Sunday, May 27, 2018

Gotta Gotta Get Up

Days 3 


“I’m dying”

“You’re not dying, you just can’t think of anything better to do.” -Ferris Buellers day off.  

Been doing a lot of movie quotes in my head the past few days. I refer to this one because that’s how the ol’ legs made me feel when I woke up.. Laying there like a stiff staring at the top of my tent. I know it was only day three but I played my first mental game. “You lose already. Go home. Move to lake Morena and work at the malt shop.” 

Sat up. Saw a rabbit and a hummingbird right outside my tent window. Got out of the tent. Moved around for a few minutes to loosen the legs. Packed up the bag. Was super stoked for day three. Crazy what subtle differences can make. Laying down comfortable- this is crazy, silly, stupid. Standing with the bag on my back-this is awesome, go get some!

Felt greaaat today. Gotta say, being fully hydrated and getting 10 hours of sleep does help in the most common knowledge kind of way. 

Had a cool little desert section in the morning followed by a 6000 ft slope up to Mt. Laguna. Ran into a cool chick only going halfway up to Cibbets Flat instead of previous planned top of the mountain. Nice to know that there are others out there with crazy goals achangin right out of the gate. Good thing about that is everything is out the window and you get to strive for more realistic daily goals. I look at what I thought my schedule was going to be and I laugh and laugh and poop myself from laughing at it! Nahgonna NahGonna happen. Anyways. Emily from Tasmania you seem like a rad chick out here to enjoy. Hope we run into each other down the path and we can crush some 20s together. 

I managed to get to the top of the mountain and found myself a nice little pine meadow to set up in. Reminded me a lot of home forests. Longest day. Was a great hot climb. Went to bed as the sun was setting and the fog was rollin’ in.

Day 4

“Is the bear…...is the guy…”- Super Troopers

I have the potential to see a bear out here right?!?!! Why not!

Next early morning mental game! It’s foooking cooold outside. I’ll just stay in the tent till it warms up. I’ll hike the half mile and get a room at Mt. Laguna. 

Zip zip roll pack, bag on the back, let’s doooo this!

Walked ½ mile and ran into Shawn Hemmingway out car camping with his daughter. Hung out sippin some coffee. Thank you kind sir. Very fun morning walk. Foggy misty iry forest walk with a glimpse of sun here and there. Mile five for me, ran into Kwame from Phili packing up his bag gettin ready for the day. Outta the forest into the wind. Beautiful views but all in all the day never really got warm so you had to be moving. Kwame caught me at breakfast and we hiked out till lunch. Cool young dude with a ton of ambition.He’ll take over the world soon enough! I had to let him go ahead after lunch because it was time to assess my blister situation. It was nice to have a partner through that wind.

Day 5.

“Riiiight now”- Barry last Episode

If you’re watching my dot. Which I realize I haven’t had on for a bit. No I did not sprint to Julian in the middle of the night. I had to magically hitch this morning. Thought I’d make it here on my own for 3 20s in a row!..but no. It may or may not be 12 miles I’ll never get back. I’ll try not to stress to much about ‘em. Had to happen.

Let’s talk blisters shall we! I have one on both heel pads. Couple other randos and my toenails are already coming off. Yeeehaww! Yesterday I decided to leave the blisters and keep trucking. This was a smart decision. Annoying but could be thought of as walking with air Jordan’s, a little extra cushion for maximum dunk! Then, things changed. I decided to pop them. Usually not a big deal. Done this before….but not on the bottom of my foot. If I was biking I would say I just got two flat tires. Kick ass mph to FML mph. Had tape not mole skin. could not walk this out. So I had to hitch it on up here and take the rest of the day to figure out me feet.

In another good decision I dropped a ton of weight day two.( I was carrying enough food to get to Canada along with a bunch of other stoof that I mentioned I knew was dumb in post one. Sure Simko, I’ll let you have a little I told ya so.) However, I dropped a rolled up bundle of extra clothes. Annnd what was rolled up in that?!?? Extra pair of socks!!! I did not mean to let those go. So… large miles, wet dirty socks, shoes probably not as broken in as I should of made them lead to blister sisters. 

I’ve decided it’s probably mile 100ish that’s gotta be the toughest for people to get to. I’ve also heard this a few times already in this town. I’m sure they just get a summer full of dumb dumbs. But it takes a while to get all the right adjustments in. I was so excited to hit cruise control with my legs feeling fine I stubbornly ignored the wheels that actually take me places. 

On another note. Julian! There’s a free slice of pie and ice cream for pct hikers. Score! This town is awesome. Love small towns off the beaten path. Well...kind of off the beaten path. If this is the Memorial Day crowd I can only imagine what summers are like here. Book now everyone! 

So let’s try this out. Nothing is going to go wrong startinggg right now. Close scene. 

P.S. pie is bombdiggity!




Thursday, May 24, 2018

Killa Beez Gonna Swarm

Day 1 and 2

Pretty surreal to get dropped off in the middle of nowhere on the Mexican border. It’s great to finally be movin along. Day one was packed with entertainment. First I got a bit of a late start. I decided that last sleep in bed was more important and I’m always down to hang out a little later when I’m with good friends. Thanks JB for the hospitality. Got an even later start cause my Uber driver got pulled over on the border about two miles from the start. Took ‘em a good chunck of time to believe a young 28 year old black man was driving a 34 year old white dude with half his head shaved in a ‘90’s beat up Mercedes. Finallly I had to get my wallet out of my bag in the trunk and they let us move on. 

On z trail! All went pretty well. Mile five had a hip flexor give me a little trouble. Tried to do it again around mile 10. Was able to stretch it out. One could say I was a little dehydrated...drinking wine into the night and pounding coffee in the morning has nothing to do with water. I was planning on only going ten since I left so late but I was still having fun and kept movin on.

Mile eleven was a hooot!! Johnny Boy-you totally jinxed me by saying I was guaranteed to trip. Beez got all up in my hat and gave me a couple love taps. Made me run like a wild child flingin my hat around and low and behold I hit the deck. Got a good chuckle out of it. Nothing like sweating all day and rolling through all the dirt. No longer beautiful. Oh well. Got to mile 15 and posted up. Dehydrated legs were very uncomfortable and that damn night bird made for a terrible second nights sleep. (First was due to over anticipation). 

Day numero dos I woke up later then I wanted. Set it for the wrong AM/PM. Two nights bad sleep and legs still a touch tired I made the awesome decision to not move on once I got to Morena Lake. Loading up on water and doing a little swimming. This first 10 days are gonna go a little slower than planned but that’s okaaay maaan. I’ll turn into a beast soon enough once I get a nice elephant tight ass #oldinstaname. Lookin to start the routine I’m actually wanting to do as far as hiking schedule tomorrow. 

Up up that mountain tomorrow. Switch switch switch back. Most all my photos are on my camera sooooo I’ve got these two.


Tuesday, May 22, 2018

Pack. Unpack. PACK. Unpack. PAAACK. Unpack

Well.  I have mastered the art of shuffling gear around in my bag. It looks so good!! Can't wait to tear it all apart tomorrow at lunch because I can't find a lighter. The good thing is I've definitely shed a ton of weight since the first time I filled her up. Definitely still heavier than the internet people suggest but I'm fine with lugging a little extra weight for now to get my bearings on must haves vs. extraneous materials. I'm pretty sure I know what some of the extraneous things are buuuut I'm not giving them up yet.  I'm sure I'll have it dialed in a few weeks............

Anyways. Stoked to finally get out there tomorrow! Ready to be doing the damn thing and no longer thinking/talking about it.

This blog has been created mainly to update my mother with a little more substance than following my Spot device. Here's the link to that if you care to watch me walk at a slow slow pace. http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0W601dNhrSTegbAZrHhqjRzAd3on2XfRZ

If you feel so inclined to follow along with her in the blogosphero, I'd love to have ya. I wouldn't have huge expectations as far as quantity of posts go. I certainly don't have any. Same goes for the dot Spot watching. Nobody know's how many miles I'll be doing a day. Even if I mentioned an idea to some of you of what I would like to be doing it could be waaaaaaay off base. But keep calm and...chive on...errr...just occasionally check in and maybe I'll have begrudgingly typed out a post on my phone with some photos.

Love you all so very very much and I look forward to seeing everyone out there!

Cheers,

Looks like some pretty peachy weather to start this shindig as long as I've got some sunscreen.