Hello, Joy here. Hard to believe it’s August already, right? And hard to believe that Ron and Kendra have been at this for 106 days!
I’ve actually had lots of communications with Ron today, getting updates on fires. It seems that sometimes, northbound hikers (going in the same direction as Ron and Kendra) will pass them and tell them that there is a fire at xx mile marker and they ‘heard’ you have to bail off of the trail prior and skip that section. There is a lot of ‘hear-say’ and Ron and Kendra really don’t want to veer off of the path unless there is a good safety reason. You see — to be considered a true ‘thru-hiker’, you don’t skip any sections unless the federal agencies have actually closed that section. And if you do skip a section, you are supposed to go back and do that section in the same calendar year. Skipping around a trail takes a lot of time and normally takes $$ to get shuttled for many miles, so Ron and Kendra are not interested in doing this unless it is absolutely necessary.
So, after my research on today’s fires (I use a fire closure website that the PCT manages, and Twitter and I also post questions on the PCT FB page), it looked like it was clear enough and safe enough for the hikers to stay on trail and proceed. And guess what???? They got through that section and didn’t even SEE a fire where a prior hiker told them that they would need to get off of trail at. Go figure!!!
Currently, they are about 4-5 miles from a roadway where they will be exiting to go to Etna, CA. I don’t think they will make it tonight (Sunday), but if not, then they will camp along the trail tonight and then will have a short hike tomorrow to the roadway. From the roadway, Etna is 11 miles, so they will be looking for a good soul to help them out. The road is pretty remote and it’s not uncommon to have to stand there for 45 minutes to wait for a car to pass!
They have a 2 night reservation in Etna, at the Motel Etna. So, they will resupply there, eat out a few meals, do laundry and have an extra day to rest. The exciting part about Etna is that it is at mile marker 1600. At that point, the hikers will be counting down in 100 mile increments, as the trail is a total of 2650 miles. I’ve read on many hiker blogs that this was a huge motivational boost for them!! But as Ron always says, they take it one day at a time because anything could happen.
After Etna, there will be 92 miles of CA left — then the Oregon border — YAY!! (California is a very, very long State!)
Ron will post next, in Etna. Thanks to everyone who follows their journey. Take care!
Glad all is going well for the hikers. Amazing that they have hiked 1,600 miles! We’ve been kind of worried about the fires. Glad they haven’t had any issues with them and have been able to continue on their journey! Jerry and I sure look forward to all your posts and pictures. We check every day for updates. Stay safe and God bless!
Mary & Jerry
Hi Mary – Bucket here – thank you for your kind words and for following our journey. We made it to Etna and within an hour the skies filled with smoke (I downloaded photos). So it’s good we made it to town, and we’re working to find out if it is safe to get back on the trail here. The hiking is hard enough, but the added stress of trying to get around all the fires is exhausting. Thanks again to you and Jerry for following our journey and commenting- we appreciate it!