Hikers Begin Mexico to Canada on the Pacific Crest Trail Steve Schmidt - San Diego Union-Tribune | |
go to original May 9, 2012 |
Arizona couple George and Jeanna Voellmer at the start of the trail, at the U.S-Mexico border near Campo. (John Gastaldo/AP)
CAMPO — Many began at the first hint of dawn, setting out on a months-long marathon so unforgiving that some years more people make it to the top of Mount Everest.
Hundreds of hikers from across the globe set out this spring to walk from Mexico to Canada on the Pacific Crest Trail, taking their first stride in San Diego County, near the border burg of Campo.
Only 2,650 miles and 5.3 million steps to go.
“I’ve been looking for a mega-thing to do,” said Ray Lenihan, 67. “Well, this is it.”
The retired Navy corpsman has a perfectly comfortable home in Linda Vista, with a perfectly comfortable bed. Yet he’s among roughly 700 people aiming to travel the length of California, Oregon and Washington.
The trek takes several months. Less than half will likely make it.
Among this year’s would-be die-hards:
• Stephanie Studebaker, 25. Three years ago, the Davis woman fixed her mind on tackling the trail after reading a book about it. She wonders how well she will do being away from her fiance for so long.
• Keiichi Kakei, 61. The former sporting goods salesman from Japan is acting on a fantasy he’s had since he visited Yosemite as a boy.
• Jeanna Voellmer, 38, and her husband, George, 50. The Arizona couple wants to soak up the great outdoors, but is also making time for an occasional bed-and-breakfast stay and brewpub along the long way.
So what’s it like to walk even a mile in their Vibram-soled, Gore-Tex-lined, nubuck leather shoes?
Some embrace the physical challenge. Some are in transition, maybe from a graduation or retirement. Others see the trail as a path of personal enlightenment.
Greg Hummel of Diamond Bar, who completed the walk in 1977, said it’s more a mental test than a physical one. “When you come down to it, it’s what’s in your heart and in your head that gets you to Canada,” he said.
Hummel, 55, helps organize an annual kickoff at Lake Morena to mark the start of the trek, which is in the spotlight thanks to the new memoir “Wild,” a recent New York Times best-seller.
Author Cheryl Strayed recalls her 1,100 miles on the trail, and how it helped repair a life in meltdown. It forced her to focus, on the next step, the next meal, rather than feel lost in her personal problems back home.
It’s a theme that other long-distance hikers say they can relate to.
When Matthew Romero, 29, of Oceanside set out to reach Canada in 2008, “I was in a position where I hated my life and I was miserable and I wanted a break. This was my cure. It was the best decision I’ve ever made.”
Others start the trip with romantic notions of being one with nature, but such attitudes often peter out after spending weeks, and then months, in the heat or rain or snow and sleeping on the ground.
But oh, the things they see.
Designated a National Scenic Trail in 1968, the path cuts through desert, chapparal and alpine forest and along the spine of the Sierra and other mountain ranges. It passes through seven national parks, including Yosemite.
By Monday, Lenihan was more than 300 miles in. He was snaking his way through the Southern California’s desert and mountain ranges. Temperatures hovered in high 80s and low 90s.
“Looks to be a tad warm,” he wrote on Facebook. “Crappy night’s sleep with the wind roaring through the canyon, next to (a) stream.”
He knows hoofing it to Canada is no cake walk, but he’s done tougher things. He served as a Navy corpsman in the Vietnam War. He raised two children, now grown, on his own.
He took to long-distance hiking after his retirement from the Coast Guard a few years ago. He said hanging out with packs of hikers — many of them twentysomethings with a bohemian vibe — helps him forget his age.
“I love this so much,” he said. “It’s an incredible feeling you get.”
He packs a thicker sleeping pad than many younger hikers and has a pokier step. Still, he hopes to travel 20 or so miles a day.
He gave himself a trail name, too. His fellow adventurers call him “Nimblefoot.” This year’s crop of hikers includes “No Amp,” “Cuppa Joe,” “Neon,” “Shroomer” and “Bear Bait.”
The Voellmers were also trying to keep an ambitious pace, in between taking breaks from the trail.
They said traveling that far and that long under sketchy conditions can be wearing. So they plan to stop in towns like Mammoth, in the eastern Sierra, to check out the motels and restaurants.
“The town stops become this debauchery, this festival,” said George Voellmer. Out on the trail, he said, “it can be like winter in Stalingrad. Then you come into town and find yourself a brew pub.”
A couple days into his hike, Kakei would have settled for some shade.
The retired salesman has wanted to see more of the American West since he toured Yosemite as a child in the 1960s. He was also inspired a couple years ago when he heard a lecture from a hiker who had completed the trail.
Two days in, Kakei was wrestling with the weather. “It’s a little too hot for me,” said the Tokyo resident, sitting outside the Laguna Mountain Lodge. “I’ve never experienced such intense heat.”
It was about 70 degrees out.
Studebaker sat nearby, resting her legs as well. She said she was missed her boyfriend and family. She was also about two days in.
“I’m really homesick,” she said.
A few days later, while passing through Julian, she sounded better. But she wrote on her blog that she was dealing with sore knees and the prospect of a steep, desert canyon the next day.
“I kind of figure the first month will suck, and then it will get easier,” she said during her break at the Laguna lodge. “This seems like a really epic thing that is doable.”
Some hikers didn’t make it past the first few weeks, or even the first couple days. In April, a 37-year-old man had to be airlifted out of Hauser Canyon, near Campo, by Sheriff’s Department helicopter. He was treated for heat exhaustion.
Others blazed ahead.
Maine resident Brendan Drapeau, who is in his 20s and was an Army medic in Iraq and Afghanistan, began the trip by doing handstands on the border. Within two days, he had outpaced Kakei, Studebaker and dozens of others.
His trail name? “Breeze.”
He had never been out West before. He hoped to reach Canada in four months.
“Every step is new to me,” he said.
We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!
From activities like hiking, swimming, bike riding and yoga, to restaurants offering healthy menus, Vallarta-Nayarit is the ideal place to continue - or start - your healthy lifestyle routine.