Iowa

Its been a week I've been in Iowa now.

 Its really nice here, the weather's warm it feels so good. The humidity is very high and its extremely muggy. I love the feeling, the moisture, the earth here feels alive.  Everywhere there's green grass and vibrant green foliage, little birds flying.by and squirrels. Maple seed helicopters floating in the air. There's lakes and woods and huge plains, farms and people. Lots of people.  There's cities with trim yards and cookie cutter housing developments popping up mini mansions in the sub urbs. Normal-town USA. It feels so different from the dusty dry and lonely desert i've lived (happily) in for 6 months.

But Maggie lives in the country and her front yard is a corn field which stretches as far as the eye can see. She has a beautiful house where one can really watch the sky,  and the mid-west sky is usually interesting. Slowly through the densely hot and muggy day you watch the clouds building above. By the end of the day massive anvil shaped thunderheads have formed and then the sunset will light them impressively. Most nights comes the lightning and crashing rain which is always a good show.

this is a picture of lightning!

We're working hard to be ready for the Pacific Crest Trail by the time we leave here next Tuesday. We also need to see Maggie's friends and family for the short time she'll be in town after being gone so long. Its a lot to do but we've already bought all our gear and are happy with it I believe. My PCT base weight will be 18.5 pounds and that's going to have to do. Im happy to have gotten it  that low.

Today we finished making our food boxes and feel accomplished although there's still a lot to do.

We have 102 days worth of food pre-packaged and ready to be shipped to the little towns along the pct.

We'll start heading south on July 6th and pick up our first box the following day in Stehekin, Washington. "Start hikin!" Then our plan is as follows. 

                                                         

We'll get our next box on July 14th in Skykomish. It'll have 5 days worth of food to make it through the wilderness to Snoqualmie which will have 6 days. On July 25 we'll be at Whites Pass where we'll start the longest unbroken stretch of the PCT which is about 148 miles and we're packing for 10 days.

Then we'll be in Oregon.       

   

So August 3rd we'll arrive at Cascade Locks on the mighty Columbia River and won't receive a box there since we can resupply in that larger town. Our next box will be on August 7th at the Timberline lodge resort, which will have 7 days worth of food to get us the rest of the way to Sisters. We'll resupply in that town and continue onward. 

Our next box will find us at the Shelter Cove resort, that should be around August 17 and then we'll hike 5 more days to Crater Lake National Park. 6 days later we'll stroll into Ashland and finally on September 3rd, we plan to arrive in Seiad Valley California. 

Theres a few stops on the way, but we plan to hike for 155 miles before resupplying again. Off to Castella and then 5 more days to the beautiful Burney Falls state park. Then due to the closure of the Belden post office we plan to resupply for 140 miles in a town called Chester, and not recieve another box until Sierra City. We should get to Sierra city on or before October 2nd. 

Our next and one of our last few boxes comes to us at South Lake Tahoe on October 9th and it will have 5 days of food. We will also buy 5 days of food to get us to Tuolumne meadows in Yosemite. There we plan to come down, and by one means or another, bypass the high Sierra. We dont want to risk being trapped in a snowstorm in late October but who knows maybe we'll go for it anyway...only time will tell.

Either way we will recieve a box in our lovely little Lone Pine and hopefully can visit our winter home in Death Valley on October 20th. We will start hiking again at Walker Pass,  segment we've done before. After that we wont recieve another box for a month and rely solely on the trail towns of the Mohave desert PCT.

On November 23rd we'll hopefully reach our box in Warner Springs and finally pick up our last box at Mt Laguna 4 days later. Happy birthday Maggie, and we'll be arriving at the Mexican border around December 1st.  

After that...well we'll probably favor heading to Yuma Arizona over San Diego and live in our tent on the outskirts of town until we find somewhere to go. Back to Death Valley is possible, or hopefully to the Caribbean. We may take care of Laurels house in Moab for 3 months. And then its off to the Appalachain! But we'll figure out that next chapter when it comes.