Washington Pictures

Here are some of Vince's pictures from Washington and Canada. Enjoy!

Huckleberries and blueberries (red)
Border (and PCT trailmarker)!
Knee-deep snow (okay, he's standing in ankle-deep snow, but it was knee-deep in other places)
Sleeping with lots of snow

Oh Canada!

Canadian Border! It ended up taking me exactly 5 months to hike 2,650 miles from Mexico to Canada, and what an amazing adventure it was! I ended the trip in quite a memorable and dramatic way: hiking through an early season snow storm in the northern Cascades. For the last 100 miles of my journey the temperature never rose above freezing, even during the middle of the day, and my bottle of olive oil remained in solid form the entire time. When I left Stehekin is was raining lightly, and that night the rain froze on my tent. I ended up hiking with 3 other people for the last week, and we ended up camping only a few hundred feet below the snow line. The following day I hiked through 4 inches of snow and had an absolute blast, although running shoes didn't do the best job of keeping the feet warm and dry . . .

A few nights later we basically had to stay awake all night long while camping, knocking the snow off our tents every 20 minutes or so. We all had tarp tents, which utilize a hiking pole as the only tent pole. Needless to say, not meant for snow storms! By morning we found ourselves in a winter wonderland. A few people that I was hiking with didn't have much experience with the snow, and it was great to see how excited they were to play around. While it was ridiculously cold, we all kept in excellent spirits, despite the frozen toes and fingers. As we climbed up a bit in elevation the snow kept getting deeper and deeper, and we ended up having to hike through knee-deep snow for quite a few miles. And all in running shoes! That day none of us sat down even once as it was too chilly to stop, and my lunch consisted entirely of snickers bars. I hope its years before I have to eat another Snickers bar!!! That night I had to deal with some minor frostbite on my toes - felt like pins and needles all night long as they thawed out in my sleeping bag. In the morning I had to bang the insoles to my shoes on a tree to get the ice off of them, and I could barely tie my shoes as the laces were frozen solid. Apparently the same storm dumped more snow a little further south. Hikers just a week or two behind me had to turn around and abruptly end their trip as they encountered chest deep snow and no sign of the trail. I had originally planned on finishing a week or two later than I did - I'm definitely glad that I put in so many 30+ mile days near the end of my trip.

The last day we had only a few miles to go to get to the Canadian border. When we arrived there was seemingly non-stop hooting and hollering, of course complete with drinking celebratory beers (at 9 am!) that some generous people had left there for such an occasion. It was fantastic to have completed the journey that I started 5 months ago, so so so long ago. I feel very lucky to have finished, and it was great to spend time at the border with my friends Monologue, Shadow, and O'dark.

From the border we hiked 8 miles to Manning Provincial Park in Canada, where I happily reunited with Monica and her puppy Toby! We went and joined some other hikers for lunch. I had an appetizer of chicken wings, an enormous bacon cheeseburger with avocado and sauteed onions and mushrooms, a large order of sweet potato fries, and molten lava cake for desert! And of course a few more beers . . .

Now its time to readjust to life in the real world. Despite being able to eat hot food whenever I like and sit on my sofa and watch movies (and hang out with Monica!), I'm incredibly restless. Seems strange not to get up and hike 25 miles, just another "day in the office." Luckily southwest Montana has been blessed with some great early-season snow, and I've been lucky enough to spend the last few days snowboarding in 3 feet of powder!!! Come to think of it, it was snowing on the day when I left in May, and it was snowing in October when I returned.

In summary, the PCT has been an incredible experience, and I feel lucky that I was able to successfully complete such an epic journey. I've always loved the Peace Corps slogan: "The toughest job you will ever love." I believe it applies perfectly to my hike. 20-30 mile days, countless blisters, tons of mosquitoes, freezing water bottles, and 100 degree temps. And I would do it all over again in a heartbeat! I got to see such an amazing array of scenery, from deserts covered with wild flowers, to snow covered passes and dense rain forests. I believe I went through 9 pairs of shoes and over 35 pairs of socks! While the scenery was spectacular, my favorite part of the trip was meeting so many incredible people from so many different walks of life. What an incredible adventure! Thanks to everyone for their support and keeping tuned in, its been a lot of fun to write about it (when I could find internet). And of course many thanks to Monica for keeping me resupplied, and baking me countless loafs of banana bread, chocolate chip cookies, and brownies! Please feel free to contact me anytime at vince.pct@gmail.com. Until my next adventure . . .
A few really cool facts (from pcta.org):

The PCT passes through 3 states (CA, OR, and WA), climbs nearly 60 major mountain passes, descends into 19 major canyons, and goes by more than 1,000 lakes and tarns. It also goes through 3 national monuments, 7 national parks, 24 national forests, and 33 wilderness areas. It passes the 3 deepest lakes in the country: Lake Tahoe, Crater Lake, and Lake Chelan, and goes within a few miles of Mt. Whitney (which most hikers opt to climb).

The highest point is over 13,000' at Forester Pass in the Sierras, and the longest waterless stretch is 35.5 miles, north of Tehachapi, CA.

AND fewer people have thru-hiked the PCT than have climbed Mt. Everest (this one really blew me away!)

Home Stretch!

Vince made it to Stehekin yesterday - a little town that has only one public (satellite) phone and no cell phone service. Cool idea... at least for a vacation. Anyway, he's in the "home stretch" of sorts, but I guess there are good chances for snow the next several days. So, here's to hoping that won't hamper him. He's hiking with a few others - Miles "O'Dark" who I met around Lake Tahoe and a girl (tail)named "Monologue" - so that's good. :)

Anyway, last town before he gets to the border (woo hoo!). It's been a pleasure managing Vince's blog. Be sure to check back for more pictures and more posts on here to come though! Thanks for reading!

Pictures from Oregon are Up

I just uploaded approx 160 of the 500+ photos from Oregon. Here are a few of 'em - visit the Photobucket site for more. Enjoy!

Monica


Brothers

Crater Lake

Almost There!

So I'm half way through Washington now, and only have ~250 miles to go! Washington has been really fun so far - huckleberries are out in full force, so I've spent a lot of time trying to make up for my lack of fresh fruit. Compared to Oregon, Washington has a lot of elevation change, and is relatively slow going. As a headlight is needed by 8 pm at the latest, I've started getting up at 5 am so I have enough time to put in 25 miles by the end of the day. Makes for some really chilly mornings, but the sunrise definitely makes it very worthwhile, and the early morning is such a great time to hike. So far I've had pretty good luck with weather, with only 2 unpleasant days so far. I unfortunately had to hike over "the knife's edge" in the Goat Rocks Wilderness, known as one of the sketchiest sections of the PCT, in a complete whiteout with high winds, which was pretty scary. 15 feet visibility at best. For you Bozmanites, very similar to the Bridger Ridge, but much more narrow and exposed. Today I woke up to rain and had to hike all day in the freezing cold wind. Luckily I ended up at Snoqualmie Pass, and I took advantage of my last opportunity for a hotel. Definitely nice to dry out, and they're calling for sun all week, so I'm excited to head back out. One thing that has really motivated to hike through unpleasant weather is that I see so many locals out hiking at the same time. All seem to make the comment that the bad weather is well worth the amazing scenery. I definitely agree! Coming up is the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, which sounds like heaven to me . . .

Movin' on Up

Vince called from White Pass, WA today. "Only" about 350 more miles left - YAY! He's been doing about 25 mi/day in the Cascades. He said he's had an exciting time the past week -- lots of steep elevation changes have left him worn out... which says a lot for someone who has been hiking almost every day of the past 4 months... And yesterday he hiked through a foggy "white-out" of sorts on a sketchy part of the trail - pretty steep. He also had a run-in with a bee's nest which left him with a couple stings and a lot of nervousness (very luckily no allergic reaction though!). But alas, he got into White Pass today and had a good meal of greasy food and got his resupply boxes, which he had needed as he was out of food by this point.

I also received more pictures from him, which I will post to the Photobucket page in the near future... there are a lot to sift through there, as it's all of Oregon, so it might take me a bit. But for now, thanks for reading and have a great day!

Vince's progress map (click to enlarge) :

One More State!

At the Washington border! Crazy to think that I only have a little over 500 miles to go. Oregon was a really fun state to hike through. It was unbelievably hot for the first week, with temps over 100 degrees. But it soon cooled down, and the terrain was really mellow (smooth trail, no rocks), so very fun to hike. My bother Daniel and his buddy Adam came out and hiked with me for 5 days near Bend. Despite bad blisters, they both seemed to have a great time overall. The scenery was spectacular, and evidence of volcanic activity was everywhere. We even got to hike through some massive lava fields, which made for one of my favorite days of my hike thus far.

Compared to the rest of the trail, Oregon is very flat, so I was able to put in some big mileage days. Twice I hiked nearly 200 miles in about 6 days. There's one section of trail that is one of the flattest of the whole PCT, and where many hikers try to put in their longest day of hiking. I decided to try for 40 miles! I started hiking at 5 am (after hiking 25 miles the previous day), and put in 20 miles by noon. After an hour and a half lunch break, I was able to reach 30 miles by 4 pm, and actually made it to 40 miles just after 8 pm. Other than my lunch break, I only took four 15-minute breaks throughout the day. As expected, I was absolutely exhausted, and incredibly hungry. All I needed was a place to camp. Easier said than done! The vegetation is so dense in Oregon, and the terrain somewhat hilly, so it can be really hard to find places to camp. I have no problem whatsoever cowboy camping on the trail (sleeping under the stars, no tent), but they were calling for rain, so I needed to find a spot where I could set up my tent. I had to hike 8 more miles to find a spot, and didn't get to camp until 11:00, and still hadn't cooked dinner. So I ended up hiking 48 miles in 18 hours, breaks included! I seriously considered hiking 2 more miles so I would hit 50 miles for the day, but I was worried about finding a camp spot soon after. I'm glad I stopped, as I found the following day that there wasn't a spot for another 5 miles beyond the 50-mile mark. 48 is good enough for me! The following day I didn't leave camp until noon, and ended up hiking only 9 miles that day. While certainly sore, I felt good, and didn't even get any blisters from my long day.

For the last 50 miles I got to hike through areas of what I expected Oregon to be like: dense, lush forests, moss-covered trees, and tons of waterfalls (the earlier sections of Oregon were much drier). Yesterday I hiked along Eagle Creek, which made for another of my favorite days of the trip. Tons of waterfalls! I even got to hike through Tunnel Falls, where you actually get to hike behind a huge waterfall! However, it rained non-stop for the last 2 days. Incredibly, this was the first time that I hiked through rain all day long. I actually enjoyed hiking through the rain, as it just added on to the excitement of hiking through such lush scenery. But, all my stuff got soaked while setting up camp, and I woke up soaking wet from the condensation inside my tent. Luckily I didn't have to camp again last night as I made it into the town of Cascade Locks, on the Washington border. I can't imagine having to camp multiple days in the rain, especially with a soaking wet down sleeping bag. It's very likely it'll happen in Washington, but as my fried Brian said (who hiked the trail last summer), it'll just add on the experience of the PCT!