[pct-l] Pacific Crest Trail Hike and Ride

[campydog at verizon.net (Campy)]

Hello:

I'd like to share an email I received from Dave and Arleene Foster, 
equestrians who rode and hiked on the PCT this year starting at Campo. 
They did it "ride and tag", meaning that one person rode while the 
other person hiked, usually for a half a day and then they traded off 
for the other half. In other words, they had only one saddle horse 
between them. And they made use of two pack horses. Dave and Arleene 
regularly do trail work on the PCT (as members of the PCTA) with Pete 
Fish in PCTA Region 1 and this is how I got to know them. I asked them 
for a couple additional paragraphs to explain more things, and I then 
combined their emailed comments for this report. It's admittedly a 
little out of sequence but I know their story will be enjoyed. I 
believe they would welcome your questions or comments and their email 
address is provided above.

==^===
We made it to the Canadian Border on Sept. 15 at high noon. It was 
snowing, very cold. We did not want the hassle crossing the border so 
we touched the monument, signed in, took pictures and headed back 10 
miles.
Then another two days to Meadow Campground, then covered in snow, 
frozen snaps, frozen tent poles, tent and gear all covered in snow, we 
left the PCT via Harts Pass road down to Robinson Campground on Sept. 
18, to get
started on our journey home. Jane Byram and friends took us to a Bed & 
Breakfast where we stayed till our ride home could come and get us. Ed 
Sher picked us up and we started home to Southern California. Stopped 
at his place for a one day rest then headed home.

The trail was a lot tougher than I thought. We have worked on the 
Pacific Crest Trail in Southern California and rode the first 200 miles 
many times and knew where all the water and graze was. The next 
section, "C" was all new. New arch bridges, washed out trails, down 
trees, and tight spots for pack saddles.

The trail was tough on the horses. Hikers climbed over all obstacles; 
we had to cut trees, build trail and just push through obstacles. Too 
much snow. They called this a fast melt year. Snow drifts were hard to 
deal with. Snow covered the whole trail, we had to tie up and scout 
around to find the trail. We hit snow many many days. I kept thinking, 
okay we are done with the snow but it just kept coming. The cat walk 
was easy compared to the Goat Rocks and Old Snowy. We were told no snow 
on Old Snowy - its a Glacier, snow stays on it all year round. Steep, 
narrow, high and snow! Our saddle horse slipped and fell on the last 
step to dry ground. She recovered on the dry ground, and the boys 
followed without slipping. Any mistake on this and many sections and 
your horse is dead!  Horses all did very well. All sound. They started 
to loose weight at the very end and the pack horses got sores on their 
backs. Too many miles, too many days. Everyone said they looked great. 
I even went for a ride with Denise the gal who runs the B&B and Linda 
felt so good she just wanted to go.

We carried a cell phone and it worked on many high passes. Verizon. We 
had a solar powered charger for it from Radio Shack. David had a case 
for it. It needed full sun to charge. I kept in touch with my daughter 
Charlene so she could keep track of us and let our resupply persons 
know when we planned to arrive.

We kidded with hikers as they went into town almost weekly, that we 
could not go into town because we had to babysit our children (horses) 
and no one wanted a horse in town. We did go into town a few times - we 
went to
Trail Angel Donna Saufly's place. She invited us before we started our 
trip. She had corrals for our horses so we hiked to town from her place 
in Agua Dulce and I got sick on too much ice cream. We also went into 
town in Beldon / Hwy 70. The PCT runs right through town. We met our 
resupply people there. There were over 400 bikers there. The store 
owner let us camp right across from the store. Bikers took pity on us 
and fed us. We took a day off there with them. "The Grandfathers" were 
the ones who took us in. It was called the "Feather River Run". Harley 
Davidson Motorcycles everywhere.

We also rode and hiked to Sierra City to try and buy more grain. Small 
town no feed store. We tied up next to the Church. They were very nice 
to us. We also were right in Town at Hwy 90 / Snoqualime. We camped at 
the Equestrian camp and hiked to the hotel / restaurant and met Gumby 
and GraveDigger and True. We washed our clothes in the hotel and I even 
got a shower using Gumby's room while I waited for my laundry to finish 
up.

We also took a few days off in Bishop with Bill Carter. He loaned us a 
truck to run errands and we picked up Gallon and Fritz and took them to 
the post office. Such a small world, kept running into people we knew. 
We stopped at Grass Valley, Bill Carter dropped us off at our friends 
home where we put shoes on our horses and made up more food boxes for 
Oregon and Washington.

We started taking one day off a week then were worried  we would not 
get out before the snow started so we only took two days - one in 
Oregon and one in Washington. We pushed through with 20 mile days. Most 
hikers went more miles then we did, but most took more town days, zero 
days, and stopped to climb mountain peaks.
Sometimes we went 35 miles just to find water and graze.

We had originally planned to come back and go South in the High Sierra. 
We asked Pete Fish and George Boone to let us know if Mather Pass was 
fixed for stock or a reroute but they never found out. Horses were 
tired, David said we did what we could, it was not passable, he was 
afraid if we started we might have got snowed in. We figure we did 
2,250 miles.

David and Arleene Foster,
Linda, saddle horse, Cozad & Jr. pack horses

==^======================
Campy
Central California Trail Coordinator
"Home of the High Sierra Trail Gorillas"
Pacific Crest Trail Association
Bishop CA  	Tel.: 760-872-2338

http://www.trailprojects.com  click on PCT

Time spent doing trail work shall not be deducted from your life!
==^