3 days, 3 different days!

As I write this, we are camped out at the top of this mountain, amongst boulders and other hikers. We've had an incredible 3 days of hiking, plus one zero day at kickoff, on Saturday.

We started the first day on trail at 7:40AM after some photos at the monument. It was a beautiful, sunny, hot day and we walked a total of 20 miles. It was relatively easy walking with only one long ascent out of Hauser creek. Water sources were fine and we only started getting tired towards the end, but we knew that Lake Morena and the ADZPCTKO was near.

On Sunday, we started out early, at 6:20AM, to get a bit of a head start on some of the others, as many of us were leaving from Lake Morena that morning. The day brought a huge amount of variability in terms of landscapes and terrain. Over the 22 miles that we covered, we crossed some streams, walked through a meadow, a forest and along countless miles of cliffs. We were exhausted by the time we got to Burnt Rancheria, where we spent the night. It was quiet and we had a bathroom nearby! What luxury!

This morning we started out slow as we had to pick up some resupply boxes at Mount Laguna and we had to wait until 9AM to do so. The day was hot and with the late start, we only managed 13k. We stopped at Pioneer Mail picnic area to have dinner and hang out for a bit. We ate dinner with June and Brian aka the Michigan Wolverine, aka Batman, aka Jared. He's in his late fourties and absolutely hilarious. We met him at Scout and Frodo's in San Diego. So after dinner we all wanted to continue on to this 'boulder field' where it sounded like it was great camping and it was only another few miles down the trail. When we arrived we were so stoked. It was a perfect evening and we were at the top of a mountain with an amazing view. I'll try to post some photos. There were at least another 8-10 folks there as well. We got set up and climbed up on a huge boulder and enjoyed the night sky. At about 11PM, as you may imagine, at the top of a mountain, the winds picked up. A lot. The tent would not stay up and do it served more as a cocoon as we just wrapped ourselves up and tried to sleep. Maybe 4 or 5 hours total. But it was worth it.

There once was a man from Huntsville

Who seriously needed to be medicated!!

This little story is just way too funny not to share. Probably one of those 'you had to be there' type situations, but it's hilarious nonetheless. So we were just on our way to drive to Buffalo and we stopped in Huntsville because Julia's mom had to pick something up real quick. Well when she got out of the vehicle, she dropped her phone case on the ground and didn't notice. So a gentleman who was parked beside us came to get in his car and noticed it. He picks it up and looks in the window with a confused look on his face. I recognized what it was and opened the door to retrieve it and thank him. WELL, let me tell you, that was the beginning of quite the experience!! This man (probably late 60s, didn't get his name unfortunately) started going on about allllll sorts of stuff. He told us a few times that he used to teach psychiatry, and that he had a house in Aruba and the ladies couldn't resist him. Had us in stitches. He saw how packed the car was and so inquired about where we were heading. We just told him California. Oh, and he asked Julia's dad who we were and he said that we were his daughter and son in law. He proceeds to tell Julia how beautiful she is and how much better she could do!! I was dying laughing. So this jibber jabber goes on for a while longer, just making jokes and such. Then he gets wind that this is our honeymoon and he immediately goes to his trunk and pulls out a big bottle of V8, and jug of sunlight detergent and a baby brush / comb set and presented them to us as wedding gifts. The randomness of all of that was THE perfect beginning to this adventure.

Gotta keep that one fresh in mind for when we need a good laugh on trail!

Down to the wire

After insane amounts of planning (probably not enough) we're down to the wire. Saying our final goodbyes to a lot of people makes this whole thing a lot more real. It's more or less here. Our last day in Ottawa is tomorrow. Wednesday we'll be in San Diego, Friday we'll be on trail.

Wow. Let's do it.

A Perfect Day

Nothing other than "perfect" can describe our wedding day. It's such an important day, and so many details can easily go wrong, especially with an outdoor wedding in April, in Canada. We were ready to roll with the punches and just deal with whatever happened. In the days leading up, the forecast called for rain. Not much, but some. Then we could see the hourly forecast for Saturday and it looked like it would start raining right when the ceremony was meant to start, and then it was pushed back a little, and then a little more, and it didn't end up raining at all!! We had put up a 10' x 30' tent just in case, which we kept up regardless. The ceremony was perfect, and our 3 year old niece was absolutely adorable as our flower girl. She knew exactly what she had to do and she did it PERFECTLY! Because they're on a lake, it can get quite windy and no word of a lie, about 20 minutes after the ceremony ended, a big wind blew up the hill and the tent went FLYING! It flipped right over, how's that for timing?! My good friend Alex, who doubled as our photographer took some great shots during and after the ceremony all over the Shillolo's property.

Dinner was also perfect. It was catered, and Julia's wish was that it was vegan. For a completely vegan dinner, it was incredibly delicious, as was the vegan cake (made by my mother and aunt). Just as dinner was winding down and dancing was about to start, I gave Alex (Julia's sister's boyfriend) the signal that he could go start with the fireworks. Alex had researched, purchased and prepared a fantastic fireworks show for us, and just as he was about to start, I called everyone out on the deck to watch as he set them off from down by the water. It was a great surprise for many of them as they had no idea! And for Sierra, she had never seen fireworks before and was absolutely OVER the moon impressed! She literally talked about the "magic in the sky" for the rest of the night! The perfect weather continued and we moved the dancing outside, as it was a comfortable 16C evening with clear skies and stars out. We danced for a couple hours, opened a few gifts from family and friends and then headed over to Deerhurst resort.

The end / the beginning. Now on to the Honeymoon!!!

OH - the only not so "perfect" part of this whole thing was that I have either badly bruised, fractured or dislocated a rib... a perfect combination of alcohol and stupidity. :( Will find out in the morning after some xrays what the deal is.

Clothing

When you're choosing the few pieces of clothing that you'll wear for 4.5 months straight, you better darn well be sure they fit well, serve the purpose and that you like them, or you'll be figuring out alternatives on the fly. While there's a chance that some of the pieces of clothing that I've chosen may not work out well, I've done a bunch of research and tried out a bunch of options and finally came up with a solid plan of stuff I feel comfortable with. Some stuff I got because it was on sale and it served the purpose, some stuff I got because it is a popular choice amongst other PCT hikers and some stuff I got because it's top notch quality.

Here's a video I just did, going through my choices.

We're READY!

One month today we'll be on trail. Leaving Campo and taking our first steps North will feel OH SO GOOD after months and months and months of planning.

I feel confident we're ready. I used to do research and find stuff that i hadn't thought of and needed to look into. Now I do reading just to reinforce the fact that WE'RE READY!

Physically, we're ready
Planning wise, we're ready
Financially, we're ready
Emotionally, we're ready
Knowledge wise, we're ready
Experience wise, we are so NOT ready. But we'll gain experience pretty quick!!

I feel ready to just be on trail. I know I'm not alone. A year's worth of planning is as done as it's going to be and there's not much to do now but just wait til we leave. Oh, and get married, I guess. :)

Going Postal

Today, Julia and I drove 11 boxes across the border to Ogdensburg, New York, to mail them to Bakersfield (to Abby). We had two important reasons for doing this. Firstly, we wanted to make sure that we could answer any questions at customs, and we DID have to answer a few, and they looked through the boxes. Secondly, it was SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than if I had mailed them from here. It's about an hour's drive, but we saved about $300 off shipping charges.






 We parked outside the post office and affixed our pre-addressed shipping labels. We had to keep the boxes open to show them at the border, and then taped the heck out of them so they make it all the way to California!

Hilarious sign on the way home. Some may think that we should have just continued straight... given the decision to actually do this thing!