Stateline Lookout

Stateline Lookout (Off Hwy 28, near Crystal Bay CA) -

Distance: 1 mi / 2.2 km (Round Trip)

Elevation Gain: ~500 ft.

Highest Elevation: ~6831 ft. / 2082.2 m.

Dogs: Allowed

Difficulty: Easy

I originally picked out this hike because we needed something easy and short to do with Chris' Mom when she visited us back in October.

Can't Say I was disappointed...

Most of the hikes we do in California come from my copy of Foghorn Outdoors: California Hiking by Tom Stienstra and Ann Marie Brown. I had the Foghorn for Washington and Oregon and loved it, so when we moved I gifted my copy to Katie and naturally picked this up as a replacement (you should too). Aside from the occasional issue with directions and mileage these books are outstanding. They have spot on ratings for difficulty and beauty, and have pretty much all the relevant information you need as far as permits, location etc.

The Stateline entry caught my eye for a couple of reasons: the ratings and mileage were exactly what I was looking for, and when I read the first few sentences of the description I was all in.

"For years we avoided this trail because we thought it was just a tourist attraction, located at the lookout tower that straddles the Nevada and California state line. It turns out that we were the dumb tourists, because this little trail is great." (Pg. 222)

You basically hike up an old access road, but don't worry, the pay off is so good you might cry. This is a great spot to hike up to and eat some lunch if you're tooling around the northern end of Tahoe. There's some cool plaques with cultural information about the area, including timber, mining etc.

But I have to say my eyes were otherwise occupied...
 

Tahoe Rim Trail (Northern End) Meadows to Diamond Peak

Northern Tahoe Rim Trail: Tahoe Meadows to Diamond Peak - September 1st, 2014

Tahoe National Forest

Distance: 11.8 mi / 18.99 km (Round Trip)

Highest Elevation: 8945 ft. / 2726.6 m.

Dogs: Allowed

Difficulty: Moderate

After the glory that was Marlette lake, Chris and I were keen to get back up into the mountains before school started. After a little research we settled on starting at Tahoe Meadows and hiking on a northern section of the Tahoe Rim Trail to Diamond Peak and back. 

This hike was really, heart stoppingly, beautiful. You start in this gorgeous alpine meadow right behind Mt. Rose. There are quite nice paths through here and if you're in the mood for something easy, or just a quick leg stretcher, this is a great place to do it! There are some raised boardwalks through parts of the meadow, and then you start up through the forest. This bit is a little repetitive, though it's still beautiful Sierra pine forest. But then you break through those trees and Lake Tahoe is spread out before you, like the big beautiful bitch that she is. 

From here you're basically on the rim trail and it's just an endless parade of glorious views and beautiful forest. 

We ran into relatively few other hikers, though there were some surly mountain bikers. The Tahoe Rim trail is open to hikers constantly, but bikers are only allowed on even days (the 2nd, 4th, 6th etc. of every month). This was Labor day weekend, and this particular biker was fairly incensed that there were so many hikers (there weren't) and that they (the bikers)

weren't even supposed to be there. Basically he was talking to his friend really loudly, and it went something like this:

"I don't even care, it's like the last three day weekend of the year, and they get two days of it?! No fucking fair! I won't put up with it! They take up the whole fucking trail and it's not right. Why don't bikers gets a day to themselves...." and so on.

After a bit the hikers and bikers start to thin out and you run into fewer and fewer people. At one point you have a view of the Washoe Valley to the east, including Washoe lake. It's a bit pale after the sapphire madness of Tahoe, but still a very cool view. We stopped at Diamond Peak, which is a ski resort during the winter. We had lunch at the top of the highest chair lift and played fetch with Jaxx for a bit. 

The only other notable thing about this trip was the heat. It was hot as hell and for a good portion of the hike there is very little shade. Make sure you bring lots of sunscreen and water. We were all completely exhausted by the time we got back.

Farewell faithful blog readers. We're off for the PCT!

I'm typing this final blog post at Allison's mom's house in Santa Rosa, CA.  The post is part of the final to do list to leave for our summer of hiking. Allison and I have been discussing over and over again how the fact that we will be hiking for 1/4 of a year in two days just doesn't seem real at all.

The last two months have been a whirlwind of preparation.  You've all read about preparing food for the trail, we ended up with over 200 lbs!  Here is a picture of it all packed into the forester.  

You've also read about the huge amount of logistics that went into being prepared to do the trail.  Pictures of hundreds of maps, lists of stats about the trail, and explanation of gear really won't ever do justice to the shear amount of work it took us to successfully do all of the logistics for this adventure.  Once we get back we will write an extensive series of blog posts and try to flesh out the experience of getting ready for the hike in a more detailed manner.  We would have liked to do more posts leading up to the adventure, but there were just not, as you can imagine, enough hours in the day.

Our first section is 30 miles without any water so we will be carrying 14 liters of water or 30.8 lbs.  It looks like the weather for the first part of the hike will be rainy and between 39 and 65 degrees.  While you might think that starting in the rain would be a bummer, it is actually a blessing in disguise because of the lack of water in this section.  

If all goes as planned we will be arriving in Oregon a few days into the beginning of June, then entering Washington around or before the middle of July, and arriving at our final destination 60 miles south of Canada in early to mid August.

We will be in sporadic contact throughout our hike, mostly with our GPS messenger unit.  We will be sending periodic check in messages to 10 people.  We may make a few quick PCT blog updates if we have time and connectivity, but no promises.  Here is a list of people who will be receiving our GPS messenger updates, if you'd like to check in on our current progress:  Allison's family: Laurie or Steve, my family: Tanya, Nan or Cherese, and Seattle contacts: Katie and Jesse.

We have preemptively written several blog posts which are scheduled to post automatically while we are gone.  So, there should be fresh content on the blog periodically.  

In closing, I'd like to say a final thanks to everyone who has supported us, believed in us, followed our adventures, participated in our hiking group, and helped us achieve this once in a lifetime experience.  We love you all!  Have a great summer and we'll catch you on the flip side.

Steamboat Rock and Lenore Lake Caves

View from top of Steamboat Rock

Steamboat Rock - April 11th, 2015               Lenore Lake Caves - April 12th, 2015

Central Washington - Wenatchee                  Central Washington - Wenatchee

Mileage: 4.0 mi./6.4 km (Round Trip)          Mileage: 1.5 mi./2.4 km (Round Trip)

Elevation Gain: 650 ft. / 198m                      Elevation Gain: 200 ft. / 60.9m

Highest Point: 2250 ft. / 685.8m                   Highest Point: 1300 ft. / 396.2m

Dogs: Allowed                                              Dogs: Allowed

Difficulty: Easy                                             Difficulty: Easy

Required Pass: WA Discover Pass                Required Pass: WA Discover Pass

I was lucky enough to have a 3-day weekend off work I was ecstatic about the idea of a weekend camping adventure. Since it looked like it would be a rainy weekend in the North Cascades I decided to head toward the more arid region of Eastern Washington.

I am still amazed by the variations in scenery when driving across Washington. We started out in the city of Seattle, driving along Highway 2 we passed through heavily wooded forests, then snow covered mountains, long expanses of highway along flat plateaus, and wildflower-covered coulees. As we dropped down into the Grand Coulee we saw the shimmering waters of Banks Lake and Steamboat Rock off in the distance.

Off-road view of Steamboat Rock

The trailhead for Steamboat Rock is conveniently located directly across the street from the campgrounds. After setting up camp we headed up the trail and quickly gained elevation climbing up rocky paths surrounded by the wildflowers of the shrub-steppes. There were numerous off-shoots to the path and initially we headed straight to the top. We reached a plateau and saw below us a grand view of Banks Lake and the protruding rocky cliffs surrounding. It was a spectacular, breathtaking view made all the more impressive by the strong gusts of wind that pushed us around the top of the rock. The winds were so strong they nearly blew us over as we clambered around the 600 acres of Steamboat Rock.

Looking out from inside one of the Lenore Lake Caves

Day 2: Following a particularly windy evening of camping, we packed up camp, made a hearty breakfast of potatoes, veggies, and eggs and headed out toward Soap Lake. Along Hwy 17 we spotted a small sign for Lenore Lake Caves and headed up the short, gravel road to the parking lot.

The first ~100 yards of the trail is paved and has stairs leading up to one of the seven cave/shelters in the area. We explored for a moment and then headed towards the cliffs looming overhead. We climbed along trails of loose dirt and rocks which proved to be a bit treacherous, but the end view was well worth it. The view over the parking lot and Lake Lenore was beautiful, but the real treat was the other side of the plateau which looked down over the Grand Coulee scabland. A prairie falcon soared overhead adding to the majestic view. The flood channels of the coulee appeared to drop of the edge of the earth into the blue skies. It was a breathtaking sight to behold.

The edge of the world a.k.a. Grand Coulee scablands

We explored a few more caves and while they were interesting, we were far more impressed with the view into the coulee than the shallow cave shelters. We made our way home and back into the snow of the mountains and the trees surrounding Seattle. Another perfect spring hiking and camping trip was complete.

PCT Planning - Tonight we dine in hell.

So as I hinted at in previous posts, Chris and I are making all of our own food. My Mom has offered to throw a couple things into later boxes, but primarily we are doing all of it ourselves. As things get closer we are starting to get some of the food stuff,
or are dehydrating and vacuum sealing at home. So it seemed like a good time to try out our recipes and make any last minute adjustments.

In a previous post on food I wrote a little bit about making sure you had enough calories and enough variety. Chris and I have planned few dinners and we may throw in one luxury dinner per box (instant Indian/Thai food etc. for some variety).

Also, Chris and I are soaking our dehydrated veggies during the day as we hike, if you use dehydrated veggies and are planning on soaking them make sure to use the water you soaked them in, that way you don't lose any nutrients. We also are dyhdrating our chicken and tuna, if you do this you need to add the tuna/chicken at the same time as the starch and with a little extra water.

Recipes under the cut.  Click the link below.

PCT Planning - Resources for Planning Your Hike

The elevation / distance graph and map of our planned PCT hike

I realize I maybe skipped some steps and neglected to post information about actually getting started planning. Of course, these are just the resources Chris and I used, and certainly not an exhaustive list. In fact, I'm only covering two things: Yogi's Guide Book and Craig's PCT Planner. That being said, I honestly think if you have those things, you can get everything else pretty well figured out.

Yogi's PCT Handbook

We had decided to do the PCT, but were a little unsure where to go from there. If you've googled anything about the PCT you've run into people mentioning Yogi's book. There's a good reason for that.

It's fucking ah-mazing.

Jackie McDonnell (a Triple Crown Hiker) aka Yogi wrote this guide book that basically details everything you need to know about the PCT. She covers gear, additional resources, water, dealing with the snow, food, etc., it's fairly exhaustive. It also incorporates information from about half a dozen other PCT hikers. Which means you get a pretty well-rounded look at what people think, the gear they bring etc.

It breaks the whole trail down into sections which include maps of the towns (including where to have your hiker boxes shipped to and how to label them), a breakdown of where water sources are, good campsites etc.  Each section is perforated, so they can be torn out of the book and included in your hiker box. She also sells these handy-dandy laminated cards which have similar information about the towns in a condensed form.

Yogi also partners with Half-Mile maps (they are available for free) she will print very nice copies of the maps for you and they include all the water and camp information that is in the book. Chris and I are going to have ours laminated, particularly for the Northwest.

So far I have to say it's been invaluable to us. Things that have really stuck out to me reading this are the things that we thought about, but her suggestions just make a ton more sense. Here are a few examples:

1. Buy running shorts with built in liners. No added weight from carrying underwear, also, hiking underwear is expensive as hell so being able to cut that out of the list is awesome.

2. What goes in your First Aid Kit. This is one of those things that I probably wouldn't have thought about till I was on the trail. I'm not saying I wouldn't have a first aid kid, but I probably wouldn't have altered it much. However, the stuff you need for a thru-hike is different. I would have brought duct-tape, but I wouldn't ever have thought about bringing desitin for chafe.

3. Get trail runners that are breathable and not waterproof. Consider getting them 1/2-1 full size larger than your feet. This was more for me than for Chris who had already made the switch to trail runners. Your feet will be wet no matter what and are likely to swell on the trail. The last thing you want is a stiff boot that is going to be holding all the moisture in.

I can't even stress enough how amazingly helpful this book has been. I think you could probably get away with just this. I say this mostly, because Craig's PCT planner is in the list of resources.

Link to Yogi's Website

Craig's PCT Planner

This is a free service that Chris and I are ABSOLUTELY going to be donating money to. The PCT planner lets you put in your start date, your estimated mph, and how many hours of hiking you're planning to do each day. Once you put in your start and end point it spits out how long it's going to take to get there. This all on it's own would be pretty handy.

The next part is so awesome it almost made Chris and I cry. And it saved us a TON of time. Based on your start point, rate of travel and end point it provides a list of places to stop and refuel. It auto-selects the most popular, but you can add or subtract as desired. It tells you the mileage between each stop and your estimated date of arrival. It also tells you how far off the trail the town/campground c-store/whatever is. Figuring out you want to bypass a town because it requires a 32 mile hitch is a good thing to know. You have the option to add zero days or notes about the location if you want as well.

It also spits out a small graph of your elevation changes for that section which is incredibly cool. This becomes especially helpful when you're trying to break things up. If you have a 12 day stretch where you won't be getting a box you are going to be carrying a ton of extra weight. If that section starts off with a big uphill battle, you might consider refueling elsewhere.

I seriously love this site. I can share my schedule with relevant people and it makes things much easier for me to have everything already organized for me.

Link to Craig's PCT Planner

GPS Spot

 When Chris and I explain to folks that we're planning to hike 1250 miles the question we get most  (aside from questions about food) is how we're going to deal with emergencies, communicate with family etc. Luckily Chris and I had a good answer for this from the get go, and this past week the actual item was gifted to us by Chris' Mom (THANKS TANYA!!!!).

The Spot GPS Satellite Messanger is basically a thru-hiker's Mom's best friend. This thing fits in the palm of my hand, takes 3 AAA batteries and can save your butt if you need it to. With batteries it is only 3.2 oz, so it's not a big concession for weight.

The Spot has an emergency beacon that pings the closest 911 dispatch through the GPS satellite system. It also can send messages to family members, track your location at 2.5, 5, 10, 30, or 60 minutes intervals. With heavy usage the batteries last about 3.5 days, but Chris and I are just planning on turning it on 1-2 times a day to hit the check in button and that'll be it.

You do have to purchase a subscription
- $9.99/Month or $90/year for the basic plan
- The tracking is another $4.99/month
- They also offer $100,000 of insurance for $20 total for a year of coverage (just in case you want to take a last minute helicopter tour).

It provides a good deal of reassurance to our family for minimal weight and inconvenience.