Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
mtnyoung
Trad climber
Twain Harte, California
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Aug 22, 2012 - 08:53pm PT
|
"ps Hopefully the Youngs don't mind the occasional digression from their adventures."
Not at all Anders. It's all part of doing/loving the PCT.
|
|
Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
|
|
Donald finished his hike today, in lovely weather, although it's starting to cool down. I went out to meet him with his wife and son. We were going to hike in, perhaps as far as the border, to meet him - his last SPOT post was from north of Hart's Pass at noon on Thursday, so we knew he'd be in sometime today. We got about 30 minutes into the hike, and there he was.
Here he is at the actual finish.
Perfect timing, too - today is his wedding anniversary. And a darn good hike for him, all considered.
Four at least finished the hike today - apparently about twenty have signed the register at monument 78 so far this year, so the herd can't be far behind. Here are the four of them, post-cleanup. The other three are Matt (Ottawa), and Hanna and Eric (Indiana). Eric is a climber. Later I gave Hanna and Eric a ride into Vancouver, and may show them around on Saturay.
|
|
johnboy
Trad climber
Can't get here from there
|
|
mtnyoung, i hope your daughter's knee gets back to 100% and the 3 of you trek on.
I thoroughly enjoy keeping up with your reports here and wish you and yours the best on the trail.
Thanks.
PS, I hope the dog got a doughnut too. He looked in need of one.
|
|
mtnyoung
Trad climber
Twain Harte, California
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Sep 1, 2012 - 01:16am PT
|
Anders, seeing Donald's finish in your post was very strange; the emotions that flashed through me. I've never really imagined we'd finish the trail, but I suppose someday we may. After all that is the goal.
If we ever do I think I will be unimaginably sad and happy at the same time.
And, Johnboy, thanks very much for the good thoughts. Katie's in PT with a young woman who we've come to feel really good about (she's got a reputation for doing good work on athletes and she is a climber herself; she seemed to hit it off very well with Kate).
Oh, and although we call the dog "Charlie," it's short for Charlotte (she's a girl). And, although we try not to overdo it on the treats, she's very much a member of the family (I'll leave the conclusion to you).
|
|
mtnyoung
Trad climber
Twain Harte, California
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Sep 1, 2012 - 01:23am PT
|
I guess I should post up a photo or two too about my and Tricia's recent trip. With Katie back in school (and with a bad knee), "T" and I took a few days before the start of fifth grade to backpack in the southern Sierra. She "bagged" her first 14,000 foot peak (Mount Langley):
We summited a few others too, including Cirque Peak:
And hiked out in off and on rain:
|
|
mrtropy
Trad climber
Nor Cal
|
|
Very Nice, Looks like lots of fun!
|
|
Vegasclimber
Trad climber
Las Vegas, NV.
|
|
Awesome pictures and updates and always. Hope the eldest gets better soon.
Was just in the area of that last picture when y'all were heading out on your trek a few weeks ago. Many, many pictures of OT Marmot were to be had!
|
|
klk
Trad climber
cali
|
|
the problem comes from a kneecap that isn't tracking properly due to injury. It's not too uncommon and it's fixable with physical therapy and, then, home exercises. She's already been doing the exercises daily.
knee crankers! hours and hours of quality fun.
congrats to tricia on langley
|
|
Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
|
|
Brad, when you and your gals get to Manning, I'll meet you there. You're about 20% done at this point, so it may take a few more years. Given that there are frequent roads, towns and resupply, it's reallly just a series of three to seven day backpacks - much like what you're doing. Some do it continuously, some not.
Still thinking of getting out once or twice to meet through hikers as they arrive, and also repeat the hike to monument 78, after many years. A bit of nostalgia. Timing is a challenge - many of them try to get to Manning fairly early in the day, so as to catch the bus into Vancouver at 11:15. So they cross the border the evening before, and just have an hour or two in the morning before finishing. I might even have to go up the afternoon before.
Apparently there's concern that hordes of utter nOObs will show up at the start next spring, inspired by a book by some flaky woman who hiked part of the trail, which was promoted on television. Luckily most of them will get weeded out in the first week or two, when it's still simple to escape.
From the blogs, there's still would-be through hikers in northern California. I'd pick up the pace if I was them, but even then it may be too late - although if we have one of those endless nice autumns that lasts well into October, they may luck out. (About a 20% probability.) Still, it's already freezing at night in the North Cascades, and many of them aren't over-equipped.
ps Brad, is your dog a Duck Toller?
|
|
The Donald
Social climber
Vancouver Island, BC Canada
|
|
|
Jan 15, 2013 - 01:54pm PT
|
This is The Donald, Mighty Hiker's friend who thru-hiked the PCT in 2012, and who he mentioned in this thread. Really enjoyed reading the thread of your adventure. Awesome!
|
|
mtnyoung
Trad climber
Twain Harte, California
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Jul 27, 2013 - 12:12pm PT
|
Donald and Anders, it looks like we're about to continue your way :)
Work's wrapped up for now. We're 80% packed and scheduled to leave on Monday. Briham and his girlfriend Whitney are going to drive us over to Onion Valley and hike over Kearsarge Pass with us. Katie has been in PT for her knee, we've got her hiking poles and a knee brace designed to push the muscle that's the problem back into place as she walks. We're thinking lower milage (102 miles in 9 days). We've got this whole weekend to finish packing and to relax.
I'm hoping for the best and looking forward to more fun, laughs, beauty and miles on the PCT with my two girls.
|
|
FRUMY
Trad climber
Bishop,CA
|
|
|
Jul 27, 2013 - 12:27pm PT
|
mtnyoung -- great post, keep them coming.
|
|
mtnyoung
Trad climber
Twain Harte, California
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Aug 8, 2013 - 07:51pm PT
|
Thanks, Frumy. Our trip went perfectly.
Here's what I've posted on the Mud'n'Crud site so far under the title "Sometimes Dreams Come True." I'll post more as I get it organized on that site:
COMMENT
This was the type of backpack that I've always wanted to do with the girls. It was my dreaming about just this type of long trip in the Sierra in the first place that started the idea of doing the whole PCT with them.
We went just over 99 miles in nine days. The weather was perfect. We saw about 20 mosquitos the whole time. We laughed a lot, ate well, made two good new friends, and saw some of the finest scenery that the Sierra has to offer. Vicki met us yesterday at Vermillion Valley Resort and we enjoyed that. Now we're in Santa Barbara ready to start Katie's university orientation tomorrow.
DAY ONE
We started this trip with some issues that we all hoped would work out OK. They did.
Katie's knee was a big issue, as was the weather. The weather had been very thundery/rainy for a week before our departure date. It turned out that we left on the last day any rain fell (and then only a few drops). We scored a wonderful weather window.
Because of Katie's knee, and because of our need for lots of food, and of a ride to the Onion Valley trailhead, I looked for help from two climbing friends. Brian (yes, Briham 89 on this site) and his girlfriend Whitney drove us down to the trailhead and then helped carry packs and weight 7.3 miles over Kearsarge Pass and all the way to the PCT (they hiked back out the same day).
Here's four of us getting ready:
The girls have been hiking in ultra-lightweight gaiters now for years ("Dirty Girl Gaiters"). These keep trail dust and small pebbles out of the shoes. I finally joined the club this season, letting Tricia pick out for me my own "Dirty Girls:"
And then we were off, Katie and Tricia in the lead, Brian and I and Whitney following:
We took a water break at a little over halfway up (we had 2,500 feet of gain to Kearsarge):
And then we were at the pass (where we took a series of photos, including one designed to match a similar one we took on the way out last year):
Beyond the pass is easy downhill to the PCT itself. Once there we knew the work would begin. Katie put on her pack, Tricia took the stove fuel and water from Whitney, and I took 18 pounds of food from Brian:
Although we'd (really "I'd") planned on getting over Glen Pass by the end of the day, it didn't work out that way. The combination of a later start and slower hiking than I'd intended meant that we didn't start our hike on the PCT until 6:00 p.m. Big loads and uphill toward Glen slowed us down enough that by the time we got to the last half-mile, steep uphill section leading to the pass itself, we were pooped. So we made camp at a small lake on its south side:
This was a late arrival and a chilly camp, but we got the tent set up, water treated and dinner going. Everyone felt OK (but tired), and we were back on the trail. We'd had a much better start than last year's. We followed up dinner by eating one of the eight packs (one per night) of a special treat that Vicki had found and sent with us: freeze dried ice cream. If the reader hasn't tried this amazing concoction, there is nothing I can say here; it must be eaten to be believed (it is that good).
Next up: over Glen Pass and into the Rae Lakes basin; can we make up milage tomorrow that we didn't do today?
DAY TWO
Day two started out cold, but the sun peeked over the ridge as we started hiking:
We'd camped half a mile from Glen Pass and reached it quickly (I saw climber David Wilson and his daughter coming down from the other side - it's a small world, you've got to behave yourself no matter where you go):
Next was a descent to the well known (and beautiful) Rae Lakes. This is a multi-thousand foot descent, so Katie put on her knee brace and took it easy:
From these lakes the trail goes down Baxter Creek to its junction with Woods Creek:
Woods Creek is a big flow, so there is a suspension bridge over it:
From this junction we continued, now uphill, almost three miles more before finding a nice place to camp near the creek. We'd done 12 miles even for the day, and thus made up some of the shortage of yesterday. The bad news was that, since the descent off Glen Pass, Katie's knee had been hurting. She was also pretty tired by the time we rolled into camp:
Of interest to us too were the number of people we passed (hiking in the opposite direction) during the day. As most of you know, the PCT is the same trail as the John Muir Trail is here. The tradition with the JMT is to hike north to south, so it was safe to say that most of those we encountered were JMT hikers. Katie made a game of counting; on this day we encountered 89 south-bound hikers, and passed six stationary people. Also, near the end of the day we saw, yet again, "the guys with the yellow packs," who were also headed north. We'd been seeing these two for most of the afternoon; we'd almost catch up to them and then we'd stop for a rest and they'd move out of sight. Just before we reached camp, we passed them (then they passed us to camp a little farther upstream). In subsequent days we'd get to know these "yellow packs."
After getting to camp, we relaxed some; Tricia and I did most of the camp chores to give Katie a chance to rest.
Day three would bring another big pass. Katie commented that she wasn't sure she could keep going for nine days. Tricia had been carrying all of our stove fuel, some food and one to two liters of water (in addition to her own gear). Could she continue this with no slowing down? We agreed that tomorrow would be another day, and that these issues would be there when we woke up. We ate our ice cream, gave Kate some "vitamin I" (ibuprofen) and went to bed early.
|
|
mtnyoung
Trad climber
Twain Harte, California
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Aug 8, 2013 - 10:05pm PT
|
DAY THREE
Day three started out with a nearly five mile hike and 2,500 feet of elevation gain, to Pinchot Pass. This was a hard day for Katie. Her left knee hurt and she felt like that same leg was getting a shin splint. She was also tired from trying so hard on days one and two:
We kept the hiking steady. The "yellow packs" passed us and we talked for a while. They seemed like good guys, they were concerned about Katie and offered some extra ibuprofen in case we needed it (we eventually did). Tricia kept going like the Energizer Bunny. Here she is with Pinchot Pass in the background:
Here we are as we climb up Pinchot:
At the top of Pinchot Pass the girls and I decided to do something that we never wanted to do, something that I would give everything I've ever owned or controlled or ever could own or control to not have to do. You see, our friend Luc Gruenther died in January, in his F-16, in a training accident over the Adriatic Sea. Luc died ten days before his first child was born (Serene Gruenther). The girls and I have known and loved Luc and his wife (Cassy) for, in my case many, many years, and in the case of the girls, their whole lives. Luc was a great person; always upbeat, kind, generous and gregarious. For those who never knew Luc, here's a link to a Supertopo thread about Luc and about the tragedy:
http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/2059191/Missing-US-Pilot-in-Italy
Luc started a "life list" when he was in high school. Many of the items on the list were checked off, but many weren't yet. The list included crazy stuff like "ride in a car that is going 150 miles per hour" (checked off). It included trivial stuff too, like "give my kid an ant farm" (not checked off - we think Serene will get 20 ant farms for her second birthday). One of the unfinished items on his list was to hike the John Muir Trail.
At his funeral, Luc's mom (Romel) and his widow Cassy had asked the girls and I to spread some of his ashes at a place we liked on the JMT. We liked Pinchot Pass:
It's a beautiful, serene (yes, a play on words) location. Here's looking southeast from this pass:
The "yellow packs" (Bill and Reid, we'd learned their names by now) were at Pinchot (they took the photos for us). They were a great comfort to us as we gave a part of Luc a home on a beautiful pass in a mountain range that he always wanted to know better (Reid had lost his own father in Vietnam when he was eight years old).
After Pinchot we still had several miles to hike before making camp for the night. Here's Tricia hiking down off the pass, on its north side, past a series of wonderful lakes:
We continued our hike over and down, passing the South Fork Kings River:
The day was getting late and we made camp only a mile further on, along the same river:
Little treats are nice when one is going without so many things; so tonight we treated ourselves to (again - it doesn't get old) freeze dried ice cream:
Mather Pass beckoned for day four (it can be seen behind Tricia and in front of Middle Palisade in the photo just above showing Tricia near a lake). Katie had had a tough time on Pinchot and on the descent from it. How would Mather be for her? Could she keep going or would we have to bail from our trip early? Only time would tell.
|
|
10b4me
Ice climber
Wishes-He-Was-In-Arizona
|
|
I really like this thread, also.
|
|
John M
climber
|
|
I love this thread. I keep rooting for you. . Go Katie.. Go Tricia, you guys rock.
|
|
johnboy
Trad climber
Can't get here from there
|
|
Great to see you and your daughters are back on the trail again this year.
You must be very proud of them, and they of you.
Keep on trucking and keep on posting.
|
|
briham89
Big Wall climber
san jose, ca
|
|
Looking and reading great so far.
That was a wonderful tribute to Luc as well.
|
|
Vegasclimber
Trad climber
Las Vegas, NV.
|
|
This is honestly one of my favorite long-term threads on the site, and I have looked forward to each new adventure. Thanks for sharing this special time with us. You're one hell of a dad, blessed with very special daughters.
I never met Luc, but I hated hearing about the accident. What you did for him and his family was really touching - from what I have heard of him I'm sure he approved.
|
|
mtnyoung
Trad climber
Twain Harte, California
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Aug 9, 2013 - 11:52am PT
|
I'm not ashamed to admit that, these several months later, I was in tears while we spread Luc's ashes. I know the girls were too, although that may have been in part from seeing me in such a condition too.
DAY FOUR
This fourth morning was the coldest we were to experience. As usual, I got up and had breakfast before the girls. But before long they got up too and soon we were ready to hike. Tricia loved my "hat hair:"
The approach to Mather Pass involved much less elevation gain than that to Pinchot. It is also much more open. Here's a shot of the pass with Middle Palisade right behind it:
And I took this shot too, from the same area, looking back on Pinchot Pass; it's a very pretty area, part of the heart of the Sierra Nevada:
Tricia flew up the pass (Bill and Reid were mostly hiking with us by now and I think they were still a little blown away by this little girl who flew up trails - they were blown away again later when they realized that she wasn't just carrying fluff - she had 15 to 20 pounds on her back the whole trip):
Katie had shin splints in both legs by now, and her knee was troubling her too. But she gamely held on (the hiking poles helped). Having started hiking a little before us, she continued hard toward the pass and we didn't catch her until we were nearly there, miles later:
We rested at the pass with Bill and Reid:
The hike down from Mather Pass to Palisade Lakes was a little slow, and perhaps the low point of the trip for Katie. Tricia and I forged ahead (mostly because we needed to find water); Katie lagged and, at one point was in tears when she caught up to us (tears from pain, from frustration, and, I think, from having been left behind?):
Eventually we stopped at the north-most Palisade Lake for lunch. Something happened to Kate here, the pain didn't go away, but her reaction to it started to. Her attitude started to pick up. It was here that I started to believe that, pain or not, Katie would be able to finish the hike.
We wanted to hike a little further, so the girls sunscreened up. Katie helped "T" with her hair:
Once we started hiking again, we came right up to the edge of "The Staircase," a long series of tight switchbacks that lead down into the lower canyon of Palisade Creek. Although these are not optimal for a hiker with a knee problem, Katie put on her knee brace and we all took it easy:
Although hiking down "The Staircase" was hot and hard, we made it down to creek level. A cool, slightly downhill trail led from there to a nice campsite about two miles further downriver. We got there with daylight to spare. The girls washed up and we made camp:
And, finally, with the day coming to an end, we all practiced proper oral hygiene:
The only disappointment about this camp/evening was that Bill and Reid didn't show up. These were two really nice guys; it was obvious that they'd taken an interest in the girls welfare, and that the girls enjoyed their company. I did too. At Mather Pass we'd let them try our Instant Breakfast trail milkshakes. They loved them. We talked about letting them try freeze dried ice cream, but it was buried and so we suggested that we'd see them when we camped. As it turned out, they got to the bottom of "The Staircase" and then camped fairly close to it, so we didn't see them. Both girls were quite disappointed.
Well, tomorrow would be day five, and we'd likely see them again. This fifth day would, in another way, also be crucial. I'd arranged for another climbing friend (hero maybe?) to hike in a food resupply for us on this day, coming over Bishop Pass. We'd have to be sure to meet Phil at around the time we'd planned or... or what? We'd just have to plan on meeting him, so we planned to be up and on the trail relatively early in the morning.
DAY FIVE
So here we are at Katie's U.C.S.B. orientation. She's pretty excited. And like good parents we're paying some attention to some of the stuff designed to orient us. And last night, in the middle of a presentation by one of the university deans (a wonderful lady with a proper English accent), a mom asks, in essence, "if you're such a prestigious school why can't you guarantee that my son will be accepted to med school." I'm not making this sh#t up; it can't be made up.
Am I allowed to throttle people down here? Was it OK to guffaw? Will there always be such clueless people out there, whose stupidity is matched only by their unjustified sense of entitlement? Maybe I like climbing so much because, in Darwinian fashion, it tends to weed out most such idiots.
Anyway, back to the PCT. Hair maintenance is always easy for me, but takes the girls some time:
Once done with such chores, we headed out quickly down Palisade Creek and then up LeConte Canyon. On the way up we passed under The Citadel (what I'm pretty sure was the Edge of Time Arete was very easy to see - wow!) and past Grouse Meadow:
We only had a little over six miles to reach the Bishop Pass Trail junction where our friend Phil and I had planned to meet. We made it by just before noon and were a little worried that Phil wasn't there yet. Still, we'd talked about a time range, not a specific time and so we settled down to wait. We watched the North Face team jog by on their way to a just-over-three-day, 211 mile speed record for the JMT. We made sure our water supply was full. We ate lunch. We visited with another backpacker who was hiking in to meet his brother. And then, just as promised, 12.5 miles from the Bishop Pass Trailhead, Phil showed up:
He had with him another 15 pounds of food (my girls eat a hell of a lot). This was obviously good, but it meant that I was back up to full weight now and the hiking was harder.
We visited with Phil for quite a while (he brought good messages from Vicki and we sent one out to her too). Then we swapped loads and saddled up. And, then, just a minute before we set off, Bill and Reid showed up, hiking up the trail behind us. The girls were visibly pleased to see these two and they were happy to see the girls too. Now we caught up with them, made introductions (to Phil) and then finally set off up the trail (this time hiking as one group by consensus).
Little and Big Pete Meadows were very pretty:
By the time we'd made two more miles, we were coming to the end of the day. All of us knew we'd have to tackle Muir Pass in the morning, and we thought we'd like to get up a little ways on the trail as a head start, but it was getting late enough to camp. We started looking at possible camp sites. At one point we asked a south-bound hiker about camp sites. We got a strange answer from her to the effect that "The Rock Monster" had good camping and it was only a quarter mile ahead. OK, we liked the quarter mile part, but what is "The Rock Monster?" All she gave us was a quick "you'll know it when you see it," and she was off down the trail.
We wondered at these seemingly less-than-helpful directions, but we thought we'd keep an eye out. And, a quarter mile later, there it was, we DID know it when we saw it and we knew immediately that it would be home for the night:
We set up camp. The girls did some "laundry" by rinsing out shirts and pants in the stream (Katie almost lost her pants downstream which caused her to laugh and me to choke - she did finally find them). Meanwhile Bill got out his fly rod. Bill almost always catches and releases, but when he and Reid learned that Katie had almost never eaten fresh-out-of-a-stream trout and that Tricia never had, they offered to keep a few:
These fish were golden trout and were prepared perfectly. Three fish among five people are really only appetizers, but they were ideal in the circumstance. Although Tricia's always been a bit picky about her food, we've never indulged this and always encouraged her to try new stuff. She's lately become much better about this and, in here on the PCT, willingly tried the crisp tail fin from one fish (she liked it - similar to a potato chip):
And with that we got ready for bed. This had been a lighter day (in terms of milage at least). It was one where we got plenty of rest, and on which Katie seemed to get caught up emotionally. She was hurting, but the pain was manageable; now we were past the only trail where she could exit and she seemed committed to finishing her days on the PCT in good style. We'd also linked up with two new friends who added a lot to the conversation and to the fun, and who we enjoyed thoroughly.
|
|
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!