Some interesting stats...
So far -
We walked 1334 miles out of 2663 miles.
We walked 67 days, excluding off trail days.
We took 26 days off trail, including 3 days on PCT kickoff, 2 days in Yosemite Valley and 6 days in the bay area.
We hitched 28 times from and to the trail, excluding rides with people we know.
We spent 15 nights in other (kind) people houses.
We ate 19 burgers each.
We are wearing our 3rd pair of shoes.
I just got new shirt after the first one had more than 10 holes on it...
We still have a long way ahead of us, but I it's starting to feel doable.
From Lake Tahoe we had a late start and got back to the trail on noon. It felt good to get back.
It's funny... It felt like going back home. As if we belong to the trail... Or the trail became part of us.
As we kept going the sky became darker. Rain is coming, there was no doubt. The only question was when.
On our lunch break we met Tortuga, after not seeing him for about two weeks. We were sure that after 3 zeros, there's no chance we will see familiar faces on the trail, but I guess u can never know...
Just before our last few miles we met a couple that were hiking around Lake Tahoe for few days. After a few minutes talk, where Roi mentioned about a dozen times how hungry he is, they started to give us some of their food, mainly energy bars, but still, it made Roi super happy :)
During the night the rain started. And unfortunately didn't stop until noon the next day. It wasn't heavy rain, but it was wet and cold enough.
Suddenly, I started to miss home. Our real home...
Luckily the rain stopped around noon. On our lunch break we met Tortuga again, and he had a lot of food he didn't need. And Roi was happy again :)
We camped on a beautiful spot that night with great views of Lake Tahoe. Last night rain seemed to be far away.
The next morning we were so glad to see clear blue sky, that we decided we will try to go for a burger challenge. We had to walk about 28 miles to get to a road called Doner Pass, where there's a restaurant.
Of course we made it! The restaurant was closed, though...
Apparently they only working on weekends, but we didn't walked in vain.
We hitched 2 miles west and found a better restaurant with great burgers and beers :)
The next two days were really hot and it felt as if we were in south California again.
We arrived to a tiny weird town called Sierra City before noon. We had lots of time to enjoy a 1 pound burger in the local store and resupply for the next section.
As the day passed more and more hikers arrived, until there were more than 15 hikers hanging out next to the store. A real hiker trash.
We spend the night in the town, camping.
We left the place on late morning, after a good breakfast.
It was already super hot when we started walking again, even though it was still early.
Shade... Water... This is all we where thinking about.
No one warned us north California will be as bad as the south...
Nevertheless we managed to complete 30 miles that day, our first 30.
It was one of the most beautiful days we had in the last couple of days, with many lakes along the way.
Oh, and Roi got another energy bar from a nice couple from Czech Republic.
It always hilarious to stand next to Roi and listen to his conversations with strangers. After a minute talk, I count to myself 30, 20, 10, 5, 2 seconds, and it always comes. This moment when he's trying to look very sad and tell the strangers how hard it is to be hungry all the time.
It works more than 50% of the times. He gets food. And it makes him so happy...
It's hard to explain, but when you carry your food for the next 4-8 days, you know exactly how much food you can eat every day and usually it's the same menu over and over.
So when suddenly you get extra food from someone, it changes the entire game. It׳s something your body didn't expect to get. It can be even the smallest treat, but once you get it your body is excited. Unplanned extra calories = true happiness.
The next day it was so hot we decided to refresh ourselves in a big river we crossed on the way.
The next day it was so hot we decided to refresh ourselves in a big river we crossed on the way.
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| Our first rattlesnake on the trail |
The next day we had an option to take a 6 miles alternate route and go through Bucks Lake, which has few resorts on its shore.
We took this route, not for enjoying the beauty, but for enjoying the burger, pizza and beer we knew we will find on a restaurant there :)
Surprising your body with junk food is always a good thing...
After a long break, we had to go back to the trail. The minute we hit back the PCT route, we saw a car stopping next to the trailhead. A women came out, with a cooler in her hand, calling us.
The cooler was full with sodas, chocolates and fruits.
Is this our lucky day, or what?
Her name is Lori and she lives in Quincy - the place where we planned to resupply and spent 4th of July in.
One thing led to another and she invited us to call her once we get into town. And one day later we did. She let us camp in her yard, take shower in her house, do laundry... That's amazing! Someone we only met a day before for less than 10 minutes...
We spent the 4th of July in Quincy, in a huge music festival. This festival is one of the most famous music festivals in CA, and maybe in the US. 10,000 people come to it every year. We enjoyed listening to few famous bluegrass and country artists. As we walked along the festival compound we ran into the Shabbat Tent. Couple of Jewish people from LA area set up this place, giving free food and drinks, trying to create a place where the Jewish people that came to the festival would hang out and meet one another.
Unfortunately we had to go back the trail that night, and missed their Friday night dinner and Kidush...
It took us more than an hour to hitch back, and finally a nice lady picked us up and apparently she's a friend of Lori :)
We arrived late in night to the trail and camped about half a mile after Belden, where an alternative festival took place with raving music.
We were so enthusiastic to get away from Belden as far as possible, we hiked 31.5 miles the next day :)
It was extremely hot and almost no water along the way, except for springs you have to walk extra miles to reach them...
South California, what the hell are you doing here in the north???
The highlight of our last day on the trail was the midpoint mark.
The highlight of our last day on the trail was the midpoint mark.
We felt very proud of ourselves!
The only problem is that it's only the midpoint... We still have such a long way ahead of us :)
We spent the night in Chico and the next morning drove to Chester to collect all our mail from the post office, including my new IceBreaker shirt.
Once we arrived to the hwy, it took us about 10 minutes to hitch to a big city called Chico, where we rented a car and started our 6 days off the trail.
The "vacation" started with a nice visit in Sierra Neveda brewery, including a tour and tasting...
We spent the night in Chico and the next morning drove to Chester to collect all our mail from the post office, including my new IceBreaker shirt.
From there we started driving south for long hours, towards Big Sur (to the famous hwy 1 drive).
The next day we explored most of the highlights along the road, including the elephant seals beach, McWay falls (one of the few in the world that fall to the ocean) and the beautiful Pfeiffer beach, where we took our lunch and enjoyed the sun after driving in a fog all morning.
We spent the night in lovely Santa Cruz, but woke up to a wet and cloudy morning :(
We had a great breakfast in one of the local places, walk along the sea and the wharf and hanged out on the Pacific Avenue for a while.
From there we drove to San Jose, where we met Dani, that was our great host for that night. We took Roi to a great pork ribs place Dani and I tried few months ago, on one of my business trips to the bay area. Roi loved it!
The next two days we explored San Francisco - Pier 39, Fisherman's whraf, twin peaks, Lombart st, Golden gate bridge, market+valencia streets and Sausalito town.
Super touristic, 180 degrees from the PCT.
We spent the two nights in Foster City, at Hanna and Chaim house (Roi's Family). It was a great opportunity for us to hang out with them and get to know them a bit more. They took us to Afghanian restaurant, which was a big change from the typical american food we had for the last 3 months.
We also had a great homemade breakfasts at their place :)
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