Camping is a main component of our U.S. National Parks journey, as we travel to 27 parks over four-and-a-half months. In fact, we plan to camp over 100 nights while driving round the United States. We decided to simply convert our 4Runner into a camper van (of sorts), giving us the best of all worlds.
Our next journey, beginning in March 2017, will take us to 27 of the U.S. National Parks, over a 4 1/2 month period! Most people are aware of the iconic parks of Yellowstone, Yosemite and the Grand Canyon. Our goal in visiting 27 National Parks this year, similar to our other journeys, is to focus on their cultural and natural significance. So we plan to visit many of the more obscure and lesser known places.
The Pacific Crest Trail spans three states as it travels from Mexico to Canada: California, Oregon and Washington. The Oregon portion of the trail is the shortest of the three states, covering a distance of 455 miles. After over 1,300 miles of hiking in California, we were ready to tackle a new state.
The Cascade Range of mountains extend about 700 miles from British Columbia, Canada to Northern California. The Cascades differ from the Sierra Nevada Mountains in their series of volcanic peaks dotting Northern California, Oregon and Washington. In fact, all of the volcanic eruptions over the past 200 years in the contiguous United States have taken place in the Cascades.
It had been a traumatic experience for us to leave the PCT in the High Sierras, due to the raging river crossings. As we rejoined the trail in South Lake Tahoe, we weren’t sure whether we would encounter other issues that would force us to make a similar decision. We knew that we would still face some snow, but weren’t sure to what extent it would affect our hiking progress.
The past segment of the PCT from Tehachapi, CA has had a little of everything: heat, scarce water, fire worries, treacherous trail, snow, and finally, torrential rivers and streams. It also marked the end of our desert hiking and the beginning of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Since our last post we have arrived in Tehachapi, CA, located about 35 miles southeast of Bakersfield.
We are at Cajon Junction, mile 342 on the Pacific Crest Trail, and at the end of four weeks of trekking. Already in that time we have hiked through a variety of weather, including rain, gusty winds, a snowstorm, and temperatures in the 90s.
Sandy details some of our preparation for the Pacific Crest Trail trek.
On April 17, 2016 we will begin hiking the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). It runs 2,650 miles from the Mexican Border in California to the Canadian Border in Washington.
We just completed a podcast interview with Paul Schmid from The Pursuit Zone.
It is hard to believe that it has been six months this week since we have returned home from our 424-day global journey to raise geography awareness. Sandy writes how we inevitably receive questions about what it is like to be home after being away for so long and whether we are just plain bored after all the excitement of our trip.
