We are leaving Big Bend National Park after a short and sorta painful back in the saddle hike here. We intend to hike in the Guadalupe’s tomorrow for a few days and if we survive that, will head back to Houston this week end. We plan on coming back here after Christmas and after some more time on the X11 incline trainer 😎
We hope to do some sections of the AT around March.
Stay with us!
Pete and Nikki
I plan to do lots of pre , during and post hike thoughts on this blog…so stay with me/us.
We left Timberline Lodge today and needing to kill a couple of days before we go to Cascade Locks for the ultimate hikers trade show this week end , we wound up in Portland. We will meet up with up with Sandy,Wylie the consumate trail dog and Mike aka Tubbs and Chris. Tubbs we have found likes to drink lots of beer the night before starting the next section to lessen the pain….so we like him lots😎
I felt some remorse the last couple of days as the I watched the PCT hikers coming and going. We have felt sort of “rudderless” the past couple days since ending out hike. Working through that with beer and my thoughts of Vegas!
Who knows what comes next.
The PCT. We have had a great adventure but it is time to end. We did 1050 ish miles and everyone one was an experience. Some aches and pains on my part were a part of stopping but the main reason is simply we have done what we want for now. I am proud of both of us! Will update more later but for now we are road tripping around Oregon and seeing fun stuff. Hope to do some day hikes and see more fun places.
We will end up in Vegas in a couple of weeks at the Bellagio , finish healing😎and fly home from there back to the heat and humidity….which for the last few months we have been blessed to not be around.
What a great fun experience and adventure this has been for us and so glad we did it.
More later
Pete and Nikki……TNT
So I decided to switch back to Hoko one hike boots thinking they might help with back,knee and shoulder pains. I had switched out of them 2 days after we started at Campo and started wearing altras…..heaven and no blisters until…..
The last two days which were also the first two days of my experiment of doing boots again. In 40 ish miles I have blisters….lots and big. We are going off trail today for a few days to heal them up.
We had some days at Diamond Lake before this piece and met up with Sandy and Wylie dog and Chris her hike partner.
Currently at Shelter Cove and waiting on a ride with a friend of a friend we met here who has been here for 5 days healing blisters.
We will go into Eugene for a couple of days and also find a place to replace my Lyric hearing aid.
Nik is doing good and shoulder still the same.
Mosquitos have feasted on me and I have never had so many bites….looks like I have the measles😎
All else being equal all is good!
Pics later
TNT
in Medford Or. For a nominal fee we got a ride out of Mazama and are now in Medford resting up. Seems to be a mini version of Odessa,TX with mountain views.
Short background on my past medical issues all pretty much caused by my lifelong quest to stay healthy and fit .
3 lower back surgeries,right rotator cuff repair due to being thrown from a golf cart at a Willie Nelson reunion celebrity golf tournament at Austin, left knee cartilage repair again from golf, tendons severed and repaired on left shoulder….caused by simply picking up a roller luggage bag, neck issues that I am not sure from what,broke left ankle. Recently started have similar issues with my left shoulder that Nik has with her right….just not to the same degree as she has
That may seem like a lot of damage but I actually have managed all of them through the years and kept going by my relentess pursuit of youth and staying in some sort of good physical shape. 😎
All has gone well on the trail for me but I recently started having some sciatic nerve issues while not carrying a pack. For those of you that have experienced this….it sucks.
Nik has her right shoulder thing going on and we both have accepted that as part of our hike experience and adjust as we need to regarding time, distance , and weight when doing each section. She is and remains to be one of the toughest people I know.
After a couple more days here and changing out shoes and other gear we plan on going back to Mazama at Crater Lake and go north to Diamond Lake, Shelter Cove and then Elk Lake. Other than more blow downs , some snow and mosquitos , it looks to be good trail to Elk Lake. After that Sisters is supposed to have lots of snow so we will reevaluate there.
We had a fun time hiking with Badger and Left Behind for a few days. Good friends and will miss them. it was only the second time we have hiked with anyone….the other being Amy Bee who I think we may see again as she is rumored to be starting Crater Lake SOBO.
We are meeting lots more through hikers most north bound but a few southbound
The bonus of being in Medford is an REI and Traders Joes. Time for some gear replacement.
I am going to switch back to Hoka ankle hike boots to see if that might help with my back.
So…..out today to recon the area and enjoy food and BEER!
TNT
We are at Mazama Village near Crater Lake. The last few days from Fish Lake to here have been hard hiking over,around,under and sometimes just through blow downs.
Blow downs are my new enemy. It seems some evil genius has cleverly positioned all the dead fall of trees and branches precisely on the trail….about every 50 yards. They suck! Only good thing is you get to work and entirely new set of muscle groups…some you didnt know even existed.
We had our first glissades down Devils Mountain as well. Both of our first were slip then boom you are on your way for a fun ride. I first slipped down the mountain leaving a hike pole behind. Nik while trying to get my pole soon slipped and followed my path down….but still managed to grab my pole on her way down. Wet butts and all, turned out to be much easier than trying to hike down. We did another soon after….intentionally.
Hanging here another night for mending and resupply etc
We are good although a bit more gimpy at the present. Clean clothes , a shower make life lots better….I also lucked into a room at the Inn😎 Did I mention beer and pizza😎👍
Pics later. Thanks again for supporting us on this adventure.
TNT
We left yesterday with our new hike partners, Left Behind, from Germany and Mary from Washington state. All in all it was a good back in the saddle day and we camped about 12 miles in….early in the after noon.
After visiting and eating we all started getting ready for bed when Nik discovered she had left her invisisilign braces…yep still in braces😎… in the room back at Callahans Lodge. Not a good thing and after calling the lodge they assured us they would check for them the next morning.
Now over the years in all our traveling we have left everything from earrings to prescription glasses in hotel rooms. Oddly enough house keeping etc never could find them. We didn’t hold out much hope that the braces would be there but decided the only option was to hike back this morning and find out
We headed out early and along the way back Nik had her first major slip/fall as we encountered two women on horseback at a blind turn…..they heard us talking and were yelling at us to keep talking so we wouldn’t spook the horses. All we could hear were voices and had no freaking idea where they were or what they were saying ….after our encounter with the mountain biker awhile back….all we were trying to do was get off the skinny trail and make way for whatever it was. Nik went down on the slippery slope so to speak in a nice ass slide.
Although I love horses and admire the hell out of anyone with the guts to go horseback on these trails, it presents huge issues on blind ,narrow,forest trails.
We hiked on and got back to the lodge and were happy to find the staff had Niks braces.
Bob you were correct on our trail legs. Yesterday was fine and coming back today was ok….the soreness hit after we shut down today. Fortunately I had a nice ja-q-z to soak in tonigh😎
We have arranged a ride to hook back up with our hike partners at Fish Lake Resort and will in the interim be forced to sleep in a bed at the lodge for another night
The trail that we now have seen twice and have memorized all the ups and downs is nice. The weather on top is cool but lower down is getting hot. The odd thing now is how many hikers are skipping up from SoCal to avoid the heat vs the snow as we and many others did.
Will post a few pics later.
TNT
We are preparing to leave the great vortex in South Lake Tahoe. We were leaving two days ago but I picked then to catch a cold/ crud…..so waiting for that to subside.
We have had a fun, relaxing time here and got in some great day hikes in the area. I have caught up on my gambling bug, we have beached it, sampled every local brew known to man ,many times over ,and have proved once again they make more than we can drink😎
We also have recommendations for all the pizza, Mexican,Italian and Chinese restaurants as well as many local watering holes…..forgot the delivery food!
Nikki has just about caught up on every Golden Girls and Law and Order episode ever made so she is good to go as well.
I have met several thrus over the past days…..some coming out of the Sierras and going on north, some jumpers like us , choosing to start north from here, and again like us realizing …damn there is still lots of snow from here and jumping even farther north. I am FB following a female solo who jumped north of here and hiked back here quite a ways and also through lots of snow with the intent of continuing south through the Sierras only to decide to jump even farther north and continue north to avoid going through the snow and river crossings of the Sierras at this time.
I realize snow and ice are an integral part of the adventure but being the Texans we are, we have found a mutual aversion to playing in and on it while in the mountains……thus our sometimes extreme efforts to avoid doing it. We will still get some snow but in the amounts and areas more to our liking😎
For our non Facebook followers, I will repost some pics of our day hikes here….
A great big shout out and lots of love to our dear friends….Tim and Justin for the kindness y’all have shown and given us! Your Casa is lovely and we hope to repay both of you in the future!
I will post our destination when I get it all figured out and promise it will be north towards Canada and not via Arizona or some non snow area!
Pete and Nikki. TNT
in South Lake Tahoe. As all PCT folks know there is lots of snow here. We passed the PCT trail head near Donner Pass coming in two days ago…..driving not hiking😎 and yesterday we drove up to the trail head going to Echo Lake. Lots of snow then in both places and more falling as we drove down.
We are here in our pursuit of just trying to hike parts until we enter Kennedy Meadows when the melt starts. We orginally planned on doing an enroute snow course May 4 which included a “guided tour”up and over Forrester Pass from Ned Tibbet as part of the course. We didn’t feel ready for the snow for various reasons and common sense prevailed and we backed out. We may try his short course here if it still available.
We left Bakersfield several days ago and drove to Redding with the intent of doing a 100 mile stretch there. That plan went out the window as there was only a brief 42 mile piece that was what we considered to be in our comfort zone. North and south of there was some bad snow areas. Nik had a two day stomach bug and after that we decided to go south again.
We have two wonderful friends letting us use their Casa starting Monday. We have our snow gear arriving today so will find some parts to do around here for the near term.
The upside to this part of our adventure is we are staying in a casino/hotel until Monday.Those of you that know me also know I have a strong affinity for slots so I am getting some play time on those. It isn’t the Bellagio but still fun. I previously have been satisfying my gambling urges by buying scratch off lotto tickets in towns along the way.
So…..we are alive and well. Putting on some town fat and will need to burn that off. Nik is good and not putting on town fat😎
Will update again soon. A last comment….we started very early knowing full well this could happen. Have no regrets as we hiked in cool weather all the way and had no issues with camp sites or water sources. I admire those thrus behind us as they are doing some crazy hot hiking and in some cases scarce water sources. Course they are benefitting from all the Angels goodness that we missed being early.
As always things happen for a reason. We have had and are still having fun on this trail with more to come!
TnT
We left Tehachapi last Wednesday with the intention of doing 5 days and 4 nights and an average 17 mpd pace to complete the 85 miles.
We left early Wednesday after a ride to the trail head at 566 from angel Al. We had cut our food to the bare minimum needed and after getting water reports from 3 groups ahead of us decided to carry minimum water as well for the first day as it was 17 miles to the first water source.
The hike started flat for a couple of miles then up, up and away for the remainder of the day. We found the trail again to be in great shape….a blessing. It felt good to be back on trail. Several miles in we came across another hiker resting under a tree and briefly visited with him and continued on.
We made the 17 miles and arrived at Golden Oaks Springs…..flagged. We started filtering and filling our water bottles as 5 other hiker showed up. At that point we all start rotating at the very slow spring and it took a long while to get our bottles topped off.
We camped there and both of us had a restless nights sleep.
Thursday
After filtering more water , we got underway around 8, with the day’s goal being 19 miles to the next water at Robin Bird Spring. After a few hours we noticed clouds forming and with rain in the forecast we hoped it would by pass us. We passed countless windmill farms, high desert burn areas, blow downs and later the forever ups. The weather started to become more of a concern as we were going to be hiking straight through it. A side note ….while on the trail, we have managed to apply the golden rule of aviation and that is to avoid bad weather whenever possible. We have held up, zeroed, stalled, bailed….whatever has been necessary to stay warm and dry on the trail. Our luck ran out on this day.
We decided at 14 miles in to hunker down and and stopped short of our 19 mile goal to water. Just as we got tucked in all cozy in our tent , we heard a voice calling us and it was Short Shorts, a young thru we had met last evening at Golden Oaks Spring. He was sick, running a fever etc had slept in. We tried to convince him to shut down for the day as he looked bad and was still feeling bad, but he pressed on.
We had a good nights sleep and left the next morning into the heavy, wet clouds…..wet and sticky but great hiking temps
We stopped at Robin Bird Spring , 5 miles later , and added water….Nik kindly volunteerd to do the collecting😎
WeFriday
We hiked through and out of the mist and for the remainder of the day enjoyed some of the best hiking thus far as we were in high mountain forrest. Along the way, we decided to stay at Landers Camp a great water source. We also started noticing our dwindling food supply and realized that we probably had fine tuned it too much in light of our decreased daily mileage. A highlight of the day was meeting Cinnabun and her daughter. They were on their way to check one of the water sources and were giving magic our along the way…..usually according to her, they carry actual cinnamon rolls or buns to give out. Today it was pro bars. She also is helping maintain the Kelso Valley Road water cache…..a blessing!
We camped after 14 miles along with several other hikers. Short Shorts showed up still looking and feeling bad. We gave him tortillas, cheese and crackers ….any thing bland we had. Earlier I had offered to use my Inreach and call for help but he declined.
Saturday
We decided this morning that we would exit the trail at Kelso Valley road, 7 miles away. The decision was based partly on food remaining and also on our daily mileage. At our rate we would probably need to do an additional night and day and we decided against it.
Our options out of Kelso Valley were to do a 20 mile road walk/hitch to another highway and then several mile hitch to Lake Isabella, our next resupply.
We arrived at Kelso Vallet Road to find the annual High Desert Trails Performance Rally car race underway…..with people and cars there to support the event. Hitch time!
TThe first couple I talked with turned out to be Gadget Girl and her husband Dave. She was going to cache water for her upcoming hike through this section. Gadget Girl has just about the best support system/trail manager I have ever seen. Dave follows in their RV and she resupplies etc after each section from him. We want a Dave😎 They loaded us up and boom…we are in Lake Isabella.
While there we met up with some hikers we had met earlier on the trail. Some were going on to Kennedy Meadows and plan their snow wait and others were jumping north around the Sierras to either Chester or Old Station and continue NOBO …..then return later after the thaw and do them. We chose that option.
Plans are now to rent a car and drive to Redding, then get on trail at Old Station and see where that lands us. For now we need to be doing 15 to 17 miles per day with light food and water carry and around 3-4 nights and 4 days on trail….then a healing break.
Highly recommend this hotel if you ever come to Bakersfield!
TnT
Pete and Nikki's Adventures 