Daylight savings time has started here in California, and for us that meant “Hooray, we can do THE LOOP out to the coast!” During the winter, the days are too short and there just isn’t time to do a 20 mile loop and finish with enough daylight left to make the drive home.

But some snafus happened first thing in the morning (unexpected things came up that required making phone calls and sorting out) so it was 9:30 am before we were at the Bear Valley trailhead at Point Reyes Nat’l Seashore. So we opted for a shorter version of “The Loop”, and shouldered our “training packs” to head out.

Point Reyes in springtime is just beautiful. Everything is green, the earliest wildflowers are out, and the creeks are running.

We did the moderate climb out of Bear Valley up to Divide Meadow (we call that part of the trail “The Icebox” because it is so COLD early in the morning) then to the junction with the Glen Camp trail, where we began the “short loop”. This involves a very long and often steep climb up to where we finally get a “view of the blue” (the ocean) and then a long downhill to what we call “Wild Kitty” (Wildcat Camp).

The ocean was very still–no wind, no whitecaps–and sadly, we could see offshore THREE large ships just sitting there. We figured they were cruise ships in quarantine because of the stupid coronavirus/Covid-19 thing.

We had lunch at one of our favorite spots–a perch high up on a cliff overlooking Wild Kitty and the whole coastline from Point Reyes and all the way south to where Alamere Falls comes tumbling over the cliff into the sea.

It is glorious. We scanned the ocean looking to see if there were any late migrating whales going by, but didn’t see any. (There are times we can sit there and see lots of whale “spouts”).

On the way back we met a guy with a Vermont “Long Trail Patrol” shirt on and said, “Hey! We’re headed your way this summer!” Turns out that yes indeed, he DID do patrol work on the Long Trail and he has also helped on the AT. So that was kind of exciting to meet him!

But thanks to the virus thing, our order of freezedried food is on backorder (the folks at LDP foods are pretty frustrated right now) and Delta Airlines (we are flying Delta to Atlanta) sent us an email saying, “No worries, you will be safe from the virus when you fly with us!” It will be so good to get into the woods and forget about all that civilization stuff and face the much more down to earth challenges of the trail!

Today was the first time in quite awhile that we were able to do a close to 8 hour hike. In December and January and early February, the days are too short to pull off a long hike. We need at least 1 1/2 hours of daylight at the end of the hike, so we are not trying to drive home in the twilight. We had a run-in with a deer one time and don’t want a repeat of that experience. So that really cuts the hiking day pretty short in the winter. But today we figured we could go till a bit after 5 pm! Yay!

We were out at Point Reyes National Seashore, which is probably our top favorite place for hiking. Lots of big hills to climb, amazing views of the ocean, and the trails range from easy to fairly challenging. It was a clear, breezy, beautiful day, so we headed for the top of Mt. Vision, via the horse trail.

Spring has sprung–bushes and trees are just starting to leaf out. The willow trees have everything from “jewels” (buds that are round and swelling but have not opened yet) to catkins.

There are a few flowers….and (sigh) the stinging nettles have sprouted. There are a lot of them out at Point Reyes, and they are probably the only bummer about the trails here.

We could see the Farallones Islands way out at sea, and a bit of a fog bank way out there also. But the drought situation is BAD. The grass is green, but very stunted and has brown tips. The backcountry camps, which get their water from springs….well, we met a ranger who had to drive in with a tank of potable water, otherwise there would be no water at Sky Camp. I don’t know how bad it is at the other camps.

At the end of the day (7 1/2 hours of actual hiking time) we both felt a bit tired, but good. We were carrying around 21 lb. each. We have learned that carrying weight is the key to training for a thruhike. And we also thought about all we need to get done before we leave on April 23. Yikes!

One by one, the “big deals” of preparing for the AT are getting done. But compared to our hikes of the PCT and CDT, we are being really slackers! For both of those, our garage at this point would be lined with numbered boxes, and we’d be starting to load them up with supplies.

All we have right now is an “AT corner” in our living room!

But the following “big deals” are now DONE deals:

1. Book airplane tickets. A look at “when is the best time to book for the best price?” made us realize that the time was NOW! Yikes! So we are flying out from San Francisco to Atlanta, nonstop, on Thursday, April 23. A good friend of ours even volunteered to take us to the airport. (Our original plan was to HIKE around 3 miles to the “Airporter” bus stop).
2. Set up a “Survivor Dave” shuttle run to Amicalola State Park. We have heard so many good things about “Survivor Dave” that we figured we HAD to ride with him. He was a lot of fun to talk to on the phone, and was also VERY patient when our newly refurbished computer was giving us grief in trying to pay him. When we were all done, he said, “OK, any questions? Comments?” and I said, “So, do we have to sign one of those I-am-not-responsible-if-something-bad-happens-to-you papers? For the CDT shuttle, we had to sign that if we got caught in the crossfire between Border Patrol and the drug runners, too bad so sad, the CDTA was not responsible.” Dave just laughed and said, “Well, the only drugs around here are mostly meth and no Border Patrol.”
3. Book a place to stay near Atlanta. Survivor Dave has a special deal with a hotel north of Atlanta. We will take the MARTA train, go to the hotel, and Dave picks us up from there. So I had the fun of calling up the hotel and asking for the “Survivor Dave Hiker Rate.” It even includes breakfast, and Dave said, “I’ll pick you up at 7:00, April 24, but I’ll come early and have some coffee with you!” Sounds great!
4. Freezedries. Unlike the PCT and CDT, where our resupply boxes included almost all the food we would need, on the AT we are only sending ourselves freezedried dinners (which we doctor up by adding things to, like dehydrated veges from our garden, etc.) So that means a BIG freezedry order from our absolute favorite supplier, LDPCampingFoods.com. They have great discounts. I don’t know how they do it!
5. Shoes. We both wear La Sportiva Ultra Raptors, and plan to go through 3 pairs of them in the course of the hike. So the “shoe delivery” has arrived, and we are currently using the brand new shoes for day hikes, to make sure they feel good. I’ve only once had a pair of trail runners that DIDN’T feel good, but that was enough to make me a bit wary. So now I test every new pair before putting them into a resupply box!

The continuing drought here in Northern California has been really hard–we are saving every bit of water we can, to the point of saving even the water we “run” while waiting for the hot water to come through, and the rinse water from washing dishes. We collect this in buckets (there’s a row of them in the kitchen and the bathroom), carry them outside, and use the “saved” water for our winter vege garden, which right now consists of snow peas, different kinds of lettuce, kale and leeks.

BUT, on the bright side, there is a trail we love to hike, but avoid in the winter because it is so awfully muddy–the Bolinas Ridge Trail. So today we decided “Let’s go for it!”

The trail begins with a steady climb up through cow pastures. We have to “squiggle” through a gate to start the trail, and say “Hi!” to the cows and calves as we pass by. (Sadly, their grass is barely growing).

The higher we get, the more awesome the views, all the way back to Tomales Bay, where the San Andreas Fault makes its way into the sea. We call this part of the trail, “The Sound of Music” because that’s what it looks like–the opening scene in the movie where Julie Andrews is singing about “The hills are alive with the sound of music….”

Eventually we reach “The Big Eucalyptus Patch” where several huge “euc’s” are growing by a spring. Finally we get to the top of the ridge and we are into the forest, full of ferns, and a wildlife camera (I always stop there and wave!)

From that point on, it’s a moderate rollercoaster of beautiful trail through redwood forest and Douglas fir forest, with glimpses of San Francisco Bay to the east.

Lunch was in the redwoods, leaning against a huge tree. All these redwoods are second growth (originals were logged in the late 1800’s) but you would never know it–these 120ish year old trees are magnificent.

Then we headed back to the car, muttering “One of the best things about long distance hiking is NOT being ‘on a leash’ of having to ‘get back’. We can just GO!” Pretty soon we will be starting to count down the days till we CAN “go”!

OK, here goes! We’ve been training for the AT (as we have trained for our 3 other thru-hikes) ever since October, but haven’t been able to post anything till now (WordPress site had to be totally done over).

So today we headed out for an all-day hike at one of our favorite places–Annadel State Park, near Santa Rosa. It’s got big hills and LOTS of really rocky trail. We figure that’s perfect for AT prep. I guess the rocks are different from AT rocks, though. A lot of them are lava/volcanic rocks from all the volcanic drama that happened around here 5,000 years ago or so. Hey, we still have hot springs and geysers, so it’s not totally over yet!

For training purposes, we carry our old packs, loaded up with 20 lb. of “odds ‘n sods”. My pack is the one I carried on both of our thru-hikes of the PCT, but now it’s “retired” and I use it for training. I made it myself, a la Ray Jardine, only I did add an external frame. (Sorry, Ray, but my shoulders are just not strong enough or big enough to carry a fully loaded pack without something to transfer the weight down to my hips).

Winter rains this year have been on the lower side of average, so although the grass is green, it’s still pretty short. The trees are bare and leafless, but I love to study the tracery of the branches–each kind of tree has its own shape and patterns. The wild turkeys are out, but it’s too early for any turkey chicks. It was a really cold (for CA) day–low 50’s all day, with ice still on the puddles in the forest, even in the middle of the morning. We wore all our layers, all day, and ate lunch sitting out in the full sun, by Ledson Marsh, with its great view of Hood Mountain, listening to hawk cries from the tops of nearby trees. ( For some reason the hawks seem to like to hang out by the marsh and “talk” to each other.)

It was a glorious day.

We are Bill and Monty Chipman, known on the Pacific Crest Trail and the Continental Divide Trail as “Fixit” and “Third Monty.” We thru-hiked the PCT twice, in 2005 and 2010, then the CDT in 2016.

We had not planned to do the Appalachian Trail. “It’s way back East,” we said. “It’s mostly green tunnel, with lots of rocks.” “It has way too many people.” “It has lots of ticks and mosquitoes and horrible humidity.”

But when we finished the Continental Divide Trail, we couldn’t help it. We started thinking, “Triple Crown.” And not just an ordinary Triple Crown. If we can pull off a thru-hike of the AT, that will mean Fixit gets to join a very exclusive “club” called “Triple Crown AT AGE 70 AND ABOVE”.

That’s one of the major reasons WHY we are headed for the AT. But there are some other reasons, too–the same reasons that led us to hike the PCT and CDT.

1. STAY IN SHAPE, physically, mentally and spiritually. Most people our age (Fixit is 80; 3rd Monty is 72) are on multiple prescriptions, and hobbling around with knee problems, hip problems, etc. We did NOT want that to ever happen to us, so we’ve worked very hard at staying in shape, physically. And mentally, there is nothing like the challenge of doing a long trail. Studies have shown that thru-hikers who FINISH are those who maintain MENTAL strength. And then there is the spiritual side. Fixit and I are both Christians. That means we have had a genuine encounter with Jesus Christ, Who is God Himself. He has come into our lives and transformed us from the inside out, and now we love Him and live for Him above all else. Doing a thru-hike gives us a chance to “walk” with Him and experience His presence and His love in ways that just aren’t possible in “civilization.” Over and over again, we have seen Him taking care of us in a way that only He could.
2. The satisfaction/joy of living simply, with just “the basics.” There is nothing that can beat being able to just walk all day, carrying everything that you REALLY need and nothing that you don’t, and just thoroughly enjoying every moment, even the moments that are cold, wet, scary and uncomfortable. I always say, “The only thing I miss is being able to just turn on a faucet to get water.”
3. The beauty of the mountains, the forests, the deserts, etc. We love being able to get away from town and into the world of the trail. The huge views, the incredible beauty of the backcountry, simply cannot be seen from a car on a highway, and not even from a dayhike. We feel sorry for hikers who cannot let go of their artificial stimulations of electronics, recorded music, etc. We love to hike and hear the wind, the water, the birds, etc.
4. Opportunities to meet people we would otherwise never meet. This applies both ON the trail and OFF the trail. While we are ON the trail, we have met fellow “hikertrash” from all over the world. We get to hang out with them, hike with them, talk with them. It is an amazing experience. And OFF the trail, we find that our thru-hiking story has often opened up a door of communication with people who would otherwise not listen to us.
5. We get to eat EVERYTHING and LOTS of it! At home, we are careful to match calories to how much exercise we are getting. On a thru-hike, part of the challenge is to stay ahead of the calorie deficit, so we don’t end the hike looking like Holocaust survivors. That means we get to EAT, and EAT and EAT, everything we want. It is a lot of fun!