had met on the trail in 2004, did not complete their hikes that year, but went on to get married. On the trail again, they were hoping to complete it this time. I was new to the secret code of “trail names” but we were able to figure out that they had been on the trail with CD in 2004. They had crossed paths in approximately the same section of the trail that we were on then. I thought of this today while reading their names in CD’s trail journal.

A short time later, they got picked up by a passing car. I reached back to the old fashioned communication means of my youth and asked the hikers to send CD my way if they happened to see him hanging around town. I stood there, without a cell signal, waiting for CD.

More than an hour later he came back for me. It was fine. I was fine but I like to remind how about how he deserted me on the edge of the road during a hot day in the desert and didn’t pick me up until dusk.

This came out beautifully by accident. I love the frame of the moon. #PCT

Please follow us to learn more about CD’s hike!

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Pacific Crest Trail Kick Off

by Molly O'Rourke, posted in Pacific Crest Trail Thru Hike

4/28/2004 was the first day of CD’s Pacific Crest Trail thru hike. April 28 is also my birthday, so we celebrate.

He kept a trail journal and has offered it to me. This is just the beginning.

#pct #pacificcresttrail

Transition to life on the trail

I know very little about his time on the PCT. The first few weeks were a time of transition and learning. He went from hiking with a friend to hiking alone. He re-organized his pack and overhauled his food plan.

Prior to being on the trail, he imagined walking and walking just to see what was over the next hill. The people and relationships that make up the trail were not really part of the plan.

Human connection

Walking over 2500 miles by yourself in order to better appreciate human relationships seems counter-intuitive. In 2020, it is also an interesting topic in light of physical distancing in the face of pandemic.

CD tells me that he experienced his first trail magic just a few days into his hike.

#pct #pacificcresttrail

Trail Magic, Pacific Crest Trail Style

I was hiking through the hundred-plus degree desert sun and contemplating how much water I didn’t have. As I was reluctant to hike too far off trail for water and was pretty sure I could make it to the next source, I laid down on the side of a dirt road and put my feet up on an embankment trying to make my own shade.

Despite the heat, a family was settling in for a picnic up the road. Within a short time, the father came up and asked me where I was hiking.  He was quite excited to learn that I was, indeed, on my way to becoming a PCT through-hiker He gave me water, fruit, and Gatorade. It was just the sign that I needed to let me know that I was on the right path.

With this, CD had his first glimpse of how much larger the thru hike was than just the trail alone.

He went on to Warner Springs, feeling lonely but not as thirsty as he may have otherwise been. Fellow hikers offered him a room to share. Being early in the trail, there were more questions than answers.

Self Reflection on the Pacific Crest Trail

How fast should I hike? When and for how long should I rest? How much should I interact with people? What was my larger goal? Was there supposed to be a larger goal?

It sounds like all of these questions were a collective work in progress during the next four months.

So, every April we celebrate CD’s PCT kick-off anniversary.

In 2020, lets walk around the block and see if we find some trail magic. I bet we will.

#pct #pacificcresttrail
#pct #pacificcresttrail

Please follow our blog to hear more about CD’s hike and our other adventures.

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