We Can Do It! -On What I Learned Form Hiking With Women

The first night of the girl crew wasn’t planned. Dimples and I had agreed to hike together at White Pass, our most recent town stop. Agreeing to hike with anyone was hard for me, I had just hiked Oregon solo and the freedom to come and go from town on my own schedule and camp where ever I want was worth cost of camping alone sometimes and the annoyance that most pictures of me hiking were ‘selfies’. Or so I thought. Soon enough though on my zeroes I noticed how enjoyable it was just to have company and be reassured by conversation that I wasn’t the only one who felt the same way about the challenges and the rewards that the trail dishes out so generously. When I hiked into White Pass after camping two out of three nights alone, I was starving for company.

I had recently come off a five-day delay due to a shin splint. At this point in the game that meant the shiny October 1^st finish date everyone was striving for was probably not going happen for me. It took time and frustration, but I was beginning to be ok with that. I stumbled into White Pass frustrated and lonely, but I was met with excellent company. A much-needed three days of giggling and shenanigans later we realized we should hike to a stop with more than a tiny store, deep fryer, and single hotel. Dimples and I had been friends, but become closer friends at White Pass and we decided to hike together.

No more camping alone, and someone to share conversation with over jet boil dinners was the change that I needed. Coming off of the shin splint my hiking pace was slow and I often showed up to camp after Dimples. The third night was the hardest, it was about sunset and I still had two miles to go at least. That’s about 45 minutes in the dark. I’m not sure how they plan this, but the best camping spots are always within the first 0.5 miles after you’ve made the decision to night hike. I fought and fought the longing to get out my tent and curl up in my warm sleeping bag, rather than walk alone through the dark. But I stuck with it, and I stuck with the decision I made about having a hiking partner.

I survived the 45 minutes, and was so happy to find a little note on the trail that read “Blueberry!” with an arrow. I followed the side trail and came up to Dimples and Handstand who welcomed me to a campfire. Not just any campfire but one with wine, chocolate, and endless giggles. What a night, and the start of a week that had more in store for us than we ever could have asked for. We stayed up late, relaxed and enjoyed coffee in the morning while waiting out the rain and eventually packed all our stuff and hiked out. The following days were nothing but detour-adventures and giggling. Who wants to hike in the rain anyways? We finagled a ride to town, filled up on pizza, and camped in a place that most definitely wasn’t a campground.

The guy-girl ratio on trial is much heavier on the guy side. The guys are awesome, but being with girls was such a fun change. Nothing was a race, everything was a conversation, and of course they have been craving a pumpkin spice latte too, duh. I could write for hours about nothing but reasons behind the conclusion everyone shared after meeting Madison, Meghan, and Makenna: three girls who just hiked to Washington all the way from Mexico. The unanimous “you girls are crazy” followed by a slow headshake. Maybe sometime I will, but this isn’t about what I learned about adventure, it’s about what I learned about friendship.

The intensity of friendship on the trail is high. You’re with your hiking partner all day, and even though you sleep in your own tent at night if anyone snores you’ll know exactly who. You get to know people in a way that means you know what their grandma is like and the name of their childhood dog long before you know their last name. This is true for guys and girls, and any hiker could tell you why the friendships that they made on the trail are meaningful. But especially in the time I spent with Handstand and Dimples, I feel like I was afforded the privilege of growing a lot. We are all likeminded, smart, driven women. We all worked hard in the years leading up to the PCT to be able to be there, and we all have the tendency to be a little too hard on ourselves sometimes. I felt so confident encouraging them. It was easy to say things like “Of course you should text him and see where he is! It’s cute, and I’m sure that any guy in his right mind would be pumped that you asked- you’re awesome”

Pushing myself, however, was way less easy. Surely the guy receiving the same text form me would think I was a total weirdo. But the more I shared my insecurities with them, the more they knocked them down. Slowly I started to see myself the way that they see me. So much differently- and actually almost identical to the way I look at them. It began to occur to me that if I wouldn’t say something to Handstand or Dimples I shouldn’t be saying it to myself either. I would never tell them that they were idiots, that they really should have had it together in town and shaved their legs. I wouldn’t say that they need to hike at least 20 miles today and that dark, cold, being hungry, and rain are not excuses. I would never mention that the waist belt on their pack made them look kind of fat. But that’s stuff I said to myself all the time.

I’m so happy that I’m not the only one who caught on here. If Dimples caught me zooming in on myself in pictures she kindly took my phone or camera from my hand and shut the screen off. When I came to her with a problem or a concern that was rooted in the fact that “I’m such an idiot” she was never late to stop me and say, “Blueberry, you are not an idiot” followed with a reason why that made a lot more logical sense than the reason I originally had. Her persistence to correct all of my negative comments turned out to be even stronger than my persistence to keep making them. I know that not hearing “I’m such an idiot” was a nice break for her, but the difference it made for me to learn not to say it is immeasurable.

With their encouragement I started to see that what I look like in pictures is just fine, and I quit hesitating about posting them. I stopped myself before saying I was an idiot. When I saw myself in the mirror, my body smaller than its been since high school, rather than thinking of all the places I still saw room left for improvement I thought “My body has hiked over 1,000 miles, that’s incredible” and I continued with my day, refusing to spend any more time on that.

What I learned from hiking with women is all about friendship, it’s all about encouragement, and it’s all about real beauty and where that comes from. The way that women, that friends, talk to each other is so important. Dimples, Handstand and I all could have critiqued each other, we could have raced everywhere and been defensive about all the challenges from the summer. But we weren’t. We were kind, respectful, and understanding. Instead of seeing each other as competition we saw each other as allies, and we stood in each other’s corner. I know that the time we were together was special because we all still talk, but I feel so especially lucky to have experienced friendship like that. To realize the difference that it makes in friendship when you build a person up despite their efforts to tear themselves down, and to see firsthand how it can change the way that person looks at themselves.

This isn’t what I expected to learn on the PCT. Three months post-hike though, it’s something that has stuck with me the most. The way I choose to look at myself is something that I truly have control of. So seriously, think about the way that you talk to yourself. Think about how you would sound saying things like that to your friends. You probably wouldn’t have many friends left. Remember that all of those things that aren’t true about your friends aren’t true about you either.

When I finished the trail I was on the phone with a friend who asked if I was skinnier. I responded “I don’t know” and I honestly didn’t, having not been on a scale in four months, so I finished with “but I’m happier, and I respect my body a lot more”. Hearing myself say that and knowing that it was true was a bigger relief to me than any number flashing on a scale could be. So I’m happier and I respect my body. I have incredible friends and lessons in friendship to thank for that. Like everything else I experienced on the trial, this left me with overflowing gratitude. Rather than letting it well up inside me though, I’m trying to be the kind of friend to others that Dimples and Handstand are to me.

I hope that you think about it too, and see that time spent tearing yourself down is time wasted. Realizing how untrue all of those horrible things are is liberating. I’d even say its as liberating as standing somewhere on a trail with five days of food and nothing to do but keep walking and discovering the breathtaking places just ahead of you. Plus it doesn’t require that you quit your job or buy any one-way tickets. So give it a shot.

And if you need any help, just ask Taylor. She knows all about it

How Wild is it?

In the summer of 2012 I laid in a tent on the Middle Fork Trail in Chugach State Park Anchorage, Alaska. After a 10 hour day of trail building I found the energy to turn on my headlamp and start the new book I bought to read during this camping trip, Wild: From Lost To Found On The Pacific Crest Trail. As I read the introduction of the book and her description of the Pacific Crest Trail: three states, nine mountain ranges, “A world that measured two feet wide and 2,663 miles long”. I thought to myself Maybe someday I could do that trail then more seriously and after looking around my tent who am I kidding? I hate camping, I’m never doing this again. I finished the camping trip (after only one threat to hike 3 miles back to sleep in the van for the night after finding a spider in my tent) and I kept my resolve, I hated camping. When the summer finished I loved hiking so much I used some of the money I earned to buy myself my very first pack –but only 30L, so if anyone invited me camping I could kindly say “I’m sorry, my pack is too small I can only go for the day”
My enthusiasm for camping was much like my enthusiasm for the book. I read 40 pages and put it down. One of my best friends had recently experienced the loss of a child and almost lost her own life in the process. There were times when I couldn’t pass a new baby in the store without crying. As Cheryl discussed her decision to abort a pregnancy, I closed the book.
Still, I never forgot about the Pacific Crest Trail. I’m not sure exactly where my drive to do it came from. I wanted an adventure and to see the world. Also I had just graduated after four years of college while working full-time as well as seven years of consistently being in a relationship. Just reading that now is exhausting. I felt that I had no idea how to be alone and if I was alone I felt no confidence in that I would know what I wanted vs what I was supposed to want. So the Pacific Crest Trail was about ‘taking the bull by the horns’ and taking the time to figure all of this out for myself.
I hiked 1400 miles, and last night I saw the movie Wild with my family. I wouldn’t let my dad go until he promised he wouldn’t take back all my Christmas presents after.
So we all piled in the car to the movie theater. If you live in Alaska Wild just came out on Christmas Day, not December 5th like in the United States. You know, that place where they qualify for free shipping and get to stay home for the day after a snowstorm. I hear they have newer music than ours too.

So I watched the movie, and every time she passed that triangle that says Pacific Crest Trail my heart ached to go back. The signs were among the only rendition of the trail that made me want to hike though. Many of her hiking scenes were of her out of breath, cursing, removing whole toenails, or crying inconsolably. It’s not always glamorous, and there were a few curse words and even tears, but most of my memories of hiking are listening to Taylor Swift while scaring the deer with my off-key singing, walking up on elk, taking pictures, and thinking of all the things I could cook if only I had a kitchen or the places I want to drive someday in my dream classic Mini Cooper.

The part of the movie that was the most different from my summer was her interactions with people along her journey. There are many more hikers today than there were in 1995 and I didn’t spend nearly the amount of time alone that she did. That was a difference I expected, but when she did meet people, especially in town, they were all creepy. I didn’t meet a single person in town who made me feel unsafe or uncomfortable. The support from people who I didn’t even know was overwhelming, and it was my favorite part of the trip.
A volunteer at the San Diego Airport wanted to drive us to the trail head and when we said no because we still had to go to the store and post office he took us to the store, the post office and the trail head.
Later in California I went to a gear shop to look at trekking poles and after I learned that they cost $100- $150 I walked out of the store without any, trying to figure what else I could do. The man working followed me out of the store onto the deck with a pair of Lekis (extremely nice poles) that had a very minor problem with a spring and said “just mail them back whenever your done”
In Yosemite and Mammoth Lakes I had bad sunburn and people who I didn’t know came up and offered me their sunscreen.
I hitch hiked and people were never scary, they were always kind and shared stories about either their own adventures something like the PCT, or the adventures of someone they know or are related to who is ‘crazy’. One lady who gave Josh and I a ride ran into me at the grocery store and stopped me to say thanks for us sharing stories with her husband because he was having an especially bad day and she could tell that talking with us made him feel better.
In Oregon a friend of a friend from Alaska (who is now a friend of mine) met me at the trail with beer, ice cream and fresh fruit.
In Washington a hiker out for the day who I just met asked me about my gear, and when I said in passing that I wish I had a down sleeping bag he gave me his.
Again in Washington I hitchhiked with Dimples and Handstand, someone bought us breakfast after hearing what we were doing and everyone we met offered their phone number to let them know when we make it to Canada safely.
I met a little boy in Washington who was probably 5-years-old like the boy she met in the movie and instead of telling me his family issues he introduced me to his dog named Buttons and asked if I know what P-O-O-P spells.

This list could be so much longer.
I understand that danger is present in the world, especially for a woman traveling alone, but I was saddened to see people along the trail portrayed as creepy and scary and not as beautiful, helpful, and kind as they are so many times.
As much as the people and the back story were differed from mine, the conclusion of the movie was beautiful. The book says “Thank you I thought over and over again Thank you” and that is exactly the feeling I had for the last thirty miles of the PCT. I was thankful, for every time that I was scared because it was an opportunity for me to face what I was afraid of and to come out stronger on the other side. For every time that I had to eat oatmeal or ramen again, because it made me appreciate food in town more than I would have ever known you could appreciate food. For every time that I wasn’t sure how to get to where I needed to go and I had to ask for help, because it gave me a chance to meet wonderful people and learn that you can’t control your whole life. For every time that I cared about someone or someplace but knew that I had to choose to continue hiking, because being saddened by leaving means that I found something wonderful and was strong enough to see that. And because I knew that continuing to hike was my choice, and truly what I wanted. When I saw the highway in Manning Park that marks the end of the trail I closed my eyes and thought “no no no this isn’t over”
Cheryl said it: “To know that I didn’t need to reach with my bare hands anymore. To know that seeing the fish beneath the surface of the water was enough. That it was everything. It was my life- like all lives, mysterious and irrevocable and sacred. So very close, so very present, so very belonging to me.
How wild it was, to let it be.”
On the trail there is a famous saying “hike your own hike” and it sort of translates to “namastae”. It means that your hike is yours, you know when you need a day off, when you need to camp, when it is finished. It means that I don’t have to make the same choice as you, but your hike is still something that I respect and I also respect you. I feel that Cheryl’s famous line “How wild it was, to let it be” is a reiteration of this and as a fellow hiker, I respect Cheryl and her hike. Even more though I respect the Pacific Crest Trail for its ability to ignite this perspective in so many different people with so many different stories.
Maybe watching the movie Wild won’t make you want to go hike, but I hope that this will. I promise that it’s not all creepers and bloody toenails. Don’t hike Cheryl’s hike or Reese Witherspoon’s hike or my hike, but hike your own hike and see for yourself just how wild the world is. Like a wise past thru-hiker once told me “You will never regret it.”

Started from the bottom now I’m here

I finally have a computer again (and even electricity to plug it in!) so I’ve put some of my picutres and videos to music to remember my trip. It’s a bit long but so is walking across the country I suppose. Hope that you check it out and enjoy it!
Thanks so much to my family and friends on trial and off who made this summer one to remember. I already can’t wait for the next adventure.

Wander a whole summer if you can -JM

Now that I’ve finished the trail it occurred to me that my latest blog update was from being hurt in Trout Lake. Whoops. I got better, and hiked over the beautiful goat rocks to White Pass.

As far as resources go, White Pass is one of the less exciting stops on the trail. I planned to be in and out of there, but it turned out to be so full of hikers that everyone stayed a while and had an awesome time.

That’s a bit of the shennagains.

Leaving Trout Lake Dimples and I decided to hike together for a while. It turned out to be one of the funnest decisions I’ve made all summer.

Cooking up trouble

So we hiked for a couple days and then camped with Handstand. A campfire, wine from a Gatorade bottle, chocolate and girl talk. It was what we all needed. After that we went on a short hitch hiking adventure around the central Washington area.

We met hunters who refused to believe we were anything but ‘granola bar eaters’, a guy from corporate Starbucks, semi truck drivers and a lot of other all around fantastic people who live in Washington. All of them gave us their information to let them know when we got back to the trail safely.
When we weren’t hanging out with new people we were scoping out some camping spots- of the stealth camping variety.

We were lucky enough to have packed up with in minutes of when the sprinklers came on. Before too long it was time to get back to the trail, and we met more hikers in Snoqualmie Pass and made our way down the Goldmeyer Alternate Trail which is the only way to get to Goldmeyer Hot Springs during the week. Lucky for us we were the only ones who hiked in and we had the place to ourselves.

Sadly for Dimples and I, Handstand got off trail at the hotsprings. On the bright side though it was ‘see you soon’ and not ‘goodbye’ and we all have plans to travel together again, the party has truly just begun.
Dimples and I kept on hiking to the Dinsmores and on to Northern Washington. Most of the hype of the beauty of the trail is focused on the Sierras, and for good reason, but Northern Washington continually took my breath away. It was beautiful with long steady climbs that carry you to views that definetly compensate your efforts. Despite the warning of every local since Trout Lake we didn’t see hardly any snow. October 18th was our finish date- quite late for an average thru hike, but I’m glad I took the time to make the most of the last of the trail. Hiking through the changing leaves was stunning, and the towns like Sthekin and Mazama were to charming to hurry away from.

Sthekin is located on the beautiful lake Chelan and can only be accessed by hiking, a ferry, or a plane. It’s got a killer bakery though and is like a little town lost in time, so much fun.

Dear Santa,
If your reading this I would just like to take a second and remind you how good I have been this year as well as how much I could use a float plane up in Alaska. Something to think about
-Blueberry

Mazama is a bit bigger than Sthekin, but just as charming and there is a wonderful Trail Angel, Ravensong, who is putting up hikers there and helping with planning for the last stretch of the trail and where to go after that. She’s so awesome we did the bit of the trial north of her south-bound so we could stop by and see her again.

After leaving Mazama the second time we hitched up to Harts pass for the last 40 miles.

Finishing the trail so late in the season was a gamble with the weather. There were a couple not so fun days of rain but overall we were so lucky. Hiking through fall was beautiful

Jambo and Apple Butter joined us and I feel so lucky to have finished with such a great crew. As you would imagine, the miles flew by and all the sudden we were at the monument.

After the border there are 8 miles to Manning Park Lodge. We camped just past the monument and celebrated with a big fire and some salmon Mac and Cheese dinner (so good) then did the eight miles in the morning. I was so sad to see the road that marks the end of the trail I immediately shut my eyes and pretended I could keep walking. I’ve cried twice, once when there was less than 100 miles left and once the first night when it hit me that I have to sleep in a real bed for a while now probably, and I can’t look at the stars as much. I realize that most people would cry if they had to walk so far and sleep outside, but I’ll truly miss it. Well, at least until next summer 😉

So that has been the crazy roller coaster, and I am working on another post that’s more of a reflection instead of about what happened and I hope to have that up soon. Thanks so much for reading this summer and for all of the encouragement. I would never have made it if it wasn’t for the overwhelming support I have received from my family, friends, trail angels, and just all around kick ass people who I shared my summer with.

No Stops, No Slows

My hike to Cascade Locks went great. Timberline lodge was the perfect place to wait out a storm, and the fifty miles ahead were beautiful and sunny. I took two trail alternates: Ramona Falls and Eagle Creek. Both of which I would recommend, they were stunning.

Ramona Falls

Between the two I hiked through a sunset which was so pretty.
The following morning I set out on Eagle Creek. Tunnel Falls is on the Eagle Creek Trail, it’s a waterfall that the trail goes behind. I have seen pictures and looked forward to it since I started planning this trip, it was so exciting to see and worth the anticipation.

After that it was a quick hike to Cascade Locks and the Bridge of the Gods.

I gave up a lot of comforts to hike the PCT: Showers, Electricity, sleeping all night. You know, the small stuff. Thanks to Shannon I still get my fix of Kaladi brothers coffee.

She sent me a most excellent care package, and now I have enough coffee and snacks to conquer all of the climbs in Washington. #shannonrules
I spent the night in Cascade Locks with great friends and then a few of us
decided to get a ride 77 miles north to Trout Lake, WA and hike southbound back to Cascade Locks for a Trail Days event that was planned for the weekend. South bounding was a great idea, except for that we only had about two and a half days to do the 77 miles. That’s quite an undertaking. We had a saying “no stops, no slows” which would have been effective if we actually acted on it.

That’s me trying on other peoples hats and not hiking. Bad for miles, but it looks cool 🙂
So we did 5 miles the first night, and then decided to camp early with some friends we ran into. So that leaves 72 miles for the next two days. So in the morning, we were off. And by we were off I mean Mary Poppins and Apache were off, hoping for a 35 mile day.

I hiked 25 miles before sunset then I got out my headlamp, thinking I’d do the 10 more and meet them in a few hours. It was a good plan until I crossed a spider on the trail almost the size of my fist, and decided to stop at the next campground and put my tent up, where the spiders couldn’t get me. A 26.5 mile day.
I started hiking early the next morning and planned to make it to cascade locks by Saturday around noon instead of Friday night. Some northbounders told me about a road walk though, which was between 16 and 20 miles shorter. That makes the difference between Friday night and Saturday afternoon so I decided to take it. It was an alright road walk, and I made it to Cascade Locks in time to watch a beautiful sunset over the Columbia River.
I had a great time at Trail Days and got some time to hang out with Polar Bear who I ran into for the first time since Mammoth Lakes (before Yosemite) and Vegenaise who I haven’t seen since Ashland.

Cascade Locks is a really fun town and I didn’t want to leave but had to get back to the trail. Rock Ocean brought us back to Trout Lake and we started the hike north again with hopes of catching our friends who had skipped Trail Days. I made it six miles and got really sharp pain in my shin. Not good. I tried stretching it and walking through it for another five miles before I had to stop. I camped early and had a nice quiet fire. The next morning wasn’t any better so I spent the whole day hiking the eleven miles back to Trout Lake to get better. I think it’s a shin splint that just needs rest and ice, but a major bummer for the time I was making. So I took two days off and I will be able to hit the trail this afternoon, and hopefully catch my friends ahead before too long. This is the first time have been hurt all summer and it’s a bummer, but I’m glad that it’s not serious.

Here’s to some views that are better than this! Happy Trails

Cascade Locks and counting

My time in Oregon is coming to an end quickly as I am almost to Cascade Locks, on the the Oregon/Washington border. I am happy to report that I haven’t seen any more lightning, and I have enjoyed Oregon and it’s beautiful weather so much. Crater Lake was stunning, but too foggy for a sunrise. It was a good morning anyways and the hike after was enjoyable.

I came across Mt.Theilsen shortly after and it looked like about a mile hike to the summit. So I decided I’d give it a shot, hoping I’d be able to see Crater Lake from the top. Turns out you can see Crater Lake from the top, but it also turns out that Theilsen is quite the technical hike once you get up there. After dropping my pack and still not feeling good about the climbing involved I decided to hike back down before the summit. So I don’t have an exciting near-death story, but I did make it back to the PCT in one piece so I’m happy for now to settle for that.

That’s Thelisen. A fun afternoon trek

Oh yeah, and some views

After Theilsen I hiked to Shelter Cove and took my first zero day since leaving Ashland. It was a great time with a lot of hikers. I did a lot of swimming in the lake, mostly by myself because everyone else kept saying something about the water being ‘too cold’ Pffft. I guess everyone can’t be from Michigan 😉
So I hiked out of Shelter Cove which is a lot harder than it sounds considering how many people there were there to hang out with, and headed north.

Coming into Shelter Cove I had hiked all day and passed hardly any people. All of the time alone and the walks through the woods makes for some good listening to music or podcasts. And in some cases, like when it’s flat or downhill I may even get to singing a bit while I walk. As I imagine your probably aware Taylor Swift released a new song recently and it’s quite catchy. So while I was hiking alone and probably singing really loudly (maybe, maybe not) I decided to make sure no one was behind me. Sure enough right behind me was a guy I didn’t know. What other kind of luck could I have. So, uh, shake it off, right Taylor?
I made a recovery that I consider decent considering the situation, and he was very nice, which helped.
I never miss a beat, I’m lightning on my feet
Or at least I’m, uh, getting there.
I’ve done a little less singing since and a lot of laughing about the whole thing.

There has been a lot of climbing recently which makes singing challenging anyway, but I think the other hikers have been enjoying the beautiful views (and silence) as much as I have. I hiked past the three Sisters, Mt.Jefferson, Mt.Washington, and Mt.Hood. All stunning. Oregon has been a great time, and I’m excited to get to Canada but sad to be leaving.
While I’ve been in Oregon I’ve set three personal records:
1. I hiked 3.5 miles in one hour
2. I hiked 28.5 miles in one day
&&drumroll
3. I hiked 100 miles in four days

Each of those was about as hard as walking out of timberline lodge this afternoon and away from the awesome friends and breakfast buffet going on here will be.

Some lava that was really fun and exciting to hike though for .5 miles and then it was a total headache

Big Lake Youth Camp. Best hospitality ever, and some killer sunsets to boot

Sisters Wilderness

“Distance changes utterly when you take the world on foot. A mile becomes a long way, two miles literally considerable, 10 miles whopping, 50 miles at the very limits of conception. The world, you realize, is enormous in a way that only you and a small community of fellow hikers know. Planetary scale is your little secret.
Life takes on a neat simplicity, too. Time ceases to have any meaning. When it is dark, you go to bed, and when it is light again you get up, and everything in between is just in between. It’s quite wonderful, really.” ― Bill Bryson, A Walk in the Woods

Oregon: where everything is perfect until everything is terrible

I had an exciting trip back to the trail last week. I took Amtrak to Dunsmuir, CA which was really nice and relaxing. Until I actually got to Dunsmuir at 3am and I found out that there is no taxi company that services Dunsmuir, meaning no way for me to get to the state park to camp. Not such good news at 3am, so I walked into town to see if I could find an open hotel. No luck. But I did see a police car drive by to the police station so I ran a couple blocks (Dunsmuir is a pretty small place) to meet him before he went in his office. He informed me that there is no cab, but offered to drive me to the state park to camp, because camping in town is not an option. It’s possible that I’m one of the only people who have been in the back of a cop car at 3am and not going to jail. Cool story though, and I was so happy to set up my tent and sleep after a day of traveling.
The next day I decided to go back north to Ashland, Oregon to start my hike because that’s where there are the most hikers and the least fires. I don’t like missing sections of the trial but now I have more to look forward to coming back to sometime soon. So I took a bus to Ashland and had a great day hanging out with Veganease who hiked Yosemite with me. After being at home there’s nothing more relaxing than hanging out with hiker friends, and Ashland is a great town.

I started my hike that night, just hiked in far enough to camp with some other hikers from Ashland. Oregon is a beautiful state, and the hiking here is fantastic. The PCT wasn’t so forgiving of my long trip off trail but I managed to make twenty miles on my first day and stay consistent after that.

There are a lot of lakes which are actually warm enough to swim in, a nice change from the Sierras, and running across them makes my mileage go down but nothing feels better than a good swim in the lake, so it’s a compromise I don’t mind at all.

We decided to take the sky lakes side trail, which was stunning. It started to thunder the first night though so being the badass outdoors woman that I am I set up my tent early to stay out of the rain. The next morning was beautiful though and after taking a long swim in one of the lakes we hiked back to reconnect to the PCT. Everything was great until we got there and started the hike over Devils Peak. Another thunderstorm seemed to be rolling in, but since the one the night before had been short we decided to keep going. Unfortunetley for us the storm only got worse. First the thunder moved to over our heads, and then lightning. Lightning struck much too close to us for comfort. So close that my hand got shocked through my trekking pole, which was not very painful thankfully but really loud and still terrifying. So after that I was in a rush to get though the storm only to come around the corner to a fire that had been started by lightning about 50ft or less from the trail.

I was completely freaked out. My hiking partner, Ambassader, and I decided to hike around the fire, and quickly, before it got bigger. Luckily for us it didn’t grow much and it was raining pretty hard. We rushed out and found some more hikers waiting out the storm, so we all decided to hike away together and we called in the fire. I haven’t been that stressed in as long as I can remember but everyone was ok and the trail is still open.

That’s the sky as we hiked away from the storm and another fire that was started farther away from us by the lightning. I made the hike into Crater Lake National Park the next day and was happy to dry my stuff out and run into a lot of hikers that I haven’t seen since the beginning of summer. The lightning storm was scary, but everything since then has been great again and the forecast says sunny for the next five days. Tonight I’m enjoying Crater Lake and hoping to catch a sweet sunrise tomorrow morning before I hike out.

Dear Oregon,
We were off to a great start, please lighten up with the weather and bring me some sunshine.
-Blueberry

They who gain the blessings of one mountian day; whatever their fate, long life, short life, stormy or calm, they are rich forever JM

Finally Back, and a lot of cool stories after a long delay. Since Bishop I hiked to Reds Meadow and then around Yosemite National Park for a few days. Coming in from Bishop the PCT continues on the John Muir Trail and is just as gorgeous as the first part, but also just as much of a butt-kicker.The passes are tough on the incline and on the decline, but the view from the top is absolutely worth the work and then some. The best part is that each one you do your body and mind get tougher. Well, either tougher or crazier enough to start the next one, so I’ll just stick with tougher because I like that more.

Even though some mornings felt like it, all of my time wasn’t spent doing passes. I was even down in the woods long enough to hang out with some Bears. The bears in the area are Cinnamon bears- black bears with brown fur- and they have caught on that people carry food with them, so they aren’t too scarse. The first bear I saw came up next to the trail and ate some food that someone had left under a rock. It’s really a shame that anyone would do that, but the bear tore apart all of it. Then he continued down the side of the trail so we hiked a bit more, and then he came out of the woods onto the trail and started hiking away from us. Getting his miles in for the day I suppose. We hiked behind him for about a quarter of a mile before he took off.

When I wasn’t close enough to a bear to feel like I was living with a real sense of adventure, I checked out some suspension bridges. Even after the One Person Only warning it was pretty fun, until I got to about the middle and looked down at the water below me. ….maybe this isn’t so cool. After just a bit of swaying though I survived to tell the tale.

The John Muir Trail is tricky for re-supplying your food because there aren’t many good outlets at reasonable distances from each other. That combined with the small version of the bear can that I bought left me on the skimpy side of food as we got closer to Reds Meadow. Not a good place to be with about 40 miles of your hike left. So I took an eight mile detour hike to Vermillion Valley Resort which turned out to be really fun, and I’m glad I made it there. There were showers (score!) and probably fifty other hikers and we all had a fire and camped there by the store. It was the most people I’ve ever camped with in my life.

Stocked up on food the rest of the hike to Reds Meadow went really well. Mosquitos made a vicious attempt to eat me alive, but with a narrow miss I made it to town. After a few days in Mammoth Lakes, CA of eating and not much else I got a permit to hike Half-Dome and made a friend, Vegenaise, who was headed that way also. I decided to hike around Yosemite National Park for a few days because I had a trip home planned for the epic wedding ceremony of my beautiful best friend Shannon. So win-win. Vegenaise and I hiked into Yosemite from Tenaya Lake over Clouds Rest. Clouds Rest is taller than Half-Dome, less crowded and has a beautiful view of Half-Dome and the Yosemite Valley. If your going hiking there this is the one not to miss, but its easier if you start from Tenaya Lake than from the valley floor.

After Clouds Rest was the big day: Half Dome. We hiked to a camp near the base of the Half-Dome trail, about 2.5 miles from the summit. It seemed nice except for one cinnamon colored camper who had his eye on the same spot.

We set up camp away from where we saw the bear with two John Muir Trail hikers and started a small fire as it got dark. While we were eating our dinner we thought we heard something, shined a head lamp over and sure enough the bear was about 10ft from our fire. Crap. We stood up and he snarled his teeth at us. Deeper Crap, like We’re gonna need a bigger boat deep. Luckily one of the JMT hikers had a taser, she hit the button, the noise scared the bear away and we didn’t hear from him the rest of the night. We packed our bear cans carefully, put our tents in a circle and slept fine until 4am when it was time to start the Half-Dome Summit. I left my tent set up and just carried my bag with some snacks and water. We were trying to make the summit by sunrise. I was so excited I ran part of the trail. The up-hill part of the trail. Before 6am. My head-lamp in the picture of me is completely unnecessary, since it was light out by then, but making the summit in a timely manner was much too important to be trivialized by something as silly as taking a headlamp off and putting it all the way into my backpack. I felt like a little kid. The sun rose over the mountains when I was about to the top of the cables. It was one of the coolest spots I have ever been.  

When I got to the top I walked out on the surfboard and watched as the shadow of Half-Dome disappeared into the sunrise. Half-Dome was the first mountain I hiked for sunrise and I hope to do more, it was so beautiful and there were hardly any people, which is good for safety on the cables.

After we hiked down we packed up our tents and took the Mist Trail to Yosemite Valley. When I got to the bottom I had a beer, six slices of pizza, fell asleep in my tent at 5pm and didn’t get up until the next morning. Most definitely what living the dream is like. All that rest plus waking up in Yosemite Valley I couldn’t help but go hiking again the next day, this time El Capitan. It was a steep hike up from the Valley floor but as always being at the top was totally worth the work and then some.

I wish I could tell you that I met rock climbers at the top and got to rappel down, but that would be a lie. Well maybe not quite like a lie, but like a dream that never came true. There were no rock climbers up there, so I just enjoyed it in my hiking boots. If I ever get to go to Yosemite again though, I’m bringing my climbing stuff.

That’s the latest of the PCT hiking adventure. I made it to Anchorage safe and in time for the wedding, which was beautiful. A great time was had by all, especially Alio, who went out of his way to make sure I know how to look #cool  Thanks Alio!

The rest of my time in Alaska I have been resting on my parents couch or fitting in as many adventures otherwise as I can. I canoed Eklutna Lake with my little brother, hiked some at Hatcher Pass and hiked out to Crescent Lake on the Keani Peninsula.  

All of them were awesome and I am thankful to have such a beautiful place to call home and such wonderful friends and family to share it with. My littlest brother is even temporarly sharing his closet with me while I’m home, which is an adventure in itself. Thanks Al!

It says: Its hard to hide how awesome I look in this shirt

I didn’t originally plan to be home this long but I hope to get back to the trail next week. Its fun to see my friends and family and adventure around here, so if you live in Anchorage come hiking and/or camping and/or beer drinking with me!

 

 

All that the sun shines on is beautiful, so long as it is wild- JM

Finally found the chance to post, cell service has become significantly less available. A lot has happened since Idyllwild, we hiked through San Jacinto, which was beautiful as it was steep. After being woken up by hummingbirds buzzing my tent (one of the only cool ways to wake up at 6am) we hiked down what was about a 4 mile stretch but so steep it was over 12 miles of trial. A lot of walking and heat, but then I hit the 200 mile mark and that made things more exciting and bearable

When we got to the bottom we filled up on water and hiked to our first trail angels house. Trail Angels are people who are generous and kind enough to go out of their way to make this hike possible for all of the hikers, they leave snacks- we found ice cream and pop in a cooler closer to town, sooooo good after a long desert hike. They also leave caches of water and some even set up their yards in to sort of super campgrounds for hikers. So that’s where we went, to the trail angels Ziggy and The Bears. They had foot baths, showers, a laundry sink, and ice cream. It was a long and hot trek from the base of San Jacinto to their house, and to beat the heat we got up at 5am to start hiking early.
With the early start we made about 9 miles by 11am. Then we reached Whitewater Preserve where there is a ranger station and small ponds full of fish. It’s one of the few places out there with abundant water, it’s like finding a beautiful oasis in the middle of the desert.
The scene changes from this:

To this:

So we took a break there and were about to get back to the trail when we talked to a Ranger who said we should wait because it was 101 out. Bummer. So we waited until we ran out of patitence and then tried to brave the heat. Not such a good idea, 101 is terrible hiking weather. So we made a tough decision to skip up the trail a ways to where it’s cooler and there are more hikers. We started late in the season, so that left us in the very back of the group: not running into many people and the water was diminishing as the heat was rising. We rented a car and drove to Kennedy Meadows, which is the beginning of the Sierras and everyone says is the most beautiful part of the trail. So I’m caught up with a lot more hikers now, but there’s a section of the PCT I will need to make up in the near future- so I’m looking for some more hiking buddies to plan a trip with volunteers 😉 😉. Missing a few days of trail of logistics and driving was a bummer, but we drove with a friend from Oceanside, CA so we swung by there and got to take a late night swim in the ocean under the moon and the stars, SO cool, and I saw the Top Gun house. So that all made it better.
When you hike a long distance trail like the PCT you get a new name given to you: a trail name. It’s not usually one you pick yourself but something everyone calls you because of something that do. Mine is Blueberry, because after the backpack switch all of the gear that I ended up using matches and it’s blue. Some of it has been replaced now but the name has stuck. Having two names is a weird feeling, since I usually only let people call me Meghan, and it feels a bit criminalizing introducing yourself by a fake name at first, but more silly than anything else. Remembering to answer when someone says Hey Blueberry is harder.
When we got to Kennedy Meadows there were more hikers on the patio of the general store than we had seen our entire trip. Super exciting. So we got our bags all set and were so happy to be back hiking again. I saw my first rattle snake. Our friend Chimney Sweep and I stopped for lunch, and he is quicker than me so I decided to get a head start. After about 500 feet I got rattled at. It didn’t sound like what I imagined a rattle snake would sound like, but I had no doubt what it was when I heard it and it scared me a ton. I turned around right away and explained to Chimney Sweep that I didn’t think that going first was so cool anyways. We left together but didn’t see the snake again. Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture but I did survive the encounter so I suppose we have that to be thankful for.
We put in a 15 mile day, and the last 2 miles my foot got really sore but I decided to push though anyways. It looked fine when I went to bed, but the after it was still sore when I woke up I checked it out and found the biggest blister I have ever seen in my life. Sorry to gross everyone out.

After just getting back out there I was sooo disappointed. We took a short 5 mile day, and finally the blister popped right before we hit camp, and since then I have been keeping it clean and it hasn’t hurt at all. Big relief after the shock of finding it. If blisters are on the bottom of your feet people out here take a clean needle and thread and string it through the blister to keep it draining so it can’t grow bigger. And I did that to my own foot. It took all the will power I had, but if nothing else it’s a big step braver than I was when I started. With the pain from my feet gone I was able to hike out a 20 followed by a 25 mile day. Consecutive longest days so far. That felt really good, and we made some really cool friends from Washington who keep the bar set high as far as miles per day goes. After the 25 mile day I camped at the base of Mt.Whitney, the tallest mountain in the lower 48. I got an
early start and made the summit, a 17 mile round trip. It was a beautiful hike and steep climb.

That’s me at the top
There’s a big temperature difference between the desert and the Sierras, and I have to admit that I miss Anchorage an awful lot, but not as much as the Sierras seem to think I do. We got snowed on

I toughed it out, and show after all is better than rain and the views were nothing short of incredible.

After Mt.Whitey we got a brief escape from the snow, we hiked through parts Sequoia National Forest, Sequoia National Park, Kings Canyon National Park and the John Muir Trail. It’s stunning. I would recommend the chance to get out there to everyone who has the opportunity to take it. A cool thing about being in protected land is that there isn’t hunting, so the animals aren’t as scared of people as they are in other places. I filter water while I watch fish swim by in the streams, and black tail deer and marmots stop to watch us hike by.

After Whitey we hiked through Forester Pass. Hiking in the Sierras goes like this: hiking up a mountain, hiking back down to cross a river, over a field or meadow and back up the next mountain, back down again and another river. Sometimes we hike though passes and you start at the bottom and feel like a spider in the sink looking up wondering how in the heck climb out, but sure enough there’s a steep wind up a mountain and you land with stronger legs at the top to begin the decent.

That’s me at the top of Forester Pass all out of breath. Little did I know that was only the beginning. We made the decent late in the day, and a lot of the trail was covered in deep snow. After sunshine all day the snow wasn’t so strong, and sometimes you could walk on it but other times you would post hole. Post holing is when your foot breaks the snow and sinks all the way down. I mean all the way, and your stuck. It was like a cruel version of the old computer game of mind sweep, some times everything is fine, then boom your leg is buried and you have to climb out with trekking poles. After a lot of frustration and a bit of adventure we survived the pass, and had the most glorious and most anticipated bonfire of the whole trip when we got to the bottom.

I don’t have a good picture of post holing but that’s some of the snow we came across.
After the bonfire and recovery the hike was beautiful and led us to town for a hostel visit and resupply which has been awesome.

So until next time happy trails, and figure out when you can get off work to make up the missed section of the trail with me. Kay thanks.

Rain I don’t mind, Shine the weather’s fine

Hiking out of Warner Springs was an adventure. After some rest and getting to know the volunteers who run the warner springs community center (complete with foot baths and apple cinnamon pancakes ….yumm) we hiked out even though the sky was a bit grey and there was a good chance of a storm coming. I was glad that I kept my tents rainfly while lightening my pack, because I seriously considered mailing it ahead quite a ways. The closer we got to the mountains the darker the sky got, but what the heck, we’re hikers, so we just kept on going.

Then we got what was coming to us: soaked. The rain in California is similar to the rain in Michigan in that it’s like walking though a shower, in Alaska it’s more like a constant drizzle and I always think my coat is getting wet but I can’t be sure until I get inside. At first it was fun to be out in heavy rain again and to hear thunder which you also don’t hear a lot of in Alaska, then it rapidly became not-so-fun. So we set up our tents quickly in a semi covered spot and hid out early for the night. It was fun because I got a lot of reading done but a bummer that we didn’t log more miles for the day.
The next couple days were dry, beautiful hiking, and to good catch up on miles.

Something else really exciting happened in Warner Springs, I got my first box from my Mom. And in it was an iPod: not just any iPod or a fancy new iPod, but the iPod we have had since 2009 that has all of my music on it from the years of middle and high school that are always fun to remember. If you have known me for a really, really long time you might remember my Jessica Simpson music days (I’m very sorry) and I don’t want to brag, but I might still remember all the words to the ‘In This Skin’ album. So that made for a really fun morning of off key singing with enthusiasm that would rival Jessica herself.

Even with my singing and, um, …dorky awesome, choices in music we still managed to make some new friends who we camped with and had a fun evening of cooking instant mashed potatoes and looking for shooting stars, followed by a hike into the town of Idyllwild, CA. But not without stopping at Paradise Cafe first for giant cheeseburgers. When you spend some time out on the trail nothing sounds better than a cheeseburger, a chair, and no dishes to clean. After we stopped at a water cache and decided to read the different burgers off their very strategically places menu out loud we were all in a hurry to get there. The burgers turned out to be worth the haul and the company was great. We spent the day resting in Idyllwild today because we have a box coming to the post office which is closed for the holiday. So tomorrow morning we will pick it up and then hit the trail again.

So until next time,

I never felt so beautiful, baby as I do now, now that I’m with you, with you, with you, with youuu

Stay cool 🙂