Done and Done, But Nowhere Near Finished
It feels totally surreal to be writing this blog post after so long, and especially after seeing the HUGE gap since the last one (deepest apologies). It feels criminal, sacrilegious almost to be writing about the incomparable beauty and majesty of all the rugged wilderness that we experienced from here in the corner of a crowded Starbucks located on an even busier Santa Monica Boulevard smack in the middle of Los Angeles, who's urban sprawl is the arch nemesis of everything PCT. The only benefit it can afford is that with all of this contrast, my recollections of how great things were out there will be that much sharper, and appreciated to their full worth.
A quick apology to everyone who was following us on our journey by using the blog. My updating it was way harder and less frequent than I originally anticipated. When we were out there in between towns I frequently didn't have service to update it, and even more frequently didn't even have the time to check for service with the miles/hours we were putting in each day to make sure we reached our goals. In towns the story was often the same, with spotty wi-fi and time priorities going to laundry, resupply, and medical needs. That being said, I made at least some brief notes on every day as we went, and between the photos we took and our combined memories, I feel confident that I can paint the full picture of our quest for everyone interested.
Many, many, many things to address in this much-needed wrap-up/intro so I guess I'll just start with the big one first...WE'RE DONE! WE'RE DONE! WE'RE DONE!!! This isn't actually BRAND new news since we reached the Northern Terminus on September 26th and I shared some social media about it then, but we still had about 55 miles of unwalked trail between I-10 and Big Bear (Hwy 18) to conquer. When we had arrived at this section during the summer, it was closed (as it had been for several years) due to the Lake Fire Closure. Other fire closures had alternative walking and hiking routes that were provided, and although some of them included some rough road walking, connecting our footsteps and walking the entire way from Mexico to Canada was incredibly important to us, so we made sure to do them. If we wanted to road walk this one, it would have included countless miles along the I-10, something we felt would have endangered our lives and our chances at finishing the rest of the trip (those things become closer in priority than they maybe should out there). So we decided to join the majority of other hikers in getting a shuttle over to San Bernardino then a bus up the mountain to Big Bear and picking up the trail at the 18. This choice seemed like the only one available to us at the time, but it still nagged in the backs of our minds for nearly the entirety of the hike, and both of us knew that we'd need to go back and finish that at some point in our lives, and that if they reopened it this season, it was an absolute must-do. We were surprised then (and more than a little relieved) to hear the news that they had indeed reopened it several weeks before we reached the terminus, and found strength to follow through with our commitment on doing it when we realized we wouldn't be the only ones doing this (several other hikers signed the register at Manning Park saying they'd be driving down to tie up the same loose ends). Hell. Yes.
So from Manning Park we took the 2am Greyhound Bus to Vancouver then the 5am Greyhound down to Seattle. After we got there at 10:30ish we headed over to the rental car agency and swooped our own-way ride back home. Lots of driving and one night of little sleep later we got home and immediately our immune systems failed on us. I think we'd honestly been running on adrenaline for so long that the let-down in energy of finally being done combined with being around more people and germs just did us in. Transitioning back to normal life was (and continues to be) stranger and more difficult than either of us was anticipating to be honest. But I'll go into all that in a later post :)
Fast forward a week and a half through a lot of busy work, a little bit of hiking, and a welcome back party at our house (thanks to everyone who came and listened to us for longer than I realized at the time <3). Moving back to LA was staring me in the face and we knew our window for doing this section was closing. So Tuesday morning, October 11, 2016, we woke up at 2:30am to leave Ramona as early as we could (like 3:00) in order to beat the traffic, beat the heat, and leave ourselves a big enough window to hike in. Needless to say by the time we drove up to Whitewater, dropped off one car, got breakfast, drove up the mountain, then started hiking (a little over 5.5 hours after we left), we were both pretty wiped. Mentally it felt great to be out there again, and the routine of everything that we had become so efficient at was welcoming to settle back into. But taking 2 weeks off was WAY more deteriorating than expected. Our bodies (especially feet) hadn't truly had time to recover, and by the end of the first day we were cold, exhausted, and in pain. Basically we knew we were back on the PCT.
Although there was quite a bit more water than I imagined remaining along the way, both days were still composed largely of hot desert terrain, punctuated by some light alpine relief, and of course, the burned section. The second morning we were up at 4:30 and hiking by 5:45, pretty typical of our last month on the trail, pushing the miles in Washington to beat the winter in Canada. Morning in the desert and the burn was beautiful, but by the time we took lunch under a shady tree, I remembered why I wasn't the biggest fan of the desert. It was hot, dirty, and I'm sure the severe lack of sleep wasn't helping anything. After the shortest of naps we pushed onward, reaching Whitewater River (amazing anomaly in the desert) by mid-afternoon and getting back to our car right as the day was turning to night. We were pretty banged up, but we had had some more amazing conversations during the day that come so much easier on the trail, which helped lift our spirits. I also hadn't imagined pulling back up to the 10 being a very scenic way to end our trek, but the evening light brushing up against towering San Jacinto looked very impressive indeed. Most importantly we were DONE. Dotted our i's and crosssed our t's to finish our thru-hike. And just like every other step of the way we did it together.
After the BEST In-n-Out, we drove back to Ramona that night, and I followed that up by moving back to LA the following day. It's been a total whirlwind, and a weird time adjusting (including missing my dad a whole lot after being a constant force in my life 24/7 for 5 months) but today I was finally feeling settled in enough to get back to this bad boy, the blog. I've got big plans for it, including an interactive trail map that corresponds to my journal entries, comprehensive gear reviews on everything that worked (and did NOT work) for us, and much, much more. So if you have followed along this far I thank you from the bottom of my heart. If you want to make sure you don't miss out on any of that be sure to subscribe to the mailing list. And if you're going to be following along on this journey moving forward, let's do this! We've got some great things to explore just around the bend... :)
