HikeStrong 2010 Team PCT
 
hey y'all, we're in julian, CA. Yeh i know we should be further. The 60-80 mile an hour winds are just kickin our butts! yeh really that bad....last night the guy line on the tent busted and the winds were blowing so hard it kept unzipping our tent and we had atleast 20 mph winds INSIDE the tent! craziness! We saw a couple of mean funnel clouds while hiking but never a funnel so whew! we are warm now though in a hotel. We hated doing that so soon into the hike, but we were just not having any fun and haven't slept in two days. We got tossed into the bushes and knocked off the trail too many times to count. Plus the rain and it got down to the 30's last night which meant with the wind factor prolly in the teens...brrr!

Erik has serious blisters on his lips and my allergies are off the chain! Typh and Mad Monte got off trail in Mt laguna. Typh was having a blast but her pack was just gnawing away at her shoulders and hips so she couldn't take anymore. She's already picking up the lingo and loves hanging with all the trash! She is gonna thru hike next year! WOOHOO!

the head shaving for Locks of Love was a total BLAST at kickoff! We recruited four others, so total four girls and one guy with shaved heads and many feet of hair for the wigs for kids! WOOHOO! Firefly did the honors with my hair. It took an hour, no lie, to get through this thick mass of hair I once owned..hehe. I now have a mohawk! i am in the library so sorry no pics yet...soon my lovelies soon!

well, hope everyone is doing great and we'll see y'all soon! 
 
We headed out Saturday about noon and made it down to Old Station, CA to help out the Heitman's (trail angels) late Sunday afternoon. Stayed there a day, got alot of work done for them and headed south again on Tues. I would usually say taking the scenic route is the way to go, but we crammed all four of us in the front of a pickup and needless to say it's been an interesting trip down.


Lat night we arrived in El Centro and checked into a hotel. When I pulled the covers back on the beds, there were bed bugs everywhere. We tried just switching rooms but same thing. Yeh we were pretty freaked out. So we decided to just do another place. I still quiver when I think about it...yuk! The place we ended up staying in is really nice...and CLEAN! Got some authentic Mexican from the place down the street...mmmmm!


We will head down to kickoff in Lake Morena later today. The weather is stormy, it will be an interesting start. Last year it was hot and sunny. I fear when winter is finally over. The snakes are gonna be seriously grumpy. Sun we will start heading north and hopefully make it to Warner Springs by Thurs. I know that myself and the Norwegian can easily make it, but my daughter Typhanie, who is not a hiker, will be hiking til there along with us. I'm excited for her to see what it is like, even though only for a short time.
 
From Patti

I have always wondered what it would be like to have someone tell me that I have only one week...one month...one year... to live. I try to live my life now as much as possible in a good way. I enjoy the few things I have and don't cling to those things if material. Living to me means seeing the beauty in everything no matter what one faces during that time of being...seeing things whenever possible and as much as possible...doing the things I have always dreamed and not saying "one day". I understand now that "one day" may never come for whatever reason, which is why that "one day' is always tomorrow for me....but only because the days are too short to do everything today.

This morning Erik and I were greeted with glum news from his brother Torrey who was taken to the hospital this weekend for a stroke. During his stay there, the doctors did some exploring and discovered that his cancer has resumed and spread to his liver. Torrey was told that this time it is incurable. He seems to be taking it well and has decided to spend everyday doing things he likes doing with the people he loves. He told us not to worry about him while we were hiking, but how can we not. We're hiking for this very reason.

We also learned today  that one of the trail angels for the PCT has passed from cancer. He has left his wonderful wife behind to finish the job of angeling. She is in her 70's and she rides a motorbike up dirt roads to bring us water where we would otherwise be carrying several liters of it for about 50 miles. Now she is doing it alone.

The angels, for those of you that don't already know, help the hikers every year in one way or another. They take us into their homes, close by the trail, feed us, let us use their showers, internet, phones...some leave water on the trail for us in places we would otherwise have to carry gallons for 30-50 miles in the heat of summer...some offer rides to town or just suprise us at trail heads with hamburgers, beer and other consumptions totally unimaginable for one who is hiking long distances in the middle of nowhere. Angels on the trail are amazing... 

Cancer sucks...it's not fair and it's not predjudice. My hope is that while we are on this hike, a cure is found so that everyone living with cancer now and in the future can forever live without it.