Day 69 7/23 8mi.

Last night while cowboy camping I woke up to rain hitting my face, lightning flashing, and thunder roaring! I called to Chatterbox and she didn't answer so I yelled louder "Chatterbox wake up!" and she said "what's going on?" Then lightning flashed again and thunder boomed right after,so I didn't have to answer! We both scrambled out of our bags as fast as we could and shoved our sleeping bags and clothes into our backpacks then threw the whole thing under a nearby tree. We set up tents faster than we ever had before, and tossed our backpacks inside. Everything got pretty wet, but our clothes and sleeping bags stayed relatively dry in our packs under the tree, it was an exciting couple of minutes.

It rained all night, but at about 7 there was a break in the weather so we packed up and got moving. It rained on us a bit more on the way down to the road.

We got a hitch into town fairly quickly, but upon arriving in town we found out that the whole town was without power because of the storm last night! Therefore the store wasn't open so we couldn't resupply. Luckily there are two trail angels in town that operate the Red Moose Inn who let hikers shower for free, which we did, and they cooked us breakfast by headlamp! She gave us pancakes until we couldn't fit any more inside of us, I must have eaten about 25 pancakes and Chatterbox ate until she was uncomfortably full as well, but it was awesome and just what we needed!

Well the power only came on for about 20 minutes today then went back out so yhe store never opened and we couldn't get resupplied. We ate a huge rib dinner and hung out with about 15 other hikers who were all stuck in town as well. The power finally came back on for good around 6:30. We all camped in the trail angels back yard.

Day 68 7/22 29mi.

This morning only a mile into the days hike we came upon a hut erected by the Sierra Club where hikers and cross country skiers can stay which was pretty neat.

We met a few new hikers throughout the day. The mosquitoes were nice enough to help motivate us to keep moving todayband bedore we realized it we had done 29 miles by about 8pm, our biggest day yet!

Day 67 7/21 19mi.

We had 13 miles to do today by 2, when we planned to meet two of our grandma's nieces at Old Highway 40.

We got a fairly early start this morning and passed a lot of trail runners coming down the mountain we were climbing up. When we got to the top of our big climb this morning we accidentally took the wrong trail down a bunch of switchbqcks for about a half mile!! Eventually we realized something wasn't right and looked at the map to determine we were on the wrong trail.

We climbed back up the trail and were back on course again quickly. On the way down to the road we told three woman what we were doing and they invited us back to their house for lunch, we declined as we were meeting relatives. When we made it to the bottom there was a hiker who had been out overnight handing out beer to thru-hikers, he offered us a ride into town as well, but we declined and chatted with him for a few minutes until Kris and Karen arrived!!

They picked us up right from the trail head and brought us straight down into the town of Truckee for lunch at a great mexican restaurant. We had a great time visiting with both of them. After lunch they took us to resupply at the grocery store and gave us tons of great snacks that they had picked up from Trader Joe's!!! All of it was perfect hiking food! Our visit was more than we could have asked for and we felt 10x better walking away from that highway than we did walking up to it. Thanks Kris and Karen!!

we ended up hiking a bit over 6 more miles and cowboy camped on Castle pass.

Day 66 7/20 22mi.

The trail crossed a dirt road where there was parking, bathrooms, and picninc tables which we weren't expecting. Anyway there were a lot of people around that had driven up to go day hiking and what not. I got to talking with one gentleman who is a troop master and was scoping out the area because he was going to take a group of boy scouts on a backpacking trip through this section in two weeks. He was eating lunch and gave Chatterbox and I half of his sandwich as well as some chips! It tasted like the best sandwich I had ever eaten, thanks!

We ended the day by hiking through a ski area and passed under a ski lift and actually camped on one of the runs.

Day 65 7/19 24.5mi.

Last night at about 1:30 the wind pulled one of my tent stakes out of the ground causing the whole thing to collapse on to me. After finding my way out I ran around in the cold and got it set back up, but this time I put huge rocks on top of all the stakes. The tent lasted the rest of the night after that.

The sky remained gray almost all day and we even got a couple faint drizzles a few times. Luckily it never really rained on us though and by late evening the sky had cleared up.

We made it to a lake just after dark, found a flat spot and called it a night.

Day 64 7/18 3.5mi.

We spent most of the day running around town trying to get everything we had to do done. The only pdroblem was that the town was very spread out and not really set up for pedestrians. We probably walked about 6 miles in town today. For the longest walk we waited for the bus, but we ended up having to wait about 45 min.

We got our own steri-pen and returned the other one we were trying out to Backtrack.

After finishing our town stay with some pizza we hitched out, we got a ride in about a minute!

The trail passes by Echo Lake Resort just after the highway. They have small cabin built all around a Echo lake, customers have to take a boat out to their individual cabins, it's a pretty neat set up. We found a spot along the lake, where there wasn't a cabin, for the night. Just before dark a bunch of gray clouds rolled in and the wind picked up quite a bit, hopefully it doesn't rain on us tonight. However, all the clouds that just rolled in did make for the most colorful sunset of the trip!

Day 63 7/17 27mi.

We got an early start to the day and were planning on stopping 5 miles short of town, but we ended up pushing all the way to hwy 50 before dark.

At about lunch time, after 13 miles we made it to Carson Pass visito center. They didn't sell any food there, but the employees whobare all volunteers spend there own money and bring in all types of fruit in a cooler in case any hikers come by. So we enjoyed watermelon, cherries, oranges, carrots, and string cheese with our lunch. There were 4 other thru-hikers there hanging out as well.

After a long lunch we didn't think we'd make it to the highway by dark. But that fresh food and the idea of mexican food for dinner rather our old trail food motivated us to make it to town.

We arrived at the highway with Backtrack and the second car to pass by slammed on the brakes and gave us a fast ride down to South Lake Tahoe, we were going about 70 the whole way down a curvy mountain road.

After the three of us got a room at Motel 6 Backtrack and I jumped in the pool Chatterbox took a quick shower and we ran to the closest mexican place before it closed.

We did some laundry and a little resupply and called it a night.

Day 62 7/16 24mi.

We both felt good throughout the day and we got in lots of miles and still got into camp semi-early.

We met a lot of new hikers today, one woman looked like she was at least in her seventies. She was easily the oldest person I've seen out hiking on any of my trips, and she was doing the whole trail. She had also done half the AT in 2009 and the other half in 2010, but she started to late in 09 for me to have met her.

The one picture above is an american flag someone planted on top of a large mountain, it looked quite challenging to get up there.

While hiking today we came to a road crossing and just after I spotted a cooler sitting in the shade!! I ran up to it, and what I found was a garbage bag full of cupcake wrappers and one french roll left. Unfortunately we missed all the cupcakes by a few hours, by looking at the trail register inside we could see that five people were here in the morning eating cupcakes. We split the french roll which was delicious and moved on.

We found a great spot to camp on a flat rock, without any trees blocking our view of the stars and it's open to the east so the sun will hit us nice and early.

Day 61 7/15 23mi.

The day started with an awesome treeless climb, the views were spectacular. This morning Chatterbox met a couple more thru-hikers while she was behind me, I never got a chance to meet them today. At one point after lunch the trail climbed a mountain and at the top was a huge pile of almost black rocks another 80ft. high, it was rather strange. (That's the picture above)

The first month and a half of our hike people kept saying "aren't you guys a little behind to be thru-hiking". But finally the last two weeks or so the people we met in town ask us when we started and the tell us something like "your cruising along, you guys will finish before it snows in Washington ". It feels good to know that we have been making good progress for the last two months.

We found a campsite near a meadow tonight. As we were cooking dinner we heard coyotes calling to each other from the meadow next to us and from somewhere on the opposite side of our campsite!

Day 60 7/14 17mi.

We woke up earlier than usual to make sure we had time to hitch down to a resort for a short resupply,  the road was 16.5 miles away from our campsite. 

The trail climbed up high above tree line, and we stayed up high for about a 10 mile stretch,  walking along a ridge top. That hike was one of the coolest we've done so far in my opinion.

When we got down to the road we found 4 other thru-hikers we hadn't really met yet sitting around drinking beer. Apparently someone had left a box of beer for one of the hikers in the group. So we introduced ourselves and while we were chatting with them some nice folks came up and started asking about our trip. Chatterbox and I were the only two hikers headed the direction they were, so they let us catch a ride in their van down to a resort where we could resupply for the next couple of days. A couple of the folks who gave us a ride down had done some long backpacking trips over seas, it was nice to chat with them on the ride down.

At the resort we went straight for the restaurant to grab some lunch, then showered up and resupplied before heading back to the restaurant for dinner.

I made sure to make my phone call for Ernie and Tim from a couple days ago, but the woman whose number they gave me didn't answer so I had to leave a message, so hopefully they meet up ok.

After dinner there weren't many people headed back up the mountain. So after talking to the campground host he graciously gave the two of us a ride 10 miles back up to the trail head since the campground was full. After another half mile of hiking we found a flat spot to call home for the night.

The people that gave us a ride down to the resort also gave us their sons phone number who lives in Seattle, so that we might call him when we get up that way. How awesome is that! What great people.

In one of the photos you may be able to see hikers on the switchbacks above us.

Day 59 7/13 21mi.

We hit the 1,000 mile mark today woohoooooo!!

We woke up this morning to boat loads of mosquitos since we were camped down in a canyon with a lot of water running through it. After quickly packing up our stuff we made it up about a mile out of ths canyon and stopped for breakfast in a dry spot free of mosquitos.

We met a few more new thru-hikers today, which was nice.

When your walking along the trail out here it's often hard to conceptualize that the small path your on actually leads to Canada, and that all the small three foot steps you take do in fact add up.  When you reach a spot like we did today though, 1,000 miles, it makes you stop and realize that all your steps do add up to something big and your making progress towards your goal.

Day 58 7/12 20mi.

The miles were hard to come by today. We started hiking at 7:30 this morning and didn't finish until 9 tonight. The trail went up over a chain of mountains and then down into a valley, then right back up over some mountains all day.

We did take a break next to a lake today where I dove in off a small rock and swam for a bit, I have yet to convince Chatterbox to go swimming though. It was nice to get cleaned up a bit and clean out some of our clothes.

We came upon two guys who were out doing a section of the trail. They said the elevations and their old age were getting the better of them and they haven't been doing the miles that they had planned to. So they gave us phone number and name and asked us to call the person who is supposed o be picking them up and tell her that they would be a day late and were gonna come out at an easier trailhead. So when we get into to a town the day after tomorrow we will make sure to relay the message for Ernie and Tim, hopefully they get out safe.

After walking through a cloud of mosquitoes for the last 3 miles of the day we found a good place to camp after it got to cold for the blood suckers.

Day 57 7/11 18mi.

We set up our tents in the backcountry section of the campground last night for $5. At about 2:30 in the morning I woke up to two people setting there tent up about 20 ft. from mine, and then at about 6 in the morning the same two people woke me up as they were packing up and leaving. It was odd and rather annoying since there were many other flat spots farther away from any tents they could have set up.

Since we were already up from the people who wanted to camp right next to us for a few hours we packed up and went down to the store to wait for breakfast to be served at 8.

We goofed around on the picninc table outside the store until about 10:30 and then finally started hiking for the day.

We both stuffed ourselves so much at the store that it made walking very uncomfortable for the first two hours. We stopped and I went for a swim in the Tuolmne river, while we waited for our food to digest. (The picture above with all the water in it is where I went swimming)

The miles went by very quickly today and we made our first fire of the trip tonight!

Day 56 7/10 13mi.

Since we camped on top of a pass last night all 13 of our miles were downhill today.last night we saw a couple of faint shooting stars!!

We got a late start and didn't make it down to Tuolmne Meadows until abiut 2:30. This first thing we did was head straight for the grill for lunch. It is super busy down here, there are tourists everywhere, it was a bit overwhelming.

I really wanted to climb Half Dome and maybe Clouds Rest while we were in Yosemite. However,  by the time we got over to the wilderness permit office all the permits were filled for tomorrow morning, so we decided to just hike out on the PCT tomorrow instead of waiting around until the day after tomorrow. I guess that just means I'll have to come back one day for Half Dome, darn haha.

After resupplying in the little grocery store we went to a campfire talk, hosted by a ranger, about how the Lodgepole pine has slowly been encroaching on the meadow and gradually making it smaller every year. The subject may not sound very interesting,  but Chatterbox and I both enjoyed it.

Day 55 7/9 20mi.

I forgot to mention yesterday that we were low on Aquamira (what we treat our water with) and the outfitter didn't have any. So Backtrack was nice enough to let us use his steri-pen until the next town with an outfitter, and if we like using it we'll probably get our own. A steri-pen is a device shaped like a pen that has an ultraviolet light on the tip which you can insert into your water bottle to kill anything that might be hanging out in the water waiting to get you sick. It's an exciting new piece of gear to try out, thanks Backtrack!

Todays hike was fairly easy, we had about 20 miles of really gradual uphill, the scenery was absolutely stunning. We ate lunch with two thru-hiker we hadn't really met until now, which was a nice change in pace.

We are now camped on the edge of Yosemite National Park on Donahue pass, at about 11,000 feet which makes this the highest spot we've slept on the trail. There no moon in the sky, but millions of stars!!

Day 54 7/8 3 mi. Trip miles 909.5

Today was mostly a town day we spent most of our day running errands around Mammoth Lakes with Backtrack.

Carly and I have been trying to call eachother by our trail names lately so while writing this journal I am going to start referring to her as Chatterbox as well.

We started the morning off right, with huge breakfast burritos. Then we headed over to the outfitter in town to solve some gear issues I've been having the past few days. Next was the supermarket to resupply for the next couple of days.

The town of Mammoth Lakes has great public transportation,  there are free trolleys that run all over town! It's a big touristy town geared towards outdoor enthusiasts,  there are lots of opportunities to mountain bike, hike, fish, and snow sports in the winter.

Backtrack was staying in town another night, at the Motel 6, so after we were done with most of our town errands he let us come back and swim as well as use the shower!!

We caught the last bus back up to the trail just in time and got a few snacks at the Reds Meadows pack station (that's the picture above) before heading back out on the trail and finding a place to camp for the night.

Day 52 7/6 22mi.

The day started with a slight diwnhill and our second ford. This ford was a bit deeper than the last but not by much, the water was about halfway up to my knees.

After about 9 miles of downhill hiking we made it to a bridge crossing a large creek where we stopped for lunch. Then we started up Silver pass it was about a 7 mile climb. On the way up I saw a grouse with about 4 babies. They didn't seem to mind me being there though and didn't move when I walked up. I was cautious passing them because when I was on the AT I had a couple grouse chase me when I got to close to there nest/babies. Luckily this bird didn't mind me walking by.

We finished the up hill and then descended back down and had to work our way through a bunch of blow down. Apparently theere was a huge wind storm in the area last November which knocked down thousands of trees. His made the hiking slow. We camped down low near a creek for the night.

Day 53 7/7 19 mi.

We had 19 miles to go to Reds Meadows which is a trail ranch where we could get some treats from the store and catch a bus to another bus to a trolley to get into the town of Mammoth Lakes.

We got up early to avoid the mosquitoes, it was to cold for them, and hikied for about an hour and a half to a sunny spot up high where the mosquitoes wouldn't be hanging out. After eating a quick breakfast there we pushed on. During the middle of the day I passed a couple and said hi and the typical "enjoy your hike", but carly was behind me and stopped to talk to them for a minute. The guy was Halfmile who makes free makes and trail notes for the entire trail which we use!! So unfortunately I didn't really get to meet them and say thank u, but Carly did!

We finished our 19 miles, all the while hiking through an area that got obliterated by the wind, there were literally trees blown down everywhere some of them were massive. Luckily trail crews had gotten to them earlier this season and the trail was clear.

We got tot the ranxh and hopped on a bus right away to get down to town. After transferring a few busses we made it to the campground where we met Backtrack who we split a campsite with, he's the only other thru-hiker we've seen since the last resupply.

We got our tents set up and met an older hiker who did the trail in the 80's. Then we all went in together on a load of lundry and ate at an amazing pizza place next door. Then called it a night.

Day 51 7/5 21mi.

We woke up to a cold cold morning. We decided to set up our tents because the last couple mornings all of our stuff has been covered in dew. Carly left a water bottle out of her tent last night and this morning it was completely frozen. There was also a very thin layer of ice cover both of our tents!

Our tents were set up in a position that the sun wouldn't hit us until late in the morning so we decided to pack up as quickly as possible and hike until we found a sunny spot to eat breakfast.

About 2 miles after our breakfast the trail crossed Evolution creek, which was rather large and was our first ford of the trip! It was an easy ford though, the water was just above our ankles.

We meandered our way downgill for about 9 more miles and crossed 3 bridges over large creeks. We took a late lunch at about 3 and laid out our tents to dry, they were soaked and very heavy. After about an hour lunch was finished and our tents were dried.

We did about 6 miles up to the top of Selden pass and then another three back down before setting up our tents for the night. The mosquitos are starting to get really bad in he evening and morning.

Day 50 7/4 21.5mi.

Happy fourth of July!!

Well we didn't get to see any fireworks today, but we did spend our fourth of July hiking through one of the most beautiful parts of the country.

The day started with a long uphill, about 9 miles of it up to Muir pass. During the first half of the uphill we saw lots of waterfalls and during the second half we saw a lot of lakes which fed the waterfalls. There was much more snow near the pass than precious passes at the same elevation and we had to walk over about 20 feet of snow. Our guidebook made it seem like during a typical snow year a thru-hiker would have to walk over miles of snow near this pass!

At the top was Muir Hut a hut erected by the Sierra Club in 1930 in honor of John Muir. It was built to provide temporary shelter to anyone caught in a storm on this exposed section of trail.

There were actually a few dark clouds off in the distant today we were worried we'd get rained on, but so far so good.

We finished the day with a bunch of downhill, and passed a few mlre amazing lakes. We found a campsite on the edge of a meadow and watched the sunset across the meadow as we cooked up dinner.