Leaving the Mexico Border, Mile 17.5

Friday: (04/18) We were up early for breakfast at the nearby diner. I had my usual country fried steak while Lou and Dawn shared a hungry man breakfast. I thought hikers were supposed to have an appetite but mine wasn’t with me.  I barely finished the steak and some eggs. We gathered our things from the room and were off down the road to Campo, Ca, where the hike begins.


There were a couple of other hikers, Eric and Brian, there at the monument as well. After photos I started out with them at 0916, later than planned.


The weather was mild and never got over 85. Those hikers I started with were soon way out of sight. I stopped by a creek, just a trickle, it was 75 degrees. About noon I stopped half way up a hill for lunch. As I lunched, Honey Buzz and Emily passed by. They told me they started about an hour before me just after a group of 15 hikers brought by trail angel Froggy. I stopped for dinner on the ridge above Hauser Creek.


Nice scenery along the trail. My first snake is in the photo above right. Not sure what kind it is.


My cooking pot is shown on the right with my spork (spoon/fork). My stove only heats water. I don’t put food in it. The food goes in the pot above and hot water is added. It can be sealed so I can continue to hike while it simmers.



I made it down to Hauser Creek CG about 1905. I set up camp and got a good rest. Two other hikers were there Owen and Kevin Savage. Honey Buzz and Emily arrived after dark when I was already tucked in my tent.

Check out the posts at http://postholer.com/journal/rss/2080.xml

PCT Hike Eve

Thursday: (04/17) We drove down to Pine Valley, Ca today. Interesting traffic through LA, OC, and SD. Several accidents observed along the way. Breakfast from McDonald’s, lunch in Laguna Hills at a place called Hot Off The Grill, and dinner at the Calvin’s Restaurant in Pine Valley. McDonald’s OK. The other two were great finds. Excellent club sandwiches for lunch and salads for dinner. Fresh food is not on the trail menu so my dinner salad was for the trail.  We’re about 20 minutes from my Pacific Crest Trail start at the southern terminus by the Mexican border. Weather seems nice. Today was overcast and not hot. I hope it continues.

Oh What A Relief It Is

Monday: (04/14) I worked on the tax return again today. Not really fun but finishing it always gives me a feeling of accomplishment. I really liked the years Lou used to do the taxes. Turn about is fair play, I guess. The returns are both nicely e-filed now. Can the fun begin now? I received  some spare batteries for my camera as well as a USB charger for those batteries. My new camera is known for eating batteries so I wanted to have extra and a way to charge them in the wild. The charger is tiny about the size of a double wide clothes pin and just clips onto the batteries. Now, my remaining task is to finish (start) pacing my resupply boxes and backpack loading and get ready to head South. Lou made another nice eggs with sausage and fried potato breakfast to start the day. Lunch was pastrami with coleslaw. My pastrami was on a chibatta bun with cheese. Dinner was more leftovers. The refrigerator has been bountiful but we have about succeeded in cleaning it out.

Tuesday: (04/15) Well, nicely efiled they weren’t. I received and email this morning indicating the return for the feds was rejected. I polished it to their needs and refiled it. It was finally confirmed as OK at 1920. I, almost, really prefer paper but everything works more quickly online. I spent most of the rest of the day packing some resupply boxes and my pack. We even loaded the car hoping to get away this afternoon but Lou noticed the freeway was backed up for our departure direction so we’ll head out tomorrow morning. Lou made omelets for breakfast. We had KFC chicken for lunch and went to our nearby Corner Cafe for dinner.

Wednesday: (04/16) We finally got on the road about 1000. Breakfast was at the Longhouse Restaurant in Gilroy. Lou did the driving after a stop for coffee in Gonzalez. Another stop in Paso Robles to stretch our legs at a thrift store. We arrived in Bakersfield at about 1600. We stopped at Dick’s, Action Sports, and Sports Chalet where I finally found a pair of crampons and an ice axe. I hopefully won’t need the Axe but IthinkI err on the side that I might. We went to dinner at the Golden Corral Buffet with Aunt Helen.

Wrapping Up For A While

Monday: (04/07) I have to get things to a good stopping point this week. I plan on finishing the paint on the front of the house and installing a drain line through a flower bed on the North side of the front so I won’t have to destroy everything in the flowerbed two years in a row. The South side flower bed won’t be so lucky. When I return, I’ll install a sump pit and pump some sidewalk and I have to replace the main water valve. So, lots of mess there later. Since I’ll be gone so long I need to stow away  everything I  can so things aren’t in the way unnecessarily.

I painted the second coat of primer on the porch ceiling and front of the house. La Victoria chorizo burrito for breakfast. A couple of carnitas and cheese wraps for lunch. For dinner I stopped at Chevy’s Mexican restaurant for a Super Chevy’s. I tinkered on doing my taxes in the evening.

Tuesday: (04/08) I got an earlier start (0830) today and painted the third coat of primer on everything but the upper front part of the porch. I finished up about 1600, earlier than usual. Tomorrow some color is on the agenda! La Victoria bacon burrito for breakfast. Leftover Chevy’s Mexican food for lunch. A visit to the Old Spaghetti Factory with Lou and Dawn for dinner.

Wednesday: (04/09) I drove over to Home Depot in Santa Clara and bought some colored paint. Should have done that last night. I stopped on the way home for breakfast at La Victoria for a bacon burrito. I painted to color coat on every thing except the high area and the front of one column before I ran out of paint. For lunch i had my leftover spaghetti and meat balls from last night dinner. Since I ran out of paint, I headed out after cleaning up and stopped at Sweet Tomatoes for dinner before returning to Home Depot for another gallon of paint. On the way home I stopped at Best Buy and bought a new camera. If I’m going to get out into the beautiful country I want to get good photos.


Thursday: (04/10) Leftover potatoes and bacon for breakfast. I fixed a leak on the main water shutoff valve by adding some valve stem cord. Seems to have deferred  the needed valve replacement. I know that would open up a can of worm I don’t want right now. I stripped the masking off the windows and laid down my drop clothes then started painting the final coat of primer. Lunch was a couple of carnitas and cheese wraps. While the primer dried, I reinstalled some fencing that I had removed for access while painting. I also reinstalled a lattice sun screen on the Northwest end of the porch. I then painted the color on the area I primed earlier, the area above the front of porch. I finally finished that about 1800. I then put away my scaffolding and cleaned all my stuff up. I’m now secured for an extended absence. Lou dropped off some buckets I had forgotten. I’ll use them tomorrow doing my final task, installing a section of drain pipe through the North flower bed so I won’t have to disturb it again later. I pretty much destroyed all the plants in the flower beds. After cleaning up I moseyed downtown passing through the San Jose State Campus. There was a demonstration and by the signs I determined that Hillary Clinton must be speaking at the Event Center. She was. I decided to visit Original Joe’s Restaurant and enjoyed a charbroiled cheese burger. Very good reward for finishing painting the front of the house.

Friday: (04/11) I relaxed a little in the morning. I walked over for my ,recently, usual bacon burrito for breakfast at La Vitoria. When i got back I relaxed a little more before finally getting outside a little before 0900. My intent was to put some drain pipe in in one of the flower beads. I dug down to find the stub-out I was to connect to and found it at 16 inches deep. That would mean I have to dig a trench starting at 20 inches deep and growing deeper at the end of the 17 foot run of over 24 inches deep. My laziness got the best of me so I filled my test hole in and will do the trench another day. Seemed like too much time and digging was needed. I packed up my things, secured the things I left in the yard for an extended absence and headed home. After I got home and unloaded the Jeep we all went to lunch at LUU noodle house. I managed to take a nap after lunch. At 4pm we went over to the local IKEA store for their Easter dinner buffet. We bought tickets for it last week. Nice meal with some oddly named food.

Saturday: (04/12) My favorite project occupied my day, tax preparation. I settled into the RV to get away. I did make some progress. Dawn had her Tai Chi class this morning. It was a really nice sunny day but a little chilli at times. Quinoa with yogurt for breakfast. Leftovers for lunch. Tacos for dinner followed by strawberries.

Sunday: (04/13) I went through my pack and got rid of what i though I should. keeping what i think I’ll need. Without food and water it’s still over 24 pounds, about 8 pounds heavier than it should be. But, I’m a big guy and I obviously think I need what is in it so I’ll have to live with the extra weight. I still have to pack my food and resupply boxes. Rather late, but I dropped by REI today to get a replacement pair of shoes. Supposedly the shoes I’m wearing only last 500 miles and they have over 100 miles on them already. I’m not sure of availability of Brooks Cascadia shoes along the trail so i bought a pair. REI had a 20% off sale today and I anted to save the bucks. I also tested my SPOT satellite messenger today. I’ve had it for several years but rarely use it. In fact, the app had to be reinstalled on my smartphone and onto the new tablet. I successfully sent status update messages from both so should be able to send the from the trail. The tests killed the batteries in the device though. They are a couple of years old though. They are special lithium AA batteries which are not available everywhere so I got the replacement and a couple of more spares for my resupply boxes. Otherwise I was busy working on the taxes again. I also spent some time to setup email posting to this blog and to Facebook. I finally got it to work so I can like updates from the SPOT messenger to post location and status updates to both sites. Lou made a nice sausage eggs and fried potatoes breakfast. For lunch she mad fresh asparagus soup. And our dinner was chicken with spinach and rice. All meals enjoyed outside. Three days until we should leave.

Tentative PCT Hike Schedule

This is my tentative schedule. As if I ever follow a schedule. Assuming I actually pickup speed the longer I’m on the trail, i may finish earlier. Assuming I take more “Zero”days (not miles on trail), It may take longer.

Section	Depart	Distance (mi)	Elevation Gain (ft)	mi/day	ft/day	Trail Days	Arrival	Layover Days
US/Mexico Border to Mt. Laguna	4-18-14 (Fri)	42.3 mi	5570 Ft	15.8 mi	2085 Ft	2.7	4-20-14 (Sun)	1
Mt. Laguna to Warner Springs	4-21-14 (Mon)	67.3 mi	3567 Ft	18.1 mi	958 Ft	3.7	4-25-14 (Fri)	3
Warner Springs to Idyllwild	4-28-14 (Mon)	69.0 mi	10211 Ft	15.4 mi	2284 Ft	4.5	5-2-14 (Fri)	1
Idyllwild to Ziggy and the Bear	5-3-14 (Sat)	32.5 mi	2190 Ft	17.6 mi	1188 Ft	1.8	5-5-14 (Mon)	1
Ziggy and the Bear to Big Bear City	5-6-14 (Tue)	63.0 mi	10117 Ft	15.1 mi	2431 Ft	4.2	5-10-14 (Sat)	0
Big Bear City to Wrightwood	5-10-14 (Sat)	89.5 mi	8090 Ft	16.9 mi	1531 Ft	5.3	5-16-14 (Fri)	0
Wrightwood to Agua Dulce	5-16-14 (Fri)	90.8 mi	10615 Ft	16.2 mi	1895 Ft	5.6	5-21-14 (Wed)	1
Agua Dulce to Tehachapi	5-22-14 (Thu)	103.9 mi	11427 Ft	16.4 mi	1803 Ft	6.3	5-29-14 (Thu)	1
Tehachapi to Highway 58 (California)	5-30-14 (Fri)	8.3 mi	701 Ft	17.1 mi	1445 Ft	0.5	5-30-14 (Fri)	0
Highway 58 to Kennedy Meadows Store	5-30-14 (Fri)	136.2 mi	15310 Ft	16.3 mi	1836 Ft	8.3	6-7-14 (Sat)	1
Kennedy Meadows Store to Independence	6-8-14 (Sun)	103.4 mi	14287 Ft	15.7 mi	2165 Ft	6.6	6-15-14 (Sun)	1
Independence to Vermillion Valley Resort	6-16-14 (Mon)	87.0 mi	14891 Ft	14.9 mi	2550 Ft	5.8	6-22-14 (Sun)	0
Vermillion Valley Resort to Reds Meadow	6-22-14 (Sun)	29.4 mi	4484 Ft	15.3 mi	2337 Ft	1.9	6-24-14 (Tue)	0
Reds Meadow to Tuolumne Meadows	6-24-14 (Tue)	36.1 mi	4626 Ft	15.9 mi	2040 Ft	2.3	6-26-14 (Thu)	0
Tuolumne Meadows to Echo Lake Resort	6-26-14 (Thu)	151.8 mi	19905 Ft	15.8 mi	2078 Ft	9.6	7-6-14 (Sun)	1
Echo Lake Resort to Sierra City	7-7-14 (Mon)	103.1 mi	10906 Ft	16.5 mi	1746 Ft	6.2	7-13-14 (Sun)	0
Sierra City to Belden	7-13-14 (Sun)	91.6 mi	10876 Ft	16.2 mi	1919 Ft	5.7	7-19-14 (Sat)	0
Belden to Old Station	7-19-14 (Sat)	88.5 mi	10330 Ft	16.2 mi	1893 Ft	5.5	7-24-14 (Thu)	0
Old Station to Burney Falls SP	7-24-14 (Thu)	45.9 mi	1457 Ft	18.8 mi	597 Ft	2.4	7-26-14 (Sat)	0
Burney Falls SP to Castella	7-26-14 (Sat)	82.9 mi	8000 Ft	16.8 mi	1618 Ft	4.9	7-31-14 (Thu)	0
Castella to Seiad Valley	7-31-14 (Thu)	155.6 mi	15309 Ft	16.7 mi	1644 Ft	9.3	8-10-14 (Sun)	0
Seiad Valley to Ashland	8-10-14 (Sun)	64.5 mi	10002 Ft	15.3 mi	2367 Ft	4.2	8-14-14 (Thu)	1
Ashland to Crater Lake (Mazama Village)	8-15-14 (Fri)	103.8 mi	9414 Ft	16.9 mi	1535 Ft	6.1	8-21-14 (Thu)	0
Crater Lake to Shelter Cove Resort	8-21-14 (Thu)	81.8 mi	7002 Ft	23.9 mi	2043 Ft	3.4	8-24-14 (Sun)	0
Shelter Cove Resort to Sisters	8-24-14 (Sun)	77.3 mi	5861 Ft	24.4 mi	1853 Ft	3.2	8-28-14 (Thu)	0
Sisters to Olallie Lake	8-28-14 (Thu)	63.6 mi	7470 Ft	22.2 mi	2606 Ft	2.9	8-31-14 (Sun)	0
Olallie Lake to Timberline Lodge	8-31-14 (Sun)	54.2 mi	4885 Ft	23.6 mi	2128 Ft	2.3	9-2-14 (Tue)	0
Timberline Lodge to Cascade Locks	9-2-14 (Tue)	47.8 mi	4140 Ft	23.8 mi	2062 Ft	2	9-4-14 (Thu)	1
Cascade Locks to White Pass	9-5-14 (Fri)	147.7 mi	20822 Ft	15.6 mi	2199 Ft	9.5	9-14-14 (Sun)	0
White Pass to Snoqualmie Pass	9-14-14 (Sun)	99.0 mi	9185 Ft	16.9 mi	1565 Ft	5.9	9-20-14 (Sat)	0
Snoqualmie Pass to Skykomish	9-20-14 (Sat)	74.5 mi	13450 Ft	14.7 mi	2653 Ft	5.1	9-25-14 (Thu)	0
Skykomish to Stehekin	9-25-14 (Thu)	97.8 mi	16860 Ft	14.9 mi	2564 Ft	6.6	10-2-14 (Thu)	0
Stehekin to Manning Park	10-2-14 (Thu)	89.4 mi	13353 Ft	15.4 mi	2300 Ft	5.8	10-8-14 (Wed)	0
Totals:	4-18-14 (Fri)	2,679.5 mi	315313 Ft	16.7 mi	1970 Ft	173.1	10-8-14 (Wed)

Here is a link to the full plan.

Busy, Busy

Saturday: (04/05) I worked in the garden setting up the sprinklers in the garden.


I also plucked a bunch of apricots from the tree to thin the load to reduce broken limbs and possibly get bigger apricots?


Above is the green house with the plants that haven’t found a home in the yard, yet. On the right is the garden Ernie is working on.

I went on a shopping run and picked up shipping boxes at the Post Office, a bucket for my bounce box (contains extra stuff and supplies shipped from Post Office to Post Office) from Lowe’s. I also stopped by Harbor Freight and bought a replacement pump for the pond. When I got home I installed the pump. I also took the RV out to get gas and LPG. I couldn’t get LPG on the way in last trip because it was too late. I like to have the tanks full in case of an emergency. Before I parked it back in the driveway I pruned the tree next to and above it. Cheese blintzes for breakfast. Chinese food for lunch. Black beans with rice and sausage for dinner.

Sunday: (04/06) Lou made eggs, home fried potatoes and bacon for breakfast which we enjoyed in the back yard. Lou and Dawn were busy with some shopping, yard sales and a walk at the baylands to see the birds. I did some more tinkering with the drip watering system. My major project today though was to prepare some resupply boxes for mailing. I’m only preparing supplies for up to Tehachapi which should be about 35 days. Not even 1/4 of the hike, but preparing them is a daunting task. I picked up some boxes at the post office and tried to identify my needs and collected supplies at the markets. I didn’t finish but I should be able to finish next weekend. Lunch at LUU noodle house. Lou made a Waldorf like salad with apples, celery and fennel served with pasta. I returned to San Jose for the night.

St Joseph’s Hill Hike

Friday: (04/04) Jack in the Box sandwich for breakfast. I met my hiking group in Los Gatos and we did a short hike up St Joseph’s Hill and along Los Gatos Creek. We enjoyed a nice hike up but had some good rain on the way down the hill. I stopped for lunch at the Country Inn Restaurant for a nice corned beef hash breakfast. I did the usual post Friday hike napping. We had quesadillas for dinner.