PCT 2014

WHY?

I'm sharing my plans to hike the Pacific Crest Trail. I am concerned how the news will be received.

Will anyone understand?

Being away from home and work for five months
Hiking from Mexico to Canada-2,650 miles through 25 national forests and 7 national parks
Carrying only fifteen pounds of gear plus food and water
Deserts, forests, and mountains, through wind, rain, and snow
Twenty plus miles a day every day for five months

I’m not sure I understand it myself, but I am compelled to go:

To experience God’s creation in an intimate way
To test my strength, skills, and determination
To celebrate life and to live mine to the fullest
To hear God’s still small voice in the wilderness
To fulfill a dream that I have had for over twenty years

Below is a quote by George Leigh Mallory who died on Mt. Everest in June of 1924. He captures well the spirit of an adventurer and what compels me to go. I don't plan on dying while hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, but I do expect to experience the joy and adventure he talks about!

"There is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it. What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to be able to enjoy life. That is what life means and what life is for." George Leigh Mallory

George Mallory is in the back row, second from the left.

That You May Contribute A Verse

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28

For years we have quoted this verse to make ourselves feel better when things don't seem to be going our way: Our English translations of this verse suggest that God is working behind the scenes, much like the wizard behind the curtain, to make sure the circumstances of our lives somehow end up making sense to us. Our role in the process ends up being passive-we wait and trust God for the good things he promised. It's all true of course; God is good, God is in control, and we must trust Him when things don't make sense. But I believe this verse has a more important message for us.

The Greek word for "work together" used in Romans 8:28 comes from the word συνεργός "sunergeó" which is often translated "fellow worker" and is used 13 times in the New Testament. From studying the word in context, it is used to describe individuals working together for a common cause. If that is the common understanding of the work and the correct meaning for Romans 8:28, then maybe a better translation is: And we know that God works for good, together with those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose (my translation). If I am right, then God is calling us to more than passive trust in His goodness. He is calling us to take action. He wants us to be co-laborers with Him to accomplish His good purpose not only in our own lives, but in the lives of others. He wants a partner-someone prepared to contribute a verse to the powerful play of life. What will your verse be?

I found this video on Vimeo. It's obviously a promo video for a sermon series, but it is based on the same Walt Whitman poem and I like it!

Training Hike

Yesterday I hiked the Ohlone Wilderness Trail as a training hike. It begins at Del Valle Regional Park in Livermore and ends in Fremont at Mission Peak. The trail is 28 miles with 7,100 feet of altitude gain. The weather was perfect, the trail was deserted, except for the Mission Peak area, and I completed the hike in 10.5 hours. My legs are a little tired today and my feet are a bit sore, but overall I feel great, and the best part is...no blisters. I'm going to try to squeeze in one more long training hike before Easter, but I'm feeling confident I will be ready for the PCT!

Here is a link to a great blog post about the Ohlone Wilderness Trail. It has great pics and an awesome interactive Google map and altitude graph. Enjoy!

Inspire Me!

The Muir Project-Range of Light from The Muir Project

Need some hiking inspiration? This video does it for me! It's a clip from a documentary of John Muir Trail (JMT) in the High Sierra. The trail is 211 miles long stretching from Yosemite Valley to the summit of Mt. Whitney. The Pacific Crest trail follows the JMT through the High Sierra and is considered one of the highlights of the entire PCT. I have hiked the John Muir Trail many times and I look forward to the beauty and familiarity of this section of the trail. The Sierras feel like home. There are more videos from the movie on Vimeo. Just press the link below the video. Watch them in HD and full screen, but be careful not to drool on your computer keyboard. (Is that just my problem?)

Robert Farrar Capon

"Our pride drives us to establish our own righteousness. We strive all our life to see ourselves as keepers of rules we cannot keep, as loyal subjects of laws under which we can only be judged outlaws. Yet so deep is our need to derive our identity from our own self-respect – so profound our conviction that unless we watch our step, the watchbird will take away our name – that we will spend a lifetime trying to do the impossible rather than, for even one carefree minute, consent to having it done for us by someone else." Robert Farrar Capon

I know this is not a PCT/hiking post, but if you are curious about this specific PCT thru-hiker, you need to know this. One of my favorite authors is Robert Farrar Capon. He passed away in September of 2013, at the age of 88. He wrote 27 books, most of which are focused on theology and the theme of grace, but his other passion was cooking and he wrote several cook books as well. I was introduced to Capon in college and immediately fell in love with his writing. It was his book on the outrage of God's grace that forced me to see that I had not truly experienced God's grace and that most of my life I had been living on the bus fumes of religion and my own righteousness rather than in the pure air of God's grace and the freedom it offers. Just getting the book is a story in itself, and as soon as it arrived, I began reading. After finishing it the first time I was angry...how can he say that? How can he make it sound so easy-so cheap? The second time I read it I was scared...what if he's right? What if God really is that in love with us? And after reading it a third time, in less than a month, I remember waking my wife up in the middle of the night, in our first year of marriage, and with tears in my eyes telling her: "God loves me! And it's even better than that. He likes me too! He doesn't just love me because He has to; He likes me and has invited me to the party." GOD loves me. God LOVES me. God loves ME!

Have you experienced God's grace?

"The life of grace is not an effort on our part to achieve a goal we set ourselves. It is a continually renewed attempt simply to believe that someone else has done all the achieving that is needed and to live in relationship with that person, whether we achieve or not. If that doesn't seem like much to you, you're right: it isn't. And, as a matter of fact, the life of grace is even less than that. It's not even our life at all, but the life of that Someone Else rising like a tide in the ruins of our death.” Robert Farrar Capon

That someone else is Jesus. Just say His name. He is there and He is listening.

This American Hike

One of my favorite radio programs is "This American Life" on NPR. You can find the program archive here. I listen to it when I work in the garage, on my computer, driving in the car, and working in the yards. Many of the programs are from a very liberal perspective but I still find them interesting and thought provoking. Here is a classic episode about summer camp.

I read someone's thru-hiking blog and they complained that their brain was turning to mush without some external stimulation. That's when I had the idea of capturing the entire "This American Life" program archive and put the episodes on my tiny mp3 player so I can enjoy them on the trail. I have to capture the audio in real time, which means that each one hour episode takes one hour to capture. So far I have 325 of the 500+ episodes and I hope to have them all by the time I leave. I have room for about 100 episodes at a time on my mp3 player, so each month, when Eva meets me on the trail; I'll update my mp3 player with new episodes. I'm thinking I might call my hike: "This American Hike," and when I return from Canada they can do a story about me!

Beside "This American Life" I also have all the episodes of "Radio Lab," an entire audio Bible, some favorite sermons, and about 50 hours of music. I think I will have plenty of stimulation to keep my brain from turning to mush! Keep calm and hike on!

Best Ideas

“All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.”

― Friedrich Nietzsche

I often joke with my wife that I get some of my best ideas while in the bathroom, but it's not true. (It is true however, that I enjoy reading the newspaper while sitting on the porcelain throne.) But new ideas, answers to problems, and moments of clarity often do occur when I am hiking. There is something about being outdoors, in motion, and free from distraction that awakens my mind. I was day hiking a few weeks ago on a Friday and was thinking about one of my favorite theological themes: atonement, and there was a moment of clarity when I got it! It was like I could see it clearly in my mind. I understood how it "worked" and the relationship to other themes like law, sin, grace and forgiveness. I tried to focus and make the most of my aha moment, but then I met another hiker on the trail and we spent a few minutes chatting about the weather, lack of rain, and the trail conditions. When I decided to push on, it was gone. I couldn't even remember what it was that I had discovered. Oh well, I will have plenty of time on the PCT to think deeply about the atonement and many other topics. Keep calm and hike on.

Hiker Hygiene...Or Not!

By this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days. John 11:39 KJV

I'm not sure which smells worse: being dead four days or hiking a week without bathing. It's a fact that thru-hikers have a very distinctive look but the true sign of a long distance hiker is the overwhelming smell. Without the ability to wash your body or clothing on a daily basis there quickly forms what many call "thru-hiker stench." It permeates your body, clothing, and gear. My limited experience tells me that a good shower does wonders for the body, but after a few weeks, no matter how much you wash your clothes and clean your gear, the smell lingers and there is no way to get it out. I have shirts that smell like "hiking" no matter how many times Eva washes them. When they are freshly washed the hiker odor is not overpowering and there is something strangely familiar and comforting about it. But after wearing one of the shirts a full day on the trail, the smell returns with a vengeance and I wonder if it's time to burn or bury it.

I don't shave on the trail. I don't like having a beard, but it's too much trouble to shave and there is no point in looking good if you still stink! I never wash my hair while hiking unless you count swimming in a lake or pouring a liter of water over my head. Dental hygiene is a little easier on the trail, unless you lose your toothbrush, which I did...once. It doesn't take much water to brush your teeth on the trail, but I don't floss while hiking. It's too hard to keep my hands clean enough that I am willing to put them in my mouth.

I have a theory that there is a limit to how dirty and smelly I can get while hiking. I believe there is only so much dirt that can stick to my body and only so much bacteria that can feed on my sweat. It takes me a few days to get to this "saturation point," but once I am there and accept the fact that I am dirty and smell, I relax and quit worrying about it. The goal at that point becomes maintaining a level of hygiene that prevents rashes, chafing, infection, and food contamination. Even this is a challenge in the desert where water is limited and the heat promotes extra sweat. But I am not one to revel in my dirt and smell and always look forward to the next opportunity to shower and wash my clothes. When my children were little and I would return from backpacking for two weeks, they would say, "Look how tan daddy is." After I took a shower, they would say, "daddy isn't tan, he was just really dirty!" Keep calm and hike on!

God's Great Dance Floor

There is a quote by Wendell Berry that suggests the Bible makes more sense when read outdoors. You can read the quote here. I think the same thing may be true about some of the worship music we sing in church. Recently we started singing a new song entitled "God's Great Dance Floor." Here are some of the lyrics:

I’m coming back to the start,
where You found me
I’m coming back to Your heart,
now I surrender

Take me, this is all I can bring.

You’ll never stop loving us,
no matter how far we run

You’ll never give up on us,
all of heaven shouts:

Let the future begin,
let the future begin.

I feel alive, I come alive,
I am alive on God’s great dance floor.

I used to watch the vocalists at church sing this song and dance on stage wondering what all the fuss was about, and then one day, I closed my eyes and imagined singing it in the wilderness, in a mountain meadow, in my trail running shoes, shorts, and t-shirt, and all of a sudden, it just made sense. Nature is where I feel God's presence and surrender myself to Him. Splashing in a mountain stream is where I experience His love and the promise of a future. Standing on a mountain top I come alive and feel like dancing!

There is a woman on the worship team at my church who can really dance. She's not a show off, and would probably be embarrassed if she knew I was writing about her, but I love the way she moves when she worships God, and I bet God enjoys it too! I would love to learn to dance like that...to express praise, worship, joy, thanksgiving, and grace with my whole body! Maybe I'll get inspired as I hike and it will just pour out of me...on God's great dance floor.

Here is a light hearted video called the PCT Happy Dance. I look forward to dancing my way to Canada!

Nature's Golden Rule

“Do unto those downstream as you would have those upstream do unto you.” Wendell Berry

When I read this quote the first time, I thought to myself, that's amazing! Why didn't I think of that? It's practical but also makes you think. One of the goals of backpacking is to minimize the impact we have on the wilderness we are enjoying. We call it "Leave No Trace" (LNT) and the goal is to leave the trail, campsites, rivers and lakes as we found them. I have always been a conscientious hiker and have tried to leave no evidence of my presence, except for foot prints.

But does the leave no trace philosophy apply in cities and towns where the goal is not to preserve the natural state of the land but to change it; to shape the landscape, build structures, and use the land for our purposes? Should we even be doing that? When I read the Bible I find God put Adam and Eve in a garden, which might make us question our desire to improve on God's design, but that's not the end of the story. God made humanity stewards of creation and almost immediately, we began building. In Revelation, heaven, our final destination, is described as a city. I find it interesting that heaven is not a return to a garden, but a city that God has specifically prepared for us.

I believe the overwhelming evidence of scripture is that the use of land and natural resources to build cities and the infrastructure needed to support them is biblical. What is not biblical is to live beyond the limits of what the land can support and to impact our neighbors and future generations by abusing the land. Extravagant living, choosing convenience over conservation and sustainability, the impact of consumerism and a disposable lifestyle; these are all examples of not being good stewards of creation. I want to live in such as way that as both a city dweller and a wilderness traveler, I am a good steward of all that God has given us. Who will join me? Here is a link to a website with some excellent tips on being a good steward of God' creation. Let's get started today!

Costco-A thru-hikers favorite store

This week we made a trip to Costco to purchase food for my resupply boxes. It was funny shopping in a store where shopping carts full of Top Ramen, hot chocolate, instant oatmeal, candy bars, pop tarts, granola and trail mix seems normal. We met a man in the check out line and when I told him I was hiking the PCT, he told me he worked on a bridge in Burney Falls State Park for four years and he met hundreds of PCT hikers on their way to Canada. Very cool!

Every week I check a few more things off my to do list add a few more items to my resupply boxes. What was only a dream a year ago, is now a reality and in just a few days I will be on the trail.

Carry Our Fears

Fear is the stories we tell ourselves

For backpackers, fear means a heavier backpack. Some hikers are afraid of the cold, so they pack too many clothes or a heavy sleeping bag. Others fear hunger, so they carry more food than they could possibly eat. Still others worry about emergencies, so they bring an enormous first aid kit. Some worry about wild animals or crazy people, so they bring pepper spray or weapons. Some fear being alone, so they pack cell phones and other devices to stay connected to the "real world." The list of things to fear in the wilderness seems endless, butt in reality, the list of essentials you need to survive is very short.. Yes, there are things that may make you more comfortable and possibly make the trip more enjoyable, but everything you add means carrying more weight, and carrying more than you need for 2,650 miles is definitely not enjoyable!

I suppose there is also a lesson here beyond hiking. While backpackers carry fear on their backs, the rest of us carry it in not so obvious ways. Fear affects the way we think and feel about ourselves, others, and the world around us. It changes the way we act and respond. If we are afraid, we don't speak up, we don't show love, we avoid new things and meeting new people, or even asking for help. The Bible tells us over and over that fear is not from God. Here is just one example: The LORD is my light and my salvation-whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life-of whom shall I be afraid? Psalm 27:1

I am not a particularly brave man, but I am learning to overcome my fears by trusting in God: to listen to Him rather than the naysayers or my own questions and doubts; to forgive, to accept a compliment, and risk being vulnerable. Sometimes I still get afraid and have to stop myself and focus on that still small voice: For I am the LORD, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you. Isaiah 41:13 What are you afraid of? Let God set you free. He promises that nothing; not your fears, or failures, or circumstances will keep you from knowing his grace and power. He promises hope and joy and peace that cannot be explained. I have experienced this and know it to be true. Take a moment and allow God to minister to you through this song that expresses the hope and joy of God setting us free from the things that hold us back from knowing Him and being all that we can be. In Him you are free, whole and want for nothing.

I Shall Not Want by Audrey Assad

Purchase On Itunes

First Day of Spring

It's the first day of spring! You know what that means...that's right, only 34 days until I start hiking the Pacific Crest Trail! Have I mentioned how excited I am? I continue to chip away at my to do list. I filed my daughter's taxes last night and ours this morning. (Let's just say that Erica got a bigger refund than Eva and I did, and leave it at that.) Today I am having some work done on my daughter's truck and tomorrow I'll work on fixing the sprinkler system for our yards. How should I celebrate the beginning of spring? I know, how about a hike...

PCT Paperwork

“I have so much paperwork.

I'm afraid my paperwork has paperwork.”

Gabrielle Zevin

Who knew there was so much paperwork just to hike a few miles-ok a lot of miles!

Campfire Permit--Required for campfires and/or backpacking stoves
Pacific Crest Trail Permit--One permit covering the entire trail
Mt. Whitney Zone Permit--Required for an exit/resupply at Whitney Portal
Canadian Border Crossing Permit--Permission to enter Canada at a "non official border crossing"
Current passport--Can't get home without it
Current driver's license-Can't pickup a resupply package at the post office without it
Copy of medical insurance card--Just in case...
Trail Maps--Hundreds of pages of maps divided up and delivered to me in each resupply box
Guidebook--Trail, water, campsite, and town/resupply notes
Hiking itinerary--Where to find me and when to mail resupply boxes
List of resupply locations and addresses--Where to mail resupply boxes
Shipping labels for resupply boxes--All 26 of them
Menus and shopping lists--Eva's guide for packing resupply boxes
A letter of authorization for Eva--Financial and legal authority while I am hiking
PCT Cell Phone Coverage Report--for Eva to use to predict when/where I'll have a cell signal to make calls or post to my blog and media accounts.

I had to laugh when submitting my application to the Canadian government requesting permission to enter Canada at a "non official border crossing." Along with copies of my driver's license and passport, they wanted a residential, medical, and criminal history. There were the normal physical description questions: height, weight, hair color, and eye color. But there was one more question I hadn't seen before on any application: appearance. Appearance - I wasn't sure how to answer that one. It was a box barely big enough for a phone number, so they were looking for a one word answer. Handsome, distinguished, athletic, nerdy, casual, skinny, balding? - Any suggestions? Update: My application has been approved...apparently handsome was the correct answer, ha ha!

Sleeping

Cowboy Camping on the PCT

"I slept on a naked boulder and when I awoke,

all my nervous trembling was gone." John Muir

John Muir might be one of my heroes, but I'm not going to sleep on a boulder, especially without my ground cloth, inflatable sleeping pad, and warm down sleeping bag. I love backpacking but if I can't sleep, I'm not a happy camper. If it is raining, snowing, windy, very cold or the bugs are out in force, I will set up my tent, but if conditions are good, I will enjoy sleeping under the stars.

It takes me a few nights to get used to sleeping on the ground and I am restless and toss and turn most of the night. Getting up in the middle of the night to pee when it is freezing is always fun. Sometimes the wilderness can be a noisy place. Being alone, going to bed early, being sore and dirty, and sleeping on an air mattress smaller than a bath towel takes some getting used to. My sleeping bag is not especially roomy and unless it is crazy cold, I use it as a quilt. Keeping it tight around my body so there are no drafts isn't easy when I toss and turn. And if that's not enough, I have E.B.D. (excessive backpacker drool). At some point during the night I can expect there to be a pool of drool on my air mattress. It's like a personal slip N slide party in the middle of the night! (Does anyone else have the same problem?)

But after a week or so, I begin to sleep better. My body gets used to the ground, the cold, the wind, the altitude, the noises and a new sleeping schedule. I learn how much I can drink before bed so I don't have to get up...at least more than once. And I learn to manage the drool by using my bandanna to catch most of it. I look forward to not just tolerating sleeping on the ground, but enjoying it. I'll let you know how that works out after a few weeks on the trail. Keep calm and sleep on!

Trash Talk

Click image to view original

Long distance hikers sometimes refer to themselves as hiker trash. It is a badge of honor in the hiking community, so no offense is meant or taken. Below is some fun hiker "trash talk." You might be hiker trash IF...

your wallet is a Ziploc baggie
you can "feel" a storm coming
you can be alone and still be happy
your spoon is your fork
most of your friends don't know your "real" name
you mail things to yourself
your REI dividend is your retirement fund
you can survive for days on nothing but Ramen and gorp
you can't walk straight without your pack
you choose restaurants in town based on free WiFi and electrical outlets
you’ve had to lie down for a few hours after eating a meal in town
you wear $20 socks but wash them in the Dunkin Donuts bathroom
you eat enough sour candy to talk about them like they’re drugs
a pint of Ben & Jerry’s is a normal serving of ice cream
you break your titanium spoon on Nutella in cold weather
you try to fry a Honey Bun in butter to add calories
you’ve been mistaken for a homeless person by an actual homeless person and you’re too embarrassed to tell them that you’re only on vacation
you’ve been given money because some thought you were homeless
you completely forget what an ‘inside voice’ sounds like
you have run stark raving mad through the woods because the stalker bee that has been flying around your head for hours finally "got to you"
you’ve spent a cold or rainy night in the restroom of a state park
you’ve repackaged the food you just bought into Ziploc baggies in front of the store
you’ve searched restaurants for "free" packets of condiments in trail towns
you have duct tape somewhere on your body
you’ve suspended the 5 second rule when food dropped on the ground.
you find an M&M in the dirt and eat it
you consider Snickers bars a food group
you consider it perfectly normal to go weeks without bathing
you’ve diced Spam or Vienna Sausages into your Kraft Mac & Cheese
you’ve begged food from strangers in state parks

Vote for your favorite or add to the list!

Counting The Days

I'm counting the days until I begin hiking the Pacific Crest Trail! When I first started considering a thru-hike of PCT in 2014 it was more than six months away...now it's less than six weeks. It's exciting to see my plans coming together. My free time is filled with purchasing and preparing meals, packing resupply boxes, verifying resupply locations and shipping instructions, and making sure everything is ready at home and work for my departure. I am excited, nervous, and at times it feels like a dream.

After I start hiking on April 24, 2014, this counter will begin counting the number of days I am on the trail. I plan to post to my blog as I hike so please check back! Once I am on the trail, you can follow me using the itinerary on my website. There is info on mailing me letters and care packages and even meeting me along the trail. There are links to maps and schedules you can print to put on your fridge to remember to pray for me. I tried to think of everything but if you have a question, just ask! Keep calm and hike on!

In Search Of

I hiked the John Muir Trail last summer with a young man in his 20's from the church I attend. I often tried to keep him motivated and his mind occupied with something other than the pain of hiking twenty plus miles a day with 5,000 feet of altitude change. I would tell personal stories, dumb jokes, talk about the Bible, and share theological insights along with interesting details about the trail. I remember one day trying to explain my passion for exploring nature and talking about the biblical concept of being a steward of creation. The idea I was trying to get across was that if I am going to care for creation as God commanded, I better have some idea of what is out there...hence the desire to explore nature.

I was reading the creation story in Genesis chapter one recently and noticed something interesting that got me thinking.

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. Genesis 1:3-5

It says God saw that the light was good. It didn't say He knew it, or thought it, or said it. Seven times in Genesis chapter one, God saw what he created was good. G.K. Chesterton wrote that the sun doesn't rise because it has to: it rises because, as God watches it set each evening, He says, "That was nice; do it again." The creation story suggests that God watches and enjoys His creation; that he rejoices in its beauty and admires it not as a past event but as a present experience. Isn't this what Jesus suggests in the New Testament when he says: "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care." Matthew 10:29

Could it be, that the desire to explore, to experience, and to see for ourselves what God IS creating today is part of what it means to be made in the image of God? I was talking with my wife about this very topic the other night as we were lying in bed. She was trying to stay awake because she knows how frustrated I get when she falls asleep half way through my late night sermons. Just as she was dozing off, she says, "I wonder if God saw that it was good so that we can say that it is good. He saved the saying part for us." Well, that got me thinking again and I graciously released her to her beauty sleep.

Have you enjoyed a sunset lately?

Eating

A One Pound Snickers Bar!

"I think," said Christopher Robin, "that we ought to eat all our provisions now,
so that we shan't have so much to carry." Winnie the Pooh

Planning meals for 5 months on the trail is a challenge. I am preparing resupply boxes to be mailed to me along the trail. I will pre-pack the first two months of food and supplies before I leave and Eva will pack the next three months after we see how well I have estimated how much I will eat and what my taste buds will be craving. Post offices, stores, homes, gas stations, resorts, campgrounds, and state parks will receive my packages and hold them for me until I arrive. I will be purchasing some food along the way to supplement what is mailed to me, but the bulk of what I eat will be prepared in advance so I can quickly resupply and keep moving.

I am ordering many of my dinners from Mountain House but breakfast, lunches, and snacks and some dinners will be purchased at Costco and my local grocery store. I'm guessing I will need a thousand Ziploc bags in various sizes to repackage my meals. Eva makes some amazing fruit leather and she will be busy for several months dehydrating bananas and berries for the PCT. I'll be eating lots of oatmeal, granola, nuts, pop tarts, peanut butter, hot chocolate, tea, tuna and crackers, trail mix, dried fruit, cookies, candy, and cheese. I'm getting hungry just writing about it! Keep calm and hike on!

Solitude

I enjoy hiking alone, but when I finish hiking at the end of the day, I enjoy some social interaction. I can entertain myself for hours with music, sermons, and recorded radio program like "This American Life" on NPR. I also like to sing, preach, and quote scripture while I hike! But when I come to a full stop at the end of the day, the solitude I enjoyed throughout the day becomes more like loneliness and I crave the ability to share my day with someone. It is amazing how having someone to chat with during dinner or while sitting around an occasional camp fire in the evening can cheer me up and encourage me to get up and hike again the next day.

I have never been very good at keeping a journal while I hike but on this trip I will be trying to write a daily blog post to be uploaded whenever I have internet access on my phone. I hope that pouring out my thoughts and feelings in my blog will help me when I am alone and don't have anyone to personally share with.

I have talked to my previous hiking partners and none of them are available to hike the PCT with me this year. (I can't understand why more people aren't interested and/or available to hike for five months.) The information I have read online and in guide books suggests that it will be fairly easy for me to make friends on the trail and find others who are hiking at a similar pace. I hope so... I am looking forward to both solitude and the camaraderie of other hikers and trail angels as I hike the PCT. Keep calm and hike on.

Water

When I hike in the High Sierra, I seldom carry more than 1 liter of water. Lakes and streams abound in the Sierras and they provide frequent opportunities to drink, cook, bathe, and wash. But on the Pacific Crest Trail, especially in the desert, there are stretches of the trail that are 20-30 miles long without water. Because water is so critical for a safe and successful hike, there is a water report to help PCT hikers know exactly where the reliable water sources are and how far it is to the next one. I will be carrying a copy of the water report with me as I hike and sometimes carrying 7 liters of water with me on very dry sections of the trail. That's over 15 pounds of water!

I am looking forward to hiking through the desert, but to be honest, I am not looking forward to carrying all that water. Trail angels often leave water caches in the desert sections and they are a blessing to hikers, but when the majority of hikers are passing through the desert in May and June (often called the "herd") the caches can be overwhelmed. I have read stories of people arriving at a cache needing water and finding the cache dry. It is easy to get dehydrated in the desert and I plan to carry enough water to survive without the caches. If there is water, that's great, but if not, I want to know I can hike to the next permanent water source without too much discomfort. Keep calm and hike on.

PCT Documents

I have my campfire permit, PCT hiking permit, and Canadian Border permit! Thank you USPS! I can check those off the to-do list! I will carry the first two documents with me the entire trail along with my driver's license. (I may not need a licence for driving, but without a photo ID, I can't pickup my resupply packages at the post office.) Eva will bring me the Canadian Border permit along with my Passport when we meet in Portland. Along with a credit card, I'll also be carrying some cash because many of the small towns along the trail don't accept credit cards. There is one town that does not have land line or cell phone service. The only thing that works in the area are satellite phones.

Today I enjoyed a 15 mile round trip hike to the summit of Mt. Diablo in beautiful weather. I tested some new shoes which was a great success. There were very few people on the trail and I enjoyed the solitude. There were a few people working on the trail and I thanked them for their service. For the first time I was thanked for being a hiker and visiting the park! Keep calm and hike on!

Hike Your Own Hike-HYOH

There are as many reasons to hike the PCT as there are ways to hike it. There are plenty of inspiring stories and lots of helpful hiking advice on the web and in the published guidebooks. I have enjoyed many hours of reading online and studying guidebooks and I think I have a good idea of what to expect as I hike through each section of the PCT.

Being a planner by nature, I have enjoyed creating a detailed hiking itinerary and preparing 26 resupply packages to be mailed or personally delivered to me along the trail. I think my hiking plan is reasonable based my experience, but this is not a military march or a race and I am going to follow the advice of so many thru-hikers who have completed the PCT before me: Hike Your Own Hike (HYOH). I am going to try to relax and enjoy the journey...if I don't make my mileage one day; I'm not going to punish myself the next day with lots of extra miles. If there is an amazing campsite or I make friends along the trail, I want to have the freedom to adjust my schedule a bit. That being said, getting to Canada before the snow starts piling up in Washington will not happen if I don't average 20 miles a day every day. Keep calm and hike on!

The Nicest People

I have hiked solo, with a friend, with people I met on the internet, and with people I met on the trail. All of them have been good experiences. I have hitchhiked from several trail heads and enjoyed the generosity of strangers. I have met the most interesting people on the trail and only once did I ever feel uncomfortable when meeting another hiker. Most of the people I meet while hiking are intelligent, educated, friendly, and adventurous. Like me, most have a career, a family, and a healthy lifestyle. They go hiking for some of the same reasons I do...for the adventure, the challenge, and the joy of experiencing God's creation first hand. I read somewhere that the desire for wilderness is a disease of civilization. If that makes any sense to you then you'll have some idea of the kind of people you are likely to meet in the mountains. And if you think the mountains are only for young people, think again...there are many retired people, both men and women, hiking at their leisure since speed is not an issue for them. Greetings fellow hikers! See you on the trail!

Fear Not!

What do you call a bear with no teeth? A gummy bear!

One of the common questions I'm asked is about the dangers of backpacking. For someone who has been robbed at gunpoint in my own driveway, I can tell you I feel safer on the trail than I do in a mall parking lot after dark. Cumulatively, I have spent almost a year in the wilderness. Yes I have seen a few snakes and bears, but the emphasis is on the word few. I am reminded of a quote by John Muir, “In my first interview with a Sierra bear we were frightened and embarrassed, both of us, but the bear's behavior was better than mine." Yes there are risks associated with backpacking, but most can be minimized with the right equipment, knowledge, and experience. When I hike alone I try to stay on maintained trails so if something happened, it wouldn't be too long before someone found me. I am careful when crossing rivers and use a bear canister to store my food safely from animals. And no...I don’t carry a weapon.

John Muir & I

It is a cliché to say that behind every great man is a great woman. In the case of John Muir there were two great women. The first was Jeanne Carr. Her husband, Dr. Ezra Carr, was one of Muir's professors at the University of Wisconsin. She encouraged Muir to pursue his dreams as an explorer, naturalist, author, and advocate for the preservation of wilderness. She helped him get his works published and also introduced John Muir to many influential people. Mrs. Carr also introduced Muir to his future wife, Louie Wand Strentzel.

Along with Jeanne Carr, Muir's wife also recognized her husband's unique gifts as an explorer, writer, and advocate, and after ten years of marriage she released him from his day to day responsibility at the family ranch to continue to explore and write. Here is a link to great documentary about the life of John Muir. It's worth the time to watch it. I am inspired by the life of John Muir and the impact he made on the way that we think about preserving wilderness for future generations.

While I have no delusions of grandeur in comparing myself to John Muir, we do have one thing in common. I also have a wife who has supported and encouraged me in my love for exploring nature. She has allowed me to hike weekly on my days off and use my vacation to take extended backpacking trips in the High Sierra and to climb internationally. I have been talking about hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in retirement for many years and in 2013 Eva shocked me by suggesting that I should hike it now, before retirement, so she won't be a "trail widow" when we do retire. She would prefer I do it now while she is still working and busy volunteering at church. I have talked to enough married people to know that not every spouse is that supportive and willing to make sacrifices themselves to allow their husband or wife to pursue a passion that keeps them away from home for weeks and months at a time.

Eva, I love you and I am grateful for your love, support, and encouragement! You are truly the best thing that has ever happened to me, and I know I couldn't do this without you! Loren

Trail Maps

There are 455 pages of printed maps for the Pacific Crest Trail and I just finished dividing them into 26 groups for my resupply boxes. They are beautiful, color, 1:31680 scale (1 inch = 1/2 mile) topographic maps printed on 8.5 x 11 inch paper. They have mileage markers, water sources, campsites, road crossings, trail detours, alternate routes, hazards, and resupply locations noted on every page. It's crazy how much detail is included. And the best news...the maps are FREE! That's right they are free for anyone to download from the internet. There are high definition maps for printing and low resolution version for mobile devices. You can check them out here! The only cost involved is printing them. Eva had a set of maps printed as a Christmas present for me! Along with the maps there are trail notes and a water report. I don't plan on carrying paper copies of the trail notes and the water report, but I will have digital copies on my phone to refer to as needed. In addition to the above I have purchased two apps for my phone that use the phone's GPS to map my location on the trail and localize the trail notes based on my current location. It might be all but impossible to get lost on the PCT! Who said you can't enjoy technology and nature at the same time?

Backpacking Fever

After college, marriage, graduate school, a few years of ministry and the birth of our first child, I got the itch to go backpacking again. And this time I wanted to go big! I had been reading about the Pacific Crest Trail, running from Mexico to Canada, but I knew that was out of the question because of the time it takes (5 months) to hike 2,650 miles. So I set my sights on the John Muir Trail. I would use my entire two week vacation to hike the 211 miles from Yosemite to Mt. Whitney and without anyone crazy enough to go with me, the plan was to hike alone. My wife was supportive and allowed me to pursue my dream. Over the last twenty five years, my wife has allowed me to hike, backpack, rock climb, and even climb high mountains internationally. Eva, I love you! Thank you for letting me pursue my passion for the great outdoors!

The Joy of Hiking

On the JMT section of the PCT

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves." John Muir

Some of my earliest childhood memories are walking, exploring and spending time outdoors. I loved to explore the orange grove at the end of our street in Yorba Linda and taking long walks on the paved bike path. I remember walking through the neighborhood, thinking, singing, and talking to myself. Camping trips, fishing trips, and family vacations were all opportunities to take a walk and explore new places. In college I preferred walking to driving and would often walk to work, church and anywhere else that time allowed.

It is common to find me walking on my lunch break during the work week and more than once a co-worker has stopped to ask if I need a ride somewhere. I smile and say no...I'm walking on purpose! Eva and I often walk to a local shopping area for dinner, ice cream, or to do some shopping. Friday is my day off and more often than not I am hiking somewhere from sunrise to sunset and get home in time for dinner.

I am excited to think that for five months, my primary mode of travel will be walking. I may hitch-hike into a few towns along the trail to resupply, but I plan on walking all 2,650 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail. Keep calm and hike on!

Hiking Partner

After backpacking with my Sunday school teacher a second time, I was ready to head out on my own, but I didn't have the confidence to go alone, so I did the unthinkable...I invited my younger brother to join me as my backpacking partner. Normally I didn't want him tagging along with me, but I wasn't confident enough to go solo, so he became my hiking partner. We backpacked a few times together and I remember with fondness the times we spent making campfires, cooking over an open fire, braving rain, snow and black ice, hiking cross country to find remote lakes, and to my pleasant surprise, enjoying each other's company. It ended too quickly when I left home to attend college and put backpacking on hold for the next six years.

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