Month: August 2021

8/13/21

Daily Miles: 18

2021 CDT Total Miles: 317

Overall CDT Total Miles: 2390

Phew! We can’t remember being this exhausted in a long time. Today was easily the hardest day of this trip.

Dave drove us back to the trail this morning and we started walking around 9:15am. Definitely should have started earlier given the look of the elevation profile for today, but we do enjoy a non-rushed morning in town.

The trail started climbing away from the highway pretty decisively. It already felt warm when we started walking, so we knew it was going to be a hot day. The sky was clear and we felt good after having a relaxing night in town.

We could see from the elevation profile that the trail was going to continue with more steep ups and downs today. It felt like that kind of a day, but super-charged. We knew that we had to do a least 18 miles to keep close to our average daily miles, since this is only a three day stretch…we don’t have a bunch of other days to make up some miles.

A few miles into the walk, we came upon a yurt on the trail. It seemed more permanent than other yurts we’ve seen and was open to CDT hikers. It was really cool inside and definitely gave us some inspiration as we continued down the trail. It would have been fun to sleep there, but sadly it wasn’t in our schedule to stop after just three miles.

We had some nice ridge walking again today. The views didn’t disappoint as we wound our way along the ridges. It was fun to be able to look back and see where we had come from hours ago. At the same time, it could be demoralizing to look ahead and see the trail heading straight up the side of a mountain.

A lot of the forest today was completely burned. The trees were often still standing, but they were all dead. This meant that we didn’t have much for shade today from the sun. We all felt like we got a bit cooked by the sun.

Some of the descents today were so steep, we wished we had gone up them instead of down. Mace took three separate tumbles today (luckily not hurting himself), but it is just an indication of how steep and slippery (trail covered with small rocks) the trail was.

We met a southbound CDT hiker, Cash22, this afternoon. He is the first hiker we’ve seen in 4 or 5 days. We were so exhausted that we couldn’t put too much effort into a conversation with him. We just chatted for a few minutes before continuing our climb.

At 7pm, we stopped for a quick dinner/snack to power us for the final stretch to where we had wanted to camp. That break and food seemed to give us the energy to get ourselves up our final climb and then down to a dried up lake which we are now camped at. We made it to camp just before 8pm and we are all completely wiped.

As we looked at our navigation app, we could see that over the course of the 18 miles we hiked today, we gained over 6,200 feet and lost over 4,300 feet. That basically equally a ton of up and down for the day. We are all looking forward to a very good night of sleep.

The post CDT Part 2 – Day 18 – Lewis & Clark Pass appeared first on Long Distance Hiker.

8/14/21

Daily Miles: 19

2021 CDT Total Miles: 336

Overall CDT Total Miles: 2409

It was a nice temperature overnight and we all slept good. Just a quarter mile down the trail the temperature was much colder. As we went to find our water source, we were all so cold. It was surprising the difference.

After getting our water, we started a climb. Within 100 yards, we passed through a very noticeable temperature level. It was so much warmer from one step to the next. At that same time, we could smell smoke. As we looked across the valley, it was obvious that the smoke had blown in overnight.

We climbed up out of the valley and had a few more ridge climbs to do before embarking on a very long descent. While the grade was mostly quite good, the descent was so long that it got very tiring. We came down into a think forest with really large lodgepole pines. With the smokey sky today, our views were pretty limited. We could see the next ridge over, but not much beyond that.

We stopped at the bottom of the valley near a stream to do laundry and to have lunch. It felt nice today to feel like we could take more breaks and linger more than we could yesterday. Our bodies felt pretty refreshed today, but we felt like we were running a bit low on energy.

The rest of the afternoon was spent walking up the bottom of a river valley. We kept looking down at the river expecting to see a bear, because it looked like the ideal place for bears to hang out.

We made our miles by 5pm and decided to set up camp in a nice healthy patch of forest. We knew that the terrain coming up was going to be mostly burned forest so we didn’t see the need to keep going.

It is nice to get into camp early today so that we can have time just chatting and relaxing.

The post CDT Part 2 – Day 19 – Scapegoat Wilderness appeared first on Long Distance Hiker.

8/15/21

Daily Miles: 16

2021 CDT Total Miles: 352

Overall CDT Total Miles: 2425

While it was really warm when we went to sleep, by the time we woke up in the morning it had gotten really cold. We figured it would be a warm night since we were camped at a pretty low elevation. It seems like around 3am is when the temperature falls…before that we were sweating in our sleeping bags.

The hiking today was so pleasant and easy. We had a nice climb in the morning over a short pass. It was just the right amount of climbing to warm us up.

For most of the day we walked through burned forest. A sign at the end of the trail today described the fire that came through in 1988 and burned nearly a quarter of a million acres. We were surprised the fire had burned so long ago, because in most areas it seemed like there was nearly no tree re-growth. There was, however, a sea of wildflowers through the valley which seem to come in after a wildfire.

This morning we met three hikers going southbound on the CDT. No Trace and Unbreakable are hiking their remaining miles on the CDT (East Glacier to Helena) in order to complete the Triple Crown. Tenacity had several starts to a southbound CDT hike this summer, but seemed to be getting in the groove. The group was really fun to talk with and they also had some good trail intel on the section coming up after Augusta.

We talked with them for about 20 minutes and then continued on down the trail. About nine miles in, we got on an alternate to finish up the day. Other hikers had mentioned that the true CDT trail in this part has a lot of downed trees, but that this parallel trail was clear and nice.

We took the alternate along Straight Creek and it was indeed a really nice trail…mostly flat or with a slight downward slope. A lot of the trail was lined on both sides with thimbleberry plants and we stopped to pick berries whenever we saw ripe ones. It definitely slowed our progress, but we weren’t in a hurry and it was totally worth it.

Before leaving Lincoln, we had scheduled with a local guy to pick us up at the trailhead today. We weren’t sure how early we could finish and we knew there was no cell service for the last day and half, so we told him 5:30pm just to give us a good buffer. We ended up finishing around 3:30pm, so now we just get to wait for our ride to show up. Not a big deal since we can just relax in the shade. We’re looking forward to getting into Augusta and having a rest day tomorrow.

The post CDT Part 2 – Day 20 – Straight Creek appeared first on Long Distance Hiker.

Hiked on 9-13-17

I was beginning to run out of new places to hike within a two hour drive of my house. So I decided to branch out even further. Here is my first foray into Orange County. The streets are clean, the people are friendly and the beaches are beautiful. For what more could one ask? Having to endure the 5 Freeway might be the only drawback.

I parked in a pay lot near the Balboa Pier. I chose this starting point as it is the midpoint between the eastern and western ends of my route, meaning I would be back at my car at the halfway point of my hike. This would allow me to rest in my car and eat lunch and carry less weight.

I performed by customary trip beneath the pier, and then on top and to the end.

Just the start of a beautiful day.

I headed down the coast to begin, passing Peninsula Park.

Be present. Live life. Enjoy it to it’s fullest. Too soon it fades like footprints in the sand.

I closed in on my turnaround point, a famous surfing spot known as The Wedge. Although I am not a surfer, I recall it fondly from Endless Summer, the classic surfing documentary I watched when I was a kid.

I don’t remember seeing any surfing on this day, but rather a lot of bodyboarding.

As I approached this jetty, the eastern border of The Wedge, it became apparent why this beach has such a reputation for treacherous, bone-crunching surf.

I climbed atop the jetty, which revealed a second jetty across a channel that leads into Newport Bay Harbor.

Beyond the second jetty is Corona Del Mar State Beach, pocked with interesting looking caves yearning for exploration.

I turned back and headed up coast now. The Sun broke through, revealing gorgeous, blue skies.

I don’t recall exactly, but I’m pretty sure I took an alternate route back, enjoying unique houses and landscaping.

I neared and then passed Newport Pier, saving it for later in the day.

I passed a large, green orb, a sculpture engraved with notable OC residents, as I recall. The first one shown is John Wayne.

Also, a silver statue of lifeguard Ben Carlson, who drowned at this spot trying to save a swimmer in distress.

All day long, as I walked through this area, I saw small tributes to Carlson. To understand the meaning behind “Ben Did Go”, research Carlson and also the phrase “Eddie Would Go”. Also, look up the video on YouTube which shows Carlson’s paddle out ceremony, attended by thousands of local residents, to see how deeply revered this man is.

I always like walking in beach communities. The residents seem more free to express their individuality through their own decorative touches.

This one house really took the cake. All decked out in a pirate theme, it looked like something out of an amusement park.

On my way back to my car, I took a quick tour of Newport Pier.

I ended my day very happy I decided to make this long drive. More Orange County hikes happened soon after this, and I imagine there will be more in days to come.

The post Newport Beach – Balboa Peninsula first appeared on Silent Hiker.