Day 2 - RAIN

When I left civilization a few days back I checked the weather forecast and it looked like today, and for the next week, all I saw was sun, sun and more sun. Well you can imagine my surprise when I woke up at 3 am to hear raindrops on my tent. Well humph. Who ordered up rain? No matter, rain is what we got so I broke camp and got underway at 7:30. Diane later told me it was 40 degrees...burrr.

 I donned my rain gear and off I went up to the ridge, climbing from 2,294 to 3,600 in three miles. Not too bad as there were many long switchbacks. What made it nice was the cold weather since this climb is usually a bear. It gets full southern exposure and at the end of a day it can be tough. Once on top the views, even with the clouds, were stunning.  

The rest of the day was a combination of climb up and down with food breaks in between. The rain stopped by 10 am but the clouds didn't ever fully go way till this evening. Welcome on up hills, not as welcome on breaks. Either way we managed 16 miles by 5 pm and have hunkered down in a nice place called Yellow Rose Spring. Wide open with tall grasses, still green, and a real deal, natural water source. I treated it of course but still, the sound of running water is a welcome sound.  

Here's my little tent and the gals with theirs. 

Tomorrow, Laguna Mountain Lodge!

Hauser Canyon

Today was a perfect hiking day. Chilly in the morning with frost on the plants at the border turning to a pleasantly warm day with high clouds to temper the sun. There were flowers in the beginning stages of blooming and a bit of green grass springing up because of the recent rains. All in all, a perfect hiking day. 

Which is not to say that there weren't difficult parts to the day. The first hard thing was saying goodbye to Angela at mile marker 1. She and Chris walked with us for the first mile and the goodbye was tearful. It is hard leaving a perfectly wonderful life to make this adventure happen. I only hope everything at home is ok in my absence. 

The second hard thing was the 15.4 mile hike to get to this place. What can I say? It's up and down, over hill and dale and it took us from 8 am to 4:30 pm. This included many breaks of course and we took it easy but there's no getting around the fact that I was dang tired and footsore by the time we pulled in here. I'm sure this will abate once I get a bit more used to the rigors of the trail. 

Tomorrow we walk another 15 miles!

T-minus 11 hours

Ok then. Tomorrow I'm off.  My friends will be dropping me off at the border at 7ish am. I'll meet the other gals about the same time and we'll begin the long trek north. Here we are, relaxing in the Laguna Mountain Lodge, hanging and yucking it up. More to come. 

Down south

Here I am visiting family and it's been raining in some places but snowing in the mountains. I dropped off our Idyllwild resupply boxes yesterday with my old friend Stacey and all I need to do now is finalize which pack I'm taking. I know, it's a bit late isn't it? Well I'm stuck on super lightweight and an old comfortable friend I have confidence in. Do you toss out old friends just because you meet someone new and exciting? I thought not. I guess I don't really have to finally decide till Thursday night. Friday will dawn and a pack will have been chosen.

I think I'm getting pretty nervous. I must say though that I am way more calm than the last attempt in 2012. Possibly since I've been here before and was successful with this portion of the trail. That's part of it I'm sure. Maybe more importantly, I'm beginning the hike with two others and just that seems to feel better somehow. I haven't introduced them yet but they are Diane aka Tidy Camper and Caroline aka Dirty Girl. I've known them for years in Santa Cruz but this is the first time we've attempted backpacking together. Nothing like jumping in with both feet, eh? I will post pictures of them at the border after we begin on Friday.

I checked out my Spot device today and it seems to be working well. At the end of every day I'll try to find a clear-of-trees spot and push the OK button. If all goes well, and you click on the Where Is Shelly tab, you should be able to see my location. Crazy huh? If for some reason there doesn't seem to be motion, I'm probably just parked somewhere with my feet up for a day or two. Not to worry.  And sometimes the device just doesn't work perfectly so I have to factor this into the trip and let people know ahead of time that it might be spotty.

Ok that's it for today. If I don't get to post tomorrow then I'll update folks on Friday. Happy trails!

Almost!

I leave home tomorrow and will drive down to Riverside Co to visit family for a few days. Angela will fly down next week and then on Friday at 7 am she will drop me off at the border. Our friends Chris and Lisa will also be there and I'll be joined by my hiking pals Diane and Caroline. The weather forecast is to be in the 60's during the day and 40's at night for the first three days. Other than having to carry lots of water, it couldn't be a better start to the hike. And because it won't be hot we won't have to carry quite so much water, even though our first night will be a dry camp so we need enough water for dinner and breakfast the next morning. On day two we only have four miles till the next water source so it seems like it will be pretty easy… or easy enough I guess.

This morning I loaded up my pack with all gear, five liters of water and food for three days and it weighed in at 25 pounds. Not too bad really and it could be bunches worse. This is, in part, because I've upgraded my gear to include more down than I've used in the past. I managed to take some photos of the newest goodies and they are as follows.

Montbell down jacket

Montbell down pants

Zpacks down hood and a Turtlefur beanie

Well this is it for now. I still have way too much to do before I leave at zero dark-thirty tomorrow morning so I've got to sign off now. I'll be communicating via phone from now so expect less than stellar spelling and awkward sentence structure. It's much harder to edit on that little beast. Stay tuned for big adventure!

Getting there

Yesterday I piled all my boxes (32 of 'um) into my van and drove them over to Angela's place. I was amazed to find they tucked nicely into her clothes closet, so it appears they won't take up too much room in her small home. That done I can finally deal with putting stuff away and cleaning the floors for once. Since it is raining today I guess I'll wait till it gets less muddy. What's that old saying? "Never do today what you can put off till tomorrow?" Something like that…

I've been doing pretty well on my long lists and I was actually thinking I might get everything done before leaving-home day. But because it wouldn't be life if things went entirely smoothly I got a call back from the Dermatologists office asking me to call them back on the results of some skin spots I had removed last week. It appears I have a common cancer called Squamous Cell Carcinoma that needs to be surgically removed before I leave on Sunday. Remarkably I was able to get an appointment for this Friday to do the deed but I'll be sporting stitches when I hit the trail. 7-10 days later, approximately at Laguna Mountains - mile 42ish, I'll need to find a way to remove the stitches. It can't be that hard, right?

Fortunately, it was a small spot to begin with so hopefully there won't be too big a hole in my forearm. It's all those years as a lifeguard and outside worker coming back to haunt me. Oh well. I guess I'm lucky to have lived long enough to get this thing in the first place. Polyanna rocks!

Al-righty then

Dang. I've got six days till I take off for LA and family visiting. The good news? All my resupply boxes are done and ready to be mailed by my oh-so-trusty and remarkable girlfriend/partner for forever, Angela. All that remains for me to do is to get them to her art studio tomorrow, where they will await mailing. Truly, I couldn't do this without her support and doggedness.

Last time around (two years ago) I was feeling very different. Terrible intestinal trouble - I thought I might be getting an ulcer I was so verklempt. I was scared and…what? I don't know what. But I guess I was feeling so unsure of myself that I didn't know if I'd manage 100 miles…who could even think of 2,663.5 miles? Well, hey. I've walked 700 miles of hot, dry, waterless desert and I think, and believe, I will be able to do it again.

If there is such a thing as temperament and tendency, I have always been a scared individual. I was raised to be polite, kind and well, British in nature. Not that Brits as a people are timid, au contraire. But there is something about learning to be kind, appropriate and polite that can make a perfectly wild child kinda timid. You could say I've spent the past six decades learning to push against this kind of conditioning. Girl training is part of it. I remember the adult women in my youth saying that it was important to let the menfolk think they were the smarter ones. Really? Who ever thought that would be a good idea? Maybe people without economic power…? Well, never mind why, it is still a lesson I learned that follows me everywhere I go. When you have to temper your own talents against someone else's ego…Well, it isn't often a very good outcome.

Even given all of that, in ten days I will leave my perfectly wonderful life, home and friends/family/animal friends and start walking north, to Canada. What a crazy idea! I can't really say why this is a good idea but to me it seems right. I am a simple person with a silly idea but I hope to make it happen.