Day 81, "quick" stop in Truckee

July 18

Mile 1142 to mile 1155

Hiked 13 miles

We woke up this morning and Steal Toe informs me that our plan to get to Sierra city will put us there late on Saturday. And the Post office will be closed Sunday. So forcing us to zero.

After he told me that. I said "looks like we are hitching into Truckee for Pizza and ice cream!!!" Since we have a day to kill, why not.

We all got water and started hiking a 7:40am. It was a nice day and easy hiking.

We came down to the road and there was some trail magic! This guy had his bear can with ice and drinks.

It was an easy hitch into Truckee. This couple that worked at a kids summer camp picked us up. It was a fun ride. Wow it's awesome to ride in a car! It's fun to go so fast.

I'm Dork, I know.

We arrived in Truckee at about 1pm and the plan was to eat Pizza and go to DQ and get a blizzard. Then hitch back out to the trail. A couple hours tops... Ha will see.

So I managed to break the new iPhone charging cable that I bought in South Lake Tahoe. So I walked around town till I found one at a drug store. Of course it was more expensive, another $25 wasted. Guess I have to have it though. I also bought some Dr. Scholls inserts for my Planters Fasciitis. My heal is starting to bother me.





By the time we decided to hitch back to the trail it was 5! So we waited little over an hour before we got picked up by this cool couple from the UK. They were here on holiday. Lowlander and Steal Toe needed water so we walked over to the ski lodge and it was closed. They got water from the spicket which they said smelled and tasted like rust. I told them to filter it. But they didn't. I wasn't about to get water from there. I have found that I'm kind of a water snob. Haha I only drink from the finest springs and streams. If available ;) So we just went up the trail to the first campsite not even a 1/4 mile. I was so full and sick from the ice cream and large strawberry limeade. All I wanted to do was sleep. We joked before we got picked up that we should stealth camp in town next to the on ramp by some trees lol.

Tomorrow is another day of hiking. Two days and will be in Sierra City.
- Posted from my iPhone

Day 80, day dreaming

July 17

Miller Creek mile 1124 to ski resort mile 1142

Hiked 18 miles

We are getting a late start today. I didn't feel like getting up this morning. Steal Toe likes his sleep too. So I tried seeing if he was awake. "Steal Toe you awake man!" "Hmmm yeah" he said. But neither of us started moving. Lowlander was packed up and took off. We slept some more.

I had to dig a hole. So I'm up now. Everything is still soaking wet. I pulled off my rain fly and laid it in the sun light. Some other hikers pasted by and we asked them if they had seen giggles. They said they passed him yesterday 10 miles back, he didn't look to happy.

It was 9:40am when we started hiking. Talking about video games and movies really helps pass the time. I have this crazy desire to play halo 4 now. I haven't played it in over a year. And it's all I can think about. I don't know what it is. There is just something really exciting about running around shooting and blowing up aliens. Haha

We hiked about 10 miles before we caught up to Lowlander sitting on a rock reading a book. He went on when we stopped to eat lunch. The clouds looked nasty in the direction the trail was taking us. We kept joking saying we are walking towards Morador (from The Lord of the Rings) The one place you don't want to see any closer and it's the one place we are trying get.

After lunch I unpacked all my stuff and repacked it inside my XXL ziplock bag. And then wrapped my pack cover over my pack. Cause it's for sure raining. And we are going to be walking into it. I wasn't going to bother putting on my rain jacket. It just makes me sweat. I would be all wet before it even started to rain.

So there I was in my shorts and t-shirt and down came the rain. It only rained for maybe 5 min. I was completely dry again in less than 15 so it was a good little experiment. I kept hiking so I stayed nice and warm.

We caught back up to Lowlander. He said he got a lot more rain and he got hailed on. So it looks like we missed that part.

We hiked on till we came to this ski resort. There was a pretty cool campsite with water under the ski lift. So that's where we decided to make camp.


- Posted from my iPhone

Day 79, Oops we lost one.

July 16

Aloha lake 1100 to Miller Creek 1124

Hiked 24 miles

I woke to my alarm at 5am and fired up the jetboil. I could here Giggles was also awake. I started yelling "Steal Toe, Steal Toe you awake man?!" "Hmmm yeah" he said. "Haha lets go!" We started packing up and got on the trail at 6:40am. We are planning to hike to a campsite with water about 24 miles away.



Aloha lake in the morning

We hiked 5 miles and took a break were we found Lowlander. I met Lowlander for the first time just before the KOA and the Saufleys around mile 440. All 4 of us left together. We hiked over dicks pass.


Hiked 5 miles and took a lunch break at Dick's lake. We waited there almost a hour and Giggles didn't show up. So we continued on another 5 miles and took an other break and waited for almost a hour again and still no Giggles. We figured he would meet up with is when we camp since he knew the plan was to hike 24 miles. Steal Toe said he doesn't like to camp alone. (I can relate)



I love the crazy bright green stuff all over the trees.






Steal Toe and his sweet Mustache. He is from Georgia. Pry one of the nicest guys on the trail.

The sun is getting low in the sky. My shin splint started hurting. I took some Vitamin I and in 15 min I'm hiking pain free again. I love this stuff.



We found a campsite by Miller creek. We ate dinner and waited for Giggles. It's dark and starting to rain. He never showed up. We are suspecting that he stopped to charge his iPhone with his solar panel. I guess he likes to watch movies and what not at night. So he pry waited around to charge his phone. Hopefully he's alright.

The rain doesn't last long but there was an extremely loud and close lighting strike. It scared the shit out of us lol. It came out of no where and was really bright I could see it through my tent.

I'm really glad to be hiking with these guys. I looking forward to tomorrow. I lay down to sleep and I can hear Lowlander playing his Nintendo DS lol.
- Posted from my iPhone

Day 78, leaving S. Tahoe Lake

July 15

Echo Lake mile 1094 to Aloha Lake mile 1100

Hiked 6 miles

I woke up at 7 and started walking around town looking for a iPhone charging cable. I found one at a gas station for $15. So that's taken care of. I ran into Bugs on the street. Talked to her for a little bit. They all stayed in a hotel down the street. She was looking for a coffee shop.

Back in the room I can now charge my dead phone. I laid on the floor next to the outlet and reached my issues on the runners websites. So it turns out I have developed Planters Fasciitis in my right foot and I have shin splint in my left. Well that's just great. Planters fasciitis takes a long time to heal due to the fact that there isn't much blood flow in the bottom of your feet. I got on YouTube and researched how to use the KT tape for those two issues. So now I'm rapped up on both legs. Hopefully the tape stays on for a awhile. This shit is expensive. $20 for a roll. But I know it's good it helped my achilies issue that I had for 700 miles heal up in a week!

It's 11 and StealToe and Giggles finally wake up. They are leaving today as well. So we plan to hike out together.

We took the bus to the small outfitters in town and they have a list of trail/ride angels that give hikers rides to the trail. In 15 we had a ride to the trail. I bought a foot long subway sand which and packed out half of it for dinner tonight.

We got to Echo lake at 1 just in time for it to start raining. I also realized I left my trekking poles here yesterday lol. So I got those back. I went to the small PO there to retrieve my resupply boxes and forward my bounce boxes to Old Station since I don't need anything in them. However they only had one of my 4 boxes!? It was the box Jordan sent me with the hot sauce, hammer gel, coffee and what not. Which isn't what I needed. I'm expecting two boxes with 6 days of food. And where is my bounce box? They where really busy at the store so I felt bad asking. But I really need her to check again for my boxes. She reluctantly went back and found my bounce box. Shit that still isn't what I need. I called Jordan she checked the tracking and it shows they have arrived at twin bridges. Which is where they get there boxes from. I asked her one more time to go look. And she finally came back with my other boxes. Dam I'm glad I was persistent. It only took 3 hours to get this all figured out. I sent out my boxes and sorted my food and I bought a few packages of roman noodles (poor mans pad Thai and peanut butter and hot sauce) from the store so I can have two dinners a day. ;)

The rain stopped and we started hiking around 5:50pm we only planned on going 6 miles.

We arrived at aloha lake. Wow this place is sweet.








SteelToe and Giggles.



My fancy KT tape job. Steal Toe calls them my bionic legs lol. I wish. Bionic legs don't hurt this bad. Well actually the KT tape really helps. They feel good so far. Only went 6 miles today.



We camped by the lake and plan to be on the trail by 6 tomorrow morning.


- Posted from my iPhone

Day 77, Echo Lake

July 14

Nipple Lake 1071 to Echo lake 1094.

Hiked 23 miles.

Ok so today is a town day. So getting up early is really easy. I'm excited to be headed into town again. I have a resupply box at the store/PO in Echo lake. I plan on just getting my stuff showering and laundry if possible and get out of town.

I'm on the trail a little after 6am. We are all excited and everyone is awake. MilkMan took off first as per usual. Then me. I saw my second bear! It was really big and brown color. It was pretty far away. I tried to take a photo but it was to far. I silently watched it walk up the valley over the hill. I stopped to get water where Bugs and Cree passed me. They have a friend that's going to pick them up at the first road crossing. They plan on staying in South Lake Tahoe for 2 days. So I will have to hike on alone again.

The miles roll by. However I am starting to notice a pain I've never had before. The front of my right heal is hurting. When I walk I try to land my foot flat. Now I'm trying to land on my fore foot to easy the pain on my heal. My left shine is acting up as well. I think I have a shine splint. Which sucks cause I'm not zeroing. I bought a Roll of KT tape in Tahoe the last time I was here. So when I get to echo lake I'm going to reach my issues and figure out how to apply the KT tape. I just realized I broke my IPhones charger cable and shorted out the electronics in my battery pack. Dam now I have to go into Lake Tahoe to by a new cable. I need to send Goal zero an email and see if they can send me a replacement battery pack too. I borrowed a cable from other hiker and charged my phone from my solar panel. The first time on the trail I had to keep my phone on airplane mode to save battery life.

I am a few miles from Echo and I found this sign.



I took a picture just incase I needed to known the phone number and or address. Bugs, Cree and Milkman had already gotten to the road and were gone when I got there. I took a short break to rest my shin splint. All day I have been stretching the muscles in the front of my shin. It helps but the pain returns shortly.

I hiked the last mile past the road and walked into the Echo lake resort. The post office was closed when I arrived so looks like I'm staying the night. I got a veggie deli sandwich, a large cookie, bag of pita chips and some spicy hummus. Yes town food. I take my food outside and sit on the ground next to the building. There is day hikers and weekend warriors around here. A couple guys where out for a few days and they lost their water filter and decided to cut their trip short. I actually saw their filter on a rock next to a steam lol.

The two guys watched and listened to me struggle to find a place to stay in echo lake. And then fail to find a ride into Tahoe. So I said goodby and was going to go out by the road and hitch. And then they asked me where I was going. I told them the hostel is by the state line in Lake Tahoe. They said "oh we are going right by there we can take you"

Heck yeah. It pays to talk to people. Their girl friends showed up 30 min later. They took me to the hostel. It was nice talking to them. Thanks for the ride!

The hostel just opened July 4th. The owner is a pretty cool guy. It's only $25 for the night. I love hostels. There is bunch of other hikers here. I go to my room and Pepper is there. I first met him in Kennedy meadows he asked me how I liked my Altras I was wearing the lone peaks at that time. He told me that Steal Toe and Giggles were also in our room. Sweet! I haven't seen those guys since it left them at Kearsarge pass.

I started my laundry and jumped in the shower. I checked movie times at the theater a few blocks away. Mountain Mama and the Red Barron went with me to watch the new Planet of the Apes. It was awesome. It got over pretty late. Everyone was asleep when I got back to the room. I climbed into my bunk and it's pillows and sheets tonight.
- Posted from my iPhone

Day 76, The lake, the nipple and beer

July 13

Leach pond Mile 1050 to The lake below the Nipple mile 1071

Hiked 21 miles

Got on the trail earlier today. 7:40am. Once again Milkman left, then me. And Cree and Bugs where right behind. I'm surprised how quickly the seem to catch up as soon as I stop for water.

Lunch time stop.





Haha once again I tried to take a photo of Cree and Bugs and the lighting is weird. Later I joked about how they don't really exist since they weren't in the photos. Milkman is has the white shirt on. I love taking a nice long lunch break. I ate roman noodles, peanut butter and hot sauce. So good.

Later this is me without my chair taking a break in the dirt. Chair! I want you back!





Have I mentioned how much I miss my chair?

Almost done hiking for the day and look at those...









Kind of looks like a... Is that a nipple? Haha it is. It's the nipple. No it really is. That's what the mountain is called. "The nipple" so awesome.




See I wouldn't make something like that up.




The view from the nipple.




Sweet little lake.

We planned on hiking another 3 miles but we saw this lake a little ways off the trail and just went for it. I was so beat anyways my shin is killing me. Dammit why does it hurt so bad. There was a road up here to this campsite and there was a family car camping. The guy came over and asked if we are thru hikers. He gave us some beer!!! What luck. Two nights in a row I got a beer for the end of the night! Trail magic, got to love it. Man I need to stick with these guys lol.








Where oh where is my chair? Oh yeah like an idiot I sent it ahead. However this time. Laying in the dirt feels awesome, especially with beer in hand.





Great spot to call it a night.

- Posted from my iPhone

Day 75, Trail life is good again

July 12

PCT mile 1027 to mile 1050

Hiked 23 miles

I had mentioned to Cree, Bugs, and Milkman I would pry wake up and start hiking around 6am. (They usually start around 8:30ish) But this morning I woke up that early to do so. But... I want to hike with these guys some more. Just hiking the last 10 miles with them has added so much more enjoyment to the trail.

We are up and packing up around 7:30ish.



Cree and bugs. Lol the lighting is bad in this photo.

I'm on the trail at 8am. Milkman has already taken off and Cree and Bugs are just behind me.

There is the nice crispness to the air that I enjoy so much in the morning. I have that old familiar awesome feeling again that I get while hiking in the morning. I have missed you old friend.


Enjoy the little things, like this Sweet little water fall where I got 2 liters of water.


A sweet view for the day.

I noticed how many little breaks they take through out the day. I'm not used to doing that. It's actually really nice. My usual style Is to walk to the point of exhaustion. Then taking a break need it or not. We took a longer break for lunch. Where I actually laid down a slept for few minutes. I had to sit on the ground of corse since I don't have my chair right now. I'm so regretting sending it ahead.

After hiking a few miles. I can feel a pain on my left leg. It's not to bad but it's high on the outside of my left shin. I'm not sure what it is but it's annoying. I remember feeling it yesterday to. It seems to come and go. Vitamin I really seems to help.


We hiked all day and crossed a road and found some trail magic! There was a box filled with v8's and 1 Fat Tire beer I took the beer and a v8. MilkMan yelled from a little ways up telling me to come up where he was. There was a surprise. It's a cooler with cookies and sodas!!! So awesome. There was also a register. So we sat there and read all the names and I could finally see how far ahead everyone was. I'm really not that far behind a lot of my friends. I can catch them. I know it. If I don't take anymore zeros and stay consistent.

We camped just a little past the road. There was an American flag up on that mountain.


We camped by this little pond. We all set up camp just as the sun had set. I'm not a fan of getting water from lakes and ponds. The water is usually nasty. I am a little low so Milkman and I head down to the water. I think I'm going to go in and wash my legs off. We both have our head lamps on and Milkman is filling up his sawyer bag. I noticed there are hundreds of little baby crawdads swimming around. Gross I'm not going to drink this water it just doesn't look good. I'm about to take my shoes off and I'm looking in the water. I notice there is long skinny black things swimming around. Oh shit, Leaches!!! Leaches everywhere. I'm definantly not getting in the water. Yuck. Looks like I'm dry camping... Next to water. That's a new one haha.

I cleaned up with my wet wipes cooked dinner, slipped into my bag and ate laying in my sleeping bag. So comfy.


- Posted from my iPhone

Day 74, Leaving Bridgeport.

July 11

Sonora pass 1018 to campsite at mile 1027

Hiked 9 miles

It's nice to wake up in a nice soft bed. We lounged around till check out. I went to the post office to send home that ridiculous bear can. I also decided I wasn't going to carry my camp shoes anymore. I never wear them. Originally I got them for river crossings but discovered it's not practical since we had like 2 lol. If I have to ford anymore rivers I just walk through with my shoes and just walk them dry. It doesn't take long at all and in fact it's nice to cool off the feet. It saves time to. I decided I'm not going to wear my pants anymore either so It doesn't make sense to carry them. I also decided to bounce my chair ahead. I want to lighten my load. It's going to be tough without the chair. I'm sending my pants,chair, keyboard and minnie tripod to Beldon, CA. The guys at the Bridgeport PO are super cool.



For a grand total of 6lbs 10oz!!! Wow so excited to take that off my back. I almost wanted to just trash my bear can except for the fact it was $65 so maybe I'll try and resale it on eBay or something.

So I went back to the panini shop and oldered a huge Greek salad. It was incredible.

It's hitching time. I walked out to the edge of town. Within about 15min one of the guys from the Post Office came driving by and picked me up. He said he could take me up to hwy 108. His name is Jim I got lucky that I saw him in the post office and talked to him.

He dropped me off at hwy 108 and less than a minute this really nice lady named Kitty pulled up and took me to Sonora pass. She was riding her bike up the steep roads up the pass to train for a bike riding trip. She's riding her bike through Fort Collins, through Wyoming and to steamboat. A crazy amount of miles in a short amount of time. Pretty cool.

She dropped me off and there was trail magic! Mac came up for the day to do some trail magic. I had chips and a Gatorade. I didn't eat much else, coming straight from town I had my fill of town food. There was 3 other hikers I haven't seen before. (Which seems to be the theme these days) Cree, Bugs and Milkman are the hikers I met. We all decided to leave at the same time. It was nice hiking with some new people. Cree and Bugs are a couple. They both just got their masters degrees. They started late at mile 250 or so. It's crazy they are planning to south bound the first 250 miles after they get to Canada.

We hiked and talked for a bit we decided to go 10 miles. Found a nice campsite and came across a guy in a hammock. We wanted to have a campfire. The guy in the hammock wasn't into it. So we went to a different place since he was here first. We had our fire and ate dinner. Dammit! I wish I had my chair. I had to sit on a rock like the rest of the hikers have this whole time. It's sucks. After a I ate I retreated to my tent.

It's cool hiking with people again. I think I'm going to stick with them till Echo Lake/South Lake Tahoe. Cree and Bugs have a friend they are meeting there and plan to stay in town for a couple days.

- Posted from my iPhone