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0500 start for the day.  It surprisingly did not feel like I was getting up early and was quite enjoyable.  A shower and quiet drive to French Press in South Salem for an 0600 breakfast/coffee date with Michele.  I love Michele.  We always have so much to talk about with each of us having a family of littles with our oldests in Jr. High on this homeschool journey together.  We have been bouncing schooling and parenting ideas off of eachother since Chloe was 18 months of age and Caleb was a year.  (This is an old picture but we didn’t take one this morning) Michele is someone I can always count on to influence me positively and point out perspectives and concerns that I have not yet considered.  Never a push over or a go with the flow person that holds tight to her convictions.  I always come away from our conversations thinking, “how have I never noticed that before, or she’s right I could do that so much better.” She will point out any of my excuses that are holding me back, and encourage my growth as a person constantly.  I just hope that I provide some of those same things for her.  Three hours later we were wishing we had more time.  …til September…(that seems to be the theme of this visit home.)  As much as I’m not sure how I feel about giving up the opportunities we are given to meet and love people in our travel nursing adventures there are aspects we miss about being home that we are all so ready for like being able to spend more than a couple hours a year with our dearest friends.

After coffee we took the car to get the oil changed and Jiffy Lube let us stay in the car.  Chad scanned the pile of work documents that he had printed out for me to fill out and sign last night and I took the online tests on restraints and fire. We sent more vaccination records and copies of my recent respirator fit test.  My Chest X-ray and capable-of-doing-the-physical-requirements-of-a-floor-nursing-job physical expire in late June or July.  If I end up getting into school I will have to make an appointment in Kodiak to get both of those again as I didn’t get a primary care dr. appointment fit in wile we were home.  My nursing notebook that was recommended by the instructors in the Northwest Nazarene University nursing program at the time that I attended has been a life savor.  It keeps all my important documents together and after two years of traveling it is starting to burst at the seems.  I keep a picture of my support team from the homebirth with Eve on the cover.  I kept them on my bike when I trained and rode the America’s Most Beautiful Bike Ride (AMBBR) century in 2011 as motivation.  They reminded me that I am loved and supported then and still. It was kind of an odd picture to take at the time but has been a constant reminder of my greatest blessings ever since. 

 After JiffyLube we stopped by Burger Basket for lunch and AAA to pick of maps of the areas we would be driving through. That and a mile post book that Great Grandma Brown gifted to us is how we plan to navigate through Canada as we will not be able to use google maps.  Chad has printed out the recomended route from google maps so we are feeling as ready as possible for this data free challenge.  After lunch we picked up groceries getting home just after Stephanie, Jayson and the kids who had been camping at the beach for several days. Chad and Caleb went and got their hair cut.  Caleb was already packed, the girls and I packed while they were gone.  It is the most compact we have ever packed with all of each of our clothes except a few jackets fitting completely in our backpacks. 

Everyone else is packed up just as compactly with a few blankets, pillows, a tub of backpacking/camping/hiking gear  and a 31 picnicking size bag full of import books and paperwork. Chad and Hannah made enchiladas, three casserole dishes of them.  One regular one for Mark and Becky, one GF one, and an extra regular one for Stephanie and Jayson. We took one of the regular pans and the GF pan of enchiladas to the Rodli’s house stopping to check in with Great Grandma Brown and take a few rolls of coban to her on the way.  She is eager for us to make it to Alaska so she can stop worrying about our drive.  We are thankful for her prayers and all of yours as well.  It doesn’t feel like we are getting ready for a big trip to start tomorrow.  I know we are in God’s hands and he will carry us.  

The weather was perfect so we hung out in the back yard with Becky and the kids. The enchiladas were a special request from Becky (not for this baby, but in the past I think for after Brielle).  She reminded us that we have brought white sauce enchiladas over for them after every single one of their four kids.  I am glad that we had the opportunity to keep up the tradition with baby Annie.  Kailyn handed baby Annie to me shortly after we arived and I didn’t give her back the whole time we were there.  I don’t mean to be a baby hog it just happens.  I love babies! Everyone’s babies, but babies of my closest friends have a special place in my heart.  I have been with Becky through each pregnancy and birth up until Annie.  It was difficult to not be here checking in by phone and getting random updates from Kailyn.  I still kind of feel like a part of it because it has been such a journey from the delivery of Kailyn to the labor and delivery of Annie.  The next day when I talked to Becky she said, “You may not have been here physically, but you were here in my head.”  Well now (a month late) I can be here physically and I’m going to get as many baby loves, energetic toddler loves, preschool giggly loves, preteen and growing way too fast loves, and bestie loves as I can.  

Before heading home we stopped at Walmart trying to decide what we were going to do about gas cans, we didn’t buy any there.  Chuck and Donna got done with their carpet job so we met up with them to let the kids say goodbye. (Aunt Stephanie and Cyrus, and Grandma and Grandpa Owens are always our hardest goodbyes) We decided not to take the gas cans from the shop so we stopped at Fredmeyer and picked up new ones on our way home as well as filling up with gas.  We arived home late.  Cyrus had tried to stay up and wait for us and had fallen asleep next to his momma on the couch watching the cooking chanel.  He is such a sweet little guy, especially when he is sleeping.  Caleb and Hannah cycled through the shower as we packed the last few things in the car.  We weren’t going to push to get out too early.  The kids were up too late for us to do that.  A whole first travel day filled with whiny kids would not be a good way to start our journey.  

It was funny to try to sleep in this morning even with no alarms and the window shades pulled I’m not sure if I made it quite until 0700, but all the same it felt better than waking up to an alarm.  There was no rush to get ready, but I think we were out of the room, breakfast eaten, and checked out of the hotel by 0900.  We weren’t rushing.  We were taking our time and for all of that we were on our way home to Salem fairly early.  The main things on our agenda for today was visiting Louanne and a double date dinner with Chad’s parents.  We arrived in Salem and headed strait to visit Louanne and suprise her at work, her reaction was worth it for sure.  The lady in the reception area helped us surprise her, but was cautiously eying us making sure we really were friends.  We were able to visit for a few minutes.  Louanne asked what our plans were for our time in Salem, the drive up through Canada, this next assignment, for fall, and for school.  We answered as many as we had answers for.  It is an amazing feeling to know so many people are watching out for us.  We could have visited her longer, but she had work to do so as we do regularly we will keep tabs on each other via text messaging and phone calls.  Our visit this time is just to short to even try to see too many people.  We headed to Chad’s parent’s house after that.  I made a call to the Alaska Board of Nursing and we sent out some paperwork for the second time. Donna had the brilliant idea to check out Shreiner’s Iris Gardens while we waited for Chuck to get off work.  There are going to be a ton of Iris pictures but I am having trouble narrowing them down to just a few to share. 

When Chuck got off of work we headed to Cheesecake Factory for dinner.  These two are fun to double date with we never run out of things to talk about and they never treat us like kids.  Just another couple that they like spending time with. The food was excellent of course because Cheesecake Factory is awesome.  We recieved a text at 7:22pm that we had a list of things that would have to be done tomorrow before we leave on Saturday for the new hospital.  I don’t know who thinks it is a good idea to wait until the week before to get this stuff done.  I always try to get it done long before hand and usually am told that it is all done then I get this frantic message that this whole list of things has to be done and it is when I only have hours or maybe a day left at home to get it done.  It is like a wedding I guess.  But I learned from the first one that I would never do the whole wedding planning thing again ever and now I do something similar every three months. So much to coordinate, so much that we can’t do until the last minute.  We spent until 10:00 pm sending documents that should already be saved in a file somewhere.  It is a good thing we have been vigilant about keeping all of this stuff in one place. 

Ashland is such a charming little city, when ever I am in town I remember traveling from my home town of Cambridge Idaho to Ashland with my mother and Aunt Diane.  We had come to watch a few Shakespeare plays I remember Two Men From Verona in the open air traditional Elizabethian theatre. The moment we peaked over the mountains overlooking the city I was in love.  Everything was so green, the mountains so beautiful, the vegetation from a fairytale, and cute houses and shops everywhere.  We circled down the two late highway getting lower and lower toward town.  I couldn’t take my eyes off of it.  In town we tried the lithia fountain.  The people we saw there were different too.  Not the jeans, work shirt, boot and hat wearing folks that seemed to make up the whole population of rural Idaho.  Chad and I also have had a getaway there to watch Midwinter Night’s Dream.  I’m trying to remember if it was before Caleb came along or after.  Either way he was not with us.  I think it was before, probably months before. I get to relive it’s treasured memories while making new ones.  My alarm went off at 0700 and am though that is three hours past my normal work alarm I felt like I had been hit by a truck.  My last tree nights of sleep  had been 4hrs, 4hrs, and 5.5hrs.  It was catching up with me.  We showered, dressed and checked out the continental breakfast.  Chad unknowingly had chosen  the hotel directly across the street from Southern Oregon University’s nursing program/building which made it a quick walk to class.  This class is called Helping Babies Breath (HBB) it is an American Academy of Pediatrics aproved class put in by Perinatal Rescue Network (PRN) a international ministry through Maranatha (I believe they are associated with the Assembly of God church).  They take groups of neonatal and obstetric passionate people who are trained to teach neonatal reccessitation to people who attend births in third world countries who do not have access to a lot of recourses or skilled health care workers.  With Rawanda and India being two of their main foci (there are several other places they have been). I am hoping to be able/available to help with these teaching groups when we get back from Alaska in September.  They have another class they also teach called Helping Mom’s Survive (HMS) that teaches ways to minimize risk/treat postpartum hemorrhage in these same resource limited/healthcare limited areas.  We will see if that is a door that opens for us.  I enjoyed the conversations with the senior nursing students who were taking the class as part of their schooling.  My best advise for new grads is to always do the right thing and be a hard worker and you will go far.  It is just like anything, short cuts and easy ways out of anything is a mirage… they never pay off.  There is a lot to be said for character and integrity.  

I loved this girl!  Who ever hires her will have an excellent nurse.  

Chad and I found a place called Happy Bowl for lunch.  We were headed to find tamales but pho shounded way better. 

Pho and boba tea for dessert.  It was a phenomenal lunch.  The skills lab after lunch was fun and class was done early.  Chad and I enjoyed walking around down town and sushi dinner. 

Salad sushi had asparagus in it as well as lettuce, cabbage, avacado, and real crab.  So fun.  I am enjoy g our one on one time for sure.  Part of me is ready to get home knowing we have such a short time to get everything together to head north. 

Chad bought the sign in the bag for our home for when we get settled back down here in a few more months.  Also Aunt Stephanie sent a photo of the kids enjoying camping. 

I was put on call for my shift this morning, this time I did request it.  I didn’t want my cohort who had so kindly offered to come cover my last four hours to have to work after working for the last four shifts and half of the night.  She did ended up being on call her portion of the night.  I wanted to be closer to the hospital than Murrieta and so we talked about several different options.  Uncle Richard could drop me off at Starbucks 0.5 miles from the hospital so I could walk there if they called me.  We were trying to avoid having multiple cars in Banning as I was to go straight to the airport after work.  Uncle Richard didn’t want me to be sitting by myself all day even though I had several things I could be doing. ( I didn’t really either but I was willing). I knew the floor was kind of busy and could easily get busy enough to need me.  I was only 30 minutes away so we made that the plan.  The bonus being extra quality time with my Uncle.  I joked with him that we have had more quality time together in the last three months than the total of my life so far these last 33 years.  I will take it.  I never turn down extra family time.  We started with a blue ribbon breakfast where I opted to stay in the car and work on thank you notes. Followed up by two different city planning meetings that I was able to attend.  It was in one of these meetings this morning when I was texted that my coworker who had generously offered to cover my backside this afternoon had been called in.  I was a little confused as to why they hadn’t called me.  I was close and awake way early just to be available.  But they were being thoughtful.  Thinking that I was still tucked away in Fallbrook they wanted to save me the trip for only a few hours of work.  I was appreciative of their thoughtfulness and torn.  I didn’t want to give up my last few hours of my time as part of the San Gorgonio OB team and a chance to say goodbye to my coworkers, but I was so enjoying the one on one time with Uncle Richard that I think we were both in need of besides that he had just started a meeting that he was heading.  I took the opportunity to stay with Richard and am so thankful for Tracie being willing to go in early when they called her instead of me.  The picture/plaque is a going away gift that Marisa made for me last night.  I’m not sure when that girl sleeps.  Thank you Marisa I love it.  I told her the only thing missing is a picture of her and Uncle Richard. After the meetings this morning (including sneaking out with Marisa to go shoe shopping during one of the meetings…I bought the cute shoes below for Hannah Banana.  They are just her style) Uncle Richard was receiving quite a few messages from the local media about two of the main “stories” taking place.  We jumped in the patrol car and checked out the situations below.  It was fun to watch the media interviews I think Uncle Richard likes to have all the microphones pointed towards him.  Grandpa called while we were still at the fire to let me know he was in his way to pick me up to take me to the airport.  Hannah’s new shoes.  I’m excited to give them to her.  Below since the SBPD was so busy today we missed lunch.  Grandpa and I went to an early dinner of carne asada tacos and horchata shakes.  With a side of loquats that grandpa had picked today in Fallbrook.  We visited for a little while before he dropped me off. As ready as I am to see my husband and kids again I will miss Grandpa, Uncle Richard, Marisa, and all the people at San Gorgonio.  I’m going to miss this view from behind the Women’s Center too! ❤️I arived early into Medford at 1145pm.  So tired from my whole 4 hours of sleep in the last 40 hours.  But glad to be back in the arms of my husband.  We get to experience a rare treat of two nights and one day just us get away.  I do have a class tomorrow, but we plan on taking advantage of our little getaway.

It was different to spend this Mother’s Day so far away from the kids.  We are not even in the same state.  I thought it might be sad, but it actually wasn’t.  I love my work, and being able to be with other mothers new, and grieving, on Mother’s Day can’t be beat.  Every day is Mother’s Day in Labor and Delivery.  We wrote Mother’s Day cards to the mom’s on the unit.  And otherwise had a peaceful shift.  I will be home to my little blessings soon, but in the mean time I know they are being loved on, and having a blast with family.  Just knowing they are so loved blesses me beyond belief.  

Friday I caught up on the blog mostly, grandpa asked me to sign him up for Facebook, and we ran a few errands.  Uncle Richard had told me that I had better be thinking about where I wanted to eat dinner because he wanted to “wine and dine” me.  I asked him what were some places in the area and decided on RJ’s because I had never been there before.  It is a steak house here in Murrieta.  Ribs and veggies hit the spot.  Afterwards we picked up Bart at the groomer because it was close by and near time.  Marisa had the idea to go bowling which sounded great to me.  The lanes were all full when we got there, so we put our name on the list and continued on to the arcade area.  We played some air hockey and shot some hoops before our name was called. I haven’t been bowling in such a long time.  I’m not great at it, but I sure do enjoy it.  

It was a fun way to celebrate!  

A little while ago grandma said she would take the kids to make glass floats at the beach. Yesterday we went to do just that. We did decide to do paper weights instead thinking they would be more durable.

Hannah was the first to go incentives she knew what colors she wanted.

She had a good time and was very pleased with the results.

Since eve was not old enough she picked out the colors and the design and I did the work.

She did a good job.

Last was Caleb.

He must of had a good time because we got a picture of him smiling.

Thank you grandma for the wonderful experience we had such a good time.

~Chad

My Grandpa has struggled in his advanced retirement age to find a purpose for his presence still on this earth.  He wants to make a difference in the community and feels less and less capable of doing so, until recently.  In the last year maybe less he has been given a heart for prayer and praying for the people in the community where he lives.  Praying for revival.  In the last month he has spearheaded 24 hour a day prayer for a week, and helped organize for today the national day of prayer each church in Falbrook to take a section of the town and walk through it praying for each family and home.  Our church was to meet at 0900.  I had not planned to be back from hiking so I had not committed to helping, but was so thankful that it worked out to be with him for this event.  We had six people which maybe wasn’t the turn out he had hoped for but we were reminded of the story of Gideon and knew that the people who were supposed to be there would.  It seemed like a big area but I could see that we were overlapping territory and each house may have been prayed for several times.  The weather was perfect for that kind of exercise not too hot or too cold, but just right.  A fellow homeschooling family we met in this assignment was there.  I was blessed in getting to spend so much quality time with God, one thing that is so amazing to me is that we think we are giving so God can bless others and we totally are.  But, The whole time God is using that same scenario to bless us back and work on our own hearts.  We started walking at 0930 and finished at 1220.  I thought some people may think my walking pattern was suspicious, but I must have look very warm and friendly because so many people smiled and waved or said goodmorning as I walked past.  Grandpa met me at the last street and we walked it hand in hand.  Finishing our Fallbrook prayer date off with a cup of coffee at Starbucks.  We came home and I’m not sure what else we did all day.  Grandpa sat at the table reading his Bible.  I layed down for a nap at around 5:30pm and didn’t come back out of my room until morning.  

Chad and the kids spent the day with Chuck and Donna at the beach.  Today makes 14 years of our life on this earth lived with the absence of Cassie, Chad’s sister.  I remember those first few years never did 10 seconds go by when my memory did not flash back to something Cassie related.  Only knowing her two years is definitely my loss.  I sure am thankful for the memories we did make.  After the first visit when I stayed I slept on the trundle pull out in Cassie’s room one morning I woke up when she was coming back to her room from the shower.  She was new to this whole one leg thing and had not figured out how to do both the towel and crutches.  You can imagine which one did not make it back to her room from the bathroom.  I took one look at the situation and decided that I would continue to pretend to be asleep until she had a little more clothes on.  I fessed up to this later and shortly after we returned to college I recieved a cute card in the mail.  On the front of it it read “I was sitting here naked thinking of you” I about died laughing.  She could be so serious some times but that time she got me.  This story still makes me laugh.  I have two sisters maybe that should make this loss easier, but I know what I’ve lost that makes it hard.  I was so looking forward to having Cass as my sister-in-law….

It got a little cold in the night, I started with the sleeping bag as just a blanket then I was in the sleeping bag with it zipped to my knees then to my chin and then back down to my waist.  I was afraid of sweating and then getting to cold, but I left waking up sweaty.  So though I did get cold I put on my beanie and then turtled my head into the sleeping bag.  I must have fallen back to sleep though because some how Tiffany managed to get already with out waking me up.  I took the 800mg of Ibuprofen as soon as I sat up. I was hardly sore at all amazingly, and my back held up.  The chiropractor was the most concerned about my back with sleeping in the ground hence the new pad that I had been waiting to arrive Monday. The pre packaged egg breakfast was alright.  I like how easy it is to boil water and have a meal just like that.  If any of you know me well you know Chad does all of our cooking and there may be a good reason for that. Well Tiffany did all the cooking on our trip. I am thankful for that.  She was more of an expert in her jet boil and I just made sure we reserved enough of our water to be able to make it.  (really Tiffany did that part too) maybe she just keeps me around for comic relief, but I’d like to think that my presence benefited her too.  We made it out of camp around 0630.  We had a 1000′ climb right out of the gate and we wanted to get it done before it got any hotter.  The guy who worked at REI was headed out of camp around the same time, we didn’t ask him for help with our packs, but we all three put them on together and we walked through the steps of the best way to put on your pack with us.  He said that it is a passion of his to help people with enjoying the great outdoors and we sure we’re thankful for his help.  The pack felt light on my shoulders today and I could move my arms.  Yoda, knowing it was only 5 miles to water and it would be a strait up climb wanted to lighten her load so she shared some excess water she was carrying.  We enjoyed every drink.  We needed up having water remaining when we finished but in our heads we did not have enough water and were cautiously hold on to our remaining supply so we were so thankful for the gift. 

My layers came off quickly once we started moving.  My legs were only a little stiff, and I had to keep stopping during the climb to stretch my calves. 

All of the beautiful Manzanita trees made me think of getting ready for Al and Liz’s wedding with Aunt Susan.  Wrapping the manzanita in Christmas lights.  It’s rich red branches and charming foliage made it feel very unlike we were walking in a desert at all. 

The view was a stunning reward for making it up the climb. 

As glad as I was to get so far before the heat of the day it was sad to come to the finish line so early in the day. 0915…

We walked in the opposite way of the rest of the hikers as we made our way back to the truck. We used the restrooms, put our packs in the back and drove to the famed malt shop that caters to the PCT hikers.  We ate a very early lunch (a milkshake for me) and visited a while. 

The guy in the white shirt is the one who helped us with our packs he, the gray shirted one and Yoda in the lavender all have recently hiked the AT. Everyone was so engaging and looking out for one another it was a fun culture to be a part of if only for one day. Yoda asked if she could get a picture with us which of course made us feel loved.  
We gave a ride to a hiker to an outfitter store he was already struggling with shin splints and had been hulled up in Morena Lake for three days.  It was on our way and a pretty drive at that. We got into San Diego and stiffly unloaded the car, sorted out bags and parted our ways…with Tiffany and I both happy, but also in disbelief that it was over allready.  All that planning and anticipation…the hike already felt like a dream that was a life time away.  The family was surprised to see me back so soon.  I took a shower and washed my clothes and dishes.  Then turned my phone back on and let everyone know I had made it back to civilization safely.  As soon as my phone was on it buzzed with messages.  I was overjoyed to see that my sweet husband and beautiful kids went hiking too. 

I’m in love with those sweet faces. 
I went with Marissa to show her horse, but mostly sat in the car trying to stay warm. When I did get out j could hardly walk which made me giggle as I knew I must look rediculous. 

I’m clean and smelling good again, so thankful for this experience, I am continually humbled by the grace, blessings and love I have been shown/given by my Heavenly Father.
The link to Yoda’s Blog http://5millionstepswithkatie.blogspot.com/2016/05/may-fourth-be-with-you.html?m=1

0400 Tiffany was up and in the shower. 0415 I straitened up the couch where I had been sleeping unplugged my phone sending out a mass text to my MIPs (most important people) well the ones who would be worried about me and my emergency contacts letting them known where we would be, what time we plan to be back, who I was hiking with and that I was putting my phone in airplane mode to save on battery.  I was quickly changed into hiking clothes.  We ate hard boiled eggs and peanut butter tortilla wraps for breakfast chugged some water and watched for Jay.  He showed up around 0445 and we were off.  I followed in in grandpa’s truck he calls The Boy Scout planting it at the campground in Morena Lake at the 20.3 mile ending we had chosen for this small section hike.  We checked in at the camp office and paid our $3/night X three nights imagining that we would be quite slow.  We then all climbed in Jay’s car and headed to Campo only 6.8 miles drive from Morena Lake.  Tiffany checked us in at the boarder patrol office like the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail) book suggested.  They acted like no one had ever done that before.  Oh well, we want to make sure we are being smart about this hiking through the desert 20 miles in the heat with no water source thing.  Jay got us as close as you can get by car unless you have an all terrain rig.  We could see the start.  We were so nervous and excited.  What had we gotten our selves into?  The trail marker and register were literally right next to the boarder. There were other hikers there so we took our turn to have a few photos together at the start.  Arriving,I believe, around 5:45AM. Tiffany kept saying, “I can’t believe we are hiking on the PCT! We’re hiking on the PCT!”

We also took one picture with Jay.  Thank you Jay for the ride!  The brown fence next to us is the Mexican border.

The view from the trail marker was gorgeous. 

Off we go!!!!





These pictures are going to be completely out of order because today the Blog is deciding on it’s own to put them in what ever order it wants and I don’t really want to fight it.  We were so surprised by how much shade and greenery there was.  Every plant was green and blooming and completely gorgeous! The shad still helped some in the heat of the day but we still felt every one of the 82-84 degrees in the sun working so hard with heavy packs on our backs.  One step at a time.  Out of our 5 liters of water (I had 5.5) we needed to save one liter for cooking and two for the second day.  We both ran out of our allotted two liters before we hit the 10 mile marker.  It was so hot and we were so thirsty.  We had heard the best camping place was around mile marker 15 at a place called Howser Creek. (Don’t be fooled there is not water there) we rationalized that since we were going over half way today we could use some of tomorrow’s water.  There was for sure water at Morena Lake.  My legs were so tiered for the descent into Howser Creek. I was fumbling a bit with each step.  Not because o was dehydrated or had heat exhaustion just because we had hiked a long ways with a lot of weight on my unadjusted legs.  Causing them to be a bit shakey.  I was so thankful for the walking pole that Tiffany gave me to use.  I decided that if I ever did get a chance to do a through hike I would need two poles.  I just don’t have good enough balance plus the addition of the pack making me top heavy and the tiredness of my legs acting like they may choose to just give out at will made me take tiny slow steps especially on the descent. 

None of these pictures show the steepness of the trail as I wasn’t for pulling my camera out on those parts where I just needed to keep my momentum.  I stumbled into camp between 4:00 and 4:30 Tiffany was ahead of me a little ways and I could hear her talking to some of the other hikers.  I inflated the new air mattress and practically fell onto it maybe two feet off of the trail.  I could not move another muscle.  A lot of other hikers came by we estimate maybe 50 people started the PCT with us May 3rd we had no idea it would be so crowded. We felt completely sheepish saying we were stopping in Morena Lake when the rest of them were aiming for Canada.  We wanted to through hike it with them so badly.  After resting about 30 minutes I decide to try to move and I could not move my arms at all. Severe pain in my shoulders and neck warned me with every slight muscle twitch to not do that again.  Tiffany found my predicament hilarious.  She kept asking me if I wanted some of the snack foods she was having and for the most part I answered no.  Until she got to the Mangoes where I bargained that I would have some if she could throw it right to my hand, because my arms literally could not move. I couldn’t get up, or get anything out of my bag.  This must be a common hiker problem because one of the other hikers piped up with, “Oh, you have T-Rex arms” and that is exactly what it felt like.  It was so painful but I got them stretched outage well as my shoulders and that crazy pain and stiffness never came back.  Still I could not imagine what agony would be felt in the morning when I had to put that pack back on for the 1000′ elevation climb to get out of this Howser Creek bed oases. I took a short little walk to find a good bathroom spot making attempts to keep my muscles moving as to maybe not as sore tomorrow and they seemed to work.  This whole pooping in the woods business would take some getting used to.  Dinner was tasty we ate kind of early and we’re all zipped in to our tent by 6:30 or 7:00.  Ours was probably the nearest to the trail but in a grassy spot there were quite a few campers with in 50 yards of us and we all gathered on the grassy patch for dinner which allowed us to get to know the other hikers we were hiking with.  Three of them had recently hiked the AT.  Two girls from Portland were hiking the trail with thier corgi so they were doing mostly night hiking.  Several were international visitors with strong accents and a group of just post college age boys that all stuck together.  We enjoyed the stories from the AT hikers.  One of them worked at REI where Tiffany is from in Minisota he was helping the Portland girls learn how to take their packs on and off correctly and how to adjust them after they we on.  We listened and watched taking in all of this information.  A man brought a couple of two liter bottles of water for people who had underestimated their water needs.  He was a “trail angel” one who watches out for hikers in this area as he lived close by.  We did use some of the emergency water.  We could have made it out with what we had, but we were so thirsty it was hard to save our 1.5 liters (each) that remained for the hike out. One of the AT hikers who had earned the trail name last year of Yoda for often speaking like him asked me if I had Ibuprofen for my stiffness and I had to admit that although I had planned to bring some it didn’t end up making it in my bag from my work lunch bag.  She said, “do you have chapstick?”and yes I did have that.  I was waiting for some kind of weird soreness hack done with chapstick like I had experienced in cycling with Red Man chewing tobacco, but know she was proposing a trade. Ibuprofen for tonight and tomorrow for use of my chapstick.  She had managed to forget hers at the home she stayed in the night before.  I told her that I only had 5 more miles to hike she might as well keep the chapstick.  She handed me two 200mg tabs for tonight and one 800mg tab for tomorrow morning.  Now that, I thought, was brilliant!  If I get a chance to through hike I’m getting a prescription for scored 800mg ibuprofen tabs. I don’t generally take them until I really need them and that is a much more compact way to bring soreness/pain management with you. 

I didn’t know until the next day that Tiffany had documented our exchange.  Yoda has a blog that I plan on following.  I so wish we did not have to stop but could keep on keeping on!