She Said (Is this for REAL) Then “Yes”

I was made in the outdoors, and for the outdoors. When I decided to hike the PCT, I had no clue that it would change my life.  It has changed me in several ways: self-confidence, meeting new friends but the biggest change, was to ask my girlfriend’s hand in marriage.  This is the story from the beginning. 

            Outside of Idyllwild I had run into a lot of snow and had to backtrack. My parents and Krista, my girlfriend, had come and stayed with me for a couple days there. After a nice relaxing weekend, my parents dropped me off in the desert on the other side so I could avoid all the snow.  On the drive down the hill to the desert, my mom asked me, “Do you miss Krista?” Of course I had missed her very much, then she had asked me, “When are you going to propose to her?” I had always thought I was too young. I feel like I gauged off of my parents, because when they got married they were 30, so I said I thought I was too young. My mom’s response was shocking to me, “No you are not too young,” and that was exactly what I needed to hear.

            Over the next couple of months when I was on and off the trail, my mom and I planned and designed a ring, in secrecy from my future fiancé. In fact I was very smooth about getting her ring size; I showed Krista some rings and said my mom was trying to figure out what ring to give her for her birthday.

            I was planning on proposing somewhere on the trail. For many months she had planned on joining me for my birthday, July 5, to do a two-week backpacking trip together. Now, with the proposal and ring, it adds a whole new dimension. I had imaged asking her somewhere incredible like the highest pass on the PCT, Forester Pass, or one of the most beautiful lakes I had been to before, Rae Lakes.  Forester Pass was my first choice but it would all depend if there were people on the pass or not.  So on July 7, we started our trip together where I had last left the trail, at Horseshoe Meadows. We were a few days into our backpacking trip and we got closer to the first potential spot. We started to see more and more people, we were traveling north on the PCT but the majority of people we saw were hiking south the JMT, which shares the trail with the PCT. Everyday we played a little game, “Count the People” because it was so entertaining to see how many other people we passed after being alone, well with each other. We were seeing between 30 and 40 people, (but one day 90 people) passing us going south. With this in mind, I had no idea if there would be people on Forester Pass, which meant it would have to happen on the spot.

            On July 11, we made it finally to the base of Forester Pass, which is where camped that night. We endured one of the scariest thunderstorms I had ever experienced in the backcountry. We were bundled up together inside the tent, talking and playing Blisters while the strike of lightening cracked and echoed around the bowl of mountains we were in.

The next morning, July 12, we packed up early, and headed up the pass, the pass is 13,200 ft. of elevation. We had camped at 12,500 ft., so we only had to go up 700 ft. that morning to the pass, but we started early because we had to do 11 miles that day, which at that point would be our longest day.  We were heading up the pass, which was really scary and steep. A couple times Krista asked to film with the Go Pro, because it was pretty intense, but the battery was low. I wanted to make sure there was enough battery for what, could potentially could happen at the top.      So we finally got to the top and thankfully there was no one there. I looked down the other side and saw that there were people coming but I knew that they wouldn’t get there for about 30 mins.  So I tried to set the camera up stealthily, after we had done our film for the pass, but I set down the camera for our “food and packs off break” she knew that it wasn’t off and she told me, and I had to turn it off in front of her, so I then had to go make a lot of noise and turn it back on and set it up with out her knowing.  I then turn around blocking the camera, walked over to her and embraced her. I told her that I loved her and that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her and that I knew that she was the one for a couple reasons but one because she has proved to me that she could keep up with me in the outdoors.

What happened next was a funny combination of events. When I reached into my pocket to try to pull out the ring in the box, my hand got stuck on the Velcro so it took me two attempts to get the ring. I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me.  I don’t actually remember saying any of this because I was nervous, but Krista does. I had been planning out a speech for her the whole trip but when it came down to it, I was anxious and I forgot everything I was going to say.  Her reaction was first dropping the snack bag she was carrying, and give me kiss. In my mind I don’t know what that means, yes or no, because she never answered. She was smiling and starting to cry with joy, “Is this for real, is this for real?” So I said yes, and then asked her, “Is that a yes?” Finally she said “Yes of course it’s a yes!” Then I told her that I just had gotten it all of film, and she went over the camera and showed that the altitude had made her fingers swollen and the ring didn’t fit her. Then after our special moment followed by photos and giggles, I made her walk eleven more miles.

So the PCT has changed my life. If it weren’t for the PCT I might not come to that decision probably till later, and not made a badass ring, designed around the elements of the earth.  I would have not hurt myself but with doing so I learned that I could push past the pain and push my body an extra 700 plus miles. I can now tell people yes I have hiked the PCT. I may have not hiked the whole thing, not yet, because it will be a work in progress, but I hiked enough of it to find the way of life for me. I hiked over 1,000 miles, which enough of it to make me a thru hiker. I hiked enough of the trail to find the one I want to spend my life with.  

Friends on the PCT

 

People on the PCT:

This year there were around 700 thur hiker permits and 300 section hiker permits, so there is bound to be some really cool people on the trail and some not cool people on the trail, I choose to talk about the people on the trail that made my last section hike of the trail, one of the best sections so far.  All these hikers have different backgrounds and are from all over the US and the world; they have all come to see if they too can do the walk to Canada from Mexico.   Some of the people I will be talking about are good friends now and will be forever, and others have made an impact on me in other ways, some of them I know there real names and some just there trail names, some have pictures of them and some will just be in my memory.

Twist (Kristin) and Tailgate (Seth)

            I met these two back on April 19^th, on the backside of san Jacinto, this is where I got my trail name “Lifeboat.”  I ran into them on the way back from getting caught in the snow and having to snow camp, this last section I did, I happened to run into them again, and ended up hiking and camping with them the whole time, then staying with them in Lone pine for two days as well.  They are wonderful, generous people, they are married, and both from California, twist is from Escondido, and tailgate is from Susanville, northern CA.  Twist got her name from falling all over the trail, always twisting her ankles, even if there is nothing to twist them on, and Tailgate got his name from twist when they had been cooped up in a trailer during a storm for three days, and when they left he was so excited to be going he kept running into the back of twist, so he got his name tailgate.  They have been my favorite two on the trail so far, and will now be friends forever.  I love them both, and have had fun traveling with them. 

 Doc and Blue Jay and Super Girl

            These two were a cool couple, I met them at toms place, they are a couple that is threw hiking, two fun people with lots of stories, doc was also hiking with his best friend on this trip, his name was Super Girl, the reason he had this name, was that he was volunteering and one of the old men he was helping out, told him that he was super man, but the guy said there is already a super man, so he will go with super girl.  He was telling another story just to fool people on the trail, he was saying that he was bring awareness to the transsexual population, then he would tell people that he was a transsexual.  Then watch your reaction, and then tell us the truth, that he was just messing with us.  Doc. asked Blue Jay to marry him on the trail, on the way to VVR, a ranch that is one spot to get food. 

 

Neal, 2 Little Pigs

Neal, he is in the plaid, he was someone I met, at Warner Springs, then much better in Idyllwild, he was a nice guy, he is still on the PCT he has made it to Washington, he was a very fast hiker. 

The 3 Little Pigs, well they started with three, but at this point there was only two, I met them on the first day, the man to the right of Neal, was named Robo Cop, and the guy to the left of Twist was Happy Pants, the third one got off a couple days before this.  The three little pigs got there names from, all three of them were retired Cops.  They leap frogged me the first day, and then I never sawed them in till Idyllwild and figured out they got a hitch to there and showed up before me. 

Camshaft (Cameron)

I met camshaft at Toms Place in Kennedy Meadows, then hiked with him for a couple days, and ended up shearing a motel room with him and Twist and Tailgate in Lone Pine, he was from Washington, and he was working for NOAA doing some environmental fishing counting or something like that.  He was a fast hiker, but really nice and fun. 

Clutch

This was a hiker I met on the second night of my last section by myself and I ended up traveling with them for quit a distance, he was funny, he kept saying that he was going to go further, but he kept making the mistake of having safety meetings in the morning, and then not making it out of camp till later, and only making it the miles that we all were doing, but he was a nice guy, don’t know much about him, but that we liked him.

  

Lil Bear (Georgia Swan)

This was a sweet girl, decided to do the trail, because she was between stages of life.  Like most people on the trail.  I am not going to say much about her so hopefully you will go check out her blog: georgia’sbigwalk@blogspot.com.  She has a good story like the rest of us. 

Day-Man (Tommy Royer)

Day man I didn’t get to know till my last day on the trail, and I feel bad that I didn’t because when I started to talk to him he was very interesting, he wanted to know all about sailing, he was from Washington, he was a fast hiker, but stayed back because he had a crush on Lil Bear, and she was getting fed up with it, but it made for interesting trail drama. 

Buster (Collen)

I ran into buster, right before the big hill before Kennedy Meadows.  We where hanging out by the water source, and here he comes up, kind of startled us, he had a mo-halk, that he had gotten at some trail angles house, he ended up being the nicest guy.  We had dinner with him and my mom in Lone pine, he had gone and did his laundry and stolen some cloths just for a while, while his cloths were getting cleaned, he was walking around with ice cream.  Check him out as well at: bearingnorthpct2012@blogspot.com, this is a shared site with a hiking companion that we didn’t meet, grit’s. 

Bryan

We met Bryan, on our way up kearsarge pass, he was up for a day hike, and we passed him and his friend a bunch of times, he was a really nice guy, from Ridgecrest, he is a mechanical engineer student, and works for the base out there, he had told this older guy from work about hiking and this was the first time the other man had been out to the mountains, and he was struggling with the altitude.  But he was hooked; Bryan is now our friend on FB. 

Becky, And Whitney

We met these two girls on our way up to the top of Bishop Pass, we ended up spending the night with them, at the lakes at the top, they were both students at Fresno University, both in the masters program one doing archaeology, and the other doing history.  They were doing a 7 day backpacking trip and this was there day going out, so were had a fun night with them.  

June 2, 2012

June 2, 2012



Arrived near South Fork Kern River @ 3:52 pm http://fms.ws/86Fkb/35.98606N/118.14688W

May 31st Staying at Spanish Needles Creek

"Just wanted to say i love u. I'm about five miles in right now if u talk to mom ill be at Spanish needles creek tonight bc Joshua springs has uranium in it." [sic] Carl Richardson Text Message May 31, 2012

First section back

    I started with my father Fritz, at Van Dusen Road.  On May 12, we camped the first night, right at the road, where we were dropped off.  That night we ended up camping with three other groups of people. I had a feeling since the PCT Kick-Off there would be a lot of people and I will have few nights alone anymore. From that point, till the rest of the time we were on the trail, we camped with people every night.  We talked to a couple that told me something cool that they are doing, and I have decided to do the same thing. They had the goal of making it to the border of Canada, but skip all the not-so-fun-stuff. In their words, “places with no water, lots of poisonous brush, desert stuff, and just do the fun stuff.” I liked that idea, but ill come back in the winter months and do the desert stuff.  The next morning, something wonderful appeared, Trail Magic. This is where someone comes and cooks for you. A couple had come up to the road and brought donuts and fruit, which was really nice. After that, dad and I left and hiked 10 miles that day.  A big cut in miles for me, and a perfect amount of miles for my dad, we ended up at Little Bear Springs Trail Camp.  We got there at 2 pm.  Then we realized that we had forgotten something, our books.  So we played in the water, and went on a walk. When 6pm rolled around we made dinner, and start preparing for bed at 8pm.

            The next day we had a slow start so we would end up having a full day. We were going to Deep Creek Bridge, which was 13 miles.  Some highlights from the day, were when we came across a vase on the side of the trail, so we picked some flowers, put it in the vase, and took photos. Later on we had to run from a swarm of bees.  (This was the second time I ran from a swarm of bees on the trail). We arrived at Deep Creek Bridge around 5pm. We set up camp on a beach there, about 10 feet from the water. It was a beautiful spot and this happened to be the first time on the trail that I got to go swimming. After swimming, washing, and dinner, we didn’t have to wait too long for bed. My dad found a book on the side of the trail that day, so he would read a chapter then would rip it out and give it to me, and then I would read it. 

            We decided that we were not going to do the detour, I had been through some bad sections on the trail and I wondered how bad it could really be, plus all the hikers I talked to were not going on the detour either.  So we got up, ate breakfast, and then started hiking.  Now this section of the hike, down Deep Creek was beautiful, I think so far one of the most beautiful sections I had done yet. Every corner we went around, we would look down at the creek and it was so neat.  Our day was only a 9-mile day because we wanted to get there early to the Deep Creek Hot Springs.  I had this vision in my mind that we would be there at night with maybe six to ten other PCT hikers, and we could get some pool time to ourselves.  This is what was described to me from a friend that raved about the place, so when we planned this section we planned this day to be a short day so we could hang out there for a while. During the hike, about three miles from the hot springs, something very interesting happened. There was a man that was walking the opposite direction and he was completely nude!  Well, he was wearing shoes, and a backpack. We could tell he was going to have bad sunburn waiting to happen. He was leaving the hot springs, so hopefully there would be no one there. We stopped at Willow Creek for a break and three PCT hikers passed us. When we were getting closer to the hot springs, we started hearing voices, and seeing people camping down in the creek south of the springs, then we rounded the corner, and my heart dropped. There were probably between 30 to 50 people at the hot springs.  (I said 50 and my dad said 30). These were not people that we wanted to be around, because most of them were nude, and it wasn’t the good kind of nude, like attractive young people, it was old, larger people. Most of the people seemed to be tripping out on some drug. It also looked like some of these people had permanent residence there.  We walked by the top hot springs, and put our fingers in and kept on going.  We camped down the creek about a quarter mile.  Our spot was beautiful, but I was crushed because my vision of these hot springs did not become true at all.  We swam and bathed in the creek. Then we went exploring down the creek, while avoiding the poison oak on either side of the creek.  Then we came back, had dinner, read, and then went to bed. 

            On the back one of my Cliff Bars there was a quote, and it spoke to me on the trail, so here it is, “the anticipation of an adventure can often be as exciting as the adventure itself, imagining the journey, visualizing the sights, and being open to changes in the plans.  Whatever the route, two things remain constant: our passion for the outdoors, and that we want to feel good along the way.”  This felt so true to me because I at this point have had so many changes to my original plan, and now with the many realizations I have had, I realize its part of the adventure. 

            The next day, We got up and set off. There was only one PCT hiker that passed us that day, and it was in the morning right when we got onto the trail, then we had the whole day walking alone which was nice for us.  When we were leaving Deep Creek, we hiked down and crossed this really cool bridge; it was red and looked like a Japanese style bridge. From there we followed an old aqueduct. Interestingly, we passed about 10 California Department of Corrections (CDC) Prisoners on the trail; they were out for a hike with a man from Cal-Fire. They were walking the trail scoping out trail work.  Then we came to the Mojave Dam, which was a project that was shot down after the dam was built because Deep Creek was so cool, and people didn’t want it to become a reservoir.  From there we hiked the outskirts of Victorville, on the side of the hills, over to Grass Valley. We walked by a water cache, which was nice. I got to talk to Krista because I got cell reception at that spot.   Where we set up camp was the first time I had to deal with mosquitos.  While I cooked dinner and got eaten alive, my dad sat inside the tent and stayed out of the mosquito-infested air. Then after dinner we read, and went to bed. 

             We woke up at the usual time, started our hike to Silver Wood Lake and walked though the start of the Mojave Desert. I got really excited about seeing a PCT Cache treat box, but when we got to it, it was mostly empty, except for some ice inside, so I rubbed it on my face.  We took a lunch break there, then a quick hike up to Silver Wood Lake.  When we got to the north end of the lake, we took a break and went swimming. My father wanted to go further, so we got a bunch of water, and took off. We climbed a hill, but decided we could not stop till Little Horse Thief Valley.  We ended up going 18 miles.  There wasn’t a lot of water there but there was a sandy creek bed that was wet. That night I dug a hole, so that the water would fill into the hole in the morning. (A backpacker’s trick). We found a camp spot, which was a little clearing surrounded by poison oak.  We ate, and then went to bed. I thought for sure that we were going to be the only campers there that night, but in the morning there were about 6 people there.

            We woke up late the next day because we only had 7 miles to go this day. For this trip we had decided to stop at the 15 Freeway, because there was not a lot of water for the next 26 miles.  So we walked slowly and I let my dad take all the pictures he wanted. When we came over the crest we looked down the valley to the 15 Freeway at Cajon Pass. If your not familiar where that is, it is where the 395 splits from the 15.  We sauntered all the way to the freeway and I took lots of photos and got a video of the tunnel under the freeway, then headed to McDonalds, where all the PCT hikers hang out.  We hung out there till we got picked up.  It was a good section on the trail.  

The Doctors visit

    I finally got an appointment to go see the doctor, and after some tests and a lot of wiggling my knee around and pokes and prods, he told me that I had a tear in my meniscus, on my left knee, and this is why it was hurting me. Then told me something really cool. He said, “As your doctor, professionally I’m saying that you should stop hiking, and rest your knee. Now with that said, I’m not looking from your perspective. I think that you can keep going if you, wear a brace, take Aleve, slow down your miles and the length of your days.” 
    So this brings me to what my new goal’s are for the year, I will stay on the trail, doing two weeks here, then rest a week or so, then go back and do two weeks there.  The other goal has changed from doing the whole trail this season, to doing over 1,000 miles of the trail. Basically I want to get to the north border of California.   

Carl's PCT Latitude:34.33988 Longitude:-117.17981 GPS location Date/Time:05/14/2012 15:19:11 PDT Message:Hi - I am fine, and you can track me with this location. Click the link below to see where I am located. http://fms.ws/7uUTj/34.33988N/117.17981W

Realizations #2

Departed Big Bear Thursday, April 26

Detour in Yosemite

Arrived San Diego Sunday, April 29

  

 This last section of hiking has made me realize a few things. I have learned so much more about myself and solo backpacking in the time that I was out on the trail alone. 

   First I will start with my story. I was dropped off on Saturday, April 21. I was on my own for five days four nights, with absolutely no cell reception and no one to talk to but myself. I ran into two people on the trail, but both going the opposite direction so they were quick encounters and they were both at the end of this section. 

    It has taken me 20 days and approximately 300 miles to realize that one of my goals of doing this trail was to do it by myself and it was NOT a good idea. My friends and family know that I am a social person, and I have known this as well, but I believed that I could do this alone. I have come to realize that I cannot do it alone. I got way too lonely and kind of went, for best words, mad. There is only so much that you can talk to yourself about until you start making up characters and then talking to them, and for me, until then I had a melt down on the trail, and then had another melt down when I could finally get service, and got a hold of my family. I just missed people, some people like to call it “home sick,” but I prefer the term, “people sick,” or “social sick,” or just plain lonely. 

  So what I have decided to do is to turn this solo hike into a section hike with whoever would like to join me, so I am calling to my friends and family out there that would like to do any section of the trail so please contact me, and we will make this happen. So, I have decided to take a short break to take care of myself.

   My second reason why I have come home for hopefully not long. In the time I have been on the trail, I have injured my left knee, and it is not just a sore pain, it has gotten progressively worse. There are two different instances where I have taken serious falls on the trail. So tomorrow morning I will be calling the doctor to get it checked out, because one of my biggest fears would be for my knee to go while somewhere on the trail. I don’t want it to be where I do not have cell reception, and I do not want to have to hit the “come get me button” on the Spot. So I am home safe and sound in San Diego and looking forward to getting back on the trail!

-Carl Richardson

Ps. Happy Birthday Dad

Arrived near Fish Creek Trail

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Departed http://fms.ws/7fZyZ/34.0113N/116.67223W 

Arrived near Fish Creek Trail http://fms.ws/7g8fX/34.12526N/116.75812W

On the trail again!

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Departed Cabezon

Arrived at http://fms.ws/7fZyZ/34.0113N/116.67223W

Photos credit Diana Richardson

Rest Day in Idyllwild

I made it to Idyllwild.  The original plan was to go straight to the 10 HW, but I ran into too much snow, I made it over the ridge into little Tahquitz valley,  and pushed threw about two miles of snow, following someone else's footsteps, and at a point they disappeared so I had to do a snow camp, I couldn't make it to Little Tahquitz Creek, to get water, but then I had to make water by melting snow with my stove (Jet Boil), I had to make the decision, should I try to push through the snow, and try to find my way into the town, without a trail, with about 4 ft of snow on the trail.  So what I decided the safest thing would be to do, would be to go back.  I did have to go about six miles back to Spitler Trail, then five miles down to the road, and i did fortunately ran into twist and tailgate, on the trail and told them what was happening with me and the snow and convinced them to go to town, because of conditions, so now I'm hangin out in Idyllwild with a bunch of PCT hikers, all super nice.  Whats next, well I am going to get dropped off the 10 tomorrow. I have hiked all these trails before so I don't feel bad trying to not push through the snow.  I expect it will take me somewhere between 4 and 5 days to Big Bear. -Carl Richardson

Rest day for my blistered feet

Day 12

April 18, 2012
Departed Cedar Springs
Arrived at http://fms.ws/7dbiy/33.76365N/116.6553W 

Day 11 "This is the backpacking I like"

April 17, 2012

Departed Table Mountain Truck Trail

Arrived at Cedar Springs

“I am camping at Cedar Springs, its about a mile from trail, they have water and they have a camp ground. I ran into a person on the trail. Its been an awesome day hiking...I mean my feet are killing me. I’ve done about 18 miles again. It was beautiful coming through as soon as I made it over to the 74 Palms to Pine highway, the scenery changed and I can see San Jac and now im up on the ridge and I can see palm springs on one side and Hemit on the other side. I can see to Joshua tree. I can see to Salton Sea. This is the backpacking I like…” Carl Richardson, Voicemail 

This is a panaramic view of a ridge I was going over just past Lion Peak