Bucket here – Joy and Cody flew into Reno, NV last night and rented a car to pick up Sage and I from the trail. They picked us up last night around 9:00 pm at a gas station on State Route 44 – which was the best place we could hike to that was accessible to vehicles. So we got picked up at trail mile 1377. We made it to the midpoint marker on the trail a couple of days ago. So that was a real psychological boost!
Joy rented a house in Redding, CA. So we’ll spend these next few days deep cleaning our gear, replacing some items, etc. Working to get a fresh start on the second half of this trek!
As Joy mentioned in the previous post, it has been quite a week for Sage and I! On the evening of July 13th we actually seen what is now being called the Dixie Fire along the side of a mountain when it was very small. It looked very minimal and we expected it would be extinguished quickly.
We got an early start (typically hiking by 6:30 am) for a 6 mile steep descent into a little town called Belden. We took a short break in Belden to prepare for one of the larger climbs on the PCT – a grueling 14 mile, 4800 ft climb. It was a very hot day and the lower 5-6 miles of the climb is all exposed (no shade).
We started to see the smoke rising over a nearby mountain ridge after a few miles of climbing. By the time Sage and I had climbed around 7 miles up the mountain, the smoke was getting thicker and and ash began to fall – looking like light snow flurries. We decided to put face coverings on to not breathe in any particulates.
My concern was that if ash is dropping on us, there could also be embers heading our way and the area we were climbing in could also catch fire. That’s when I contacted Joy on the Garmin to see if she could find out anything. We didn’t know if we were in danger or not.
There were about 6-8 other hikers on the mountain at the same time as us – none of us really knowing our status. We decided to push up the mountain and get out of there as quickly as we could!
Sage and I were working off of pure adrenaline at this point. We skipped lunch and dinner that day to get up the mountain as quickly as possible. So we made it to the top of the mountain (and passed the 1300 mile point along the way). We then hiked another 4.5 miles to a campsite area. It was nearly dark at this point. But the other hikers we had climbed with that day were also there and an older couple was providing trail magic! We were too late for food, but did get some cold drinks that night. We set up our tents in the dark. They fed us all breakfast the next morning as well.
So Sage and I hiked 24.5 miles that day – a new record for us! The next day we were informed of another fire 16 miles ahead that was close to the trail. Some hikers were considering getting off trail and skipping ahead. Joy was able to find out that this fire was contained and minimal impact to the trail. So Sage and I hiked 22.6 miles on July 15th trying to get ahead of the fires and smoke.
We had averaged 22 miles per day of hiking the 4 days after climbing out of Belden. The PCT was officially closed the next day after we made the climb – so we were one of the last hikers able to complete this section of trail before it was closed.
Looking ahead on the trail, it looks like we’ll be going through areas where water is scarce and we’ll have some water carries- up to 20 miles between sources. But we done this before in the desert, so we know what this is like (heavy backpacks!).
That’s it for now. We’ll have a couple of zero days here in Redding to “reboot” and get ready for Phase 2 of hiking the PCT!
Hello sage and bucket, I was glad to hear that your visit with Joy and Cody went well..You are so fortunate that she supports you 100%,I can’t imagine anyone making a trip like this without a person like Joy on the side, always there to help. I am still working on this yard.and I am still remembering you two in prayer. I was so happy I got to talk to you. on the phone. Well I will talk to you later.and always remember how much the two of you are loved.