More photos....
May 13, 2003 (Day 2) Reached 62 mile mark.
May 14, 2003 (Day 3) Reached 87.2 mile mark: Dry Sandy Wash.
May 15, 2003 (Day 4) Today Ray reached Warner Springs (110 miles) and is 12 miles ahead of schedule. "Feeling very good, the trail is phenomenal. Has seen millions of flowers. It's very hot. Saw 10 snakes. Saw no people at all until day 4 - met 3 hikers, one from New Hampshire. No physical problems except one blister and one sore hand."
May 17, 2003 (Day 6) Camped 6th night at Eagles Nest Perch in strong winds - tent almost blew away but not too cold up there.
May 18, 2003 (Day 7) Reached Idyllwild at 180.2 mile mark - right on schedule. Hiked 14 miles, hitched into town to resupply and will hitch back to trail. Reports two close encounters with rattlesnakes. Got shower, groceries and Mexican food. Hiking well, feeling strong. It's hot and getting hotter now, but saw some snow. Has passed 20-25 through-hikers now and there are 20-25 ahead of him. Finding the trail in this part is tricky and Ray took no map (due to weight), but has lucked out by encountering people with maps at strategic times, by following footprints and marks in the sand. Has taken a couple unintended detours, but got back on track fairly quickly.
May 25, 2003 (Day 14) Reached Cajon Canyon. Laurel writes:
"Ray was in Cajon Canyon Sunday night to resupply.
Said he did not go to Big Bear and was planning to skip
some of the towns that were on his schedule if he didn't need
supplies.
The hike is going well and he's right on track. It's extremely hot he
said and he had one very rough day in which he was badly dehydrated.
He did finally make it to a river and get some water and is recovered
now. He has gotten lost a bit but managed to recover from this too.
He decided to burn off all his excess fat (!) and so went for 2 days
on only 2000 calories a day (vs the 5000 or so he's burning). This
worked, he says, he's now totally lean."
May 30, 2003 (Day 19) Ray called me at about 11:30am from Agua
Dulce.
He is in incredible spirits, injury free and as healthy as
can be. He is on schedule and anticipates no slowdowns. In a few days
he will be joined by hiking partner "Fish out of Water" in Mojave. Ray
figures he has taking about 20 miles of wrong turns so far, including
one that had him hiking through the snow up Mt. San Jacinto!
It has been extremely hot out there and he can't wait to get in to the Sierras. His worst day so far was heading to Mission Creek. It was "hotter than hell" and he ran out of water with two hours of hiking left for the day. He was "knocking on heaven's door". Needless to say there was no time for filtering water when he finally reached it. I think he said he drank 17 liters of water that day and maybe 18 the next.
For the most part Ray has seen very few hikers out on the trials. Today he was calling from Agua Dulce where "Trail Angles" Jeff and Donna Saufley are a great help to many. Ray says there are a number of hikers there today. We might not get another report from him until he reaches Kennedy Meadows on June 8.
June 2, 2003 (Day 22) Laurel writes:
"Monday evening June 2nd: Has walked 72 miles in the last 34 hours. Has come through 555 miles of desert intact. It was spectacular but very hot and he's been carrying 23 lbs of water at a time. The flowers in the desert were "outrageously gorgeous" and there were millions of Joshua trees. He encountered 2 green Mojave rattlers - one was very aggressive. He hitched in 12 miles from the trail to Mojave and is staying in a hiker inn awaiting the arrival of Peter Solomon ("Fish Out of Water"). Fish is bring a box of food and supplies and will accompany Ray for 2 weeks. They will be in the Sierras for 8 days and will go up to 13,400 feet - will definitely see some snow. After the Sierras, he will be ahead of most other hikers on the trail.
Ray says he's now "very thin" and his legs are very strong, he has some minor aches and pains especially in his feet.
Ray has encountered numerous Trail Angels. People have fed him fantastic meals - one included barbecued chicken, salmon, wine coolers, fresh strawberries, Southern Comfort. At another place, he was fed burritos in exchange for painting part of a picket fence. There were a number of water caches in the desert - trail angels keep fresh water just for the hikers coming through - one was an elaborate wine rack set up with water bottles.
Ray's right on schedule, in great spirits and heartened by the helpful and supportive people he's encountered."
June 8, 2003 (Day 28) Laurel writes:
"Ray and Pete arrived at Kennedy Meadows Sunday morning - a day ahead of schedule. Everything's going great and they've been doing 27-28 miles per day. Pete has held up well in the heat except for one day when he did "hit the wall". Food supplies have been light, Ray reports 7 M&Ms were his breakfast today and Pete has dropped 15 to 20 pounds in his 5 days on the trail. They're leaving Kennedy with lots of food now and expect to be out 7 days. Ray had one narrow miss where a rattler struck his walking pole and they encountered a hiker with a hand badly swollen from snakebite. Hikers report having come throught the Sierras successfully (snow level is perhaps 10,000 feet) so Ray and Pete expect to get through the mountains just fine."
June 3-15, 2003: Click here for Peter's ("Fish out of Water") journal
June 23, 2003 (Day 43)
Got a call this afternoon from Ray. He was calling from Echo Lake (near Truckee?). He is about a day and a half behind schedule but has been slogging through a MAJOR amount of snow. "Fish out of Water" left the hike about six days ago and he going it alone again. He says he has trekked through about 250 miles of snow out of the last 400 miles. It is quite cold, especially at night when he wears every stitch of clothing he has, often including his shoes so that they aren't frozen in the morning! He has been sleeping at over 9,000 feet every night for the past two weeks and fording many rivers every day. He wore out a new pair of New Balance shoes in about six days! Fortunately Laurel sent him another pair at Echo Lake. He is restocking and filling his belly and will push on out of Echo Lake this afternoon. I guess his food was running a bit low as he only ate two Clif Bars in the last 24 hours.
The scenery is incredible and he saw a bear in Yosemite. A couple of days he found him self VERY lost but managed to stay level headed and found his way onward. He now carries the full PCT guide, maps and a compass. He figures about another week of snow ahead of him and is really looking forward to getting out of it. Fortuntely he hasn't had any bad weather (no storms) just a lot of cold.
There are just three through-hikers ahead of him at this point. He is in great spirits and still very pumped about the hike. He'll be even happier to get out of the snow.
July 1, 2003 (Day 51)
Ray called around noon today from Hat Creek Resort, doing well, still lots of snow. After leaving Echo Lake Ray had three days worth of food and was headed in to a light snowstorm. He got stuck on Dick's Pass and froze his butt off that night. He ended up with four inches of snow on the tent and had to wear every stitch of clothing he had and still he spent the night shivering. He decided to skip his food resupply at Sierra City and had to stretch three days of food to five. With all the snow Ray found himself VERY lost on several occassions. With food running low he had to push on hard to Belden doing three 40+ mile days in a row.
At some point he arrived in the Donner Pass parking lot and asked some people if there was anywhere to get any food and so they offered him what they had. He was pretty hungry and ate it as fast as they could give it to him. For some reason he decided to give these folks his ice axe, I suppose he figured he wasn't going to need it anymore. However, it turned out he had to do a huge glissade down about a 75 degree slope! He ended up losing control and nearly ate it in to some boulders. Fortunately he was able to stop in time. However, he lost his hiking poles up the slope and had to hike back up to get them and then back down the slope again!
He arrived in Belden where he was expecting a package. However, by the time he got to the pickup spot they were closed! He arranged to have the package shipped ahead to Seiad Valley.
He has been doing a lot of bushwhacking as there have been a lot of blown down trees, some with huge trunks as much as five feet in diameter. His legs are getting pretty cut up from all the scrambling over the trunks. Yesterday he banged our 43 miles. This morning he's done 18 and has another 22-23 to go for the day. He figures he's covered about 270 miles in the last week. At Sierra City he passed the last three through hikers that were still ahead of him. They had started their hike on April 26.
July 8, 2003 (Day 58)
Ray called this evening from Seiad Valley. He got the package I sent with headlamp, watch, guide books and socks along with another supply package he had forwarded himself earlier. He has been pushing hard to make up some lost time but feels he can be back on schedule within a few days. He has gone 156 miles in the last three and a half days! His feet are started to get pretty abused with this kind of milage and with the very old, dirty and worn out socks he has been hiking in. Good thing he has some new ones now. He figures he has hiked about 900 miles in those socks! There are still snow and ice problems. He called today at 6:30pm and had already gone 33.5 miles that day and still had to hike up another 4000 feet once he got off the phone.
Ray figures he consumes about 8000 calories a day. In a somewhat typical re-supply he might buy two entire boxes of Hershey's chocolate bars, 10 quarts of powdered milk, two jars of peanut butter, sardines, deviled ham, raisins, 10 milky way bars, 10 Clif bars, 20 granola bars, some Tiger bars, tang, oreo cookies, Wheat Thins and Cheezits. This would be for about three and a half days.
Ray encounted some very friendly folks one day that were very generous in their offers of food and may try to hook up with him later on the trail and feed him some more! They emailed me a little bit about their meeting:
We met up with him at the Scott Mountain Summitt. We were enrounte from Foresthill to Shady Cove Oregon, having stopped in Hayfork to visit Dan`s mother. We offered Ray a soda, and started talking to him. After we discovered he was traveling so far, and trying to keep his pack light, we offered him some cold pizza, soda, dried fruit, water, then gave him some crackers, raisins, and powdered milk to help tide him over for awhile. He was looking good and enthusiastic. He told us of his mission, and how far the journey has taken him - 1,600 miles according to him. He, so far, has had two bear encounters, and gave away his compass to one of the volunteers setting up for the Western States Trail 100-mile marathon because he didn`t feel he needed it any longer, but said he will pick one up in Seattle. He was heading to Seiad, and told us he would be coming into 7 lakes in l0 days or less. Since we will be in Shady Cove, Oregon for at least 10 days, we gave him our phone number and told him to call us when he crosses Dead Indian Memorial Road on the Pacific Crest trail - we believe there is a pay phone about 1/2 mile from this crossing). We will then bring him supplies (lightweight dry-goods and extra water) to possibly save him having to hitch-hike into town. He didn`t want to carry any extra water with him when we saw him - we had offered him a 12 oz jar with water, but he didn`t want the weight or the glass in his pack. We will be sure to bring some small plastic bottles of water, and he can decide if he wants to carry some of it or not. He said he has been eating a lot of candy lately to keep him going - 10 Hershey bars a day! If he gets a hold of us when he comes near Shady Cove, we will keep you updated.
July 16, 2003 (Day 66)
I got an email from Laurel today with the following update:
"He called from Elk Lake Resort (described as in the middle of nowhere) There he picked up 2 UPS packages with shoes, gear etc. He was desperate for me to overnight him some DEET - he's run out and has been absolutely chewed up by mosquitoes. Also some Compeed blister pads - for his used and abused feet. I could find neither in this part of Savannah so had to send substitutes. If he's desperate for these things again, he will probably call on you.
He's now one day ahead of schedule and plans to arrive in Snoqualmie Pass, Washington at least 2 days ahead of schedule. He's really looking forward to having Paul Goransson join the hike there. He's been putting in 48 mile days and says conditions have been dangerous - he's been tracked by mountain lions twice."
"Fish out of Water" sent me some photos from when he had joined Ray you can see them HERE. Follow the link and then click on the PCT folder (You might also want to click the "Thumbnail" view). Yahoo won't let you see the full size photo so I'm looking in to other ways of posting them to the net.
July 21, 2003 (Day 71)
I got another email from Laurel today with the following update:
"Ray called this morning and here's an update:
He's zooming! Pushed in 43 miles, then 47 miles the last 2 days to reach Columbia Gorge on Sunday night 7/20. He was overjoyed to see Mount Rainier for the first time yesterday - the huge peak (symbol of Washington State) was welcoming him home to Washington and really made him realize the end of his long journey is in sight. He will cross into Washington this morning and plans to arrive at Snoqualimie Pass 2 days ahead of his schedule - this Sunday. There he will pick up Paul Goransson to join him for the last 266 miles to Canada. Still plagued by blisters, he had a close encounter with a bear. A couple nights ago, he was hiking about 9PM when a black bear charged down the trail directly at him and only turned away about 15 feet in front of him. It was a huge adrenalin rush he said."
July 25, 2003 (Day 75)
Ray called this morning from Naches Washington. He is currently two days ahead of schedule. He spent his first night in a hotel room in a LONG time. He reached Washington about four days ago. He could see Mt. St. Helens and Rainier and has seen a lot of Elk. It was an emotional high to finally reach Washington. He says the scenery and weather are incredible. It has been about 85-90 degrees and not a drop of rain. In fact, he hasn't had any rain the entire trip (he did get some snow in the Sierras however). He has been mostly hiking without a shirt.
Some facts: without food Ray's pack weighs 9 pounds. How much did your luggage weigh on your last weekend trip? With food his pack is about 23-24 pounds. He eats about five pounds of food per day.
In three more days and about 100 miles he will reach Snoqualimie where Laurel and Paul will be waiting. Paul will hike with Ray for the final week and reach the Canadian border to finish the journey. He is very excited about finishing the trip and is starting to get prepared mentally for this very long journey to come to an end. After nearly three months of very intense hiking, sleeping outside and eating 9000 calories a day he is going to need to shift gears to adjust back to "normal life".
July 27, 2003 (Day 77)
For the first time this entire trip Ray called when I wasn't home! He left a message saying he reached Snoqualimie today and was going to meet Paul in about a half an hour (5:00pm). They were going to try to hike eight or nine miles tonight to get a jump start on their final leg of 255 miles which should take seven days. He said the last three days were pretty easy (for him!) at about 37 miles per day which he said was light enough to help his feet recover a bit. He said all is well with not much of interest to report for the last three days. He thought he would be able to get me another update in a few days. The end is near!
July 28, 2003 (Day 78)
The latest email from Laurel:
"I saw Ray Sunday at Snoqualmie Pass. He was very happy to see Paul and me. He seems very strong but looks about as haggard as The Pianist after the war. He's pretty thin and quite sunburned. He's very happy to have Paul with him to hike to the end. I'll see him tomorrow at Stevens Pass and will bring a huge picnic dinner as well as an absurd amount of trail food. He will at least be well fed from here on out. There's a fire in the vicinity of the North Cascades where he'll be headed next and I'm in the process of getting information from the forest service but don't think the trail is closed at this point."
July 30, 2003 (Day 80)
The latest email from Laurel:
"We met Ray and Paul last night at Stevens Pass and brought them a picnic dinner. They've come 75 miles the last two days and are holding up pretty well despite the heat. They saw some mountain goats and passed numerous alpine lakes which looked very tempting, but they don't have time to stop and swim if they're going to stay on schedule. The next three days are very wild and difficult country and some of the most scenic too. They left with as much food as they could carry - Paul is sure they're carrying too much food and Ray is concerned they will run out. Paul clearly has a lot more reserves at this point than Ray has. They left at 8PM and planned to walk another 6 miles before dark. Five days to go. Ray says he will start being excited about being near the end after they make it through the next three."
Aug 3, 2003 (Day 83.5)
jim AT wogulis DOT com