John and Isabelle’s Pacific Crest Trail Adventure

25/05/2023

Friday day 64
We had a beautiful day of hiking along an old railroad bed into the town of cass, where we hung out for a while and ate pizza. Also saw another snake!

Saturday day 65
We rolled into the town of durbin today where we hung out, did laundry, and ate some good food. We ended up staying in a great place with two bedrooms for only $35!! We could not believe the deal we got.

Sunday day 66
Today was very eventful! The first part of the day we continued walking along the beautiful greenbrier river. We also hit both the highest point on trail as well as the halfway point! To make things even better, we got to stay at a shelter named John’s camp! We also saw a blue crawfish!

Monday day 67
We walked through the small town of glady today and we went through a farm with lots and lots of lamb and baby cows who all made noises to say hi! There wasn’t anything in town except a small pay phone which we thought was funny. We ended up spending the night along the glady river in a newly constructed shelter!

Tuesday day 68
Had a pretty day along another river today, and saw another snake.

Wednesday day 69
We made it to the LRC bed and breakfast which is also an education farm with lots of friendly animals!

19/05/2023

19/05/2023

Monday day 53
Spent the day with granny and grandad today and drove up to pearisburg VA to start the trail.

Tuesday day 54
After spending the night in a lovely Airbnb and doing some grocery shopping, isabelle and I set off from pearisburg on the Appalachian trail, which connects to the Allegheny trail after about 15 miles. We spent the night at rice mountain shelter on the AT about 6 miles in, where we had some gorgeous views and an awesome sunset.

Wednesday day 55
We hiked the 9 remaining miles to the Allegheny trail (ALT), where just after starting it we met another thruhiker named Chester who was just finishing after having started in the other direction. He said he enjoyed the trail, but had a run in with a dog on the road walking section that was coming up where he had to use his pepper spray. After learning we did not have any, he gave the rest of his to us- our first trail magic! Thank you Chester!

Thursday day 56
We started off the morning by seeing the raptor observatory, where we spent quite some time watching all the birds flying by which was really cool. However, soon after we started the roadwalk section which is where the scary dogs are which we were rather nervous about. A couple of miles in, we met a former president of the West Virginia trails association (the group who maintains the Allegheny trail) named Brian who regularly visits the raptor observatory. He offered us a ride past all the scary dogs which we gladly accepted. The rest of the road walking for the day was nice and uneventful.

Friday day 57
We completed another 10 miles of the road walk alternate and made it into the town of white sulfur springs. The road that we were following passes through someone’s backyard, where one of the owners large dogs lunged for Isabelle but thankfully the owner was there to grab the dog before he could bite. While the owner was very kind and apologetic, we were definitely rattled! We got to the town of white sulfur springs by the afternoon where we booked a night at the schoolhouse hotel, which is a converted schoolhouse. The hotel was very fancy and we had a great time staying there.

Saturday day 58
We left white sulfur springs today and hiked out 10 miles out of town after going grocery shopping and doing laundry. We saw a large rattlesnake today who was not bothered by us. We spent the night at the graham hill shelter which had great views!

Sunday day 59
We saw a couple more snakes today, all of whom were sleeping and couldn’t care less that we were there. The day was fairly uneventful, which made the evening even more exciting… at around 9 PM a puppy snuck under our tents vestibule and decided to sleep there!

Monday day 60
Most of today was spent figuring out what to do with our new doggy friend! It drizzled for most of the day so we didn’t take many pics, but we called animal control and hiked a mile off trail to a state park where they met us. The dog was very well trained and was so sweet, and we were very sad to see doggy go. We honestly would have loved to have kept him but we were sure whoever his family was missed him greatly

Tuesday day 61
It rained again today and we showed off our stylish rain gear. So many mushrooms and newts!

Wednesday day 62
Finally had some clear skies today which was nice. Saw lots of mushrooms, spiders, frogs, and a baby snake or two! Also passed by a funny farm thing!

Thursday day 63
Had some great views today which we enjoyed. We also climbed a cool fire tower!

09/05/2023

Tuesday day 40
We left big bear today and did 20 miles, and we were very impressed with ourselves! We had a little bit of snow again but nothing crazy. We camped with our three Australian friends and our friend named endgame. We also met some hikers we had met 3 weeks ago!

Wednesday day 41
We did another 20 mile day with intermittent snow in the beginning that disappeared after a few miles, still got out our microspikes though! After a slow first few miles, we had a pretty hike down the mission gorge creek, which we crossed about 20 times. Even though we thought we might get a nice downhill, the trail we in pretty rough shape in parts and hard to find 😞.

Thursday day 42
What an insanely hot day today! The temps were in the 90s, but thankfully started hiking early and passed by a wind farm who let us hang out in their shade and let us buy soda from them! We said goodbye to endgame today and also reached 500 miles! After hanging out at the I10 underpass for a few hours recovering from the heat, we did a few miles in the dark and camped at the base of san Jacinto.

Friday day 43
We hiked up about 8 thousand feet today over 15 miles. We started hiking at 4:30 AM to beat the heat, but it was still 85 when we started! We took the uphill nice and slow with lots of breaks, and thankfully because we were going up the temperature stayed the same.

Saturday day 44
We left at 5:30 this morning to hit the snow when it was still firm, but it was still incredibly slow going. The trail was very steep up and down, and we lost the boot track for an hour. We did 6 miles in 8 hours, which was a little demoralizing. However, we still decided to try and summit san jacinto, which is the tallest mountain in Southern California standing at just under 11,000 feet. We did the 2.5 mile uphill in 2 hours, and we took some good pictures at the top. We were a little bummed on the way down that we were traversing a slope, as we were hoping to do some glissading. We still managed to lose the boot track though which made coming down disappointingly slow. Once we got down, we decided to push on because my mom had rented a place in idyllwild, and we finished at 10:15 PM. Thank you mom!!!!

Sunday day 45
After an exhausting couple of days, isabelle and I decided to take the day off. However, this was the day that we ordinarily have intersected with my friend eamonn aka Irish AF who I hiked the AT with so we hiked the 3 miles back to the trail with a dozen donuts to hand out and waited for him to come by. When he did, we hung with him for a few hours which was super fun. We hung out at the hot tub at our place for the night.

Monday day 46
We slackpacked (hiked with only the items needed for a day hike) a 21 mile today. We thought it was going to easy, but lo and behold we were wrong (noticing a pattern??). We hiked the first few miles in snow which wasn’t bad, but the rest of the trail had blow down after blowdown which really slowed us down. Combine this with having to get our microspikes and ice axes out intermittently, our pace was frustratingly slow. However, we made it down and met up with mom again in time to go to the brewpub for dinner and more hot tub that night.

Tuesday day 47
We pulled a 30 mile day today?!?!? Just kidding… we did not miles today. Because we were meeting Isabelle’s parents in LA today, we would have needed to start hiking at 5 AM and we were like… naaaahhh. Instead we had brownies and ice cream in the hot tub with mom. We made it to LA, said goodbye to mom after checking out the hotel pool, and rode home with Isabelle’s parents.

Wednesday day 48- Sunday day 52
We spent the next couple of days at Isabelle’s parents house where we went for a few hikes but otherwise just hung out. We worked on deciding what to do next given that the sierras still have more snow than we are comfortable navigating. Because Northern California still have a Lot of snow, we decided to do the Allegheny trail in West Virginia, which is 311 miles, and the mid-state trail in Pennsylvania, which is 330 miles. Afterwards, we will fly to washington and hike south until august. Given Isabelle’s parents were going to LAX on Sunday anyway, we decided to hitch a ride with them instead of finishing off the section to Kennedy meadows (entrance to the sierras) and then figuring out how to get to LAX. We decided to fly to RDU so my grandparents could drive us to the trailhead.

Monday day 53
Spent the day with granny and grandad today and drove up to pearisburg VA to start the trail.

09/05/2023

Monday, day 32
We mostly hung out in wrightwood today and did things like go grocery shopping and planning our next week. We spent the night at inspiration point which is where we left the trail the day before.

Tuesday day 33
The first half of the day we hiked in deep snow, and could not follow the trail and ended up doing parts on trail and parts on a dirt road that the trail frequently intersected. Once we started our descent from the ridge however the snow became infrequent and patchy.

Wednesday day 34
We had a great 15 mile downhill today towards the intersection of I15, where there is a famous McDonald’s right off the trail, which of course we stopped at. After hanging out a few hour and a few thousand calories later, we did another four miles down the trail, brining our mileage for the day to about 19! Our longest day yet!

Thursday day 35
Today was an awesome today! We hiked through the morning to the silver wood lake state recreation area, where we hiked around this beautiful giant lake. To make things even better, we also received trail magic from mo and ed, who were cooking up sandwiches for all the hikers that passed through and had a bunch of hammocks all set up. We also met a new friend at the end of the day named endgame who we camped with that night.

Friday day 36
We had our first major river crossing today across deep creek, which thankfully only went up to our upper thighs. We also hiked up the beautiful deep creek canyon and into some natural hot springs, where we spent most of the afternoon. On our way, we also befriended some day hikers!

Saturday day 37
We had our longest day yet at 19 miles and some change and were very proud of ourselves! We hiked out of deep creek Canyon and through beautiful pine forests. We also camped with other people for the first time in weeks, as we have been seeing more and more northbounders who started in April.

Sunday day 38
We did another 19 mile day into town (big bear) that was beautiful with great views of big bear lake. We got a very easy hitch into town and got dinner with our friend, endgame!

Monday day 39
We had a town day today where we mostly did laundry, went grocery shopping, went to the post office etc. our cottage we rented also came with a hot tub which we made sure to enjoy.

17/04/2023

17/04/2023

Tuesday day 26
We hiked from agua dulce to acton today (10 miles). We had a nice brunch in agua dulce, said goodbye to some of our friends, and had a relaxing hike through sunset.

Wednesday day 27
We hitched a ride into town today to get some new insoles for Isabelle since her feet have been in a lot of pain. Our hitch, Paula even gave us a ride back! She was super nice! We hiked about 14 miles all uphill into the Angeles national forest which was gorgeous. We saw a couple military planes doing what looked like military exercises which was fun.

Thursday day 28
We managed 15 miles today, despite getting lost within the first hour, ending up several hundred feet below the trail, and taking an extra hour to get back on trail through deep snow. We also got frustrated with the snow and how slow going it was, so took the forest service road, which was snow free, for the rest of the day.

Friday day 29
We started off the day with a lot of steep snow, but thankfully hit it in the early morning so it was nice and firm. We did get out our ice axes and crampons though! The rest of the day was fairly smooth and we met lots of fun northbounders! We also saw a friend from our second week on trail again, Vladimir from the Czech Republic.

Saturday, day 30
the trail went up to around 7500 feet today and was buried in snow, so we ended up taking the highway 2 for the whole day. However, the highway was also buried! By the time we got to the snow sections, it was rather soft which made for slow hiking.

Sunday, day 31
we woke up at 3:00 am this morning to try and hit the rest of the road while the snow was still firm. There were a couple of sketchy sections where the snow drifts were tall and steep, and the boot track melted away from the days prior and then iced over. Thankfully we were ok but we were glad to have skipped the actual trail! Two friends of ours went over Baden Powell (tall mt on trail) and said the mountaineering was fairly technical up there and we definitely don’t have the skills for that. We stayed in a very pretty cabin tonight in wrightwood, which has been a very welcoming town.

11/04/2023

Tuesday day 18
We finally got to start south today! We took the bus over the trailhead to start our hike, and the man sitting behind us also got off the bus as he slept through his stop! Since the bus does not ordinarily stop where we got off, He debated whether to walk back to the previous stop which was a two hour walk or get a hitch on the side of the busy highway. He followed us down the frontage road to the trailhead, and about an after we parted ways and we were nearing the top of the mountain, we saw him trying to break into the car that was parked at the bottom! What a crazy day already. We then hiked about 17 miles through a wind farm, and guess what?, it was windy!! Super interesting views though.

Wednesday, day 19, it was cold last night! Almost all of our water bottles froze, but we were glad to be camping next to our Dutch friends. We did another 17 miles, which were made difficult by the frequently cross crossing motorcycle tracks, which made finding the trial challenging at times. We ended up camping at a beautiful creek right at the start of the LA aqueduct section.

Thursday, day 20
Today we completed the infamous aqueduct section of the trail, which is a 17 mile long incredibly hot, low, and exposed section of trail that follows the concrete aqueduct. We woke up early to avoid the heat and finished at a fun place called hiker town at around 2 pm, so we hiked pretty quick! We spent most of the hike with two new friends, Captain Hook and lucky cat. The kind folks at hiker town let us camp in the yard and take a hot shower for about 10 bucks, and we gorged ourselves on some tasty food at the local convenience store which offered free rides to hikers!

Friday, day 21
We finally got to hike through some of the beautiful wildflower fields we have been seeing! Some of my favorite bits of trail so far. We hiked high up onto a ridge, where we still had lots of snow! We couldn’t find the trail at one point because of it, so we hiked over the forest service road until it intersected with the trail that continued on the south facing side of the mountain. The path went through a recent burn area, so was covered in poodle dog bush, which causes a similar reaction to poison ivy or oak when touched.

Saturday, day 22
We got to use our crampons today! There was still a fair amount of snow on the walk down the ridge today, and some parts were sketchy enough that we thought it might be wise. We hiked down from the mountain range, and camped in a pretty valley next to a river

Sunday, day 23
As we were hiking today, there was a rattlesnake that was blocking the trail! The trail was very sloped, making it almost impossible to simply hike around it, however, with some slightly sketchy rock climbing we managed to get past. We took a siesta since it was getting so hot, and hiked into our campsite through sunset which was gorgeous.

Monday, day 24
We hiked 13 miles into agua dulce today and it was HOT! Took another siesta before we got into town and saw another rattlesnake! We stayed at farmer John’s oasis in town, where we met up with some friends (red blend and Emily) that we met our first day on trail.day

04/04/2023

We just finished our second week!

On day 8, Saturday, mile 77, we took a “zero day” (we did no trail miles), and hung out with Isabelle’s parents who drove down to see us and Isabelle’s older sister. We made some gear adjustments and relaxed.

Day 9, Sunday, we said goodbye to Isabelle’s family and hiked 10 miles into the dry desert. We camped next to some friends JP and Kevin who are two brothers from the Netherlands! It was fun for me to practice my Dutch with them.

Day 10, Monday, we hiked about 15 miles today on this funny ridge where the trail would
follow the ridges in and out and it took like a mile of walking to move forward a quarter mile. Our campsite was beautiful however, and we met a new friend named Vladimir who is from the Czech Republic! He made a fire and a bunch of us all hung out next to it which was nice.

Day 11, Tuesday. Today was my favorite day on trail! We hiked through beautiful rolling meadows and finished in a gorgeous canyon. We had perfect weather too.

Day 12, Wednesday. The weather decided to punish us for having too much fun by welcoming us with cold rain that turned into wintery mix by the afternoon. It got so cold that Isabelle started to become hypothermic so we set up the tent to wait out the remainder of the storm. After the weather abated we hiked on another 4 miles through the dark to get lower on the mountain, and even then, it snowed a good couple inches that night and dropped down into the 20’s.

Day 13 Thursday.
Isabelle’s feet were bothering her with the new shoes she bought, so we switched shoes this morning to give her feet a break in a larger shoe. The day started off with all the snow melting, which soaked our pants, and then clears up as we go lower. However, by the afternoon the weather turned and we had yet more rain turning into snow for the next couple hours. It was strange! We didn’t see a single soul either today or yesterday!

Day 14- 17, Friday- Monday
We made it to our resupply stop on Friday and spent some lovely time at a trail angels house named Richard with his two lovely dogs foxy brown and Archie. With all of the snow still present in the next section of san Jacinto and the. San Bernardino’s, we decided to flip up to tehachapi (mile 566) and hike south back to mile 151 to give the snow a chance to melt. On Sunday our friend Patrick gave us a ride up north. Although we wanted to hike on Monday, there was a high wind advisory (winds 55 mph, gusts 70 mph) that day so we took another “zero” day and hung out with our two Dutch friends, JP and Kevin. We even went bowling!

25/03/2023

Some pictures from our first week!

25/03/2023

What an adventurous first week! Our first three days were largely uneventful with beautiful views and nice weather other than some light morning drizzle our third morning. Isabelle also got to use her hammock for the first time!

However, by day 4 (Tuesday) our weather turned and we hiked for about 10 miles uphill in steady cold rain. By the time we arrived near the summit of mount laguna we were all shivering and very wet, but thankfully the good people at pine house cafe and tavern had a nice warm fire for us to dry ourselves off at, and even let us spend the night on their floor as all other accommodations were booked. The owner is also a French pastry chef and made some of the most amazing deserts I have tried.

Day five started off with a snow storm that got us on the news!! News story here: https://youtu.be/d4xQLFjwtLY. We had brutal winds and sideways hail for most of the morning, but those thankfully dissipated by the afternoon. That night, it snowed more heavy wet snow that even collapsed my tent on Isabelle and i and we had to get out in the middle of the night to fix it!

Day 6- we had to say goodbye to mom and dad today in cold sideways rain- thank you for being with us for the first week! We finally descended the ridge that afternoon and and the consant rain abated.

Day 7, we got a ride from a former pct hiker named sunshine into the beautiful mountain town of Julian, where we enjoyed free pie at “moms pies” and hung out until Isabelle’s older sister could pick her up and drive us to her house in Escondido.

FOX 5 San Diego reporter Heather Lake was in the mountains of San Diego County, CA to see how some of the residents are dealing with the surge of snow from t...