From the trail — the first 3 weeks
I’m writing to you from Big Bear Lake, 20 days after I started hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. That first day feels very far away now and I suppose it is- since then I’ve hiked 428km (266mi) through Southern California which is officially over 10% of the entire trail.
Quick stats:
Total distance — 266mi/428km
Total ascent — 45,427 ft = 13,846m
Total descent: 41,478 ft = 12,642 m
Highest elevation: Mt San Jacinto 10,934ft
Total number of days:
Number of “zeros”/full rest days: 2
Average distance/day:
Towns visited so far: Julian, Idyllwild, Big Bear
I’ve been doing daily summaries on my Instagram with pictures, some quick stats and a summary of the day so head on over there if you want the blow by blow summary of the trail so far.
This post covers off some of the main topics and common questions I’ve had in the last few weeks but there’s still so much more to share. If you’re particularly curious about any particular part let me know and I’ll make sure I cover it in the next post!
First things first….
The people
Many people stared at me incredulously when I said I was heading out on this adventure solo but I reassured people by saying that whilst I might be “alone” I won’t be “lonely”. I don’t even think I could say I’ve even been alone for much more than a few hours. From day one there has been a constant rotation of friendly hikers in my orbit, all after the same goal. The baseline of shared interests and values makes for fast friends, and I’m lucky to have found myself a trail family or “tramily” to tackle these first few weeks alongside. We converged on Day two at the Lake Morena Malt Shop (I still dream about that breakfast burrito) and have since been snowballing our way along the trail, absorbing new members and occasionally saying ‘goodbye’ or ‘see you later’ to a few as well. At our peak we’ve been a motley crew of 12 and right now, there is a core group of 6 of us with the others flowing in and out as their schedule allows. Some are choosing to take less time in town whilst others peel off to meet friends and family along the way.
Most of the group hail from around the US with one from Taiwan, one from UK, one Canadian and yours truly repping the green and gold. Stay tuned for another blog post to introduce them all in a little more detail as well as some entertaining stories about how everyone got their trail names.
On the trail in general I’ve been surprised that there are proportionately very few Aussies and Kiwis. I’ve met one other Aussie couple (from Melton) and two solo women, one from Essendon and the other from Berri, NSW. There are plenty of Europeans here — Dutch, German, Swiss, Czechs, you name it — and naturally, majority American and a good dosage of Canadians.
It’s been a novelty being the one with the “foreign” accent but it’s been fun learning the subtleties of American culture and the quirks of regional slang. We have a lot of fun mimicking each other’s accents (mostly me copying them) and I’ve been asked to say “that’s not a knife, this is a knife” more times than I’ve had hot dinners.
Gear
I’ve been pleasantly surprised that I’ve in fact been adding more gear than I’m removing. I always knew I’d have to top up my gear when we got closer to the proper alps but there’s been enough instances of me wearing all of my clothes and still feeling cold so it was time to layer up. I’ve added a few key items to my set up that have made a world of difference.
A North Face Fleece which is the perfect mid layer for wearing underneath my puffy jacket and for those early mornings where I’m not quite ready to shed all my layers.
A pair of athleta “joggers” as hike pants and very handy for town days when my shorts go in the wash.
Micro spikes: it was only a matter of time before we hit the snow and there was a chance we’d need them for Mt San Jacinto so I bought a pair of micro spikes in Idyllwild. Thankfully we didn’t need them as there were only small patches of snow that had been well trodden. These will stay with me from here until we’re through the Sierras.
There are a few items I’ve substituted with more functional options:
Vegemite bucket hat to cap: whilst the Vegemite bucket has certainly earned me notoriety on the trail, it has turned out to be rather impractical when the wind blows. I attempted to sew a chin strap on with a spare guy rope from my tent but it still didn’t do the trick. I picked up a cap from a hiker box which worked well for the interim and picked up my own from my ‘bounce’ box which I’ll use from here on in.
From hike shirt to Outdoor Research Sun Hoodie: Now that I don’t have my bucket hat to protect my ears, I’ve had to swap out my collared hike shirt for a sun hoodie.
Kovea stove and pot set to JetBoil Minimo: when my gas canister ran out about 6 days before everyone else’s, I knew that there was an efficiency issues with my set up. I opted to upgrade to the JetBoil Minimo which is a compact, integrated stove set that will hopefully serve me well with better fuel efficiency even up at altitude.
Altra Lone Peak 6 trail runners to Topo trail runners: I started off, like most people do, subscribing to the zero drop Altra shoes which did just fine for the first couple hundred kilometres. I was lucky not to have any significant blisters but after a big week on my feet, the minimal support was starting to fatigue my feet more than I’d like. In recent days, my Achilles’ tendons have been flaring up too. I’ve had similar pain before and there’s not a heap you can do other than rest up but the zero drop certainly wasn’t helping. The outfitters in Big Bear were a huge help and recommended a pair of Topo trail runners that have a mild 5mm drop but with significantly more cushioning underfoot. After two full days of rest and a fresh pair of kicks, I’m hoping that’ll do the trick to get on top of the achilles pain and avoid any significant ongoing issues.
Into the bounce box
I’m using a mailing box to send ahead of myself on the trail to contain all the spare bits of gear that I might need later on. There have been a few items I started with that I haven’t used much but I’m not prepared to ditch them entirely just yet. I opened up the bounce box here in Big Bear and took out the cap, shorts and socks I had in there and put in the things I haven’t been using much.
Camp shoes: I bought a pair of Teva sandals for use at night time but have found them to be more hassle than they’re worth. The Velcro kept sticking to my socks and at approx 370gm for the pair, I didn’t think they were worth the weight for how sporadically I needed them. Let’s see if I miss them.
Kindle: Before leaving I downloaded 10-12 books from my ‘want to read’ list and despite the best of intentions, I literally have not taken it out of its cover so far on trail. Being part of a trail family means there’s always someone up for a chat and I’ve been really enjoying listening to everyone’s stories and getting to know them. I may not be reading books but I feel like I’m listening to real life stories. The books will always be there but these people won’t so I’m trying to be as present as possible.
Mini towel: although it’s compact, I’m looking to declutter as much as possible. Apart from one camp shower and a sink “shower” at Paradise Valley Cafe, it’s mostly been taking up space in my bag. In the bounce box it goes!
Logistics
Travelling along as such a big tramily has made the logistics of both the trail and town a little simpler. We’ve been using the app ‘Guthook’ for navigation which is an invaluable resource that is omnipresent along the trail. The interface is intuitive and rich with data, allowing you to map out the upcoming campsites, water sources (blue blaze side trails) and town access points with crowd-sourced user comments providing current updates on water quality, campsite sizes and some entertaining observations on key features that keep things interesting along the way. The efficiency cost of being in a large group has been helpful in towns, splitting Airbnbs and “tramily” dinners at home. it’s been an unexpected but refreshing change, not having to be as entirely self sufficient as I had anticipated but I suspect that once i settle into the groove a bit more, I might push out for a few days on my own and be more self reliant but until then, this dynamic has been incredibly helpful to adjust to life on trail.
Mileage
Week 1 —154km
Week 2 — 176km
Week 3— 132km
I’ve been surprised with how well my body has help up despite pushing more miles than I’d anticipated. We bumped up the miles in Week 2 in order to make the post office for parcel collection before it closed at 5pm on a Friday and boy oh boy did we pay for it. We had to do 20ish miles (32km) per day for 4 days in order to make it and we learnt a real lesson in checking not only the mileage but the elevation profile as well. On the day we did 21 miles we also did 6000ft of climbing which made for a long, brutal day. We made an effort to pull back the mileage in Week 3 to allow our bodies to ease into some more manageable distances and get on top of some niggling injuries and blisters.
“Zeros”
We’ve now taken 3 days of doing zero miles in towns to give our bodies a break and make time to resupply. We’ve stopped in Julian, Idyllwild and now Big Bear for two nights each and it’s been great to have some time off trail. As we get stronger, we’ll extend the gap between zeros and take more “Nero” days — a day with ‘nearly zero’ miles where you camp just outside of town and walk in a short distance the next day. Our next stop in Wrightwood will be a Nero in and a Nero out with just a few miles in the morning, a night in a hotel room and then a few miles out of town the following afternoon. We’ve mostly stayed in airbnbs, using the large size of our group to our advantage with gorgeous mountain homes that, when split between 10-12 of us, make it more affordable, comfortable and amenable than hotel rooms.
Landscape/terrain
Don’t be fooled by this section being referred to as “the desert” because there has been such a wide variety of landscapes, climates and elevation beyond what I expected. Sure there have been plenty of miles of sandy gullies, desert roses, mountainsides of cacti and the blazing desert sun but there has also been sideways hail, bitterly cold winds on mountaintops, stunning temperate forests filled with pine trees and squirrels as well as patches of snow as we push over 8000ft of elevation. I’m loving the variety; the way the trail edges around ridges with sheer drop either side and then loops back on itself through endless switchbacks back down into the safety of the valley floor. I’m so excited for the amazing scenery to come in the next section — the Sierras — but a full camera roll is a sign of how much I’ve loved the landscape of the desert so far.
Overall experience
I don’t know what I expected but everyday I wake up with the most profound gratitude. The stress of the pre-departure logistics and the anxiety I experienced in the lead up has been absorbed by the intensity of the trail and the focus of what’s immediately in front of me.
I have no doubt that the people I’m with have been the largest influence on my time so far and already I feel such a strong connection to the crew of awesome, intelligent and interesting people that walk in step with me.
I can only hope that if this 10% of the trail is anything to go by, the remaining 90% is going to be something truly incredible. I feel content, a little bit proud of what my body has done so far and just so lucky that i get to keep doing this day in, day out for another 120ish days. At this point, pending any serious injury, I feel pretty confident that getting all the way to Canada is still an achievable goal but I’m enjoying taking it one section, sometimes even one day, at a time and loving every step of way.
I’ve got an another blog post in the pipeline to introduce you to my tramily, including all their trail names and the hilarious, sometimes ridiculous, stories behind them all.
