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Gary
Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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Apr 19, 2017 - 02:51pm PT
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The Los Padres backcountry is pretty awesome. Those wilderness areas are great winter time backpacking territory.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Outside the Asylum
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Apr 21, 2017 - 09:19pm PT
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You reckon you'll make Canada in 2017, or will that have to wait for next year? (Oregon is the "two week challenge" of the PCT...) Well, I can always meet you at Cascade Locks later this summer.
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ß Î Ø T Ç H
Boulder climber
ne'er–do–well
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Apr 21, 2017 - 11:40pm PT
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“Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
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mtnyoung
Trad climber
Twain Harte, California
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 22, 2017 - 09:21am PT
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You reckon you'll make Canada in 2017, or will that have to wait for next year? (Oregon is the "two week challenge" of the PCT...) Well, I can always meet you at Cascade Locks later this summer.
We definitely won't make it to Canada this year. I'm hoping we can just make it to Washington State (and I'm skeptical of that).
My brother set up a once-in-a-lifetime multi-family trip to the Grand Canyon this summer (literally, it won't happen again). He and his wife, his kids, Vicki and I plus both girls. My sister's son is going too. Nine of us. It's going to be a fantastic event, but I am unhappy that it will put a big dent in our PCT summer this year (and that's a true "first world" problem, isn't it?).
Add to that the fact that Tricia wants to try out for girl's volleyball for her sophomore year. If she makes the team? Well like I said, I'm hoping we can make it to Washington this year.
We will make progress though. And Canada will still be there in 2018 (or even 2019). Won't it?
Are the Cascade Locks on the Columbia River? If we make it near there in 2017 Anders, and you're willing to come down and join us, we'd love your company.
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John M
climber
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Apr 22, 2017 - 09:42am PT
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We will make progress though. And Canada will still be there in 2018 (or even 2019). Won't it?
Don't get locked in on the end of the journey. Savor each step. The grand canyon is fantastic and a worthy interlude, though I do understand the pleasure of your long hike with your kids. Its been fun watching them grow up. What a great journey!
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David Knopp
Trad climber
CA
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Apr 22, 2017 - 09:56am PT
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Brad you will absolutely love the grand Canyon-i did my first backpacking trip there with a 75 yr old fireman from LA, it was the best-we spent 6 nights and hike d a nice loop from the moment point, it was incredible!
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Apr 22, 2017 - 03:08pm PT
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Well, I can always meet you at Cascade Locks later this summer.
If you guys and Anders make it to Cascade Locks then I will expect a day's climbing out of you all (Beacon Rock - 8 miles west of PCT on S.R. 14) followed by dinner at Skamania Lodge (3.7 miles east of PCT on S.R. 14).
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mtnyoung
Trad climber
Twain Harte, California
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 22, 2017 - 07:05pm PT
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^^^^
All suggestions are welcome.
Naturally I know of Beacon Rock and would love to get a few routes in there. I've never heard of Skamania Lodge though (but it sounds almost walking distance from the trail).
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Apr 23, 2017 - 12:02am PT
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You could always ship your shoes and harnesses to me and I'd have them for when you got here...
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Pea-dub
Ice climber
sun diego
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Apr 23, 2017 - 12:43am PT
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Your daughter is always smiling.
Volleyball is great!!!
How is your oldest daughter doing in college.
Thanks for all the pictures, now I don't have to
think about doing this trip,😀 you are taking me along.
Thanks again.Paul
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mtnyoung
Trad climber
Twain Harte, California
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 23, 2017 - 09:59am PT
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Healyje, the hard part about climbing when we're on PCT trips isn't taking the gear along, it's carving out the time to do it and changing the focus and momentum. As a not-so-subtle hint, having a person to climb with, one who knows the area, would make that easier (I'm an experienced and safe partner, although, fair warning, I much prefer leading to toproping, and, regardless, we may not make it that far north until 2018).
Pea-dub, the older daughter (Katie) is doing very well at U.C.S.B.. After a slow start there her grades have been consistently As and Bs. She went there determined to graduate in four years and is doing so (imagine how nice it is to have already paid for her last quarter of college).
The best thing about her college days though has been the group she's become part of, the U.C.S.B. Excursion Club (as it sounds, they take kids backpacking, climbing hiking, surfing, kayaking, camping - you get the picture). Since her freshman year Katie has been both a Club leader and a member of the Board.
And I love the story of how she became a club leader as just a three-month freshman: three months into her college career she signed up to go on a club hike. The planning for the hike may not have been optimal; the trail to the chosen peak was in terrible shape, the summit they hiked to turned out to be class three, and their timing was off and they ended the day crashing through brush in the dark to get back to the car.
Katie thought all of that was perfectly normal.
The next day the club president texted her to ask if she'd consider being a trip leader.
Since then basically all of her social circle has been Excursion Club leaders. I've met many of them (and climbed and backpacked with several too). She hangs with a great group of kids.
I'm also told that Katie hasn't been very soft on some of the kids who join her events; one friend told of two freshman boys on a hiking trip Katie led. When the two complained that the first half of the hike was "so long" (five miles), Katie is reported to have said (in a scornful tone) "my little sister hikes that far before breakfast."
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Pea-dub
Ice climber
sun diego
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Apr 24, 2017 - 12:26am PT
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Thanks Brad
Sounds like she is enjoying college and the path that her Dad & Mom started her on.
She probably didn't tell
the 2 guys that her little sister hiked the length of California.+
Maybe she did.
Enjoy your Grand canyon trip.
I have 2 daughter's also.
24 & 26
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Apr 24, 2017 - 05:40am PT
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Beacon is multi-pitch trad, you come we'll climb.
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Jan
Mountain climber
Colorado & Nepal
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I just came across this video in which a guy who hiked from Mexico to Canada shot video for one second every day and then put it together as a 3 minute montage. I could recognize a number of the places from following this wonderful thread.
Maybe even the hikers will enjoy this quick review.
http://www.trendingly.com/pacific-crest-trail
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mtnyoung
Trad climber
Twain Harte, California
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 9, 2017 - 12:03pm PT
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Well we’re off tomorrow for what might be our first PCT hiking of the new season. “Might be” is the right phrase too; past and present weather conditions are gonna make this an interesting trip.
In making plans, I assumed that the trail near Crater Lake would be at least mostly snow-free by this late in the spring. Certainly our ground here in the Sierra is very snow-free up to over 7,000 feet. And the first 30 miles beyond our last end point are lower than 6,500 feet elevation. Plus it’s June.
Not so fast though. Everything I’ve been able to find about the PCT through Crater Lake National Park shows that there is still snow over most (maybe even all) of the trail. So?
So we go anyway and see what (if anything) we can get done. We’re taking snowshoes, all-weather gear and backpacking equipment. Maybe we’ll hike some. Maybe we’ll backpack on snowshoes instead. Or, maybe we’ll end up calling it a reconnaissance of the area and retreating to the Oregon coast, or to lower elevations at least. Either way, we’re off for some family fun….
(And when we’re done we’ll drive down to U.C.S.B. for Katie’s college graduation; where the hell did those four years go!?)
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Climberdude
Trad climber
Clovis, CA
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I am keeping my fingers crossed for you and Trish for little to no snow on the trail.
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Let me know if you make it to Cascade Locks - can always do dinner at the lodge even if you don't feel like climbing...
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mtnyoung
Trad climber
Twain Harte, California
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 9, 2017 - 03:34pm PT
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Thankfully I made my peace with weather issues many years ago (if I can’t control it I must not stress over it).
Like I said, we’ll have family fun no matter what we get done :)
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mtnyoung
Trad climber
Twain Harte, California
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 28, 2017 - 11:18am PT
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At the end of this week Tricia finishes with Band Camp (she loves her trumpet and playing in the high school band).
Once she gets home we’ll make the long drive again to try some hiking. Conditions look good for success this time.
I didn’t post about it then, but our last trip was a total “failure.” The word failure is in quotes because all we failed at was getting PCT miles hiked. We had a great time doing other things.
Here are a series of posts I made to the Mudn’Crud site (then). They explain our “failure:”
HAHAHAHAHA. Hah Hah Hah Hah. Geeeee-sssus.
Thirty degrees out with light snow flurries upon arrival at Crater Lake/PCT. Two to six feet of snow still on the ground. The snowshoes worked great. The only problem was, on our test walk, at a point 1/4 mile from the road, we could not tell if we were even within 100 yards of the trail. Flat, heavily forested terrain with no waypoints, and no signs. Rather than using maps and compass for 27 miles of that terrain (with gear for three days), we bailed on the PCT. Now enjoying the Oregon coast.
Crater Lake overlook is about 800 feet higher in elevation than the PCT where the trail crosses Highway 62. It was windy, cold and exposed (note the spindrift):
The trail wasn't much better; parking at the PCT highway-crossing was cold but not as windy or exposed:
The snowshoeing was easy, but after walking 1/4 mile we had no confidence that we could find the trail over the course of 27 miles to the next pickup point (walking in the featureless, mostly flat forest made us feel like ants walking in a field of grass):
So we bailed and we're hoping that enough snow has melted three weeks from now that we can do this hike. We'll be watching the National Weather Service Report daily; we also learned that the most reliable web-cam on the Park Service site shows just about the same conditions as are on the trail two miles away (so we'll be watching that too).
Meanwhile the Oregon coast isn't so bad. We found a great little restaurant for lunch and tomorrow we'll cross back into California and check out Prairie Creek Redwoods State and Redwoods National Parks. Then we'll try for the Humboldt County highpoint on Wednesday (50/50 on us being able to get in on the approach road).
Consolation prize: Salmon Mountain, the high point of Humboldt County, California:
Bivy at the trailhead:
Salmon Mountain in the evening light:
An easy and viewful hike:
Mount Shasta from the west:
On the summit:
And finally, here's a shot I call "Tuna on Salmon Mountain:"
To our beloved trail, the PCT: We'll be back....
Conditions are much more encouraging this time.
Among other things, we found out on our reconnaissance three weeks ago that the webcam at Crater Lake’s lower Visitors Center shows just about the same conditions as are on the PCT, two miles away. And this webcam’s view just keeps looking better and better.
So, here’s hoping for both fun and success this trip….
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kief
Trad climber
east side
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Jun 28, 2017 - 12:15pm PT
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Well done to Katie for making it through UCSB in four years. When I worked on staff there in the late 80s to mid-90s the majority of undergrads spent five years earning their degrees. It was a higher proportion than any other UC campus and a little embarrassing to the administration. When we underwent our accreditation review we blamed it on the beach.
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