Timothy Gulch - Forest Road 8/20/10 27.6 miles

We got out at about 6:30am to push for a long day and try to make it to the post office tomorrow by 1:30pm, before it closed. WE passed Kiwi, Bacon and Meander as they were packing up from camp. They were again surprised to see us that early. We saw our first bear today as it came barreling down the hill, about 20 yards ahead of us. We continued on through a pass and on to climb a beautiful ridge. Saw another bear. What a day! We took lunch at a nice meadow with a huge rock in it. We still had 15 miles to go. We passed Paradise Lake, which it was, but the water tasted dirty. Came around a corner and heard a nice creek, then I heard something in the bushes. Another bear and a cub! We kept walking quietly and then they saw us! The cub ran up a tree, right next to the tree. We backed up slowly to avoid exciting the mama. We watched her for about 20 minutes, before the cub came back down the tree. They ran back into the bushes and we continued on. We couldn't believe and my heart was thumping! We sat down on a log to take a break later and heard something up in the tree. Bear #5 and he was just snorting and sniffing us, as he hung out in the tree. We decided to move on before we had our snack. We sat and ate on up the trail and two Sobo's sat down and talked with us, Jason and Kasandra. We traded North stories for South stories and continued on. We had 9 miles to go. It was going to be a long afternoon. We stopped to get water and then saw another bear rustling right before the trail. Total count today - 6! I promise that was the last one! We walked until dark and put on our headlamps, walking about 5 minutes later. We set up, had dinner, which I burned just a little, but it kind of tasted like fried chicken. We are tired after our longest and possibly most exciting day in the Marble Mountains!! -CM

Etna - Timothy Gulch 8/19/10 14 miles

It was completely wonderful to sleep in a real bed last night and to have gotten such a good night's rest. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love my cozy sleeping bag, but I would take a bed over it any day! We started the morning with phone calls to family and some friends. Chris and I pounded an entire box of large doughnuts (8 large ones to be exact) for breakfast while laying in bed watching t.v. Ahhhh, I love it!! We checked out a little later than we had planned, but that was alright. Picked up some supplies, ate lunch and began our hitch out of the cute, picturesque town of Etna, at around 1pm. Our friends had waited about 2 hours for a ride out of town, but we got very lucky. We waited for about 14 minutes and Jimmy pulled up. It was about a 20 minute ride up to the top of the mountain and he talked to us about living in VA for a while and gave us some interesting facts about the area. He as a very nice, very laid back guy and we both loved talking to him. He dropped us off at the top and he gave me a fresh avocado that had been floating around in his truck. We began our walk and accepted the fact that we wouldn't be able o get our planned 20 miles in. with only about 6 hours of daylight left, we would just have to compensate over the next two days. We called and ordered some new shoes while on top of the mountain and receiving cell reception. We had a great dinner when we arrived at camp, cheese and crackers and some Mountain House lasagna with avocado mixed in. We may have just been really hungry, but our concoction tasted awesome! -KB

Etna 8/18/10 O miles

We started the morning by laying around in the tent for a while. It felt good to waste time and not worry about miles. We did our laundry and lots of math planning for the next month and the finish of our hike. We have less than a month left and only about 500 miles to go. We headed downtown to get our box and do some shopping, ate lunch at a nice little diner and had sandwiches and split a great chef salad. We ran into everyone there and talked a while. Dude and Trouble were taking off, don't know if we'll catch them again. We were hoping to go to the library for research and to update the blog, but they were closed, fortunately that meant we got to take a nice nap in our cozy hotel room, the best nap in a long time. We woke up to Kiwi knocking on the door to say that they were heading to the brewery for dinner. Sounded good, so we got ready and met them there. We started with 6 people at our table and had 9 by the time dinner was over. It was a really good time. Jean, the section hiker we had met the Day before picked up the tab for all of us! Wow, trail magic! We stopped by the store on the way back and grabbed him a thank you card and left it at his door. We had a couple more drinks and made phone calls at the room. -CM

Wafford Cabin Trail - Etna 8/17/10 26 miles

We actually were both wide awake this morning at 4:30am! With the fly off the tent, we were stunned with the intensity of the bright stars in the sky! We got out by 5:30am. It was a beautiful morning walk. The sun had just began to light up the horizon, but just on the mountains' edges. The mountian tops glowed with pinks and oranges, with the sky still dark and full of stars. Like nothing I had ever seen!! We walked for an hour and passed Kiwi, Meander and Bacon as they were just beginning to get started and out of their tents. We all laughed and they were shocked that we were going to early. We were usually the last ones to begin walking. We continued on and took a short break with snack after six miles. We walked on and were able to do 11 miles by 10am! Woohoo! At our next break, we met a section hiker, Jean, and talked with him for a while. He was the first person we had met who also shared our Virginia, so we had a lot to talk about. We walked past many cattle, black Angus with cowbells on. We heard the bells from a distance and did not know what to expect, especially when we're not used to hearing loud noised other than birds, wind and water. Chris actually thought it was techno music from a distance..hehe. The Trinity Alps wer eso beautiful, very remote and reminded of snow-less Sierras. They were very rocky and rugged and some peaks were mildly spotted with snow. Our Eric the Black guidebook showed that we would have minimal climbs today. Wrong! It was most definitely a day of climbing up and down and up again. We reached the trail head at the road at around 6pm. Shew, what a day! Fean, Kiwi, Bacon and Meander all arrived within minutes of us . We knew when we reached the road that it would be a difficult hitch. About three cars passed in an hour's time. They either waved or stopped and talked, but were unable to give us a ride due to their cars being packed and full or going in the opposite direction. Finally, a huge 15 passenger van pulled up. They hopped out and informed us that they were heading home to Etna after a day of rafting with their kids and would give us a ride. They already had 13 passengers though-10 very young children including one in a carseat and three adults, and a dog! They all laughed, shuffled around, and the six of us piled in with our huge packs in our laps! what a trip! They were such a nice family and had the CUTEST kids ever! They talked with us and then gave us a tour around the very small, Damascus-like town and then dropped us off at te Motel Etna. The mom (cannot remember her name,) told me that her kids had whispered to her, "Mom, can they come home with us and have dinner?" How cute! We all rolled out of the van. Chris and I stuck with the plan, saved our money and headed to the RV Park to camp, with intentions of staying in the motel tomorrow and taking a full zero! Talk about having some will power! It was hard not to just give in and sleep in a real bed. It was now about 8pm as we set up camp and showered. We both agreed that we felt like we were jet-lagged from being awake for so long and exerting so much energy walking. But, it was such a good day! Met some more amazing people and got into town! -KB

Bull Lake - Wafford Cabin Trail 8/16/10 26 miles

Started the morning with a great sunrise on the lake. We got out at about 7:30am and started with a nice gentle downhill to our first break at a nice spring. We continued winding around ridges until we approached Highway 3, the border of Klamath National Forest. We met Foghorn, a SOBO. Twelve miles by 12:30 and we decided to push another 4 miles up the hill to avoid a long afternoon. We ran into Kiwi, Bacon and Meander at the stream where we took lunch. It had been a while wince we had seen them, so we traded some stories. They had seen two mountain lions! We had Mountain House beef patties and potatoes for lunch. Pretty good! WE finished lunch at 4 pm and still had 10 miles to go. It was slow going. Kristi's feet were tired from walking over so many rocks on the trail. We finished our day on the beautiful ridge over a town with a nice sunset. Twenty-six miles into town tomorrow. We were excited to get to Etna and take much needed zero day. It has been almost one month since we had gotten a hotel room to totally relax. Hopefully we'll get an early start tomorrow morning!! -CM

Seven Lakes Ridge - Bul Lake 8/15/10 26 miles

We woke up to an amazing sunrise this morning on the ridge. The mountain tops were pastel shades of orange, pink and red. Good way to start the day. Weknew that we had a big day ahead of us so we got going. The morning was nice ande cool, which helped the walking. We again were mostly on ridges today and had some gorgeous views of Mt. Shasta. By lunchtime, we had walked 13 miles. We ate at Deadfall Lake, which was really nice, with a firepit adn lots of logs around to sit on. Some chipmunk spectators joined us, awaited any drops of crumbs. Some day hikers came by and chatted for a while adn excitingly asked many questions about our hike. They asked how long we'd been out and when we responded, "since June 15th," I myself was even surprised. It definitely doesn't seem that we've been out here two months today. We took a couple of nice breakes for the remaineder of the day and then headed down to the lake. There sat Trouble and Dude. They had intended on hiking two more miles and tstayed near some trees on the lake when it began to hail. We totally missed that! The sky had looked dark all day, and we had gotten sprinkled on, but no hail! It was good to catch up with them and hang out for a while. They are for sure some good folks. Nice, flat campsite tonight, right by the lake. -KB

Castle Crags - Seven Lakes Ridge 8/14/10 22 miles

Woke up ready to go after a refreshing evening. We packed up and headed back down to the store for some breakfast burritos and to make some final calls. We headed out about 9am for the walk up the road to get back on the trail. Finally got to the trail at about 10:30am. It was already hot and we had a 4,000 foot climb ahead of us. We took our first break at a beautiful creek in a little canyon ,. We got to the climb and it was entirely in the sun. We climbed for what seemed like forever. We got to a spring that had some nice shade and we were so happy to drink some cold water. We met Palamino, a SOBO section hiker and shared some great conversation while we ate lunch. We headed back out and got some great views of the Castle Crags and Mt. Shasta as we walked the ridge. We sat up camp at about 7:30pm, just in time for sunset. The tent site was quite rocky and slanted, but was worth the great views after the hard climb. -CM

Logging Road - Castle Craggs Campground 8/13/10 16 miles

We thought we were getting up early when we started packing up around 7ish. Two hikers passed by and introduced themselves, Whifflechicken and Swiss Miss. The hike today consisted of a steep morning climb to warm us up, a nice shortcut to a logging road and a lot of downhill before we reached town. We arrived right at lunch time. We grabbed some burritos and drinks at the store and ate them under a tree as we hunk out with Dude, Trouble, El Presidente and Mr. Green. It was nice to relax and socialize without feeling rushed to get back on the trail. Went next door to pick up our box from Mary. Thank you! We loaded up our food and headed back to the "Chevron Tree" to hang out for a bit longer, with full intentions of walking a few more miles this evening. A few drinks later and a lot of laughs later, it was 7pm. Looks like we're going to stay at the campground next door. We stumbled to camp, took an amazing hot shower, and set up. Sleeping good tonight. -KB

8/12/10

We slept well in our makeshift camp in the middle of thee trail. We set out pretty early for a nice, roaded downhill stroll to the McCloud River. It was some of the prettiest blue water we've seen on the whole trip. Pictures do it no justice, we walked another couple of miles and had lunch before we started to climb. We pigged out trying to get rid of some of our food before we headed into town. It was a nice gentle climb and we took a long break at the top. We met "El Presidente" and he talked for a while with us. He said that he'd saw a huge mountain lion the night before. We headed down the mountain and Kristi said that she didn't feel so well. I think she had gotten a little dehydrated. Planned to camp at the river but there were no flat spots big enough. El Presidente said that he saw four bears on the way down the hill, we were only ten minutes behind him, so we were either lucky or not lucky, I don't know. Climbed a little ways up to the logging site and found a nice spot in the middle of some white pines. Had a good dinner of couscous and slept well knowing that town was not far away. -CM

8/11/10

It was nice to get up and get moving away from probably the least scenic and most unattractive campsite we've had yet. The mornings here are becoming much cooler and it took us a while to warm up this morning. We walked through a lot of brushy trail, dodging poison oak. Chris remained on poison oak patrol and pointed out each time he spotted it. We took a morning break with an outrageous view of Mt. Shasta in the distance. Clouds surrounded her peak and it most certainly didn't look real. I can't wait to get even closer. We stopped and took some crazy pictures of some dandelions, because they are as big as my fists and it's nearly impossible to blow off the seeds. Very unlike the small, fragile ones back home. We had lunch at Moosehead Springs, which we intended on being less than an hour, but was the full hour as usual. We ealked on ridges throughout the entire day, which continued to be taken over by much brush. I took my time and tried to save my legs from becoming more scratched up, as Chris smashed through it like a wild jungle man. We were nearly frightened to death as two jets soared just above the trees over us. Talk about loud and breathtaking! I came close to jumping in the bushes as I covered my head and ducked! I did a lot of thinking about the remainder of our hiking trip and plans afterwards. Listened to some music to pass some time, which really got me craving a live show! Chris cracked me up today as we passed a seedy pile of bear evidence as he said, "I would just love to watch a bear poop. You know it'd be funny because they probably poop like a dog.". Haha!! It was a good but long day! We hadn't came upon a camping spot in miles due to all of the ridgewalking, so we had to create our own. -KB

8/10/10

Woke up earlyish this morning after sleeping through the alarm. We packed up and filled up our water at the spigot (you know it's bad/good when campgrounds are civilized.). We stopped by the camp store and got some hot chocolate and postcards. We got started about 9am finally. Had an easy walk to an early lunch at another rock creek under the bridge. We did some math and more planning for the last leg of our adventure. We continued on oin some dense woods. It was overcast all day, which is very unusual. Usually not a cloud in the sky. We stopped at a huge powerline and there was a beautiful view. We met Sheepdog and Sandals, which were southbounding and making a "class of 2010" video. We didn't qualify since we are "section hikers", long story. It started to sprinkle, another surprise, but we continued a while longer through a lot of logged areas. Some clear cut and some selectively harvested. The trail was overgrown towards the end of the day and we ended up camping on a logger's loading site. It's not being used anymore, not the nicest piece of real estate, but it will do. Dinner in the tent and a late bedtime after a late start this morning. Burney Falls was definitely worth the detour. -CM

Water Cache - Rock Creek Spring 8/8/10 26 miles

Twenty six miles to go over our first marathon. We got up earlyish, had some breakfast with Dude and Trouble and then started the day loaded up on water. Hat Creek Rim is a Plateau over a volcanic rock covered valley between Lassen Peak and Mt. Shasta. It is a really wierd geological place. The rim is at he edge of a cliff and at 45 degree angle. Lots of sand and tatally exposed with little shade and no water. Sounds fun right? We got about 6 miles and took a break in a smaill area of woods and then continued on to the next water cache. People bring water out in gallon jugs on the dry stretches. We got there about lunch. Dude and Trouble were already there and disappointed with no water. Twenty four water jugs and all empty. It was a nice shady spot and we had lunch there. Luckily I started with a gallon of water, so I still had two quarts left and twelve miles to go. WE crossed our 750 mile mark and our half way point. Exciting! We came down off the rim. It was still dry and we had to waqlk over ancient lava fields. It was wild! We ran out of water about 2 miles before camp, but the sun was low and the trees were funally giving shade, so we were okay. We finally got to camp about 7:30pm. Would have been earlier, but we took a nap at mile 18 under an awesome shade tree withthe craziest breeze. Camp was close to a hydro power plant and there was a huge water pipe that someone had drilled a hole in to make a sprinkler. It was heaven after a "dehydrated marathon" as Kristi put it. We had dinner and went to bed, suprisingly, not too terribly exhausted. -CM

The Heitman's - Hat creek Rim 8/7/10 7 miles

Veggie came through the back yard this morning letting everyone know that breakfast was ready. That's a good way to wake up!! She and Warner Springs Monty had made a breakfast casserole, cinnamon rolls and my favorite- biscuits and REAL gravy!! He had promised last night he would make some since we were southerners in need of it! Total approval! Loved it!! We hung there until about lunchtime getting our laundry finisthed up, making phone calls home and using trhe internet. It was a fairly chlly morning. We thanked everyone for the awesome hospitality and caught a ride to the store from Dennis, the owner fo the house. He told us a littel history of he and Georgie and how they moved around for a while and later found the property and built their cabin. We bought some lunch at the store and of course had to have some ice cream to get us going. We then caught a ride to the trailhad by antoher very nice man and started walking. We checked out the "Subway Caves" that are huge caves formed by lava many years ago. It was pretty amazing. We decided to camp close to the water cache, since our 26mile stretch tomorrow has no water. Set up, hung out with Dude and Trouble for a bit and time for bed. -KB

Drakesbad Ranch - The Heitman's 8/6/10 23.6 miles

We woke up early with our bellies still full from lst night. The mornings are getting much cooler already. We had alittle climb in the morning and took a break after about 8 miles. I realized I had lost my Jade necklace from New Zealand. I was not happy. Hopefully it will come back to me. We had lunch after a very hot stretch. Had a nice view of Lassen park. Ten miles to go. Everyone was so excit4d about staying with the Heitman's. There was about 9 people including up when we got to the store where they picked up up. It was abot 5 pm and they said they would have dinner ready by 6pm. Perfect timing! It took a couple of rides to get everyone there. Sugar Mama took us las and we rolled up as everyone wqas eating. There was still plenty of food left. Lasagna, corn on the cob and bread pudding with whipped cream. A good dinner two nights in a row and it was nice. They had a great set up with an outdoor kitchen and garge with hiker supplies, shower, laundry, hiker camping with tents already set up and a treehouse with beds!! It doesn't get much better than this! Unfortunately the treehouse was already claimed. Kristi worked late getting the blog caught up and we finally went to bed at 11pm. Lat night for us. -CM

N. Fork Feather River - Drakesbad Ranch!! 8/5/10 9.4 miles

After laying around in the tent with until about 8am (very late for us) we finally got out and hiking by 8;20am. The 9 mile walk to Drakesbad was moderately easy, but we were both so anxious to arrive, that it seemed to take a little longer. At the end of the hke, we were able to check out a hot spring lake that was bubbling, with steam surrounding it. Definitely a first! Rolled into Drakesbad Ranch right a lunchtime, the right time : ) This place was very historic. Several cabins for guests, a small store and a main dining cabin, and a hot springs pool area. The owner, Ed, was very welcoming as we followed the delicious lunchtime aroma into the dining area. I'm aware that we had to be smelly at this point. We had walked and sweated for about four days without showers. Ed shook Chris's hand and hugged me. As I resisted, stating that I may not smell great, he then laughing said with his German accent, "It's okay. I'm used to you all's smell." We had an all-you-can-eat lunch with Kiwi, Bacon and Meander, and then headed to the showers. What an amazing shower!! next stop-hot springs pool. We all hung out in the and by the pool for a while. The water was very therapeutic for a tired, achy, hiker body. It was soooo relaxing! We were all, ALL-SMILES, all day! As we sat around the pool, a few more hikers rolled in, Trouble, Dude, Frog and Curly. Chris and I hung out for a while and then to the front porch of the small store for a few cold ones. Dinner time arrived. We had turkey, REAL mashed potatoes, green beans, salad and fresh bread. It was delicious, but the portions were arranged all fancy, and a little small, especially when challenged against our raging appetites. Never fear, Ed is here! He informed us that there were a "few" leftovers and brought us huge family style bowls of everything! We ate even more this time around! Today was a good day! -KB

Carter Meadow - N. Fork Feather River 8/4/10 23.4 miles

Woke up early and were out by 7am. We had a really pretty climb to a ridge with views of the foggy valley. We took our first break at the half way point of the trail and helped Kiwi, Bacon and Meander celebrate with a little whiskey at 9:30am. I promise this is not becoming a habit, haha. We walked some clean trail to an early lunch at Soldier Creek and then took a nice nap on the terraced campsite. Thirteen miles to go at 2pm. We had a long downhill to Rt. 36 where we found some trail magic from "Piper's Mom!" Sodas and chips! It definitely helped get us the last 9miles to camp. The last section was dry and kind of boring until we came around a corner and saw Lassen up close. We had been seeing it in the distance, but where we had been in the woods all day we hadn't realized how close we were getting. Came down the last mile to the Feather River and ran into Choc. Bandito going south. She had gotten bored so she hitched up and was going against the flow to see some old and new faces. She told us the scoop on Drakesbad Guest Ranch. We have been dreaming about it for a while. We were going there tomorrow for some showers and swimming and lots of food. Can't wait. -CM

Chip River - Carter Meadow 8/3/10 21.4 miles

Our "Eric the Black" map seemed to lead us wrong several different times today. There were several jeep roads and water sources listed in there, that were apparently imaginary. Water was the issue today. We filled up before we left camp and again about 12 miles into the day. I filled up my bladder and Chris filled up his two 32 oz. bottles at a nice spigot spring, that was shooting out fresh, ice cold water. Since the map indicated that there were at least two more water sources before lunch, Chris dumped one bottle in order to lighten the load a bit. We walked in nice, shaded forests wit good climbs and then on bare, dusty desert-like terrain. We had lunch at a nice overlook, about 15 miles into the day. Since we had found no water on our way to lunch, we noticed on our map, that there was a creek off the trail. We left our packs up top and walked about 1/2 mile down a forest road, and then green blazed down the hill in hopes to locate the creek. We walked for a while and no creek to be found. After an hour wasted, we put our packs on with no other option but to go 6.5 MORE miles with no water. As we were leaving, Kiwi appeared. We talked with him, Meander and Bacon for a moment, complained of our waterless struggles and headed on. I have to admit, those miles with no water were rough for me. The combination of being already thirsty plus just the simple fact of knowing we had no water, made me dream of ice cold water, the entire walk. My mouth was so dry and Chris and kept talking about the bottle that he had dumped earlier, wishing we were chugging it. The map indicated that the terrain for this section would be flat. We knew better, due to being mislead by promising profiles before. We walked up and down until we reached water. It never tasted so good! Kiwi, Bacon and Meander neighbored us tonight. We had good dinner, good conversation and actually were in the tent before dark. -KB

Belden - Chip River 8/2/10 10 miles

We slept in a bit, waiting for the P.O. to open. Walked down the hill with Burley's owner and accidentally fell into a bar. Haha! 9:30am whiskey and beer. We talked to the nice bartender about their weekly music festivals and such. We got to the P.O., made some pone calls planning our departure from the trail, even though we still have a ways to go. Got our awesome box from Sarah, with SO much food to keep up going.The P.O. we were at was actually a house. The lady that ran it was hilarious, stuck in the 70's and definitely from CA. It was definitely the most eccentric place I'd ever been. We sat outside and sorted out our boxes. We finally got on the trail about 12:30pm and walked a couple of hours. It was soo hot! The section had been hit by a fire. We had a large snack/lunch with Stealth, Hmmm and others. We saw our first rattlesnake as it crawled out from under Stealth's tent. Wow. We packed up for another 5 mile to camp.l Saw another rattler and did a whole lot of climbing, 3500' in 10 miles and were still not at the top. had a nice dinner. Crunched some numbers for the next week's hiking. It was a fun, hard day. -CM

Buck's Lake - Bleden 8/1/10 23 miles

It felt so amazing to sleep in an actual bed last night at the Williams's, have a full belly of real food, have new shoes and most of all be refreshed by the company of such an extremely fantastic family that made us feel at home!We woke up this morning to a nice, hot breakfast of pancakes, bacon, eggs and deliciously locally grown, fresh, juicy peaches. And we though our stay with them couldn't get any better than last night! Chris, Picks Up Stones ad I ate and shared some laughs with Terry and Dennis. We began packing up and said our goodbyes to Picks Up Stones, as he left for his southbound adventures. I really enjoyed meeting him, such a sweet soul. He is 60 years old, and doesn't look a day over 45. One of the nicest, most genuine folks we've met on the trail. Time for us to go now. We were so thankful for everything the Williams's had done for us! There are wonderful people! Nancy drove us to the trailhead, we thanked her and went on our way. For our first few hours of walking, I continued to think about all of the hospitality that that family had shown us and they asked for nothing in return. That's what it's all about, just helping others out when you can. I have witnessed more of this while on the trail than I have seen in a very long time. Just like Bill and Margaret at the Red Moose, the Williams's kindness will positively impact all of us who stayed with them, and we will show the same to others. We had some beautiful views today, but saw the smoke of a forest fire in the distance for most of the day. It didn't seem to be slowing down. Many helicopters carrying water were in and out. We began our walk down into Belden, an endless section of switchbacks down the ridge. Chris was on poison oak patrol, as he pointed out every bit that he saw. We decided to camp at the bottom, at the equestrian camp, and we would get our resupply box from Sarah H. in the morning. As we got comfy and made dinner from the tent, a hiker with his companion, Burley the Donkey, walked up. No, that's not a trail name, it was a real donkey : ) This guy was hiking southbound with Burley and told us all about it. I got out of the tent and had to pet him! My next pet may now be a donkey! I fell in love. He was so gentle and calm! Box tomorrow!! -KB

Feather River - Buck's Lake 7/31/10 11 miles

had a good time last night and an even better morning. We slept in and talked to Chris and he said he would give us a ride to town. His truck was parked 1/4 mile up the trail. Yes, we cheated because we didn't walk to Buck's Lake, but I got to go four wheeling, which I'd been wanting to do for so long. It saved our sore Croc'ed feet and got us to our new shoes faster. We got to Buck's Lake, went by the store and got some refreshments and then headed to the Williams, the local trail angels. These folks were the greatest family we'd met yet! They gave us our new shoes that we had had mailed there. Sweet! The first question they asked was if we were hungry. Always. We had cheese burgers with fresh tomatoes and had some good company with their huge family. Nice cabin, free lunch and showers. We hopped on the computer for a wile and then it was dinner time. Pot roast, potatoes, carrots, squash, zucchini, garlic bread and topped of with homemade ice cream and strawberry cheesecake. I hurt myself eating as usual. We had some drinks by the fire after dinner with the family. They were farmers, so we swapped stories. I had to lay down and rest my belly. Kristi lost me and they were asking her where her husband was, haha. We got to sleep in a real bed with our bellies nice and full, dreaming of our new shoes. What a great family! -CM

Nelson Creek - Feather River 7/30/10 25.6 miles

We woke up to a rather chilly morning, therefore we took our time and built a fire to help get us going. We knew that we had a long day ahead of us, so we got started. Today really was an eventful day. The hiking itself wasn't difficult, although the section of the Plumas Forest that we walked through involved jumping over many hurdles, literally. There were hundreds of fallen trees still covering the trail. This slowed us down a bit and gave me a few nice scratches. Te majority of the day, we walked through flat, shaded forest, which was nice. The second half of the day, we crossed many forest roads on the trail and did a lot of uphill ridge walking. Te dirt on this section is very fine and seems to somehow end up on every inch of your body. We stopped and took several snack breaks today and consumed a good amount of junk food in order to keep us moving. At the end of the day, we were becoming really tired. Our feet were ready to retire the Crocs. I had now been walking in mine for about 60 miles and Chris had been walking in his for about 90 miles. Every now again we would shout out the number of miles it was until we arrived at Buck's Lake to get our new ones. So anxious to have happy feet again. We were almost to camp. We spotted the Feather River and walked over a nice bridge to get to our campsite. As we walked up the trial to camp, a huge dog began to bark There was guy, Chris, camping in one of the spots with his dog. He gladly welcomed us to come on down, and so did his dog. It felt great to wash off at the river. My feet and legs were filthy. We sat up camp and ate dinner while we talked to Chris. He and my Chris discussed good tips on how to get your foot in the door with the forest service, since this Chris currently worked for them. Moto, his dog, was very cute, but kept trying to hump my arm, so I had to distract him with a game of fetch..haha. Chris gave us some more good advice and we had some laughs with him. This is one of our best camping spots yet and the stars never shined so bright :) -KB

Sierra Buttes - Nelson Creek 7/29/10 21miles

We got a pretty good start to have drank a bottle of wine . We winded down the backside of the Buttes and enjoyed views of the beautiful fire tower at the top. We came to a gravel road and wondered around in circles for a while trying to find where the trail picked back up. A pile of cars pulled up and the man in the first car jumped out and asked if we needed anything. He was super nice. We told him that we had just gotten our resupply and that we were okay. We talked for a while and he told the group of hikers that he was leading, what we were doing. As we were leaving, he slipped us some cash. Wow, that's never happened. As we were leaving, Kristi laughed and asked me, "Do we look that bad?" We continued following the gravel road for a ways and then dropped back into the woods. The ridge was beautiful, overlooking 10's of beautiful blue lakes. We had lunch next to a pond and took a little snooze in the shade. WE woke up in the sun dripping with sweat and got on our way. My Crocs were holding up to the test, but my heel is still sliding out..? We took another break at the "A Tree" (long story), nice spring. A trail crew was working on the trail ahead and we passed them on the way up. The trail was dusty, wide and clear, with views of the Butte's fifteen miles away. We got cell signal at the top and Kristi called and checked on her mom. We headed down to camp on a nice creek. We got in early so we had a little fire with dinner. Pretty and pretty lucky day. -CM

Sierra City - Sierra Buttes Trail 7/28/10 7 miles

We slept in this morning (7am woo hoo) and it felt great! Did I mention that waking up clean felt great?! We got semi-packed up and headed into the restaurant for breakfast. There were several hikers sitting around the bar eating. Ahhh, the aroma of freshly cooked breakfast (other than oatmeal and pop tarts) smelled fantastic! We ordered eggs and bacon AND all-you-can-eat pancakes! So delicious! Margaret kept the pancakes coming until we were finished. On a nice full belly we finished up our laundry, made phone calls home and used the internet for quite some time- all compliments of Bill and Margaret. Chris called Sierra Trading Post and explained the problems with his shoes. They agreed to allow him to ship them back and reimburse him for them! He's really getting good at this stuff! First my pack and now free shoes! We then picked out some new ones for the both of us and he arranged to have them shipped to Buck's Lake, about 60 miles up the trail. We were thrilled to be getting new ones! My $35 TJ Maxx special Sauconey's held up well for the money, for almost 600 miles, but it was time to allow them to rest. We then picked up our AMAZING box from Kara and Don at the P.O. She had us all sorts of special goodies and even a CARTON of red wine and some brownies! We couldn't wait to break into this! We sorted through our food and had some extra, so we gave a few things to Bacon and Meander, since they were a little short. Next, we headed to the General Store before we headed out. We had heard about their enormous Deli Sandwiches and had to try them out. Before leaving, ice cream was a must. We sat out on the cozy, covered front porch surrounded by wild flowers, ate our pint of Cherry Garcia and chatted with an older local man. It was now about 3:30pm and time to get back to walking. We said our goodbyes to the hikers and Margaret at the Red Moose. She insisted on giving us a ride back up to the trail. We couldn't resist. This lady and her husband Bill are truly angels and we can't thank them enough for their hospitality and generosity. I hope to keep in touch with hem. Once again, I feel so blessed to be able to meet people like Bill and Margaret. Their gratitude towards us and others will certainly go a long way. The hike up the mountain was relatively steep, rocky and very sweaty. We were glad we waited until the evening to get started. We arrived at the top around 7:30pm, as we anxiously set up camp with hopes to get started on the wine : ) We watched a gorgeous sunset across the mountain range, with a bright orange shadow all across as it set. The best yet! The wine went down just right as we both had some good laughs over dinner. I feel so refreshed to have met some amazing people, relate with some fellow hiker friends and to have had some more good times and laughs. It doesn't get much better than this. I truly love this place. -KB

Meadow Lake - Sierra City 7/27/10 23 miles

Woke up to everyone rolling out of camp. They were headed into town and were excited. We planned on camping close and going in tomorrow. IT was a pretty easy day. We ate lunch under a nice bride on the creek to avoid the sun. WE took a little snooze to let our food settle. My Crocs are doing alright as my temporary hiking shoes, but it sucks having to carry my real ones. Eleven miles to go. We crossed a road that lead to town and debated on hitching on in. No luck. We continued our walk, supposedly all downhill. It was a winding roller coaster, but still easy walking. We got to the 2 mile road shortcut to town at about 6pm and decided to go on in. It was a steep downhill on a gravel road to a campground. Nice campground. The burgers and beer being consumed only made us more ready for town. The road turned to pavement and went through a nice residential/vacation cabin area. It's fun to look at houses after not seeing any for five days. The walk seemed to take forever, but we coasted the hill and saw main street. Population 220! It was an old gold mining town! We ran into Walking Flower coming out as we were going in. She said the store had just closed, but there was a place called the Red Moose. Ribs, shower, laundry and a place to stay. We were so excited! WE rolled up to twelve stuffed thru hikers. We walked in and met Bill and Margaret, the owners. They were present day gold miners and had bought the building just six weeks earlier. it was half bar and half hotel with apartments upstairs. They had bought it to store their equipment in the giant basement. They planned to lease the bar out, but had no takers and decided to take car of hikers in their spare time. We ate all-you-can-eat ribs, beans, potatoes and carrots for $12, for the two of us. Free shower and laundry and we were able to camp in their back yard. Super nice couple. They would had given us the shirts of their backs and free run of their house, which they did. Thanks!! -CM

Rt. 40 - Meadow Lake 7/26/10 19 miles

Hitched a ride into "town" this morning since we were camped near the road. Breakfast at the small store a couple of miles from the trail as the pan. We waited for about 20 minutes and a really nice lady picked us up. She gave us her info and told us to give her a call when we get to Lassen if we needed anything. Her cute lap dog, Shasta, sat on me on the way there, which really made me miss my little Scout man. We arrived at eh store at about 8:30am. Kiwi, Bacon and Meander, were already sitting on the front porch, enjoying breakfast. Kiwi was downing some ice cream before his sausage biscuits. Chris and I both had sausage, egg, and cheese biscuits and some other snacks. I topped my breakfast off with two chocolate milks and a Guiness- a first but not a last : ) Chris's breakfast dessert was an early morning yuegar bomb. We hitched a quick ride back to the trail, by a cool fella in a huge SUV, who picked up the five of us. WE hiked with our friends for a while and they passed us up, as we were both having some show problems. The day as nice with some good climbs and pretty views. We arrived at our destination with a nice fire that Kiwi, Meander and Bacon had going to help shew away the mosquitoes. had some good talking and laughing with everyone and headed to bed. We were all woken up by a loud crashing through the forest, with sticks cracking and leaves crushing. Meander, Bacon and Chris and I all shined lights simultaneously from our tents in the direction of the disturbing noise, all with fear of a bear in mind. Big relief, just a deer!! Sigh : ) -KB

Alpine Meadows - Rt 40 7/24/10 19 miles

Woke up to a dreary sky. Kristi said it was going to rain, but I didn't believe her. "Walking Flower" walked up as we were packing up. We chatted for a moment. WE walked about 7 miles before our first break. It felt good to get some miles out of the way early. We talked about our plans for Bend, OR, for when we complete the hike. WE continued on and got across our first ridge right as it began thundering. I sat down to smoke a cigarette before it started raining and it began. Our first rain in 40 days on the trail. It sucked, but was kind of exciting. It only lasted for about an hour but there was a good bit of thundering and lightning to go with it. It stopped right as we got to our lunch spot on the creek. "Walking Flower" was there along with a bunch of day hikers. We ate our lunch and were finishing up as about eight more day hikers walked up. They asked us if we were thru hiking. We said yes, and as usual they started pulling food from their packs. We were caught totally off guard. Roast beer and roasted bell pepper sandwich, cantaloupe, cherries and a whole cucumber. We were So thankful. We took a little nap to let our food settle. Kiwi walked up right as we were getting ready to go. We talked and then headed up to Tinker and Anderson Peaks. The trail angels had told us of a nice hut on the backside of Anderson. I was excited. I miss the shelters on the AT so much. WE found it and took a break there. It was a ski hut with six bunks, a loft, a wood stove, rock floors and windows. It was beautiful. We continued on the rest of o9ur day and crossed our 500 mile mark!! Set up camp at a ski slope and are looking to get some breakfast at the store down the hill. It was a nice relaxing day topped off by a nice sunset. -CM

Camper Flats - Alpine Meadows 7/24/10 23 miles

Today's walking was pretty hilly, but we had beautiful views of Lake Tahoe all day. We got some really good pics, which of course won't do it any justice. WE took a break in the a.m. on some rocks to escape the vampires. Kiwi stopped in and chatted for a while and bacon and Meander stopped in as we were leaving. We covered ourselves in bugspray and headed out again. I found that listening to music helps preserve sanity while the mosquitoes are vicious. WE came upon a nice lake and had another break. Kiwi, Meander and Bacon again stopped by for a chat. Lots of sunshine and sweating today. I was happy to dip in some stream water during our relaxing lunch and got nice and cooled off. We enjoyed some spectacular of Tahoe from above. We were both happy to relax in the tent, after a hot, but awesome and gorgeous day. -KB

Echo Lake - Camper Flats 7/23/10 17 miles

woke up early. We camped on a hill, just above the general store, so we stashed our packs and headed down to get some muffins, ice cream, fruit, Cheetos and a quart of milk for breakfast. The walk around Echo lake was beautiful! Lots of vacation cabins to look at. They were rustic and I loved it. We climbed up to Aloha Lake and ran into Kiwi, Low, Meander and Bacon along the way. We all stopped and had lunch together and enjoyed the lake. We headed out. My water bladder sprang a leak. Boo. We continued on around more lakes and headed up to Dick's Pass. Thunder rolled behind us so we high tailed it up the climb and made it across the ridge. We took a break at the top. The thunder was further off than we though. Kiwi stopped by and talked and then we headed down to our camp. There weren't many options. The mosquitoes were awful, but we jumped in the tent and listened to music while we cooked dinner. Seventeen miles and a late start. It was a good relaxing day. -CM

South Lake Tahoe - Echo lake 7/22/0 0.2 miles : )

It felt good this morning to wake up with our chores taken car of. We decided that since we didn't get to see much of Tahoe yesterday that we would take it easy and be tourists today. Ate a ridiculous amount of continental breakfast, got our last good hot showers for a few days, packed up and caught the BlueGo bus to shopping and casinos. Didn't have exact change for the bus (still getting used to this type of transportation) and a super nice passenger covered our $3. We keep randomly meeting such nice folks willing to go out their way to do favors. I love it! We mad our way down to the "Heavenly Shopping Center." Oh, how I have missed a little shopping. We went in Patagonia and Chris tried on some vests. He also looked for some new shoes since his Asolos were failing him, but no luck this time. I bought some souvenirs and postcards for my family. We then made our way to the casino, just a step into Nevada. We walked around inside and of course stuck out like a soar thumb : ) Bar time for a drink. I had the bartender give me a preview of how the place worked. Gambling equals free drinks. here we come penny slot machines! WE stayed for about an hour and I realized that I was really bored. Went to the post office and then caught the BlueGo bus for Sushi. Began our hitch and got quickly picked up by a really nice couple, Margie and Steve, who just so happened to be already stopped, making a phone call. Had a really nice ride with them to Echo Lake. They were awesome trail angels and even gave us their number to call if we ever needed anything! We then began walking to the resort parking lot. It was now 7:30pm and we chatted with some new faces, Alien March, Jim Beam and others. We walked up to the top of the lake and camped there. We had such a fun day, with no guilt involved due to our lack of mileage. -KB

Showers Lake - South lake Tahoe 7/21/10 9 miles

had a great short walk this morning. We met "Hmmm." She is finishing up the triple crown (AT, CDT, PCT.) We walked with her and Kiwi after they stopped and talked with us at break. We walked into Echo lake at about 11:30am. Kristi and I raced to find the post office. She won. I got my smaller pack and some other gear from mom. We got our great box from Janeen, Kristi's cousin, though it took some work to find it. They had listed under the sender's name instead of ours. Wow. We ate a whole lot of junk food from the store and they caught a ride with Kiwi, a friend of his picked us up. We got dropped off at the Coyote's Den, which was super reasonable for Tahoe. The lady was very sweet, let Kristi use the Internet while I did the laundry and went shopping. A hot trip in rain pants. The owner then gave us a beer and a rum and coke. We went and ate at Tahoe pizza and it was great. I got stuffed off of spaghetti, and the salad bar. We talked about going to the casino, but went back to the room to let our food settle and passed out hard. It was a good and eventful day. -CM

Sierra City 7/28/10

Hey yall! We're in Sierra City right now. We lucked up and ended up meeting a super nice couple here at the Red Moose that actually hooked up a ton of hikers! We got in at about 6:30pm yesterday (after a 23 mile day) and were feasting on delicious ribs, potatoes, carrots and fresh fruit by 7:30pm! We had free showers and free laundry and they allowed all of us to camp in the back (on the river :)!! There names are Margaret and Bill and are actually gold miners, so we were entertained with lots of cool stories! Not a lot of time here in town, but we'll be posting again on all of our days out when we arrive in Belden, CA, in about 5 days.

Pleasant Valley Creek - Shower Lake 7/20/10 22.2 miles

Beautiful walking today. We enjoyed some cook, shaded flat forest in the a.m. and took a break at Yosemite Trailhead, where we crossed paths again with our buddy Kiwi. We continued on and the day continued to get better. We had some small climbs and got some awesome views. We had rolling, grassy hills on one side and rocky, snowy ones on the other. WE walked across some hillsides of endless, colorful wildflowers again, as the nice breeze cooled us off. We walked up and around some switchbacks for a while and came upon a patch of snow covered trail on the steep ledge. No biggie, we've cam across far worse, especially in the Sierras. We carefully placed our feet in the footprints and came across. Almost to the end and I slipped. I got very lucky somehow as I dug my fingers into the snow and stopped myself. Shew! Close call. Climbed back up and needed a breather for a second. Reached a high point to take a break and realized I had cell signal, but not much battery. Gave my Mom a call to check and her and was happy to hear that she was home, but still having problems with getting her levels back to normal. My phone died, but luckily I will get to call again tomorrow in town. We passed many day hikers with some smiling faces as they enjoyed the scenery and sunshine. We came across a nice lake, Frog Lake, and I couldn't resist taking a dip. Chilly but refreshing. We were not in El Dorado National Forest and passed some Information Center Volunteers who shared some of their juicy watermelon. Yum! Came into a nice, green meadow and checked out a cool historic cabin. Talked with Kiwi again, as the vampires feasted on us , so we rushed along to camp. Watched the sun set by the lake and quickly jumped in the tent to avoid providing additional feasting. Cheesy rice burritos for dinner. Town tomorrow! Excited to relax and bit and talk to family. -KB

Wolf Creek - Pleasant Valley Creek 7/19/10 21.6 miles

Got a good start on the morning feeling pretty god after our long day yesterday. Had tow climbs before break and we were happy to get them out of the way. They were actually the easiest ones of the whole day. Kristi said she wanted to do 14 miles before lunch. I agreed. I had a bit of an upset stomach, but after a couple of stops, it settled down. We made it 13 miles before 2pm and decided to eat. We walked through some constantly changing scenery with lots more flowers and high rocky cliffs. It almost looks Grand Canyon-like, but the rocks look like they have been glued together with cement. It's some type of volcanic creation. WE pushed another six miles before our next break. WE met Flashback. He had already done 25 miles by 6pm. We planned to do five more miles, but had heard the mosquitoes became horrendous. We ended up doing about three more to camp. The mosquitoes were bad here too, but we got set up and had dinner in the tent again. Planing for a long day tomorrow too. It feels good to be doing/able to do more miles, but it still make you tired. -Cm

Sonora Pass - Wolf Creek 7/18/10 23 miles

Waking up this morning was bit of a challenge. Three zeros in a row with a little wine on top makes on e a little lazy. We got going and out by 8am. IT was a slow morning. We walked up hill for quite some time and reconditioned ourselves. We had a break at a nice overlook and munched down on some spicy peanuts, trail mix and chocolate that Mary had sent us (thanks Mary!) We continued on, having some random discussion about hobbies and music that had been stuck in our heads. I thought a lot about my mom today, hoping that she did get discharged from the hospital and that she was feeling better. Very anxious to talk with her. The trail was nice today, sandy and easy o the feet. The views are changing from tall, sharp, snow mountains to sandy, rounded, rocky ones. Again, this trail keeps us on our toes with the rapid change in scenery. WE walked through meadows of gorgeous wild flowers-yellows, purples ,greens, oranges, reds and pinks. WE walked into nice shaded forests with lots of old trees. Beautiful day, blue sky. -KB

Bridgeport - Sonora Pass 7/17/10 0.4 miles

What a day. we got to sleep in until check out. Kristi got news from her Mom tat she would be getting out of the hospital soon and needed no dialysis. WE were so relieved! Went to the library to finish up our blog and to do a little budgeting. Finished up there and went to Pop's one last time. WE sat and made some final phone calls. We got ice cream before we started hitching and sat in the heat for about 45 minutes. Again, a guy came from the wrong direction, stopped and said he would be back in five minutes to pick us up. Sweet! He came back, he had to stop and pick up some of his favorite beer. HE had been skiing on Sonora Pass earlier in the day. Super nice guy, Mike. He had worked for the forest service for 20 years, so we had tons to talk about. We got to the trail and he gave us a couple beers and his card. He wished us luck and told us to call if we needed anything. Met a day hiker, Andrew while we drank our beers before we got started. He gave us some great advice. WE finally got started hiking at about 4:30pm. We got about .2 miles and saw a sign that said "BBQ" made from rocks and an arrow pointing towards the campground. Wow! We just came from town, had a great ride and not this! Lisa Freathy, from Napa, was doing trail magic. She was planning to hike next year. Here's the list of food she had for everyone today: hotdogs, burgers, chips, guacamole, salad, five types of great cheeses, coolers of beer, case of great wine, basket of fruit and the biggest box of doughnuts ever! WE hung out there till dark and had tons of fun. Got a little buzz and a whole lot of full on food, again. WE met some new hikers, Brazil Nut, Foxtrot, Little Bit and Kiwi. We decided we had to get out of there or we would never leave. They were cooking breakfast in the morning too. WE walked .2 more more to resist the temptations of breakfast. We drank our to go cups of wine as we watched the sunset. We had a great day, not much hiking but alot of good, people, good news and good times. -CM

Bridgeport 7/16/10 Zero day

Today wouldn't actually be considered a relaxing zero day. WE had initially planned on leaving today, hoping to only stay one night in each town we stopped to resupply, in order to save money and continue gaining mileage on the trail. After hearing that my supposedly healthy Mom was in acute renal failure, our present and future plans were now on hold. She was currently in ICU with 13% kidney function in both kidneys, with no answers. I talked to her and she said that she was feeling much better, but her condition was very serious. She did not know what was going to happen. Dialysis had been mentioned to her as an option, but still no definite answers until lab tests come back tomorrow morning. Being so far away was really hard. I wish I could be there right now. This was just such an out of the blue occurrence, being that she had had no prior health concerns. Chris and I decided to stay in town again tonight to wait and find out the lab results in the a.m. I talked to family and friends on and off throughout the day, discussing her condition and seeking advice on what I should do. Did I need to go home not, wait until the morning, or what? I decided to wait to acquire the lab results and go from there. Chris and I went to the library and I mostly researched her condition so I wouldn't feel so in the dark. I wrote info on some note cards and researched dialysis to better understand the procedure. I felt better to know more, but it was scary. I talked to my Mom and she said that she was feeling better, but I was still worried sick. On top of this, I was informed that my grandma had to be taken to ER. My cousin was driving in from W. VA to help out and my aunt was doing everything she could for the two of them. Things seemed to be falling apart back home and there was nothing I could do but just sit and wait for updates. Chris and I both remained quiet throughout most of the day. We were both floating, thinking of what we could/should do. He was so supportive as always and gladly agreed to do whatever we needed to do. He told me his ideas on getting home and how we could start over from there. In my mind, I was prepared to head back tomorrow and be there for my mom and grandma. -KB

Sardine Creek - Bridgeport 7/15/10 0.5 miles

Woke up about 6:30am to get to the road at Sonora Pass early hoping to catch some commuters. It was a 31 mile hitch into town. We sat for about an hour. Rick and Julie were there too. A blue Geo Metro pulled up going the wrong way. He turned around and took us all the way nto town. As we were leading up, a truck picked up our friends. "Geeps", our ride, had been hiking, but the trail he was on had river crossing that were too high to do solo. We picked up another hiker on the way down. He then turned around and took two more back to the top. Sixty miles totally out of his way. Got into town, went to the post office and got Mary's awesome box. It had all kinds of toys in it and two magazines for us. Got our room with a beautiful yard at the Silver Maple. Got our laundry and ate lunch at Pop's Gallery. Kristi got some bad news about her Mom and had us both worried for the rest of the day trying to figure out if she would be okay and if we needed to make plans to come home. We went to the library and relaxed some. I drank sic airplane bottles, compliments of Mary, and we had dinner at the Sportsman's Pub. We made many more phone calls and slept well in our cozy hotel room. -CM

Lake Harriet - Sardine Creek 7/14/10 18 miles

Rose with little shine around 6:15am. Had cold oatmeal due to fear of not having sufficient fuel for dinner. Yum. It was chilly out and we were both a little more tired than usual, as a result of our long day yesterday. I talked Chris into going back to sleep for a while. :) WE slept in until about 8ish, and rose again, with plenty of shine this time and mosquitoes to accompany it. We rushed and prepared with Deet to get into the trail. The morning was a chill walk with plenty of shade from the trees in the forest and lots of colorful wildflowers distributed throughout. WE had lunch, tuna wraps with Ranch dressing (thanks Ann), Ramen and trail mix. Rick and Julie stopped by and chatted with us for a few minutes. WE joked about yesterday evening's mudwalk and complained about flying, blood sucking vampires. WE then began our final 11ish miles with hopes of semi-relaxing finale before our departure to Bridgeport for resupply tomorrow. IT was a gorgeous walk with snowy, rigid mountain views on one side and desertous mountain miles on the other. Of course, as always, we hit snow as we came upon the back side of the peaks at 10,600ft. The trail kept surprising us as it dipped down and then kept gaining elevation. Finally, we made it to camp. Town tomorrow!! Looking forward to a good shower, talking to some people I've been missing and a bed! -KB

Kerrick Canyon - Lake harriet 7/13/10 23 miles

Got an early start for our first over 20 day. Slept good and wee on the trail by 7am. Was an easy walk down to the river , but it a was pretty deep crossing. WE took a break on the ridge afterwards. WE were happy to have done 5 miles by 10am. Continued walking, had a long decent and another climb to another ridge. It was nice getting over two big climbs well before lunch. WE took another break and decided to do four more miles before break so we wouldn't have to go long afterwards. We walked down the mountain to Wilma Lake. IT was beautiful and had some really nice trail right at waters edge I asked Kristi if she wanted to take lunch early, but she said we should go on. I agreed. WE came across the spillway and saw three people with their stuff spread out. Safron, Cassandra and Elk. THey said they were getting ready to do some Yoga and Kristi's eyes lit up and I knew there was no passing it up. THey did Yoga for about 30 minutes on a nice grassy spot with water on both sides. I smoked and cooked our lunch. We ate and said our goodbyes. Twelve miles to go and it was 2:30pm. It was a gentle walk for seven miles to a river. I was looking forward to it and it was nice, but the mosquitoes were like nothing you could imagine and the trail was mud and water from all of the snowmelt. We still made good time. We ran into a middle aged couple thru hiking, Rick and Julie. They were very nice and we chatted about mosquitoes and Kristi's new pack (they had the same one.) We also talked about getting rid of our bear canisters, finally! They continued on and we never caught up to them. WE were growing tired and had to take a break at Dorothy Lake (21 mi) as the sun was getting low and the mountains glowed. Two miles to go and the sun hadn't even set. I was proud of the both of us. We went over a low pass through some snow. Kristi said she hoped the campsite wasn't flooded (it was by a lake) and sure it enough it was flooded. haha. Typical end to long day. We went another half mile and found a little spot on the other side of the trail. Good enough. WE got up the tent faster than ever. The mosquitoes were ravenous at dusk. We jumped in and were happy to finally be safe from the mother suckers. Dinner in bed was nice, garlic shells with tuna. Very sleepy. Eighteen miles tomorrow to get us close to the road to Bridgeport. Good day. I am so proud of Kristi. -CM

Miller Lake - Kerrick Canyon 7/12/10 17 miles

Things definitely haven't been easy out here so far. Not on our bodies, our minds, or our relationship. The days are long, you're body is tired, you are a hungry bear all of the time (despite the fact you have eaten like a bear), your mind is usually moving as fast as your feet and sometimes all of these factors mixed together can become overwhelming. ON top of everything, attempting to maintain a healthy relationship with another person can be..difficult. See, normally most couples have lives together, but also very separate lives of their own as well. Out here, as a couple, you are together 24 hours a day. We wake up and have breakfast together and walk (work) together all day. We have lunch and dinner together and go to bed (tent) together at night. WE even use the flipping bathroom within 30 feet from one another. IN addition to all of these things, we sweat up mountains, tromp through mud, swat at mosquitoes, fall down at times and can become fairly irritable (to say it mildly), with no alone time. This can be devastating on a relationship that once had no disagreements or rarely any confrontations. So basically, our morning consisted of discussing these issues and coming very close to leaving the trail, due to fear of being overcome by them. Thankfully, things are okay now, after much needed talking and laying (actually throwing) everything out on the table. WE both realize that this can be hard on our relationship, if we make it hard. I want to be here, but only with Chris. After a long morning on my mind and long day on my body, I'm still thankful to be out here. It was a beautiful walk through two lower passes, more green, trees and gorgeous canyons. We worked for the views today, as we walked uphill most of the day. Seavey Pass was beautiful and we both agreed that it was if it seemed hidden, like a secret place. WE got atop and lots more green and some nice ponds. It didn't even look real. We had a good dinner of broccoli and carrot pasta (thanks Debbie :) with chicken (thanks Ann :) and were both able to agree that we're glad we continued walking together. -KB

Tuolumne Meadows - Miller Lake 7/11/10 18 miles

Long day with a late start. We got and said our goodbyes to Mover and Fester at the campsite. We decided to stop by the store for more fuel, but it was $10 for 24 oz. and I only needed like a fifth of that, so we decided to wing it. I talked Kristi into some pancakes and scrambled eggs, even though we had already had breakfast. We met a nice couple that talked to us while we ate. It actually got kind of annoying. We ran into Franbough and live Yeast on their way out and traded some funny couples stories. We finally made it to the trail after debating on staying in civilization for awhile longer, haha. Walked fast to a nice bridge over the Tuolumne River, which runs into Hetch Hetchy Resorvior, a very controversial Dam project of American politics. Had a break and started a discussion about budgeting and some frustrations, it lead nowhere. We continued walking, passing some pretty falls and into a mosquito jungle. WE were still frustrated with one another when we stopped for lunch and tried to start the discussion over. Still, nowhere. Left full and unhappy with one another. Waled and took a break, with more words and lots of them. Nasty mosquitoes, more words. Bad words. We walked way up for two miles that thought they would never end to a pretty lake with no campsite and set up, then jumped into the tent to escape from the vampires. We were speechless and had no clue what to say about our discussions. I ate Ramen and Kristi had a monster muffin. Got some big miles ahead of us. Shew. Hope we can hold up, physically and mentally. -CM

Lyell Creek - Tuolumne Campground 7/10/10 12.4 miles

Started out the morning in a great mood, knowing that we would have a chill walking day and pick up our box from Bob and Ann. The walk was great. We along the Tuolumne River all day in a green grassy meadow. WE took some breaks along the river, sat out on some rocks and munched down on some chocolate and peanut butter. WE continued walking and thinking. The two really seem to go hand in hand out here. Today I thought alot about family and friends, but I as lo thought about more than ever, of how lucky I am to have the opportunity to be out here. This place is amazing and just seems to get better everyday. They guy we spoke with yesterday, Oh Nature, described the Sierras as a "sanctuary." We laughed about it, but he was right. He have had challenge after challenge while taking in her beauty, but nothing good comes easy (as my dad actually quoted to me :) and it is worth it 100 times again. As we took another break, many day and section hikers passed by. The most memorable was a dad with his very young son, who had to have only been about 7 years old (carrying a good-sized pack.) I commented to his dad on what a cutie his son was and he informed us that their total hike would be about 35 miles. Amazing! I would love to see more parents with their young kids outdoors more often! I had a good feeling that the little guy would make it, with many more to come. We arrived at the store/post office in Tuolumne and picked up our package. Thanks Bob and Ann! We were in hiker heaven with all of our delicious treats-and even ranch dressing packets...yum! With intentions on hiking 4 miles to another spot, we stayed at Tuolumne for the remainder of the day. WE ate burgers and ice cream and caught up with some of our buddies we'd seen along the way. We saw sky, Marianne and Pony, as they had been hanging out here for a couple of day, doing some hiking to Half Dome and river floating. WE then hung out with Choc Bandito, Your Mom, Fester and a few new faces - Double Check, Mover and others. A random older man by the name of Vince striked up conversation and told us many stories. He had been everywhere! He was into Old Time music and even sang us a tune. He was just so enthusiastic and interested in telling his stories and hearing others. AS soon as we knew it, we had sat at a picnic table under some shade trees, talking and munching, for five hours! It was 6pm and we decided to stick around and camp at the campground with some familiar faces. It was worth losing our 4 planned extra miles. -KB

Agnew Meadows - Lyle Creek 7/9/10 16 miles

Got up kind of late. Fought mosquitoes for breakfast and got started about 8:45. had a pretty good climb in the morning, but the view front he top was great. I felt pretty good walking, but my stomach was a little sore from the night before. The next section was really pretty grassy and flat along the side of the ridge. We took a break at Thousand Island Lake, which Kristi said was one of her favorites. IT had a beautiful back drop of some huge peaks. Island pass was a piece of cake. We met an older man doing the JMT who was having a great time and was really excited to see us. HE talk us his real name, but said that from now on, he was going to be "Oh Nature." He continued on down the mountain pass. Davis Lakes Trail and we took lunch on a long about 2pm. WE still had a ways to go. We passed many people today, which was nice for a change. This a popular section of the trail between Yosemite and Mammoth. We asked about Donahue pass and they all agreed that it was pretty snowy and half of them said they couldn't believe we were going across so late. WE got to the top around 6pm. It was one of the easiest climbs/passes we had had. They have no clue what they have in store for them to the south. WE came down off the pass and skipped some switchbacks covered in snow and went straight down. We had a couple of creek crossings that got our feet nice and cold. We're camped on a nice grassy spot that looked like a golf course when we walked with the sun setting on it. Had a good dinner of couscous and stove top stuffing. Chocolate Bandito walked up. We hadn't seen her for almost 200 miles. Cold night, but we have a beautiful river walk ahead of us tomorrow. PS-Kristi's pack is working like a dream and she couldn't be happier. -CM

Motel 6 - Agnuew Meadows 7/8/10 0 miles

Chris didn't exactly get a good night's rest last night. He was up and down all night with an upset stomach, throwing up and obviously had a fever. This was a rare occurrence since he had not been sick in the two years we had been together. We had planned on leaving the room around 8am, but he needed as much rest as possible and definitely didn't need to go back into the woods if he continued to feel bad. He slept in and then ate some breakfast. HE had st oped throwing up and didn't seem to have a fever anymore. We checked out at 12pm and headed to the post office to mail home a parie of my pants and sent out some post cards. Chris called Osprey to explain the problems with my pack and we headed to lunch, while waiting on their return call. Chris ate good and said that he was feeling better, although I as hesitant to believe him when he passed up sweets from Schat's Bakery. We then headed to the outdoor store, our final stop. The folks at Osprey called back and had us take some photos of my pack and email them. Afterwards, Chir spent a long while on the phone with them. Thanks to him, Osprey decided to have the store ship the pack to them so they could examine it (it the store agreed0 and give the store credit and allow me to take a new pack. The store agreed!! I was able to get a new Exos 58! This pack was smaller and lighter than my Xenon (it weighs 2lbs 8 oz) and I could fit all of my stuff in it perfectly! It is much more simple, with less straps on the outside and rides to much better and is so comfortable. I absolutely LOVE it and so do my back and shoulders! Chris's hard work paid off and we were very happy not to have to spent $229 for another pack. One more issue to take care of before we left town, my jeep, the only loose end left hanging. I made a phone call to the man interested and gave him the bottom dollar. He was very nice, but didn't seem to have an interest to budge on his offer. Disappointed, we went ahead and caught the trolley to our next bus stop. Ten minutes later, I received a phone call from Kim (the middle woman trying to help me sell my jeep) with good news! The guy had caller her and had decided to buy it! I screamed out with joy at the bus stop, receiving some odd looks, but kept on. I'm not a fan of leaving things undone, especially while losing money. Thanks so much Kim for all your help!! This day had turned out to be a good one and things had worked out in our favor AND the day wasn't over. We caught the bus to head up to the trailhead and began talking with the driver. We had planned on hiking 8 miles to the campsite. The driver informed us that he could actually drop us off there, because it was along the ride! Both of our eyes lit up, but with some shame. We are out here to hike, and that will be taking 8 miles off of the adventure. We discussed what we would miss out on. It is a beautiful section and we would actually miss out on the Devil's Postpile. Whatever! Chris mentioned that we had seen plenty of beautiful things. I agreed :) We cracked up and took the offer. WE got to our campsite around 5pm and the guilt vanished. Chris needed some more rest and I didn't feel a bit convicted for another relaxing day. We set up camp and had a great nap. Had some of Debbie's yummy treats for dinner and bedtime again. Back to the grind tomorrow and excited to get back out there. Hopefully Chris will be 100% tomorrow after antoher semi-restful day. If not, we'll take it slow. -KB

Motel 6 - Motel 6 7/7/10 0 miles

We got up relatively early, having lots to do before we could leave town. We left our packs in the Motel office, thinking we would be back in a couple of hours to hit the trail. WE stopped by the outfitters and got Kristi some new shorts and continued to Rite aid to burn our photos to Cd's so we could add them online. This took a while, so I had an ice cream and Kristi caught up on her real world drama magazines. IT was already lunchtime and we hadn't even made it to the library. WE hard there was a Thai restaurant and could not pass it up. It took us a while to find it, but it was wroth it. We then stopped by Carl Jr's for dessert- cheesecake, milkshake and fries, just to make sure we were full. WE finally got to the library at about 2pm (when we thought we would be leaving town) and got to work. I loaded pictures and did research while Kristi typed her fingers away for the blog. IT was awesome seeing all of our pictures on a big screen, wow. The places we've been. We finally got done around 6pm. Way too much computer time after being in the woods. WE headed back to the Motel 6 in defeat, knowing that it was too late to hit the trail. Took it easy for a while and then we headed back out to the outfitters with Kristi's pack to see if they could help us readjust it. We loaded it up and asked the outfitter to try it on. He agreed that it didn't feel right, bt said that there wasn't much that he could do since nothing was broken. I took it apart and tryed to readjust the frame stay, but it didn't help. We awere disappointed and loaded up a couple of other packs to see if they felt better. Like night and day. This disgusted me even more, since we had gotten the nicest pack initially, thinking it would be the best. We decided we would call Osprey (pack manufacturer) tomorrow and see if they could help us. WE went to Nick and Willy's again for dinner and got a salad, pizza and some bread. Got full and headed back to the room by way of the store for a night cap. Both so tired we could barely finish our drinks before falling asleep. Town isn't as relaxing as it seems. -CM

Duck Lake Trail - Mammoth Lakes 7/6/10 11.6 miles

The three of us sped through the morning walk, dreaming of hot showers, clean laundry, motel beds and town food. The walk was fairly easy with an uphill beginning and level to downhill for the remainder. WE walked from 7am to 11:30am and made it into Red's Meadow just in time to hop on the bus. Chris and I dozed off on the bus ride into town, realizing the extent of our exhaustion. The bus dropped us off at the ski resort on the upper end of town. What a cool place! There was a bike rental facility that allowed folkes to ride the bus up the mountain and ride down onthe many trails. They also had a gandala and a climbing tower. We then caught the free bus closer into town and got off, running into Badger and Sweet Jesus, some guys we had ran into going into Independence as we walked off of Kearsarge. WE hung out with them for a few and then parted with Abby Normal. Checked into our room at the Motel 6 (with a hiker's discount :), paid a long overdue visit to McDonalds and ran a few errands in town. At Rite Aid we bumped into our London Friend Alex (super navigator Forrester Pass guy) and traded pass stories. WE brought some supplies and headed back to do some laundry. Oh yeah, we also saw our Belgian and Oregan friends Chris and Mary and also saw Whitebeard and The Third Monty (the badass 70 and 63 year old couple that are my heros.) Finished up laundry and showers, feeling so fresh and clean, then headed out to Mick and Willy's for dinner-huge salad with ranch and a Thai sub. Made phone calls to family and friends adn got some good rest. -KB

VVR - Duck Lake Trail 7/5/10 19.2 miles

Big day. Had a great night last night and a good breakfast this morning, biscuits and gravy, huge breakfast burrito, pancakes and hashbrowns. It almost made me crippled and unable to walk, but it was worth it. Got our ferry ride back across the lake and took a break before we started walking to try and let our food settle. Got to waking with our heavy resupplied packs and had a pretty huge climb to Silver Pass. Got to the top and had actually passed everyone else. Got down to the next lake and had lunch at about 3pm and watched everyone else come down off the mountain. WE had decided we were going to walk as long as we could to try to get to Mammoth the next day. Continued walking til we got to Lake VA and watched the sunset. Only 9 more miles to go! Ha! Abby Normal walked up and walked with us in the dark, talking about his and our lives both real, and nonthe trail. We hit some snow at about 9:45pm. It's less fun at night. We took our time and make it to a creek crossing at 10:30pm. Abby was tired and we decided we had done enough as well. We set up camp and planned to hit the trail early in the morning. VVR was awesome, but wer are really looking forward to a real town. -CM

Bear Creek - Vermillion Valley Ranch 7/4/10 11 miles

Sleeping in until 8:30am was a treat this morning. It was a good day. We walked into VVR to stay the night and pick up our package from Debbie and Laura. The hike wasn't bad. WE arrived to catch the Ferry around 3:30pm. The ride was accompanied by several others. As soon as we pulled into VVR, there sat a familiar face preparing to catch the Ferry back to the trail, our buddy Pacer. He caught us up on his trail adventures. We'll hopefully catch up with him soon. WE then picked up our HUGE package. Debbie and Laura surprised us with a ton of goodies! We stuffed all of the tuna packets, lepton meals, wraps, chocolate, cereal bars, energy bars, dried fruit, DELICIOUS trail mix, apple pies and more into our bear canisters and had to create an extra "snack bag" for more. Thank so much, you two! We had arrived at VVR onthe right day. Fourth of July barbecue!!! We ate chicken, ribs, tri-tips, sweet potatoes, pasta salad, rolls and pie! YUM! We got to hang out on the outside patio and chat with some other hikers and compare our climbs of passes. Apparently we were not the only one to get a little mixed up on Pinchot and were not alone into our awaiting of the snow to end! on full bellies, we sat around the campfire with our Aussie friends Nick and Nosh, and met some new folks such as Abby Normal, some JMT hikers form New York and NC and were entertained by the hilarious staff. WE laughed alot tonight and were surrounded by great company. A good refresher for several days in the woods. -KB

S. Fork San Joguin - Bear Creek 7/3/10 18.2 miles

Great day. We got up and ate our little bit of breatkfast and got on the trail aroug 7:15am. We took a break and met The Stumbling Norwegian. He videoed us and gave us some good advice. We said we were short on food and he reassured us that some section hikers had just dropped some food there. So happy to hear this we almost ran to the Ranch four miles away. We pulled into the ranch, a beautiful but modest outpost. They do alot of hiker resuppplies. We met an old lady named Pat that showed us the Hiker Box selection and she was so happy to see us, GOLDMINE. We got enough food for today, tommarrow and some more to make up for the last few days of rationing. HAHA. We ate our free lunch right there, Spaghetti Moutain House. SO SO good after sharing Ramen noodles for the last 2 days. There was so much we got some extras for the next leg out of VVR, Cliff Bars, and 2 big bags of trail mix(we already finished one today though). Refreshed we had a pretty brutal climb out of the valley to Selden Pass. We took a break at some beautiful lakes and ate and ate then headed up the pass. The easiest one yet it was still slow going because of the snow. Cold toes and full bellies we continued on to try to make a short day tommarrow into Vermillion Valley Resort. We are so excited after 7 days in the woods. We got to Bear Creek Crossing, one of the bigger ones, and did it! It had a rope across it to hold onto but we both managed to wobble and about loose it. haha. We both laughed. We set up camp and got out of our wet clothes. Had another Mountain House Meal, Stroganoff, not as good as Moms but pretty good for out here. Going to bed feels good to be thawing out after the creek crossing and snow. Vermillion Valley Resort for the 4th of July, Can't Wait. Nine miles tommarrow and a nap while we wait for the ferry to pick us up. Real Food Soon!!!! - CM

Lower Helen Lake - S. Fork San Joquin 7/2/10 15 miles

Much better day today. We headed out early in order to make use of our crampons on the frozen snow and to avoid any postholing in slush. The entire hike up to Muir was covered in snow. No trail, Just footprints. Fortunately, intelligent foot prints. There were several false summits, gut we were prepared for them. We followed the footprints to the top. Not a bad climb at all. It took us about two and a half hours to get there, but compared to the other passes, this one was fairly simple. We reached the top and hung out at the Muir Hut, one of the only shelters on the entire trail. A stone hut with benches on the inside, fire place and wooded door. It was built in 1930 in memory of John Muir. After relaxing, snacking and discussing relief of an easy climb, we made our way to the bottom. Completely snow covered for 5 miles. This was a four hour adventure of carefully watching each step. As you could imagine, we were pretty happy to get to actual trail and remove our crampons. We found a nice spot under a shade tree, by an alpine lake and hung out to eat lunch. We were spectators while a couple of fearless marmots came close in hopes to get a snack. One attempted to munch on the handle of my trekking pole and we had to shew it away. We continued our walk, mostly flat and downhill. We discussed random topics, future plans, our families and kept informing one another of the songs that popped into our heads (which happens frequently.) We arrived at Evolution Creek and the water was currenly chest deep. Not feeling that extreme, so we found an alternate crossing on up the trail, which was only knww deep. After giong through a ton of bug spray and swatting mosquitoes, we arrived at camp. WE will go to Muir Trail Ranch tomorrow in hopes of collecting enough food to get us through an extra unplanned day theat we've been out here. Feels good to have had a good day with more smiles. KB

Grouse Meadow - Lower Helen Lake 7/1/10 7 miles

Two weeks in the woods. They have been long and hard. We thought we'd be in te hiking groove by now, but we are still learning all the passes and the Sierras are our principal. You must do what they say. We started this morning about 7am and had a good 4 miles before break. Break was long and we discussed many stressful topics about the trail, our plans and expectations and how they have panned out. We continued on and took another break at 11:15am. This one lasted for three hours. More stress, figuring out whether we were happy out here and alternate plans if not. The pass was three miles away, but we couldn't bring ourselves to do it. Low on food, energy and motivation, we took naps. Finally got up at 3pm and make it to the campsite before the pass. Turns out, the actual campsite was where we took our break. Ended up in a small patch of dry land "free of snow", and had to move many rock to make space for our tent. Frozen Lake beside us and snow all around. Kristi had to talk me into not backtracking and staying here. We had seriously debated going 4 miles back to the ranger tent and seeing if he could a) get us more food, b) give advice, or c) get us off the trail. Muir Pass, while not the tallest, does have the most miles of snow and we are sick of it. Yogi said if you don't go across it by 2pm, you will be postholing for hours. We're a day and a half behind schedule this week due to the snowy passes. Took another nap. Some friends we met on the top of Kearsarge came in at 5pm and made the push on to Muir. We discussed the trail and our growing tiredness of the snow. They gave us a couple of candy bars to help us out. They're shooting for Mammoth on Sunday and we are on Tuesday, because of our slowed pace. On a lighter note, I built a couple of rock walls on the snowy plateau. One around our tent and made another smaller site too. After dinner and had light conversation. Must get some rest for our long day tomorrow. Wish us luck. CM

S. Fork Kings River - Grouse Meadow 6/30/10 16 miles

The river was flowing hard last night, which made for a very good night's sleep. We were unable to cross the river to get to the trail this morning, we we followed along until the trail reconnected. We moved good and had a breather and a snack before we got deep into the snow prior to Mather Pass. We were able to locate the trail on the way to the pass, for the most part. We finally arrived at the bottom and of course, the pass was snow covered. We observed as two people slowly mad their way up in the footholes of snow left from others. The only way was to go straight up, similar to Forrester. I began to get very nervous as I watched. We put on our crampons and got out our ice axes. The first steps to the bottom of the mountains we postholed. This didn't benefit my building anxiety. We began our climb. Very slowly, I carefully followed behind Chris, trying not to slip. The snow was beginning to become slushy as the sun shined brighter. Nervousness exceeding. WE made it about a third of the way up and rested on a ledge to the side. My crampons were coming off and Chris adjusted them. I complained about the fears of the climb and pessimistically whined of the worse case scenarios. Got my breath and began again. I slipped a few times, got scared and shuffled my feet to a sturdy spot. We rested on another ledge, close to the top. Chris and I got into a disagreement. I broke down with my fears and cried. I said it. No shame. I was scared and had to vent. I was so nervous about the climb so far and was insecure in my abilities to reach the top. Chris and I rested, talked and I calmed down. We found parts of the trail out of the snow and scrambled among the rubble to the snow covered top. Shew! Relief!! I as so glad to have made it. I though Forrester was the most challenging, but for me, this pass was. Next, we made if off the back side and walked in miles of snow to reach the bottom of the valley. I began to transform into a starving, grumpy ol bear, so lunch was a must. We ate and continued on. We came across the Palisade Lakes, which were absolutely amazing and perfect. The gorgeous, clear water surrounded tall cliffs and waterfalls. A nice reward for a stressful morning. Next, we walked on switchbacks for what seemed liked forever on the "Golden Staircase." At our next break, we came across a cool fella by the name of Balls. We compared Mather and Pinchot stories and walked together for the remainder of the evening. Walked along the river and spotted several deep and even a six-pointer. Found an awesome camp spot next to a lake and own own little rock canopy above our tent. Had a nice fire and a tasty dinner. KB

Woods Creek - S. Fork Kings River 6/29/10 11.6 miles

Maybe not today, haha! Got out about 7 and had 3500 feet and 7/7 miles to the pass. We can do that by lunch, right/ Not really. I got us lost. I hate the snow. Got within vies of what I though was Pinchot pass at 11am. Lost the trail using the map. Kristi said it looked too easy and I said I was sure four times. We scrambled and climbed way to many rocks and got t the "pass." It looked right on the map, but there was no trail. I got scared. Kristi said to go back to where we lost the trail. I felt like an idiot. She knew we were going the wrong way the whole time, but I refused to listen. Navigator Kristi to the rescue. We backtracked and ate lunch, trying to figure things out. It was 1:30pm and we had done 5 miles, thanks to me. We started towards the right pass, slow going in the snow. No trail. Some footprints. We followed them and got to the approach. We felt better knowing we were going the right way. Sketchy trail, snow and loose rocks. WE made it to the top, relieved. It was 3:45pm and we were 7.7 miles from campt this morning. Nothing like adding 5 useless miles to the day. Oh yeah, I forgot about the five creek crossings onthe way up. Started down the back side, followed prints and lots of them this time. Got down to a lake where we had planned to camp last night. More snot, lots of water and losing the trail. We gave up on our hopes of 20 miles. Came across a note at a sighn that directed us to not cross the river due to being too high. I looked at it. No way. It looked more like a Calss IV rapid. The note warned us about a waist deep creek ahead as well. Luckily, there was a tree across it, off the trail a bit. made it to our unplanned camp at 7pm. Dead tired. Got set up and warm. Had Mel's couscous for dinner and it was perfect after a long day. Bedtime finally. Twelve-twenty two miles tomorrow, haha. We'll see how the morning goes. CM

Kearsarge Trail - Woods Creek 6/29/10 11 miles

We started out the day with a 19 miler in mind. We didn't realize the length of time it would take us to cross and come down the back side of Glenn pass. If I've realized anything about this trail, it's to never underestimate the Sierras. We partly assumed that there would be little snow. We were wrong. Snot covered most of the trail on the front side and we were forced to scramble up rocks and gravels along the mountain. The back side was completely covered. No postholing (thank God!), but we did have to take our time. The climb down was steep and slick. We finally make it down and had to attempt to find the trail. The downhill resistance caused me some irritating knee pain, therefore I was taking it slower than usual. At the bottom of the mountain, we walked around several crystal clear, sparking lakes, feeling with clean, mountain snow melt. I was tempted to put on my bikini and chill next to one for the rest of the day, but still work to be cone. WE continued walking down, crossing several creeks and making our way as fast as possible with hopes to tackle another pass today. Soon enourgh, 5 o'clock rolled around. We dicided to cut the day short and start early inthe morning and hopefully complete two passes tomorrow instead. I became somewhat bummed due to holding us up today. I felt like I was going as fast as possible, but it just wasn't fast enough to follow our planned schedule. Maybe tomorrow. KB

Independence - Kearsarge Trail 6/27/10 9 miles

Got up and had a good breakfast at the Courthouse Hotel. I think I could live there, haha! Simply a simple clean place. Got packed up and made our final phone calls. Hitching was terrible. We sat in town for two hours, and nothing. Gave up and went and got some ice cream and a local offered to give us a ride up to the trail head for gas money. Bryan/Marmot had hiked from Campo to Kennedy Meadows and stuck around the area when he finished. He had a cool truck. Stopped by to say goodbye to Peanut Eater. Got our rediculously heavy resupplies packs on and started up the mountain. I could feel that we had taken a day off. Took a breart and ate our leftover Pizza and did some testing before we lost signal. Hiked on to the top of Kearsarge pass, not as bad as we thought, but a long process, 52 switchbakcs. Met some hikers at teh top and informed them of Peanut Eater. They were excited and needed the motivation because they had done the 23 mile day that we had hoped to do over Forrester and Kearsarge. Tristan and two guys from Corvalis, OR. We talked for a while and then went our separate ways. Took it easy down the backside of the pass and set up camp just short of the trail intersection. Ate our 90 second rice and it was delicious! Talked and researched our future town stops. Twenty miles tomorrow to catch up for our late start today. hope we can pull it off. CM

Independence 6/26/10 O miles

Took it easy all day, ate some continental breakfast and ate more Subway. Blogged and spent $18 for computer time! CRAZY! Ate dinner at Hooligans and had pizza and fries with lots of Ranch dressing! MMMMM! Talked to all of our friends with updates. Good zero! CM

vidette Meadows - Onion Valley 6/25/10 11 miles

Today was a big day. We were so excited to get to come into town! We jumped out of our warm sleeping bags and hit the trail this morning. The hike up to Kearsarge Pass was a tough one. The trail was so scenic. We got some awesome pics of the lakes on the way up. They didn't even look real! The Kearsarge Trail was still covered with a lot of snow and was really rocky. When we finally made it to the backside of the mountain we caught up with our friends Pacer and Square Peg. We carefully stepped in the slushy snow, trying our best to get to the bottom. Finally, we made it down. Trail Magic appears! A cooler full of beer, bacardi and snacks! A cold beer never tasted so good. There we sat, drank, ate and waited on our trail angel, Peanut Eater, to take us into town. It was a nice 13 mile ride down the ever winding road into town. We parted from Square Peg in Independence, as she went back to Hawaii to spend time with her husband. We will miss you! We appreciated Peanut Eater's generosity and hospitality in dedicating his vacation time to taking care of hikers. From his experience in hiking the PCT last year, he is well aware of the difficulty in getting rides into town. First stop in town, Subway! We had been building subs in our heads for miles and miles along the trail. We ate, checkec into our room, showered, did laundry and rested. We picked up our AWESOME mail drop box from Melanie and received many yummy goodies! Thank you so much! Tonight, we went to dinner with Pacer, Sky, Marianne, Your Mom, Pony and Hui. We ate some good greay food and drank 50 cent beers! Fun times. We made calls to families and realized even more how much we miss them. Sleeping good tonight in a REAL bed and happy about a zero day tomorrow! KB

Tyandale Creek - Vidette Meadows 6/24/10 12 miles

What a day! Woke up planning to complete 23 miles and then hitch into Independence, CA. We did 12 miles, the hardest of our miles, no joke. We started at 6:15 am and hiked up into the snow field before Forester Pass, while it was still frozen. The snow got thick and we lost the trail, no biggie, we couldn't find it for the rest of the day. I used my mapping skills to get us about halfway there, then we saw Alex pop up over the hill. We followed him to the pass, but never caught him. We watched him go straight up, like nothing I've ever seen. He had no crampons, no ice axe. Both were needed, but it didn't slow him down. We followed and got to the top of the sketchiest climb of our lives and celebrated life. We then hurled ourselves over the other side, glissading. I went first and got down to the lake. After the slide, we had to walk around the frozen lake. The snow started to melt and made travel grueling. POSTHOLING. We walked for five ours before we got out of the snow. No trail. Pooped, we ate the last bit of food - two packs of ramen and Poptarts. We then mozied to the campsite and totally threw Independence out the window until tomorrow. We sat up, talked to Alex, built a fire, bummed some food. A mixture of grape nuts, chocolate pudding, powdered milk and almonds. It was awesome, but we were hungry. Sky and Marianne let us have the rest of their peanut butter. Much appreciated. Twelve miles, nine hours, tired and ready for town and a zero day. Cant wait!! CM

Crabtree Meadows - Tyandale Creek 6/23/10 9 miles

headed out around 6am with a big day planned. About two minutes into our walk, we realized that the only way across the river, to the other side of the trail, was to put our balance to the test by walking across a narrow log in between. That was a good indicator of what the remainder of the day had in store for us. After just a few miles, we had to cross another creek. This time no log to walk across. We put on our crocks, trekking poles in hand and wade across. The current was strong from the rapid snowmelt and the water was COLD! On the other side we chatted with our friend Pacer, the first PCT hiker we met as soon as we came onto the trail, on our first day. We discussed with him our plans for the day and debated our planned journey to Forester Pass (highest point on the PCT.) We discussed ETA and rumors of snowfall and snowmelt. We were undecided if we could attempt this due to fear or 1) finishing to late 2) arriving there too late in the day 3) post holing atop of 4 miles of snow. We continued our walk, still debating our long day, discussing weather we should wait and complete Forester the following day. we came across another hiker, Alex from London, and again debated Forester today or in the morning. We walked and crossed water throughout the day. We arrived at tree line and the mountain was covered. The trail was difficult to navigate due to the snowfall. We found our way with the help of a rock carion in the distance. We hopped back onto the trail after slowly making our way through the snow. We talked with Pacer and a new face, Square Peg, over lunch. We decided to complete 9 miles to camp today and start an early morning on Forester pass, using our crampons to get us by instead of post-holing in slush. We were almost at camp and couldn't have ended this day without yet another river crossing. At least our feet got clean today : ) We camped with Pacer, Square Peg and Alex. Pacer and Alex were a really big help and provided some good tips for the days to come. KB

Chicken Spring Lake - Crabtree Meadows 6/22/10 15 miles

We woke up early with ice on the tent. It was cold, so I fixed Kristi breakfast in bed. Took us a while to get started. Got some great pics of the alpine lake, and started our walk. We had a pretty nice snow bank we had to climb. Pretty walk all day. Had lunch and our first creek crossing at Rock Creek. I wish I had gotten a picture. After the creek there was a killer climb, 1700 feet, straight up. Walked down into Crabtree Meadows and saw some of the most breath-taking mountains yet. Can't stop thinking about food. Highest point on the PCT tomorrow and then town the next day. CM

Death Canyon - Chicken Spring Lake 6/21/10 19 miles

With all intentions of getting up earlier than usual, our sleeping bags were just too warm. We got up, ate breakfast and headed out around 8am. We began the morning with a steep climb. In three miles we gained 1600 ft. The higher we hiked, the chillier it became. The wind howled throughout most of the day. We had some amazing views today. The snow capped mountains we had once yearned for the previous days, were now under our feet. Snow covered the trail in many spots along today's adventures. Sometimes we went around, and sometimes we had to go over. I bundled up in pants, long sleeves, toboggan and at times my gloves as the temperatures dropped. Chris, on the other hand, continued to cruise along in swimming trunks and short sleeved shirt. My boyfriend is nutso! We passed some of our friends from Kennedy Meadows along the way and met some new faces. A Belgian fella by the name of Chris discussed his destination and we debated with him on climbing Mt. Whitney. He asked, "Are ye from Australia?" He then proceeded to say that he had never quite heard accents like ours. We laughed about this on up the trail. We met a section hiker named Brent who was a Southern CA native. He warned us about the clouds that were beginning to hover, stating that it would be thunderstorms or snow. We took his word for it, assuming rain was on the way. A few miles up the trail, we began to see white dustings. I thought that the elevation was just getting to my head (it could have also been denial), but yep, it was snowing, IN JUNE. We finally made it to camp and rushed to put up the tent, the sleet began. We got into the tent and put on warmer clothes and pretty much stayed there until bedtime. We cooked under the vestibule. We guessed that the temp was around 30 degrees. Mac and cheese and some hot green tea for dinner. It's going to be a very difficult task to get me out of my sleeping bag in the morning. KB

Monache Meadows - Death Canyon 6/20/10 14 miles

Got up, got packed, had a little breakfast fire left over from the Aussies, which was nice since there was frost on the ground this morning. Got some pics of the meadow before we headed out. Good start with some beautiful, giant woods. Ran into some hikers we met in Kennedy Meadows, nice having people around. We had lunch on a nice ridge and took a snooze under a Sequoia. Walked past, through and through little bits of snow. It was a chill afternoon. Had some good conversations. Passed through some more meadows, not near as nice as Beck or Monache. Again, we got lost while still on the trail and had further to go than we thought. Our time/distance ratio is working out yet. Got to camp, set up, no sign of the Aussies or Canadians. We were sad. The hikers from Kennedy Meadows invited us over to join their fire. Nice pit that they had just built, which helped put the mosquitos as bay (they were terrible all day and only got worse in the evening.) It was nice to meet and talk to some new folks. Nineteen miles tomorrow, gotta get started early. CM