Page 3: July 2009.
Page 1: May 2009 Page 2: June 2009 Page 4: August 2009 Page 5: September 2009 Page 6: October 2009Entry #6. Entry #7.
Entry #6; Monday 7th July.
Seven days in the Sierra.
The scenery has really been amazing, as has the terrain... and by that I mean sometimes amazing, but not in an easy way! We have been climbing from valleys around the 8000 ft mark, up to summits and passes in the 12000 ft region... the other day, there were 3 in a row... up, down, up, down... tiring to say the least.
After leaving the very wind-blown Mojave, we had a few more days worth of more gusts, dust and desert before the pines and higher elevations began, and the trails became more varied and enjoyable.
Sleeping out on the side of the dusty trail in the sagebrush one evening, we got to see a very unconcerned rattlesnake as it slithered right through where we were sat having dinner and made itself comfy under one of the bushes.
It wasn't concerned, but it made Spencer sleep slightly less easily!
Heading towards Kennedy Meadows, the wind got lesser and the sun shone stronger so we were looking forward to a good start into the Sierra Nevada.
The General Store there was right out of the old west, but up to date with a most modern convenience... chilled sodas!
We collected all the parcels that were waiting for us and got busy with packing our food into our Bear-proof cannisters... once that was done, it was time to rest up and treat the feet outside our little caravans at Trail-Angel Tom Figueroa's place, where we staying in Kennedy Meadows.
Tom collected his new shoes too... and what a difference 700 miles makes between new and used...
We caught up with Ryan, another hiker we'd met back at Hiker Heaven in Agua Dulce, and he ended up joining us for about a week as we hiked through the start of the Sierra. Spencer was still with us... for the most partanyway...when he wasn't warping ahead at Mach 2!!
Seven days in the Sierra.
The scenery has really been amazing, as has the terrain... and by that I mean sometimes amazing, but not in an easy way! We have been climbing from valleys around the 8000 ft mark, up to summits and passes in the 12000 ft region... the other day, there were 3 in a row... up, down, up, down... tiring to say the least.
After leaving the very wind-blown Mojave, we had a few more days worth of more gusts, dust and desert before the pines and higher elevations began, and the trails became more varied and enjoyable.
Sleeping out on the side of the dusty trail in the sagebrush one evening, we got to see a very unconcerned rattlesnake as it slithered right through where we were sat having dinner and made itself comfy under one of the bushes.
It wasn't concerned, but it made Spencer sleep slightly less easily!
Heading towards Kennedy Meadows, the wind got lesser and the sun shone stronger so we were looking forward to a good start into the Sierra Nevada.
The General Store there was right out of the old west, but up to date with a most modern convenience... chilled sodas!
We collected all the parcels that were waiting for us and got busy with packing our food into our Bear-proof cannisters... once that was done, it was time to rest up and treat the feet outside our little caravans at Trail-Angel Tom Figueroa's place, where we staying in Kennedy Meadows.
Tom collected his new shoes too... and what a difference 700 miles makes between new and used...
We caught up with Ryan, another hiker we'd met back at Hiker Heaven in Agua Dulce, and he ended up joining us for about a week as we hiked through the start of the Sierra. Spencer was still with us... for the most partanyway...when he wasn't warping ahead at Mach 2!!
On day 4 into the Sierra, we took an 18 mile side trip to the top of Mount Whitney, the highest mountain the the USA... well, the highest in the lower 48 states, which means mainland USA. Hawaii and Alaska being the other 2 states, and Mount McKinley in Alaska being the highest... but at 14,505 (according to Wikipedia... although I'm sure the plaque at the top said 14,460...) it was pretty damn high.
Taking measured steps and breaths, after about 5 hours, we made our way right up to the very top where the survey marker was embedded in the rock.
Ryan, Spencer, Tom and I also caugt up with our film-crew friend Stacie who was making the climb too.
The pictures were being taken thick and fast... we couldn't have had a better day either... so I will let the images tell the story for the moment.
As it was Spencers 22nd birthday soon, Tom surprised him with a cold Pepsi at the summit... awesome!
After Whitney, we carried on through the Sierra where we climbed over the highest point along the PC, Forester Pass.
The icy snow was spread out in wide fields, and in places soft, having us post-hole to mid thigh quite often... cold and sharp, leaving us with some good scrapes and ice-burns.
The lakes were fantastic... crystal clear water with the most brilliant blue colours at the edges.
The icy snow was spread out in wide fields, and in places soft, having us post-hole to mid thigh quite often... cold and sharp, leaving us with some good scrapes and ice-burns.
The lakes were fantastic... crystal clear water with the most brilliant blue colours at the edges.
After
slowly making our way up and over and back down through the icy snow,
we dropped into more green valleys and wild-flower filled fields where
the colours were glorious.
The wildlife was more apparent too... black bears, mule deer and hoary marmots were all sighted... as well as the darn mosquitos, which were ravenous. Poor Spencer looked rather unhappy sitting in camp whilst we all heated up food one evening, wrapped up trying to avoid being bitten.
The wildlife was more apparent too... black bears, mule deer and hoary marmots were all sighted... as well as the darn mosquitos, which were ravenous. Poor Spencer looked rather unhappy sitting in camp whilst we all heated up food one evening, wrapped up trying to avoid being bitten.
Other
than the bombardment of mozzies in the evenings, we have been surviving
well enough... ice scrapes and insect bites are overcomeable. My feet
have toughened up and are moving me along well enough. Tom managed to
stub his toe pretty good and has a new blister, but as we are now
resting up here in Mammoth Lakes, the rest should do him, and the rest
of us good.
Spencer even got to give us an excellent demo of how to use an ice-axe under the looming face of his name-sake mountain, Mount Spencer!
Spencer even got to give us an excellent demo of how to use an ice-axe under the looming face of his name-sake mountain, Mount Spencer!
So
now after doing over 900 miles, this afternoon we will hit the
supermarket again to get all the food for the next week as we continue
on the push north. I'm gonna wrap this up for now as I have been
backing up video, pictures, and the website for the past 4 hours, and I
need to get some air, as well as let the other boys have a go on the
Eee PC.
Aplogies to anyone out there that I haven't emailed yet... I will be doing my best to get some emails out this evening though... but still please drop me a line if you get a chance.
I will be doing iPhone Journal updates as much as I can still, network coverage depending, as we go along the trail.
Things should be flattening out a bit more soon as well, so we hope to up the daily mileage, as we all want to get this done before the snow hits Washington and Canada.
The next update to this page should be around the end of the month, when we collect the bounce box again.
For now...
Cheers y'all.
RWK.
OUT.
Aplogies to anyone out there that I haven't emailed yet... I will be doing my best to get some emails out this evening though... but still please drop me a line if you get a chance.
I will be doing iPhone Journal updates as much as I can still, network coverage depending, as we go along the trail.
Things should be flattening out a bit more soon as well, so we hope to up the daily mileage, as we all want to get this done before the snow hits Washington and Canada.
The next update to this page should be around the end of the month, when we collect the bounce box again.
For now...
Cheers y'all.
RWK.
OUT.
Entry #7; Monday 27th July.
Almost half-way...
The
miles are adding up, and we are making them faster now too. The terrain
has grown slightly easier, although it hasn't meant we are free of big
climbs and descents... Just that the trail conditions have become much
better with the surface being much more even and less rocky, and the
grades have been more even and steady.
Well, we left Mammoth Lakes somewhat sadly as our good trail buddy and Roadwarrior Candidate Spencer was warping ahead of us for good. His timeframe is somewhat more restricted than ours, as he has to get back to school, so he had to lay down some miles. We are keeping in touch though, ribbing each other still over the phone, and following his journey on his blog... you can check it out HERE.
He managed to stay ahead of us for all of an hour, until he took a wrong turn and ended up behind us again, passing us shamefaced at first break... we laughed! But we do miss having him with us for sure... sob!
Well, we left Mammoth Lakes somewhat sadly as our good trail buddy and Roadwarrior Candidate Spencer was warping ahead of us for good. His timeframe is somewhat more restricted than ours, as he has to get back to school, so he had to lay down some miles. We are keeping in touch though, ribbing each other still over the phone, and following his journey on his blog... you can check it out HERE.
He managed to stay ahead of us for all of an hour, until he took a wrong turn and ended up behind us again, passing us shamefaced at first break... we laughed! But we do miss having him with us for sure... sob!
As we made our way north from Mammoth Lakes we once again wound our way up through the pines to the rocky gray granite mountain tops, some still layered with snow, of Yosemite NP, before dropping back down to the grassy meadows surrounding Tuolumne Meadows. Mule deer and marmots were seen quite often, and Tom and I were quite startled one morning as we made our way along the trail and almost stepped over a very young mule deer fawn, who bleated loudly for mum! Had he/she stayed quiet we'd never have know he/she was there... Mum-deer came running, and we made our way on, not wishing to disturb them any more... but moving well with a healthy dose of adrenalin coursing through our veins for the next 5 minutes!
After
Tuolumne Meadows, where we grabbed a few snacks, we continued on, up,
over and out of Yosemite NP, where both of us noticed the almost
instant change in the scenery. We went from the grey granite rocks to a
softer, brown earth covered landscape, with thicker patches of pines in
just a mile or so.
The climb up to Sonora Pass was quite the thigh-master work out though... see if you can see the hiker ahead of us in the pictures below:
The climb up to Sonora Pass was quite the thigh-master work out though... see if you can see the hiker ahead of us in the pictures below:
After
making the climb and surviving the howling winds along the ridges to
Sonora Pass, we camped for the night before making a 30-mile re-supply
hitch into the terribly overpriced town of Bridgeport. Paying $5.99 for
a medium pack of M&Ms was just not funny... Tom bit the bullet, but
I decided to go without chocolate for the next few days until we got to
South Lake Tahoe. We were pleasantly surprised with one thing we found
in Bridgeport though... one Mr Spencer McKay! We got to catch up with
him before heading back out of town...
We were back on the trail by 1400 hrs, having been brought back out by Stacie and Christa, who filmed us as we hit the trail again. We hear they also filmed a sad Spencer as he watched us roll on... He had made a difficult decision and had ended up choosing to get a ride further north with Stacie and Christa, deciding to move ahead some miles to see some of Oregon before he ran out of time and had to get back to school.
As mentioned previously, the trail has improved, so we were making some good miles as we got towards South Lake Tahoe, so much so we caught up with Ryan and got to hike with him again for a few days.
I should give Ryan a good mention too, in that he's not just hiking this for the hell of it, but also, as a cancer survivor (full remission date around mid September!), he is doing it for Lance Armstrong's "Livestrong Foundation". A very worthy cause. Good on ya Ryan.
Please check out his site HERE, and you can email him at ryan@hikeforhope2009.com
When he isn't falling on his ass in creeks, he is a happy chap, and we have enjoyed hiking with him. Hopefully we will catch up again soon...
South Lake Tahoe (SLT) was a great break, where we fully resupplied on both food as well as gear.
Toms shoes that he changed out to in Kennedy Meadows were causing him some toe-discomfort, so we made a trip out to Reno, Nevada, where we hit the shoe stores, REI and the Apple Store (yay!). As we were at REI, although I could have made another 200 odd miles on my boots, I decided that it was a good time to get a new set. The old ones had done over 700 miles anyway, and compared to the new ones, they did feel old and flat.
Toms new shoes were a better size for him, and he got some decent supportive inserts too, so we were loking forward to a more comfy hike out of town.
All around SLT there are lots of equally beautiful lakes, and so we made a point of ending our day at one of them whenever possible. Echo Lake, just outside of SLT had some fantastic cedar cabins... we had a snack just near one, but it would have been great to stay at one for the night... I doubt the owners would have liked that though!
We were back on the trail by 1400 hrs, having been brought back out by Stacie and Christa, who filmed us as we hit the trail again. We hear they also filmed a sad Spencer as he watched us roll on... He had made a difficult decision and had ended up choosing to get a ride further north with Stacie and Christa, deciding to move ahead some miles to see some of Oregon before he ran out of time and had to get back to school.
As mentioned previously, the trail has improved, so we were making some good miles as we got towards South Lake Tahoe, so much so we caught up with Ryan and got to hike with him again for a few days.
I should give Ryan a good mention too, in that he's not just hiking this for the hell of it, but also, as a cancer survivor (full remission date around mid September!), he is doing it for Lance Armstrong's "Livestrong Foundation". A very worthy cause. Good on ya Ryan.
Please check out his site HERE, and you can email him at ryan@hikeforhope2009.com
When he isn't falling on his ass in creeks, he is a happy chap, and we have enjoyed hiking with him. Hopefully we will catch up again soon...
South Lake Tahoe (SLT) was a great break, where we fully resupplied on both food as well as gear.
Toms shoes that he changed out to in Kennedy Meadows were causing him some toe-discomfort, so we made a trip out to Reno, Nevada, where we hit the shoe stores, REI and the Apple Store (yay!). As we were at REI, although I could have made another 200 odd miles on my boots, I decided that it was a good time to get a new set. The old ones had done over 700 miles anyway, and compared to the new ones, they did feel old and flat.
Toms new shoes were a better size for him, and he got some decent supportive inserts too, so we were loking forward to a more comfy hike out of town.
All around SLT there are lots of equally beautiful lakes, and so we made a point of ending our day at one of them whenever possible. Echo Lake, just outside of SLT had some fantastic cedar cabins... we had a snack just near one, but it would have been great to stay at one for the night... I doubt the owners would have liked that though!
The
bugs have still been managing to appear right around "making camp"
time, so we are both glad we bought bug-suits! The trees have been
growing larger and larger too, often covered in the most amazing green
moss. There are plenty of fallen trees that block the trail, so
climbing over them has been a daily occurence, although sometimes,
they have fallen, but not quite hit the ground so going under is a
better option, especially with the strangely twisted and split tree we
saw (pictured below) with Tom walking under it.
The early morning light coming through the trees has been fantastic, as has the large amount of wildflowers we are now experiencing too. Streams have been slightly less available than in the higher Sierra, but still plentiful enough that we haven't had to carry too much water at any given time, and we usually find one right around lunchtime so we can enjoy a soothing foot-soak whilst chugging a nice cold filtered TANG! The water has been the perfect temperature, either at the creeks, or at one of the crystal clear lakes again.
The early morning light coming through the trees has been fantastic, as has the large amount of wildflowers we are now experiencing too. Streams have been slightly less available than in the higher Sierra, but still plentiful enough that we haven't had to carry too much water at any given time, and we usually find one right around lunchtime so we can enjoy a soothing foot-soak whilst chugging a nice cold filtered TANG! The water has been the perfect temperature, either at the creeks, or at one of the crystal clear lakes again.
As
mentioned, water has been slightly less plentiful in the way of streams
and creeks running from snow-melt, but there has been enough, although
sometimes it is in the form of a spring. And springs are not often
that easy to find! We have the data-book, as well as my GPS, but
sometimes it takes a bit of hunting and careful listening to find the
spring. Hikers often leave little notes (sometimes in plastic bags),
under a rock at the edge of the trail or at a junction, but also
sometimes messages and arrows are left in the form of sticks... I was
ahead of Tom the other day and was going off-trail to find the spring
we were planning to stop at for the night, so as well as the signs from
a previous hiker, I left some new ones for Tom, so he didn't carry on
and miss me.
As
you may have seen from the iPhone journal, we made an unplanned rest
stop (and another foot-wear run to Reno) when we got into the tiny mountain
valley town of Sierra City. The roast beef & swiss sandwich I had
at the stores deli was AWESOME... so good in fact that for once I
scoffed it without thinking to take a picture! I did get a shot of the
amusing weather station though.
So with new, new shoes (the heel fell of his new ones after 2 days use) Tom was walking a little better again, although his blisters were still causing a good amount of discomfort. The weather has been great though, so we have both been enjoying the sun and clear skies. Being under the pines most of the time, we have avoided getting toasted, and had pretty much perfect hiking conditions, especially given that the bugs have decreased in annoyance too!
So with new, new shoes (the heel fell of his new ones after 2 days use) Tom was walking a little better again, although his blisters were still causing a good amount of discomfort. The weather has been great though, so we have both been enjoying the sun and clear skies. Being under the pines most of the time, we have avoided getting toasted, and had pretty much perfect hiking conditions, especially given that the bugs have decreased in annoyance too!
We
are now taking a rest day in Quincy, about 30 miles off-trail. We got
into Belden on Saturday late afternoon where we stayed with Trail
Angels Laurie and Brenda Braaten. After a great hot shower and a good
solid sleep at their place, Sunday morning we hitched the 30 miles up the road to
Quincy getting in by 0930. Taco Bell and laundry were knocked off the
list quite quickly yesterday, and this morning Tom went to the post
office to collect our resupply box (thanks again to Post-Master
Steve!!) and the bounce-box.
I have been doing the usual pictures and video back-up, as well as editing the pix and writing this for the past 4 hours, so now it is time to let some blood back into my butt, see some daylight, eat some 'town food' then sort out my trail food. Oh, and up-load all this!
I hope you all enjoy the pictures again... I am trying to make this journal more about the pix, and the iPhone journal about what we are up to "on the spot" kinda thing...
The next big update to this site will be around the middle of August, maybe just after... and by then, we will be in Oregon and well over the half-way mark. Currently, we are at 1290 miles done. 1330 is the mid-point, so in less than 2 days we will be celebrating on the trail, and each step will have us then closer to Canada than Mexico!
As always, we'd love to hear from anyone out there, so don't forget, you can email me at rwkobie@roadwarriorsnews.com or Tom at tomemme@yahoo.com
The latest stuff, right from the trail, (when I have a signal of course) is HERE too.
Until then,
Cheers!
RWK
Out.
I have been doing the usual pictures and video back-up, as well as editing the pix and writing this for the past 4 hours, so now it is time to let some blood back into my butt, see some daylight, eat some 'town food' then sort out my trail food. Oh, and up-load all this!
I hope you all enjoy the pictures again... I am trying to make this journal more about the pix, and the iPhone journal about what we are up to "on the spot" kinda thing...
The next big update to this site will be around the middle of August, maybe just after... and by then, we will be in Oregon and well over the half-way mark. Currently, we are at 1290 miles done. 1330 is the mid-point, so in less than 2 days we will be celebrating on the trail, and each step will have us then closer to Canada than Mexico!
As always, we'd love to hear from anyone out there, so don't forget, you can email me at rwkobie@roadwarriorsnews.com or Tom at tomemme@yahoo.com
The latest stuff, right from the trail, (when I have a signal of course) is HERE too.
Until then,
Cheers!
RWK
Out.