Welcome to Tombstone and Tarzan’s Pacific Crest Trail Website. We are on our adventure currently and plan on completing the trail sometime in September. Feel free to browse through the different pages and check out our sponsor’s websites. Below is our latest journal entry.

Click here to see photos (last updated July 18)

Please note: Due to technical difficulties with the PocketMail device, journal entries are delayed by up to 14 days. Sorry for the inconvenience.

 

Wednesday 8/3

Headed back out to the trail today to traverse the infamous Hat Creek Rim. The rim is known for being a long waterless shade free area. From the last water source, I hiked out carrying five liters of water. There is a water cache half way through the 30-mile section that may or may not have water. Even if it does have water, I don’t want to take very much of it because I want to make sure that the hikers behind me have water as well. I hiked late into the night to take advantage of the cool night temperatures.

Posted by pct at 03:53 PM | Comments (0)

Tuesday 8/2

I decided to take a full zero here today and a big group of hikers showed up. I have been working on my filter and calling MSR and I determined that the pre-filter is clogged. Since the pre-filter is not made to be cleaned, I just have to take it off and use it without. The filter will probably clog up quickly now that I am not using the pre-filter. I ordered aqua mira, which is a chemical treatment for water. I have been thinking about switching to aqua mira for a while because it is lighter anyways.

Posted by pct at 03:49 PM | Comments (0)

Monday 8/1

After hiking a half-mile in the morning, I met up with Bloody Knuckles, Freight Train and Good to Go. We unknowingly camped just a half-mile away from each other. I had more trouble with my filter today. It has slowed down so much that I think I sweat at a faster rate than it puts out water. Dehydrated, I hiked into the town of Old Station and found Bloody Knuckles, Freight Train, Good to Go, and Alden loitering outside the store. They had called the local trail angels and were getting picked up in an hour. Alden hiked on, after resupplying, and I ate lunch and decided to head over to the trail angels house with the rest of the gang. Georgi showed up soon, greeted us all, drove us out to her house and allowed us to make ourselves at home. When you have been living out of a backpack for such a long time, it is one of the greatest things to have a place where you can make yourself at home and I am very thankful for Georgi and Dennis. There is a large grassy yard here, which looks like a really nice place to camp, as well as one of the coolest tree houses I have ever seen. Johnabee and Ana (now known as Librarian) are here and it is great to see them again. One of the rules here is that there are no leftovers so we all did our job at dinner, finishing all the Chili, corn and salad that was prepared.

Posted by pct at 03:43 PM | Comments (0)

Sunday 7/31

As I was packing up in the morning I found that the bag my cooking pot goes into was soaking wet. Don’t know if it was just licked a lot or peed on but I put my cooking pot inside of it, regardless, packed up and hiked on. I entered Lassen Volcanic National Park today and just after lunch I took a short side trip to go see a Terminal Geyser. It was a place with water boiling up out of the rocks and causing a large stream of steam to rise up into the air. I went past two lakes called, “Boiling Lakes,” and just as the name suggests, they were boiling. They were also covered with some sort of green substance.

Posted by pct at 03:40 PM | Comments (0)

Saturday 7/30

This morning I actually saw snow! It wasn’t much but I didn’t expect it to be down here at seven thousand feet this late in the summer. At Carter Meadow trail I had to hike down a half-mile to get water from a spring. I am usually able to skip the water sources that are that far off the trail but there isn't much for water along this section of trail.

I crossed the halfway mark to Canada somewhere today. Since the PCT is always changing, no one knows exactly how long it is and therefore no one knows exactly where halfway is, so there is no sign or monument marking the halfway point. In the evening I crossed highway 36, which goes into Chester, and I hiked on a few more miles. My first water source was dry so I had to keep hiking despite the fact that it was getting dark and I had already put in a long day.

I encountered a fawn on the trail that seemed oblivious to my presence. I couldn’t figure out if the dim light made it so that it couldn’t see me, or maybe it was injured and couldn’t run away. After all, deer usually run away from people. I continued walking down the trail and when I finally came within ten feet, it walked away slowly. Little did I know that this would be my first twilight zone deer encounter of the night. I hiked on to Stover spring, filled up my water bottles and found a good place to camp up the trail a little ways. I set up the tent because of a few mosquitoes and I was outside cooking dinner when I noticed the deer moving in. Shining my headlamp out into the trees I could see pairs of eyes watching me in a several different places. I wasn’t worried about it because they were just deer, but it was strange that they had all this land to roam and they choose to stand outside my camp watching me cook dinner. As I was eating I would periodically look up and
they would still be standing there, watching me. It seemed like each time I scanned my headlamp around I would spot another pair of eyes watching me. As I crawled into the tent they were still circled around my camp but I was exhausted and knew that I would fall right asleep. That’s when they moved in and I could hear their hooves stomping around the tent. What did they want from me? I quickly learned that shaking the tent and yelling had no affect at all. I just wanted them to stop running around my tent keeping me awake. I had left my cooking pot outside to dry, just like always, and in the middle of the night I heard the pot rattle. I could tell it was sliding across the ground and I heard a licking sound like something that would come from a dog. The deer continued to wake me up throughout the night but I finally got some much needed sleep.

Posted by pct at 03:32 PM | Comments (0)

Friday 7/29

I took a long lunch break at a spring to avoid the heat of the day. Alden hiked in sometime while I was taking a nap. There was a long dry stretch ahead, so we both hiked out carrying plenty of water. Belden marks the transition from Central California to Northern California. There doesn’t seem to be too much of a difference to me, except that Northern is a little warmer and drier. I have heard from a lot of people that southern California and northern California are the worst sections. I personally enjoyed southern California a lot and I like northern as well so far. I have always looked forward to each section of trail. After all, if I wasn’t looking forward to each section of the trail, I wouldn’t be attempting to hike the entire trail.

Posted by pct at 03:25 PM | Comments (0)

Thursday 7/28

It was a good thing I set up the tent last night because in the middle of the night the sprinklers came on. I had all my stuff outside the tent so I had to get up and bring everything inside. The tarptent kept me dry, even with the sprinklers pounding on it.

After everything dried out in the morning I hitched back to Belden and started the steep and hot climb out of town during the middle of the day. There were seasonal creeks about every mile so I was able to cool off. It was really hot and I had to keep soaking my shirt in the water. The trail was extremely overgrown in this section and I literally fell off the trail a few times because I couldn’t tell where solid ground was underneath all the brush. I always have to be very thankful that there is this trail going all the way from Mexico to Canada because it is a lot of work to build and maintain, but you think someone would do something about it if a section is in this bad of shape. It’s extremely overgrown and it goes on for miles. Most of the trail has been in good condition so far, so I am guessing there are very few sections like this.

Posted by pct at 03:18 PM | Comments (0)

Wednesday 7/27

Made it all the way into the town of Quincy. I was here a few years ago when I was considering going to school here so I know my way around a little. It’s a really nice town but most hikers skip it because it is a long hitch. Since there is practically nothing in Belden I wanted to get to a real grocery store. Tonight I am camped just outside of town at a park. It’s Nice to be sleeping on a soft bed of grass for a change.

Posted by pct at 03:15 PM | Comments (0)

Tuesday 7/26

Crossed the middle fork of the Feather River today, which is a national wild and scenic river. This involved descending a long winding trail deep into a canyon and crossing a large bridge. I went for a short swim at the river to cool off before climbing up the other side of the canyon. The vegetation has been very thick and green, almost like a rainforest. I am guessing that this area gets a lot of rain, but I am not sure what time of year. I ran into a couple of section hikers but I didn't see any thru hikers today.

In the evening I saw my first rattlesnake since southern California. It was also the biggest rattlesnake I have ever seen in my life. It was dark green in color and it looked like it just had a large meal. I am guessing it was a squirrel. It moved away, slowly and reluctantly, and I hiked on a few more miles before camping.

Posted by pct at 03:09 PM | Comments (0)

Monday 7/25

The highlight of the day was running into Dot and Bob boh who I have not seen since Southern California. They flipped up to Central Oregon and they are walking south to Kennedy Meadows. We stopped and ate lunch together and exchanged stories and information on the trail ahead. Hopefully I will run into them again in northern Oregon or Washington. In the evening I had to hike off the trail a ways to find a spring. It turned out to be just a puddle of water that was barely flowing, but it was water, and I drank.

Posted by pct at 03:00 PM | Comments (0)