HB on the Trail

Hello again!  I have made it here to Chester which is the 1/2 way point on the trail, 1,323 miles!  The terrain has become a bit easier and the snow patches are few and very far between!  The weather has warmed everything up and the temperatures are soaring to 95-100 degrees each day.  There are lots of great slow moving rivers to jump in to cool off and tons of springs with fresh cold water. 

My digital camera is now ruined and I drowned my video camera in a creek last week… I guess my next camera will be waterproof! 

Hot Mess left to trail on July 14th to visit home and got back on trail on the 20th but I do not think I will see him again on this trip, as I continued hiking north.  I was a wreck for the first few days without him.  It’s funny, I spent 3 months with him every minute of each day and we never fought or got sick of each other, I guess that shows what great company he was!  I miss him tons and will be sure to visit him in Oregon!

I am heading home myself on July 28th.  I will be finishing this trail in years to come.  I will miss the hike but not as much as I have been missing Abby, Ella, Jake and Eliot.  This year I have been on trail for more than 240 days and have hiked more than 4,000 miles…

Well I am heading back on trail up to Old Station then to Burney Falls where I will get down to the airport… See everyone next week.

Toothfairy!

Hello again!  Hot Mess and I are here at Lake Tahoe relaxing!  HM’s parents (The Danielsens) came up on Friday and spoiled us with food and lodging and drove us all around.  Mr and Mrs Danielsen also came up last Monday also and we had a terrific picnic during our short stay at Kennedy Meadows.  I cannot thank them enough…

We are now at the 1,096 mile mark and everyone is excited to be out of the snow and off the peaks over 10,000 ft.  We are all marching toward the halfway point of this trail in a few hundred more miles and even more motivating, the California/Oregon border, although that will not be for a few more weeks! 

Thankfully the snow on the trail seems to be behind us and the river crossings are more calm and easy to cross!  We had a deep crossing of Bear Creek, (more like a river) in the Sierras and my poor camera took a swim and is broken.  Luckily my pictures are on a memory card and I have my video camera to take photos with.  I will try to post more photos when I can figure out how to get the photos off my video camera onto this blog. 

We missed the post office here at Echo Lake, I heard that lots of people sent me mail there!  Thanks so much… I am trying to get my mail from there forwarded to my next stop, Sierra City!

I still miss everyone tons and cannot wait to get back home.  I am hiking on towards Mt. Shasta and will update again soon… Toothfairy

Wow has this stretch of trail been difficult!  We left Independence in the snow and returned to the trail, with more snow.  The hikes up to the passes are long and strenuous, miles feel long and take even longer, the creek and river crossings swift and cold…however, the mountian scenery is spectacular!  Looking up from a high peak down into the valley is just breathtaking and knowing that I did it on foot is a great feeling!

Hot Mess and I are having a great time pushing through the mountains and he is reminding me that we do not have to go 20 miles each day to make progress.  Lately we have been stopping at hot springs, soaking and spending time in towns relaxing!  Mammoth has been a super place to stop, there is a trolley that gets us around town and there are tons of other hikers here to visit with.

We are leaving tomorrow to get to Tuolumne Meadows and then on to Echo Lake. 

I cannot belive that July is coming up in just a few days!  Mel had a first birthday party for Ella and Jake, boy did this year pass fast.  I am thinking of everyone back home more than ever.  It looks like I will not finish the PCT this summer, it’s too snowy now to make fast progress but I will stay on and finish California and hopefully get into Oregon before heading home.  Next summer I will triple crown!

I will post again at Echo Lake in about a week!  Thinking of everyone!  Toothfairy

Hot Mess and I left Kennedy Meadows and got hit with a snow storm our first day into the Sierras!  The weather cleared that evening and we hiked north for the next few days from about 7,ooo feet to about 10,ooo feet with little snow on the ground.  We made our way to the bottom of Mt. Whitney and were the first hikers to summit at about 10:30 on Monday morning.  The views were terrific and the weather was sunny and bright!  We were soon joined by other hikers and decided to make our way down before the snow got too soft.  Yay us!  Mt. Whitney is the highest peak in the lower 48 at 14,449 feet, my highest peak to date!

The following day we got to hike over the highest point on the actual PCT, the famous Forester Pass.  It’s famous for it’s difficult snow covered ascent as well as it’s snow shoot about 25 yards from the top!  Forester lived up to it’s name and was a haul to get over and a disaster to get down from!  We postholed for miles and I lost one of my trekking poles on a scary glissade!  When we finally made it down, HM and I kissed the trail!

We got to Independence yesterday afternoon and are heading back to the snowy Sierras after a much needed day off.  Next we will be hiking over peaks and passes that are a bit lower and hopefully less snowy.  Our next stop is at the Mono Hot Springs and then we will be on to Tuolumne Meadows.

The photos are of a view heading up Mt. Whitney, a strange and beautiful flowering plant, a wolf print and the view from Kearsage Pass.

Thanks again to everyone who sent mail to Independence!  I got recent a photo of my nephew Eliot and a wonderful letter from my first grade friend Katie! 

I am off to get some rest and will post again when I get to the next place with internet!  Happy hiking!  Toothfairy

After a 10 day break we are back on the trail!  Yay!  I spent Memorial Day weekend with Steve and we had a super time together.  After the weekend HM and I rented a car and drove north hoping to hike some miles of the trail up north but in lower elevations… no luck, this is a snowy year!

We hiked up from Walker Pass in Onyx in the desert heat for the past few days and spent hours flopping around in the Kern River to cool off.  I think I drank 6 liters of water yesterday before 3 in the afternoon.  Because we spent some time off there are lots of new hikers here that we will be heading into the Sierras with, including a guy named double zero who is blind!  He hiked the AT and fell more than 3,000 times… I guess the PCT is better graded because he hasn’t taken as many falls!

We are now at Kennedy Meadows and heading into the Sierras!  The peaks are high and snowy and the rivers are swift moving but lots of hikers have passed through and are saying the views are spectacular!  This will be the first time I will be hiking with a bear canister and ice axe!  I hope I don’t need either.

We are planning on resupplying in Independence in about 6 days and will head back into the Sierras for about 5 more days after that.  Internet will be scarce, but I will post pics of the Sierras when I get through at Echo Lake.

Thanks to Aunt, Kace, Mom, Jenni, Maryellen and Mel for sending me packages and emails the past few weeks!

I will blog soon.  Toothfairy

The wind through this last stretch was wicked!  We hiked over the LA aquaduct and into the Tehachapi Mountians.  Last year the weather was 100 degrees and sunny in this area, we got high wind gusts and 50 degree weather, go figure!  The wind was so strong it blew me all over the trail and whipped through every layer of clothing I owned.  Hot Mess and I decided to push on to town and hiked our first 30 mile day on this trip, his first ever. 

Today I am leaving the desert and starting my hike into the low Sierras!  The desert was amazing.  I got to see lots of snakes and lizards as well as the many desert flowers that come out during a wet season.  The towns and trail angels have made the desert so enjoyable.  There were many water caches on long dry stretches and The Saufleys, Andersons and Hiker Town were terrific stops along the way. 

We have met many other thru hikers during the past few weeks.  The Boys, (team name) Rally, Bojangles, Furniture and Ishmial have been leap frogging us for weeks.  The Boys are so fun, we came upon a yard sale during a reroute due to the Station fire in the Angeles National Forest and they bought Razor scooters to help out with the road walk.  Mango, Golden Child and Slim Jim are also leap frogging us, there are plenty of people to hike with out here.

Hot Mess and I are planning on staying together through the Sierras to Echo Lake and hopefully further.  We have made a few adjustments to the hike leading up to Kennedy Meadows, this is where the high passes and Mt. Whitney are located.  The snow pack is at about 120% so we are going to take a few days off and travel up the the Merced Valley in Yosemite with Rally to wait for the snowpack to melt, we will be bouldering and day hiking until about the 10th of June.  We are also both taking Memorial Day weekend off, HM is going to visit with his girlfriend for her Mom’s Birthday and Stephen is coming out to visit with me at Lake Isabella, yay!

We also decided not to stop at Muir Ranch or Vermilon Valley Ranch.  From what the guides say to pick up packages at both of these places is very expensive ($20 each) and not worth the side trip.  Instead we are heading out to Independence, 93526, if you would like to send mail there we will be there around June 15th. 

I got to talk to my Mom yesterday and she told me all about Abby’s dance recital, one of those things that I was so sad to miss, from what I heard she did such a great job.  I sure miss her and Ella and Jake.  Eliot just gets cuter and cuter, sigh, sometimes the days seem long and I want to be home. But I will hike on…

My next stop is in Onyx!  I miss everyone back home tons!  Trish, I am hoping for some candied pecans soon, just saying…  Toothfairy

Yay!  Here are just a few photos from the start of my trip.  Hot Mess is the one in the blue shirt and super cool glasses!

The top photo is of Eagle Rock!  The others are of desert flowers and one of the snow from the second day of hiking.

I am currently in Agua Dulce and got some mail here!  Thanks!  I miss everyone and will post again when I can!

Oh, before I forget, Kennedy Meadows has a new address, It’s

Kennedy Meadows General Store,
96740 Beach Meadow Road,
Inyokern, CA 93527

Will write soon, Toothfairy!

This trail is amazing!  Trail angels leave water caches along the way for the dry desert sections and this town, Wrightwood has so many people willing to host hikers and give us rides back to the trail! 

Yesterday, my friends Jerry and Kay came by for a few minutes to say hi!  They are from Texas and were in the area for a wedding!  I got to meet their daughter and adorable granddaughter Morgan.  Jerry, Kay and I met five years ago at Lake Tahoe and they came out to see me on the CDT!  I was so happy that the  timing worked out!  Much to my surprise, when I went to the grocery store here in Wrightwood this morning I was asked if I was ‘The Toothfairy?”  I of course said yes… Jerry and Kay left me a gift card to use for grocery shopping!  Thanks you two! 

Well I am off to Agua Dulce, more than half of this next section of the PCT is rerouted due to the big station fire that happened last August.  Hopefully the reroute will be as beautiful as the trail itself.

I miss everyone back home!  Happy Birthday to Mo, Gavin and Eric!  I am thinking of you and wishing you a great day!  Happy Hiking, Toothfairy!

Wow is this trail different from the CDT!  It’s well marked and the towns are so hiker friendly.  The past two towns have signs all over welcoming PCT hikers! 

The last stretch from Idyllwild to here in Big Bear went from chilly to super hot through the Mission Creek drainage.  We went from the lowest point on the trail here in California  at about 1,700 feet up to 8,000 feet in one day in the blistering heat!  It’s all part of the journey though. 

I got rattled by a rattlesnake three days ago, don’t worry Mom he was far away!  These snakes are beautiful and from a distance not harmful.  They give you plenty of warning and their rattle is very loud!

The little lizards and toads are abundant as well as all the desert flowers and cacti!  Due to the rain and snow this year, water has been plentiful so far too. 

I am still hiking with Hot Mess, his birthday is on the 10th so I am trying to figure out a way to hike with a cupcake in my pack for the next few days without it getting crushed! 

My next town is Wrightwood, I will go in to resupply and check mail, we do not plan on staying there, but are planning on Zeroing (not hiking any miles, zero miles) in Agua Dulce at the Saufleys, they are trail angels that have converted their backyard into a hiker haven with laundry, showers and rides to town! 

I miss everyone back home tons… Toothfairy

I have now made it more than 170 miles here on the PCT!  The snow has passed and the days are clear and chilly!  Southern California is beautiful!  There are so many desert flowers out here! 

I am feeling good, a few blisters here and there, but all of us hikers have those throughout the trip.  I have been hiking with Christian, trail name, Hot Mess… we seem to have the same hiker pace and he is fine company. 

My next stop is  Big Bear, I look forward to calling home then!  We should roll in on Thursday or Friday.  I miss everyone back home tons, especially my niece Abby, she turned four yesterday and was too busy to talk to me during her party! 

I will post again in Big Bear and hope to hear from everyone back home. Happy Hiking, Toothfairy!