Todd and His Clothesline….

Here is a video of Road Toad and his impromptu Clothesline….

Todd’s Journal Entries for 07/24-07/29

07-24-08 – We just finished a great breakfast cooked on a cast iron skillet.  It’s peaceful here at HP Lake.  We had a nice fire last night and this morning.  We won’t have fire or cooked meals on the trail, so we are enjoying it while we can.  The PCT is actually only 4.2 miles from camp and Derby and I will take a look-see.    Tomorrow morning is the big push.  We’ll leave here early, drive to our start point at the California border, and about 4 days later we’ll come off the trail to this exact camp for a resupply.  And it is nothing but trot, trot, trot until we bathe our footsies in the Colombia river.  I miss my loved ones- and we appreciate everyone’s prayers.   Next entry mail-out is 4 days from Friday.  God bless.

07-25-08 – We missed out entry point, starting 5 miles deeper into CA.  Met some awesome through hikers:  Free, Easy, and Pheew.  They had a minor celebration at the border,  after 1,700 miles of desert. They deserved one.   Dry camp for night one.  Moderate to aggressive terrain.  Put in 17 miles.  Yoggied sodas from some campers:  that hit the spot.  Gorgeous scenery.

07-26-08 – Watered up just before Grouse Gap and blew on by.  Trail Angels left 2 coolers of sodas and beer for hikers.  Very nice.  Long haul to our next waypoint.  We can see water is going to be scarce in S OR.  Carrying 6 liters now for peace of mind.  More weight – lovely.  Tough terrain.  Made 18 miles, but short of Fenced Springs.  We’re done in for today:  hot, steep and foot issues made it rough.  Looks like we’ll dry camp again on a very rocky ridge.  Almost out of the Siskyous.  We’ll make up miles tomorrow, I hope.

07-27-08 – Early start.  Low clouds and heavy dew, so everything is wet.  Derby “cowboy camped” and didn’t put up his tent.  I bet he does tonight.  Ha Ha!  Can’t get  photos because of cloud cover (above 6000 ft).

Feet are becoming an issue.  Derby did some minor surgery on mine last night and it wasn’t pretty.   Gonna be a tough pull with the shape they’re in.  Saw Sven and Meadow Bruiser at Fenced Springs.  Four of us waiting in line for water.  Pheeew caught up to us and passed us some news that Free and Easy are at Callahan’s and had a gazebo for us.  But it was off the trail and we need to make up miles.  Bummer, it would have felt good.  Going to Little Hyatt Reservoir   because I have to clean my feet or infection  could put me off the trail.  It’s a tough push: both of us exhausted and every step makes my eyes water.  Rocky trail makes it worse.  Gotta keep going.  Made Little Hyatt Reservoir- finally!  We didn’t have another steep ridge crossing left in us.   Good thing:  I was down to a crawl.  I am dreading taking my boot off because of what I’ll see.  Cleaned my feet and put antiseptic on them.  Alcohol based antiseptic.  DO NOT do that unless you have no other choice!!  I would rather sandpaper a bobcat’s behind in a small phone booth than put purell on my shredded feet.  Anyway, it’s what it is and we’ll take a day here and do some doctoring and healing so we can push on.  “Keep walking no matter what!”

07-28-08 – Spent the day bathing and washing clothes, nursing the footsies…we put in 20 miles yesterday…do not ask me how, but we did.  We learned a few things about what we’re made of, and it’s a good feeling.  Robin stopped by with my old boots, home cooked food and some foot medicine.  Oh- and toilet paper! We hadn’t planned for an extra day.  It would be my luck to grab some poison oak.  LOL.  Nice here, peaceful.   Will finish up 10-12 miles to Howard Prairie tomorrow.  Then take one more zero day.  57 mi in 3 days, not bad.  Would be easier if I didn’t have hamburger in my boots, but they’re healing. 

07-29-08 – Made Howard Prairie Lake Resort-10.8mi in 3 ½ hours.  Feet are coming around.  The left still needs a day of recuperation.  But the pain was tolerable enough to make 3 plus miles an hour on the trail.  Far better than the ½ mi per hour crawl I did day before yesterday.  Food for thought:  Trust in God – Trust He will give you strength to persevere – And then keep on keepin’ on.  I put my faith in Him today, so I cannot fail.  And I certainly won’t roll over and tap out!  I have to thank my trail partner, Derby, for the surgical work he did on my feet.  3 days on the trail without a wash, and I know those dogs were barking at him.  I also want to say hi to the guys at Silver Center, and let them know anything in life is possible to achieve if you’re willing to get real, go the distance, be true to God and yourself, and never quit.  A year ago this adventure was just a dream.  Today we’re doing it.  To my loved ones:  I miss you.  I love you.  Thank you for the support, and believing in me.  I promise I’ll come home intact.

Review:

Blister bandages:  Fantastic if you’re protecting a blister while running around in a new pair of Gucci loafers…useless for hikers.  Stick with “New Skin”.  It’s antiseptic and it stays on.

 

 

Darren’s Jouranl Entries for 07/23-07/29

07-23-08 – We drove most of today.  The drive from Ashland was through yellow grassy hills.  We climbed to 5,000 to get to Howard Prairie Lake.  This lake is a huge body of water with many high dollar sail boats in the marina.  Tomorrow we will hike the 4.5 miles up the PCT and return for a total of 8 miles.  We’ve wake by 5 am to drive the 50 miles to the boarder.  It will be 4 days after that till we will be able to send any pages out.  We are having beef steaks tonight for dinner.   Yumm!  It is not much warmer here than at home.  I’m sure it will heat up before this is all over.  It is beginning to set in that we are about to begin a very long walk.

07-24-08 – Great breakfast thanks to my sister, Robin.  I have a shower that ran for 30 minutes for 25 cents.  Toad and I will do some scouting and shoot for a 6-8 hour hike.  I think I used the same razor Toad used as it raked my face and head a little raw.  Toad is packing food for the day hike, maybe he thinks I’m going to get him lost on a day hike.  I had ok luck sending out from my phone, although SMS to an e-mail address limits how long a message Verizon will let me send.

07-25-08 – We got to  the trailhead at 11 am, 4 miles south of the border.  We hike 17.3 miles but ended short of our first stop Grouse Gap.  This day was painful for both of us. Water has been good although poor planning on our part we had to dry camp tonight.  I maybe developing a blister and that doesn’t  help as we are already 3 miles behind.   The terrain ahead looks as if we will drop 2,000 feet so we should be able to make up those miles.  We have had great temperatures for the hike.

07-26-08 – We are camped just 5 miles from our next water supply.  We began carrying 6 liters of water each.  This is in case we don’t make our water hole for the night.

We ran into trail angels.  They had left coolers full of sodas and beer.  We left the beer alone.  Toad has a blood filled blister I popped tonight, and we have 20 or 30 miles til we meet up with my sister for our food supply and a little pampering. 

Free and Easy went to Callahan’s and offered to put us up for the night, get showers and so on.  It was cool.  But we kept going and left them a note thanking them.  Then we will see them again before we get to the Bridge of the god’s.

07-27-08 – Wow!  This was one tough day—19 miles.  Our feet are not in good shape.  I did some minor surgery on Toad’s feet.  We have met with at least 5 through hikers and hiked with a couple of them for a day. 

We are at Little Hyatt Reservoir and are 10 miles from our first re-supply.  We arrived at our water supply spot today; a fenced spring.  The handle was broken off the spigot.  Thank God it was trickling so we could slowly get our water bags full.

Tomorrow we will take the day off.  Toad needs some time to let his feet heal up.  They are looking a little like hamburger.  We hiked past Pilot Rock, Soda Mountain and Green Spring Summit.  We will both soak our feet in the lake all day tomorrow, and hopefully that will do it.

07-28-08 – We sat around the lake today.  Toad and I were napping when we heard a horn and we looked up to see my sister and her husband driving in to bring us picnic yum-yums.  I walked around the lake several times to burn off food.  We showed off some of our adventure pictures to Robin and Bill.  We hope to hike to Howard Prairie tomorrow early enough to let our feet heal.  We expect to be there by noon, but plans get change with steep mountain trails.

07-29-08 – We hiked 10 miles into Howard Prairie to resupply.   R&R for today and tomorrow to heal Toad’s blisters.  I need to be careful not to push so hard that it puts Toad off the trail.  I do not want to do this alone.  Things are as good as to be expected.  Lots of hills, but it hurts both going up and going down.  The next day is to rebuild and then off to Fish Lake 22 miles away.  It should be one long day.  We love the climbs that are so steep you can taste your own lungs!

A Day Off….

“We are taking a day off today to take care of our feet. Life is good.” -Derby

17 Miles….

07-26-2008 – “Well we did over 17 miles today in eight hours, but it was painful.” – Derby

Started Hiking….

07-25-2008 – There has been no direct contact from the Hikers yet, but reports from Road Toad’s charming girlfriend Karin say they started hiking as of yesterday, July 25th. That puts them right on schedule. Two days ago, as they took a preparatory 15 mile trek, I asked Derby how Road Toad was doing. I will decline to post his response, as it was not socially acceptable….

In case your wondering, my name is Jose. I am the Network Administrator and Webmaster for Stepping Out Ministries. I will be posting all of the messages that Darren and Todd send me, and keep you updated on their progress.

Waiting….

07-23-2008 – “Well we are just waiting to leave. Hikers seem to have to do a lot of waiting at each end of the trail. We have a truckload of stuff. I must have put the thought out of my mind that my Sister will need enough to sustain her and her Husband for five weeks as well.” -Derby

Wildfires

To date, Oregon has suffered little in the way of wildfires compared to her neighboring states of Idaho, Washington, and California. Even so, it only takes one careless hiker, logger, camper, or motorist to spark an inferno that not only will threaten our natural resources, but the lives of thousands of citizens. Forest fires have evolved over the last century into an entity of their own. The harvesting and close re-planting of trees, the slash-piles left on logging sites for years, the restructuring we have done to the natural growth of our forests… all these factors come into play in today’s wildfires. A forest fire today can reach temperatures exceeding 2000 degrees Fahrenheit. They create their own micro atmosphere, with inversion layers and extreme winds. It is every thru- and section-hiker’s nightmare to encounter a raging forest fire while miles into the trail. It can kill you. If it doesn’t kill you, it will make for a really bad day, I assure you: lost time, injury, detours… not to mention what it does to the landscape. Fire in the wild is a natural occurrence, put in place by God to selectively thin the forests and enrich the soil. It’s part of His ecosystem. Man has come along and tampered – once again – with his creation, and the result is chaos, and fires of a magnitude today that were unheard of a century ago. First off, I want to thank the brave men and women of the US Forest Service, and the Department of Natural Resources, for their dauntless efforts every year in battling the blazes that threaten our homes and National Refuges. I was honored to take part in May, of 1980, battling the fires in Cougar and Toutle River, after Mt. St. Helens erupted. The front lines are an experience, to say the least. I just ask we all remember to be cautious and exercise wisdom while motoring or camping/hiking and enjoying our wilderness areas. Let’s be sure to preserve them for the generations to come, so they can experience the beauty also. God bless…

Road Toad

Looking for the PCT at Pamelia… too much snow

Rest stop at Milk Creek Glacier

Food

The most crucial necessity besides water: food. Look at the options… look at the choices and variety… look at the price! Derby and I kicked this around for some time, as to what route we were going on the food issue. We were actually right on the brink of costly, gargantuan, meal purchase of the freeze-dried variety type meals, from a well-renowned distributor, when something prompted us to wait. Divine intervention, possibly – since He knew what was ahead with the skyrocketing fuel costs, and the bite that was going to be placed on our skimpy, already strained budget. We pondered. Nothing. No ideas other than an inevitable, enormous, grub bill. During a trip to one of our favorite haunts in Portland – Next Adventure – one of the employees who had been mentoring us on the ins and outs of thru-hiking overheard us discussing our meal dilemma, and shot out a pearl of wisdom: “Make your own… be creative!” Make our own… make our own… Ingenious! Capitol idea! Brilliant! Just the prompt we needed! I reflected back to my youth, and the tin-shelved food-dehydrator my mother had purchased to dry the fruit from our orchard trees… Perfect! But lets take it a step further: why not go the route of a freeze-drying unit if we’re going to do this at all, and do it right? We hopped online searching for the ultimate unit tailored to fit our needs! And units we found! Mostly of the commercial variety, and far, far out of our price range. We opted for the standard, old-fashioned, forced-air food dehydrator like mom used to have, and we purchased one at Wal Mart. The next step was: what-in-the-heck-were-we-going-to-use-as-food? We tried everything: salmon (yuk!) roast (yum!) ham (greasy!) turkey-ham (greasier!)… don’t try to dehydrate corn. Trust me. This is what we finally came up with for our meals: dried beef-heart jerky, shredded in a food-processor; Cup-O-Noodles/Top Ramen; dried shredded potatoes; potato-buds; chicken soup base; dehydrated split-pea soup mix; instant country gravy mix; freeze-dried refried beans; dehydrated onion; dehydrated garlic… mix together in proportions and bag in Ziploc, quart freezer-bags. 250 of them. It took us over three hours, with three of us assembly-lining production. The beef-heart is very low in fat content, and tends to last longer without spoiling. You can’t tell the difference between the jerky we made and the product you spend $15.00 lb for at the supermarket. We simply soaked it for 24 hours in soy sauce/teriyaki sauce brine, cut it into strips, and placed it in the food dryer overnight on high heat. Brilliant! Believe it or not, this meal is a very tasty one. Choc-full-o-calories, too! Derby’s gonna add a splash of virgin olive oil (first press!) in his meals… hmmm… I’m not too hip on that idea, so I’m keeping mine as is. We also have dried banana chips, soy-jerky (surprisingly good, high in potassium, and pre-vacuum sealed) and soy-nuts (lightweight and full of sodium and protein) All in all, we saved somewhere in the neighborhood of $2000.00 in food costs. The bill came out to less than $600.00 for our “homemade” meals. Okay, so we are lacking in variety. We processed that factor, and, oddly enough, are quite alright with it. Derby and I are alike in the fact that, if we’re hungry enough, neither of us care what we eat as long as there is a good quantity of it, and it’s quasi-palatable. It’s all about the trade-off. Fuel at four-something-a-gallon is far more important… we need to keep our “Trail Angel” on the road, as she is our lifeline in this venture. Moral to this story is: utilize what God has given us… and be creative. It’s a little extra work, but it’s all part of the experience. God bless and happy trekking!

Road Toad

Our food tote with homemade meals

Derby with his food bag – five days worth

Merrell Hiking Boot Review

Well, it looks as if I will not even completely wear the Merrell boot out before we leave July 23rd. So, here goes: We purchased these boots on Jan. 19th, at our local REI store for $80.00. This was not a sale or a discounted price. That’s the cost and I have checked prices at other outlets on this hiker and have found the price to be the same as REI, or within a dollar or so, minus the REI customer satisfaction return policy. If you don’t have a local REI outlet, rest assured you can purchase this same boot at a Joe’s, or a Sportsman’s Warehouse, for approximately the same price. Let’s talk comfort: a hiker at any price, high or low, must come with comfort right? Todd and I have now purchased 4 pair of these boots since January, and this hiker has no noticeable break-in period.
This boot drys very fast just left on it’s own, in the sun, after a days hike. Neither Todd, nor I, have developed any blisters while wearing this hiker. Does this boot last a long distance in rough terrain? The answer is: absolutely! I have provided photos below, to give readers more than just words. One boot has 0 miles, the other I’m still wearing, and it has conservatively traveled 1,326 miles on my feet. Folks, this Merrell is comfortable and durable, and very reasonably priced for a light hiking boot. I do use an insert sole for long treks, manufactured by Dean Karnazes, and I won’t even try to tell you these are inexpensive at $45.00-a-pop. You don’t have to spend that much for an insert, but for long distance hiking I do recommend some type of insert, as there are many to choose from on the market.

Derby

Top Side New And Used

Bottom Side