Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) 2021, and Solo Female VanLife

oh where are you gonna go i think to like marina okay yeah i feel like i need to stop making it such a big big scary thing in my brain because it's not yeah a big scary thing at least yeah this moment right now is not big or scary it's literally just a bit of a walk it's just like if i was gonna go go somewhere else for for a day [Music] a little bit chilly actually you feeling me [Music] something yeah [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] i'm proud of you like okay less than a little bit more than 24 okay sounds good i'll meet you bye love you babe well everyone here we are just saying goodbye to jess and taking first steps on the pct 2021 it's pretty crazy to be back here super surreal um definitely a better monument day than last time the sun is shining in 2019 it was raining it was cloudy it was dismal we were so scared we were so nervous we had no idea what we were doing what we were embarking on um i'm still scared i'm still nervous i'm still anxious but for a lot of different reasons this time um but here we go first steps on the trail looking like a beautiful beautiful day i think today i'm gonna go uh 11 miles to camp at the same spot we camped out last time but we will give it a go and hopefully have some fun and i'm already excited to see jess tomorrow uh but it'll be good i am feeling a lot better now that i'm out here doing it i was really nervous like the week leading up to this i've already cried a couple times this morning but now that i'm actually walking i feel a lot better so it's time to chase some dreams [Music] sit okay good boy hi friends sarah just left for the pct oliver and i are still at the monument um having breakfast ourselves because even though it's not early we kind of spent the whole morning getting everything ready for sarah and being there for her and focusing on what she needed which was massive because even though we're going to see each other just a few days it seems rightly so like this is a really big undertaking so ollie and i are hanging out gonna get some breakfast i'm gonna make some coffee and then i think we're going to head over to where we're gonna meet sarah for the first time which is around her mile 20 at mount laguna or lake marina lake morena do you want to go hike some with mom yeah do you want to go see what she's doing sorry you get some ice on you well that was coffee how did you like that hey puppy are there horses over there oliver and i just got to lake morena this is where we're going to meet sarah tomorrow and i think we can probably camp here at least that's what i'm banking on but poor oliver hasn't had a walk yet today so we're gonna go out for a little walk we'll just do a few miles then come back and relax i guess [Music] hello everyone it is an hour in it's about 10 40. i left the terminus at 9 40 this morning and i am feeling so good i really can't explain it it feels like just this humongous weight has just been lifted up off of me and now i know i know what i'm doing i feel like i can handle anything this trail's gonna throw at me i feel just so relieved to finally be here and to be doing this again and that all of this stress and anxiety and fear and anticipation that i've been holding on to for these past couple of weeks i mean years really about the trail but definitely these past couple of weeks has just dissipated and i feel so excited for this journey i feel really happy to be out here and i am just loving it right now though i couldn't have asked for a better weather day oh my goodness couldn't have asked for a better weather day it is sunny but there's a really nice cool breeze the terrain has been so smooth sailing so far just about three miles in and just gonna keep on i am here at mile 4.4 i believe um which has the only water natural water source on the trail until mile 20. so even though i'm all full i think i'm gonna fill up drink as much as i can and then fill up because it's gonna be a long day today and tomorrow without any water all right everyone i have just left the first water source and i believe the only water source on the trail until mile 20 where i hit lake marina and where i will meet up with jess and went in there got some water put it in my senoc platter go to use my uh water filter just sort of squeeze and oh it's a no-go so no go the filter just water wouldn't go through it so i am wondering if maybe it froze somehow in our journey at some point also maybe it's just old it's from 2019 and i like a probably like an unseasoned hiker i did not check it before we came out here to make sure that uh that it was working but i should be okay i have two and a half liters it's not very hot what i think i might do though given that is actually hiked mile 15 today instead of mile 11. i had wanted to just go to mile 11. but then tomorrow i would have 10 miles to go to get to lake marina and there's a really big climb tomorrow that takes place at mile 15. it's really big really exposed the sun just beats on you and i given that i don't have that much water i think that i will probably go to mile 15 and then tomorrow um i can do that climb first thing in the morning before it gets warm and be cruising but it's another pro of going stoveless i am going stoveless this year on the pct uh so i don't need any water to see any of my food so just rolling with it here it's really not that big of a deal um i'll probably have jess pick pick one up for me give her a little task to do uh and yeah we'll keep prison so it is about 1 15. so i've been trucking along for three and a half hours i'm nine miles in and taking my first break right now i'm gonna have some trail mix and just sitting down leaning right against the pack here got my sit pad out just really living the life it's beautiful it's quiet gorgeous day so we've got some naan bread some peanut butter trail mix some bars for tomorrow got oatmeal for tomorrow chocolate bar this one's gonna get me through till tomorrow i'm gonna go for the trail mix now [Music] do [Music] i am starting the very steep descent it uh it's been a a descent for the last three miles but starting a very steep descent here um down to hauser canyon where i'm going to camp for the night and it's just about a mile away a little bit more than a mile and it is sharp downhill so i'm excited feeling good prison feeling tired and sore and all of that but i feel like it's just been a magnificent day and i'm really really grateful really thankful um for just the opportunity to get to try to do this again and i am looking forward to getting to camp setting up and laying down [Music] hey everyone it is about five o'clock here so just an hour after i got to camp nobody is here yet which i'm so surprised about but i'm sure people will be coming anyway it took me just about 20 minutes to set up camp so that means setting my tent up um getting my sleeping pad quilt out getting everything pretty much organized and all situated i did about 20 minutes of stretching um then cleaned off and got changed for bed and i'm probably gonna eat something and then take a lie down it's been a it's been a good day yeah so this was a definitely part of the trail that i am maybe most anxious about is having this down time um last time it was great because jess and i could spend all the time together um we were coming from like working full-time and just not always being able to spend the most amount of time together that we would have liked so it was so nice to oh my gosh get it together get it together okay um it was just really nice to have that time together and especially like at the beginning of the trail um there's so much downtime because your body i don't want to push my body too hard too fast i don't want to do more than i feel comfortable doing and so today i pushed for four extra miles which equated to be like an hour and a half more of walking and i feel fine and i'm like okay with that right now um but still i mean i got here at 4 30 or i got her at four and by five you know everything's pretty good every everything's done the tent's stood up stretching everything's done so uh now yeah i mean just having this time to myself is something that i've never really had before um jess and i uh we lived together before we were dating and so lived together the whole time we've been together so it's just it's gonna be different for sure um and i know i like see your tomorrow and everything it's just these i guess these moments of not being as like connected um but i know they're growing experiences and it's good for me um and good for her too but i do wonder what she's doing and how oliver is and how's the van and all this kind of stuff but it's still been a good day and i'm excited to hopefully meet some people soon and to yeah just keep walking it's it's good to be moving i think the standing still is a little bit hard so i look forward to tomorrow [Music] already thank you thank you buddy how's it going are you having a good day what would make it a better day do you want to go for another some walk pets okay [Music] [Music] [Music] that's it good [Music] [Music] that candidate i would say the last two or three days before my scheduled c-section i was glad i let myself feel that way my husband and i sort of got the car we had this no these are these are cookies for people they're not for you you literally just had dinner today has been weird has it been a weird day being alone it's not as easy as i thought it was gonna be i usually love being alone but i guess i haven't had that much practice at it lately thought i heard someone outside like 10 minutes ago kind of freaked myself out for a second but i don't think anybody was outside um oliver would usually let me know if somebody was outside yeah it's just kind of weird i don't know why you feel more secure when there's another person with you it doesn't make anything safer really but not so much worried about safety i'm just like i don't think i'm allowed to park here so i want to park here and i want no one to care about it um so i'm just gonna go with it and hope that that is fine anyway i'm eating these chocolate chip cookies that sarah's mom sent us in a care package and they're really good so thank you mildred and i'm sorry sarah cause i'm probably gonna eat the rest of them you may throw it all right well i'm gonna go to bed i do have a couple episodes of the great british bake off downloaded so i'll probably watch one of those those are super comforting okay guys is [Music] i just took a shower got ready for the morning and i think now oliver and i are going to go for a little hike up the trail and try and meet sarah on her way down we'll see i have absolutely no service here so we are not able to text or um she's like she might have texted me and i have no idea if she's like almost here or if she hasn't even gotten out of bed yet but i think we're gonna go up like half a mile or so there's a really beautiful lookout point and just wait for her there you ready to go see mom bun are you ready to go see mom yeah do you wanna go see her where's mom [Music] cool good morning everyone it's the morning on day two it is 707 in the morning just packed up camp and immediately kick it in with a climb this is a big one this is uh you can kind of see we're going right up there um it is a thousand feet in one mile so we are just crushing crushing the switchbacks big steps lots of stair kind of huge rocks to climb over um but it's early in the morning it is cold as you can see i still have my hat and puffy and my i got gloves on this morning which we'll see how long they last on this climb but just five miles to lake marina and i am pumped so let's let's get there and i have a nice short day and uh get to hang out with jess made it that was pretty good it took 50 minutes and i did it so now it's just a little bit downhill then a little more like uphill but not not like that was and then cruising down on into lake marina so make a great time i can tell the first one out on this section of the trail this morning because i am the spiderweb clearer there are spiderwebs everywhere and they are just yep i'm i'm taking them down for everybody behind me so it's not a fun job but somebody has to do it every day i suppose [Music] [Music] do [Music] i am one mile away finished all the climbing and i'm one mile away from lake marina which is right there i'm feeling so so good oh my goodness i definitely made the right decision to go the 15 miles yesterday um because this morning i was able to do that climb up out of hauser canyon i'm pretty much complete shade the sun was just starting to peek over the mountain there toward the end i'm feeling really really good i went to bed sore last night um and i woke up a little bit stiff but as soon as i got going you know i feel really good nothing's hurting um don't even feel sore right now i am just very excited to uh to finally be back out here and to be cruising my way i feel like yeah we'll see what the day brings but i'm not planning on doing any more hiking today once i get to lake marina um i still want to keep like a 10 mile a day average-ish kind of a pace at least for the first uh more or less week or so five days maybe um so i did 15 yesterday and today now we're just gonna do five to even it out i don't want to push too hard too fast and have a good day with justin oliver see what they're up to look who i found who is it hi how's your day yesterday yeah where's that ollie good i'm really sweaty ah i love it you look good you look normal and not even dirty yeah you don't feel that dirty i wiped down yesterday oh good holy his mom can you believe it something that does hurt is here oh yeah sensitive like i feel like is it red right there on your bone yeah it was like five minutes in and i was like i feel so much like lighter yeah and happier and like so good how did you feel did you feel sad i was like wow it's really quiet here man sarah normally talks a lot i was like what do we what do we do else i didn't listen to anything no no i did watch um the rest of free solo last night oh nice that was good yeah i wish that i had downloaded more shows to netflix we just had to fake off which i didn't end up watching anything but i didn't think i would want to but i did kind of want to ollie were you eating something you weren't supposed to eat well friends here we are again got all these shot records out because we are at the vet what'd you eat bud foxtails that's what ollie was eating so we are currently waiting for him to be seen hopefully all is well but he does seem to have some little prickles in his mouth right now and we obviously want to get that fixed so sarah is here with us which is super nice um had to drive about half an hour away and gonna get them looked at and hopefully all will be well in just a little bit do you regret your decisions ollie no you stand by it it was delicious we went and got breakfast at like the little um shop that's there and then um jess was like looking online and found out that the grass that oliver had been eating yesterday um are fox tails oh no then we did some googling and then we're of course like well he's gonna die oh you're okay bud oh that's a cool i would love to see you try and bark right now ollie is just hanging open at least it's not just his tongue sticking out now how are you doing it has been a day a world of a day i can't even believe it's just been one day i can't believe it's been one day either recap this morning i hiked five miles on the pct to get to lake marina to see jess and ollie we had a great morning we had a breakfast sandwich we were using wi-fi at the little store there to which just discovered that what oliver had been chomping on the last few days have been foxtails and that's why he was gagging while drinking his water um licking his mouth a lot doing things he doesn't usually do pretty much like i realized this and i was like sarah this is exactly what he's been eating i'm the worst how did i not know this and we like ran back like a quarter of a mile he was fine obviously sleeping so we called some vets and drove 45 minutes back to el cajon they sedated him to look in his mouth and his throat and everything for any foxtails that could have been stuck in there he did not have any stuck in there um however his tonsils and his nose were like super inflamed she gave us the medication for inflammation for the next couple of days but essentially what we think happened is that either the actual plant itself he he's really good at eating things so he like swallowed it down even though they're like this barbed little plant and maybe inflamed his tonsils on the way down or maybe just sticking his face into all of it or maybe like one was stuck at some point but like with his breakfast he was able to get it down i don't know so we are here in el cajon um we well jess was gonna come back two days from now anyway to get the van serviced um so we're just gonna stay i'm gonna say um because we're supposed to be like monitoring him and if i went back to the trail like i would just worry the whole time and be like really anxious if he was okay and all of that so yeah yeah i don't know yeah sarah's feeling all the emotions that she felt two days ago before she started the trail again today which just is really sucky for you yeah it's really weird it's so weird yeah just being like going from like the trail to like real world normally there's a pretty hard divide there like when we did the trail in 2019 we like left our house and sold our stuff and like we were doing the trail now it's like this is my life in this van that's coming with me on the trail yeah and we're like i'm doing the trail but then also like here i am it's a weird weird place to be right now but um after we get the van fixed um in a couple days we're just gonna go back and i'll pick up where i left off at the 20 mile mark and that's it and you'll go back to how you were feeling this year i'm so excited and positive and full of life and dreams yeah it is a roller coaster it's a roller coaster but we're glad that oliver is feeling okay yeah we're glad that he's okay i mean we like kind of wish that they would have like found something and like that's always the case so whenever you go to the doctor right and you're like okay well yeah um yeah so glad he's okay the parts for the van are in so we're gonna get that fixed in a couple days yeah and we'll get you back out there i love you how's it going bud just stole over a few hours into his sedation still so snoozy he doesn't like it one [Music] bite [Music] you

Channel: Uphill Adventure

Views: 41,538

Rating: 4.9159455 out of 5

Keywords: Uphill Adventure, Van Life, Vanlife, Sprinter Van Conversion, Van Tour, PCT 2021, Pacific Crest Trail, Thru Hike, Solo Van Life, Female Couple, LGBTQ, Vanwives, Eamon and Bec, Kara and Nate, Trent and Allie

Id: J22TDnQx77Y

Length: 37min 58sec (2278 seconds)

Published: Sun May 02 2021