First Blog Post

Hey Everyone,

We set this blog up to let everyone know what is happening with Rosie and Ben as they make their way through the Pacific Crest Trail. As you many of you know, they started on April 20th from Campo, California. They stuck their fingers through the holes on border barrier between California and Mexico, just to say they were in Mexico.

Currently, they are in Big Bear City, California at milepost 265, which means they have traveled 265 miles since they started. Big Bear City is northeast of Los Angeles, directly east of Lake Arrowhead. They are just south of Barstow, if you are following them on a map.

The first obstacle they encountered were the fires in southern California. They stopped at this famous cafe (Paradise Cafe) along the trail and noticed there were dozens of hikers. They were told that the trail was blocked by the fires so they had to hitch a ride and go around to a town called Idyllwild, which is east of Los Angeles, just south of Interstate 10.
Once they were in Idyllwild, they continued up and through Black Mountain.

Rosie said they went through two amazing days where they started up at the top of Black Mountain (8000 ft. elevation) and spent the day going through 15 miles of switchbacks down to 1700 ft and the floor of Palm Desert. The next day, they walked through a windmill farm and the desert, but by the end of the day, they had gained all the elevation they had lost the day before. She said the terrain is different everyday and the views are amazing.

Rosie is feeling great, but having one minor issue with her foot. Ben is has been hampered with foot blisters, but it's not slowing him down at all. They are covering 15-20 miles a day or about 2-3 miles an hour. The weather has been great. Tomorrow they will get a ride out to the junction of Hwy 18 and PCT. They will have the luxury of hiking without a pack for the day because there are people along the way that will take your packs ahead and meet up with you 10-12 miles ahead. They are surrounded by a couple of hundred hikers, but they expect the numbers to drop off once they get to the base of the Sierras, where most people stop (or quit).

They will be sending us the storage chip from their camera and then we'll be able to post up some pictures.