SavageLlama
05-13-2004, 10:00
Great article on thru-hiking the PCT.. 3rd in a series.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20040502/news_lz1mi12hike.html
First article in series is copied below. I also posted a bunch of AT articles in the media forum the other day.. Happy reading.
Long, winding road ahead for local hikers
Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. First in an occasional series.
By Elizabeth Fitzsimons
April 23, 2004
The San Diego Union-Tribune
It's been called the Mount Everest of backpacking, a grueling five-month march through broiling desert and mountain peaks, a test of endurance most will fail.
Conquer the entire 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail and a hiker joins an exclusive group, said to be fewer in number than the 660 who have scaled the world's tallest mountain.
Each year, as many as 300 people from across the country and abroad leave their jobs and families to live out their dream of trekking from the Mexican border to Canada. Some years, only 10 percent succeed.
This morning, two San Diego County hikers, Paul Longton of Oceanside and Nancy Imbertson of Encinitas, will be among those who take the first of 6 million steps to reach Manning Provincial Park in British Columbia by September.
Tomorrow, they will join about 500 past and current hikers, including one from 1973, expected to gather at the Annual Day Zero Pacific Crest Trail Kick Off at Lake Morena, about 10 miles north of the Mexican border, for story sharing, advice and a sendoff from families and supporters.
Their long march north will thread its way through the fabled California of Ansel Adams and John Muir, then through Oregon and Washington and into tiny towns that evoke the Old West. As the crow flies, the distance is about 1,000 miles. But seemingly endless switchbacks and miles of trail that run more east-west than north- south add 1,600 miles -- nearly a walk from San Diego to Kansas City, Mo.
Late April is considered the perfect time to start the trip, early enough so the Southern California desert won't be too hot, but late enough to allow the snowpack to melt by the time hikers reach the Sierra. But they still must hurry to beat treacherous conditions as winter approaches the Cascade Mountains of Oregon and Washington in the fall.
Averaging 20 miles a day with about 35 pounds on their backs, the hikers will camp and eat mostly in the wilderness and keep only sporadic contact with loved ones. They will go for stretches as long as 35 miles where there is no water. Volunteer "trail angels" leave water at crucial spots, assist hikers with supplies or allow camping on their land.
But there is an interactive high-tech element to hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, particularly among a subculture known as "thru hikers" who walk its entire length. Using hand-held e-mail devices and phones they encounter, hikers send dispatches and photos to personal pages on an Internet journal site, at www.trailjournals.com.
Former and aspiring "thru hikers" study the journals, venturing guesses on who will succeed and who will fail. They also engage in lengthy online discussions on gear, blister prevention and whether hiking alone is better.
They communicate in hikerspeak. A "bounce box" is a stash of supplies hikers mail to themselves from one supply stop to the next. A "zero day" is a rest day. They use trail names instead of their real ones, like truckers talking on CB radios.
Pacific Crest purists demand every step of the trail be taken with a full pack, with no cutting across switchbacks. Others have a looser, more pragmatic interpretation of the rules -- if you're soaking wet and hungry, it's OK to hitch a ride the last few miles of a segment to get food and rest.
A lost piece
Purist or not, the journey tests hikers physically and mentally like little else. So why on Earth would they do it?
"There's something very satisfying about the physical challenge, the difficulties, the hard uphill," said Longton, 55, an architect.
"I like it. Maybe it's masochistic. I can hike -- it's something I can do. Sometimes it's fun to go out and do something you can do well," said Longton, who leaves behind a wife and two children, a daughter, 24, and son, 18.
Longton dearly loves the trail, the wilderness, and speaks with awe and gratitude about the wide and wild expanses of public land. When he hits his stride on the trail, after five days or so, he says he experiences sheer joy and exhilaration, like a dog running with its tongue hanging out, he said.
Imbertson, Longton's hiking partner, is 39. She owns a construction company with her longtime boyfriend.
Imbertson and Longton, who met through playing softball, share a devotion to the trail. Perhaps more importantly, they hike at a similar pace.
A few years ago, Longton took Imbertson on a hike near Idyllwild, stirring her memories of camping and canoeing as a child.
"Something connected that day," Imbertson recently wrote in her journal. "I found a piece of me that had been lost."
Two years ago, Imbertson, Longton and three friends hiked 110 miles over five days. She began thinking seriously about the Pacific Crest.
"But you think, oh, am I cut out for that? I can do day hiking and lots of miles, but am I cut out for long-distance hiking? The hike was the one that told me `yes,' " she said.
Two friends, Joe Valenti of Carlsbad and Don Line of Palm Desert, will hike with Imbertson and Longton as far north as Interstate 10 near Cabazon, where they will rest for a day at Line's home. As thru hikers, Imbertson and Longton will continue on their own. They plan to leave the trail for a week in June so Longton can attend his son's high school graduation. Line and Valenti will join them for stretches, and Valenti will reunite with them to cross into Canada.
Longton and Imbertson plan to record their journey as it happens, filing journal entries from their PocketMails at their resupply points. They will tell their story using their trail names: Longton is "Buzz," Imbertson "Izzy."
`Boy before Christmas'
The San Diego County portion of the Pacific Crest Trail, from Campo to Warner Springs, is about 110 miles. From Campo, the trail wends north to Lake Morena, under Interstate 8, up across Kitchen Creek and into the Laguna Mountains.
It descends from Mount Laguna, roughly following Sunrise Highway until it meets state Route 79. The trail then veers northeast to Granite Mountain before dropping down into the desert at Scissors Crossing. It then traverses the San Felipe Hills northwest past county road S22 and into the ranch lands around Warner Springs.
In 1968, the Pacific Crest Trail and the 2,158-mile Appalachian Trail in the East were the first of eight to be designated as National Scenic Trails by an act of Congress. The 3,100-mile Continental Divide Trail, a rugged trek through the Rocky Mountains, was designated a National Scenic Trail in 1978.
The three make up the exalted "Triple Crown," the distance- hiking triumvirate, a feat accomplished by an elite group of 38. In 2001, Brian Robison of San Jose became the first to hike all three in one year.
On the Pacific Crest, when hikers are away from towns and cheap motels, they make meals from powdery mixes on tiny stoves, sleep on the ground and dig their own one-use toilets. They are dirty and sore and most drop 10 to 20 pounds by the end. But it's not as bad as it sounds.
"Your body adjusts," said Greg Hummel, a 1977 thru hiker. "Your blisters shake out and your muscles shake out and you're as strong as an ox."
It is mental toughness that matters most. There is isolation, tedium and loneliness, along with hundreds of hours of self- reflection. For most, it is the first time in their lives they have months without the distractions and worries of ordinary life -- money, career, relationships, family.
For Hummel, "It gave me weeks upon weeks to think about nothing."
The experience charted the course of his life, Hummel said. The rocks he passed on the trail fascinated him so much he became a geologist. He recognized the importance of family and his desire for children. A father of five now, he organizes the Morena Lake kickoff event each year, where he counsels jittery thru hikers about to set out.
A month ago, deep in the process of packing and weighing and untangling himself from work and clients and projects, Longton took a break to write in his journal.
"When I step back from the daily travails," he wrote, "when I think about going on a five-month hike on the Pacific Crest Trail in the most beautiful part of the world, I am so excited I almost can't stand it. I am the little boy before Christmas.
"Lucky me!"
To be continued . . .
Hometown hikers
The San Diego Union-Tribune will follow the progress of two San Diego County hikers as they make their way from the Mexican border to Canada along the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail. They are:
Name: Nancy Imbertson
Trail name: Izzy
Age: 39
Occupation: co-owner of construction business
Home: Encinitas
Height: 5 feet 5 inches
Weight: 111 pounds
Pack weight: 35 pounds
Name: Paul Longton
Trail name: Buzz
Age: 55
Occupation: architect
Home: Oceanside
Height: 5 feet 9 inches
Weight: 150 pounds
Pack weight: 35 pounds
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20040502/news_lz1mi12hike.html
First article in series is copied below. I also posted a bunch of AT articles in the media forum the other day.. Happy reading.
Long, winding road ahead for local hikers
Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. First in an occasional series.
By Elizabeth Fitzsimons
April 23, 2004
The San Diego Union-Tribune
It's been called the Mount Everest of backpacking, a grueling five-month march through broiling desert and mountain peaks, a test of endurance most will fail.
Conquer the entire 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail and a hiker joins an exclusive group, said to be fewer in number than the 660 who have scaled the world's tallest mountain.
Each year, as many as 300 people from across the country and abroad leave their jobs and families to live out their dream of trekking from the Mexican border to Canada. Some years, only 10 percent succeed.
This morning, two San Diego County hikers, Paul Longton of Oceanside and Nancy Imbertson of Encinitas, will be among those who take the first of 6 million steps to reach Manning Provincial Park in British Columbia by September.
Tomorrow, they will join about 500 past and current hikers, including one from 1973, expected to gather at the Annual Day Zero Pacific Crest Trail Kick Off at Lake Morena, about 10 miles north of the Mexican border, for story sharing, advice and a sendoff from families and supporters.
Their long march north will thread its way through the fabled California of Ansel Adams and John Muir, then through Oregon and Washington and into tiny towns that evoke the Old West. As the crow flies, the distance is about 1,000 miles. But seemingly endless switchbacks and miles of trail that run more east-west than north- south add 1,600 miles -- nearly a walk from San Diego to Kansas City, Mo.
Late April is considered the perfect time to start the trip, early enough so the Southern California desert won't be too hot, but late enough to allow the snowpack to melt by the time hikers reach the Sierra. But they still must hurry to beat treacherous conditions as winter approaches the Cascade Mountains of Oregon and Washington in the fall.
Averaging 20 miles a day with about 35 pounds on their backs, the hikers will camp and eat mostly in the wilderness and keep only sporadic contact with loved ones. They will go for stretches as long as 35 miles where there is no water. Volunteer "trail angels" leave water at crucial spots, assist hikers with supplies or allow camping on their land.
But there is an interactive high-tech element to hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, particularly among a subculture known as "thru hikers" who walk its entire length. Using hand-held e-mail devices and phones they encounter, hikers send dispatches and photos to personal pages on an Internet journal site, at www.trailjournals.com.
Former and aspiring "thru hikers" study the journals, venturing guesses on who will succeed and who will fail. They also engage in lengthy online discussions on gear, blister prevention and whether hiking alone is better.
They communicate in hikerspeak. A "bounce box" is a stash of supplies hikers mail to themselves from one supply stop to the next. A "zero day" is a rest day. They use trail names instead of their real ones, like truckers talking on CB radios.
Pacific Crest purists demand every step of the trail be taken with a full pack, with no cutting across switchbacks. Others have a looser, more pragmatic interpretation of the rules -- if you're soaking wet and hungry, it's OK to hitch a ride the last few miles of a segment to get food and rest.
A lost piece
Purist or not, the journey tests hikers physically and mentally like little else. So why on Earth would they do it?
"There's something very satisfying about the physical challenge, the difficulties, the hard uphill," said Longton, 55, an architect.
"I like it. Maybe it's masochistic. I can hike -- it's something I can do. Sometimes it's fun to go out and do something you can do well," said Longton, who leaves behind a wife and two children, a daughter, 24, and son, 18.
Longton dearly loves the trail, the wilderness, and speaks with awe and gratitude about the wide and wild expanses of public land. When he hits his stride on the trail, after five days or so, he says he experiences sheer joy and exhilaration, like a dog running with its tongue hanging out, he said.
Imbertson, Longton's hiking partner, is 39. She owns a construction company with her longtime boyfriend.
Imbertson and Longton, who met through playing softball, share a devotion to the trail. Perhaps more importantly, they hike at a similar pace.
A few years ago, Longton took Imbertson on a hike near Idyllwild, stirring her memories of camping and canoeing as a child.
"Something connected that day," Imbertson recently wrote in her journal. "I found a piece of me that had been lost."
Two years ago, Imbertson, Longton and three friends hiked 110 miles over five days. She began thinking seriously about the Pacific Crest.
"But you think, oh, am I cut out for that? I can do day hiking and lots of miles, but am I cut out for long-distance hiking? The hike was the one that told me `yes,' " she said.
Two friends, Joe Valenti of Carlsbad and Don Line of Palm Desert, will hike with Imbertson and Longton as far north as Interstate 10 near Cabazon, where they will rest for a day at Line's home. As thru hikers, Imbertson and Longton will continue on their own. They plan to leave the trail for a week in June so Longton can attend his son's high school graduation. Line and Valenti will join them for stretches, and Valenti will reunite with them to cross into Canada.
Longton and Imbertson plan to record their journey as it happens, filing journal entries from their PocketMails at their resupply points. They will tell their story using their trail names: Longton is "Buzz," Imbertson "Izzy."
`Boy before Christmas'
The San Diego County portion of the Pacific Crest Trail, from Campo to Warner Springs, is about 110 miles. From Campo, the trail wends north to Lake Morena, under Interstate 8, up across Kitchen Creek and into the Laguna Mountains.
It descends from Mount Laguna, roughly following Sunrise Highway until it meets state Route 79. The trail then veers northeast to Granite Mountain before dropping down into the desert at Scissors Crossing. It then traverses the San Felipe Hills northwest past county road S22 and into the ranch lands around Warner Springs.
In 1968, the Pacific Crest Trail and the 2,158-mile Appalachian Trail in the East were the first of eight to be designated as National Scenic Trails by an act of Congress. The 3,100-mile Continental Divide Trail, a rugged trek through the Rocky Mountains, was designated a National Scenic Trail in 1978.
The three make up the exalted "Triple Crown," the distance- hiking triumvirate, a feat accomplished by an elite group of 38. In 2001, Brian Robison of San Jose became the first to hike all three in one year.
On the Pacific Crest, when hikers are away from towns and cheap motels, they make meals from powdery mixes on tiny stoves, sleep on the ground and dig their own one-use toilets. They are dirty and sore and most drop 10 to 20 pounds by the end. But it's not as bad as it sounds.
"Your body adjusts," said Greg Hummel, a 1977 thru hiker. "Your blisters shake out and your muscles shake out and you're as strong as an ox."
It is mental toughness that matters most. There is isolation, tedium and loneliness, along with hundreds of hours of self- reflection. For most, it is the first time in their lives they have months without the distractions and worries of ordinary life -- money, career, relationships, family.
For Hummel, "It gave me weeks upon weeks to think about nothing."
The experience charted the course of his life, Hummel said. The rocks he passed on the trail fascinated him so much he became a geologist. He recognized the importance of family and his desire for children. A father of five now, he organizes the Morena Lake kickoff event each year, where he counsels jittery thru hikers about to set out.
A month ago, deep in the process of packing and weighing and untangling himself from work and clients and projects, Longton took a break to write in his journal.
"When I step back from the daily travails," he wrote, "when I think about going on a five-month hike on the Pacific Crest Trail in the most beautiful part of the world, I am so excited I almost can't stand it. I am the little boy before Christmas.
"Lucky me!"
To be continued . . .
Hometown hikers
The San Diego Union-Tribune will follow the progress of two San Diego County hikers as they make their way from the Mexican border to Canada along the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail. They are:
Name: Nancy Imbertson
Trail name: Izzy
Age: 39
Occupation: co-owner of construction business
Home: Encinitas
Height: 5 feet 5 inches
Weight: 111 pounds
Pack weight: 35 pounds
Name: Paul Longton
Trail name: Buzz
Age: 55
Occupation: architect
Home: Oceanside
Height: 5 feet 9 inches
Weight: 150 pounds
Pack weight: 35 pounds