Author: crow

Hermit, long distance hiker, primitive cabin dweller, seeker.

How to get to Campo– the southern end of the Pacific Crest Trail.

From the San Diego airport, take the #992 bus to America Plaza, downtown. Bus #992 pickups from both terminals and runs every 10 minutes, during the week. Pay 2. 50 and ask for a transfer that will get you to EL Cajon Transit Center–exact change. Takes 10 minutes.

At the America Plaza, take the Trolley-Orange line going to El Cajon Transit Center. The trolley leaves every 15 minutes. Your bus transfer will get you on free. 50 minutes.

At the El Cajon Transit Center, take the Southeast Rural Bus #894 to Campo. Currently there is no weekend service. Leaves El Cajon transfer station, on weekdays, at 9:10am, 4:10pm, 5:20pm and gets to Campo at 10:53am, 5:58pm, and 7:03pm. Cost 10.00.

It is recommended but not required that you make reservation for the bus ride from El Cajon Transit Center to Campo, Bus #894. To make your reservations call 1-800-858-0291. The Metropolitan Transit system recommends making them at least a day in advance. Yogi, in the PCT Handbook, recommends making them 2 weeks in advance. The bus’s links are to the current schedules.

For more information go to http://www.sdcommute.com/ Or call 1-800-266-6883

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Buying maps– cut out the middle person

pacific-crest-1-thumb.jpgThere are some new maps out, of the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail). So far just Southern California and Northern Washington. I wanted to buy one. At the pcta.org cabin2-089.jpgsite it cost 19.31, total. REI sells it too, they sell it for a total price of 25.49. But if you go to the National Forest Store the same map only cost 10.00 dollars, free shipping, no tax. They sell lots of other maps too, of course.

Update: I got my map…. this thing is so durable you could use it as a place mat. One map weighs 6.3 ounces… too much to bring on a long hike.

Sawyer’s water purification– “No Pumping; No Chemicals; No Waiting; No Worries!”

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I was turned on to this system from reading the PCT-O7 yahoo group. These purifiers quickly remove bacteria and virus. They treat 3000 gallons– more if you back flush it. You can filter three ways: inline gravity feed which yields 5 gallons in 30 minutes, or sit on the bag and get it even faster, hook it up to a faucet and get it at 40 psi, or fill up the bottle and just drink. It says that there is no hard sucking involved.

I’m having a hard time getting more information on these. The inline filter weighs 6 oz, I believe, but I don’t know about the bottle filter. Aqua Mira– what I use– weighs 3 oz but only treats 30 gallons and that’s if you don’t accidentally not get the cap on tight. The biggest problem I have with Aqua Mira is running out of it on the trail.

On the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail) and the Appalachian the water is usually good and I didn’t feel I needed to treat much of my water, except in the desert, but on the Florida trail and at least the New Mexico section of the CDT (Continental Divide Trail) I was finding I needed to treat most of the water and ran out of Aqua Mira in the middle of nowhere and had to drink the cow spit straight up; it would be nice to have a water treatment that would last the whole trail, as I don’t like being bound to mail drops for my supplies.

Here is a link with more information http://www.sawyerproducts.com/viral.htm They are sold through http://www.justdrink.net/

Update:  I bought it and so far have not gotten it to work.  Read my review here

The best thing I have watched, ever.

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Errol Morris’ First Person: the complete series. He uses this thing called an “Interrotron” – an innovative camera device Morris invented to maintain merciless eye contact with his subjects”. All they see is him on a little screen– no camera person apparently . It’s just the subject and the camera staring them in the eyes and they tell their stories. Haunting and disturbing stories like a woman who fell in love with a serial murderer.

Living without running water.

Yesterday I took the first shower I have had in over 4 months. That’s the longest I have ever gone without a proper bath. For some reason, I think this is a note worthy accomplishment but when I announced it to the woman that works at Subway she just looked a little embarrassed for me.

My cabin doesn’t have running water–I carry my water from a spring about 1/4 of a mile away. It’s really easy to live with out running water. I just put 4 one gallon jugs in my backpack, when I head out for my walk, and pick up some water on the return trip. (Now that I’m in trail training mode, I put the water in at the begining of my walk.)

the big tubWhen I first moved here I would drive into town a couple times a week for a coin operated shower at the laundry mat. But now, I’m proficient at staying relatively clean with less then 1/2 a gallon a day of water. I bathe in a little enamel basin most days but some days, about once a week or once every two weeks, I scoop 4 gallons of hot water out of the big pot on my wood stove into an 11 gallon galvanized wash tub and have a sit down bath. After I bathe in the water I throw my clothes in it. After my clothes are done soaking, I ring them out and hang them out to dry. After that, I mop the floor with the same water, then I use the water to wash out my composting toilet.

For hand washing during the day I keep the enamel basin full of water and just keep using the same water over and over.  When I get so I don’t want to reuse the water anymore, I dump it and start over.

Another note worthy accomplishment: I bought my cabin furnished. It came with a small bar of soap. Two years later I’m still using that same bar of soap. I wash mostly with baking soda, as I learned to do in this Mother Earth News article “Keep clean without running water”

Stove Thermometer

cabin2-086.jpgWith the warming weather, a fire is not such a pressing need anymore. In fact, the only wood I have been burning is the sticks I pick up on my way back to my cabin at the end of my daily walk.

The problem is that those dry pine sticks make a powerfully and possibly dangerously hot fire. I have this magnetic stovepipe thermometer to help me gauge when the fire is getting out of control. When it gets too hot, I just close the damper. It also tells me when I’m burning my fire too cold–possibly creating too much creosote build up in my stovepipe.

Light weight insulating jacket.

mont_bell_thermawrap.jpgThis is my new gear purchase: the Mont- Bell U.L. Thermawrap Jacket. It cost 111.20, including shipping, from Campsavers.com It will replace my Marmot dri-climb shirt and my Feathered Friends down vest. It’s suppose to weigh less then 8 oz (226 grams), in my size, and will save me 13 oz. (368 grams). It’s coming in the mail. I have high hopes for this jacket.

Update: It runs small and it wasn’t as warm as I had hoped.  I missed my down vest.

It brings the base weight of my pack down to under 10lbs (4.5 Kilograms). Of course, if a person were to add an ice ax, a bear canister, and a pair of running shoes– so they wouldn’t have to hike in the snow in sandals– it would increase another 4.5 lbs(2 kilograms).

Soothing the reptilian brain.

reptilian brain in a bunchI met a guy who told me his theory that people have a part of their brain that is only interested in survival and until this part is appeased it’s just not going to let you have any fun or let you think clearly about anything else. So, when you stop for the night it’s important to set up your tent and say, “Look, here is your home for the night�; take out something to eat and give yourself some water.

It’s why when you have company over you can make them happier if you show them where they will be sleeping that night and where everything is. Show them that there is food, water and a place to sleep.

My personal observations are that this is true. People start getting weird when they don’t know where they will be sleeping or if they are going to be fed.

I also remember Jardine saying something like this in his book. He said that if you don’t feed yourself well on the trail, if you don’t keep yourself hydrated, that the part of you that is only interested in survival will find a way to get you off the trail and back to town where food and water is more reliable.

People on the grid are loud.

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Today I heard a live band playing that sounded like it was right outside of my door. I hiked all over my land trying to find the hippie festival that I imagined had set up camp at my place. The nearest people to me with electricity are 2 miles away; I can’t believe that the sound would carry up the hill that well. I’m not kidding you, I heard the words of the songs, I heard the band say “Thank you, very much” while I was sitting in my cabin. Man, it had to be loud at their place.

To do list for the long distance hiker.

  1. Start carrying weight in your pack on your walks.
  2. Get started on cutting next winters fire wood.
  3. Do taxes
  4. Pay property taxes
  5. Decide on a date–buy a ticket to get there
  6. Make gear list of everything that goes into your pack and it‘s weight. Obsess over everything, no mater how small or light
  7. Order guide books
  8. Get any permits you might need.
  9. Order any new gear you might need.
  10. Set up re-supply schedule for guide books, socks, sunscreen, pain-relievers, supplements, etc.
  11. Wash that stinking down sleeping bag and down vest you have been sleeping in all winter
  12. Turn off all money sucking utilities and subscriptions – Netflix, Internet, telephone.
  13. Forward mail
  14. Change auto insurance over to storage rate.
  15. Soak clothing in Sawyers insect repellent soak