July 10th
4mi from Tuolumne Meadows along Rafferty Creek(162.8)-Tuolumne Meadows Backpacker Camp(166.8)
Mileage: 4mi
Campsite Elevation: 8,560 ft

Whew it was a windy and brisk morning this morning. It feels like fall out here, but it’s nice. We still got our early start, and we were at the Tuolumne Meadows high Sierra Camp by 8am for breakfast.

Nice morning walking to Tuolumne Meadows.

We are pretty sure that my year on the PCT that the water was up to these bridges.


I’m still not feeling great from my period, and I don’t like spending much money on food, (especially when I’m not very hungry) so Rockin’ and Why Not had breakfast at the restaurant of the high Sierra camp while I finished some blog stuff. I was even able to get a phone call out to my sister, but not internet.

Then we headed over to the Tuolumne Meadows store to pick-up our resupply boxes and anything else we needed for today and the final three days. I have to give the store credit, they have a great selection that is very affordable. There is an attached Post Office and the employees kindly got our boxes for us on a Sunday.

Tuolumne Meadows Store

My friend Maverick, who is section hiking the PCT, left me a message on my resupply box, which was a fun surprise. Hi Maverick!

A note from my friend Maverick!

The store even has a charging station for devices. I find it pretty cool that there are still places where people will plug in a phone or camera and walk away while it charges in a public store. Props to the Tuolumne Store!

With the extended stops we’ve been making, I’ve tried to limit the costs here and in the last town of Mammoth by not eating out so much and making myself eat what I have. I understand the appeal for Rockin’ and Why Not to do this stuff and the need for rest, but I have 9 months of travel ahead, and I can only afford to do that much travel because I do watch my spending and work hard to limit my town time. Today, I had a bar for breakfast, a microwave burrito with chocolate milk for lunch, and a cheap cheeseburger for dinner, which saved a good deal compared to the more formal dining options. The $6 camping fee is tough to swallow, but is totally understandable. It’s just tough to swallow cause we could have hiked out and had a nice remote place to ourselves for free.

Still, I need to respect the appeal of nice meals, rest, and a shower. I think it’s mostly because we are just three days away from finishing and we just took a long nero and zero in Mammoth that I’m more antsy. Also, I’m worried that this now may push us out of the range of available dates our friend LoveNote (PCT 2011, CDT 2013) had to see us. She and Burly (also CDT 2013) recently had their first baby and I really was looking forward to seeing the baby for the first time, and I hope that still will happen. There are some camping restrictions coming up and we may now have thrown things out of whack for that as well and might be forced into a shorter day tomorrow to comply. We will see. At least weather isn’t an issue.

In the end, it doesn’t change the summer timeframe much. I just have this internal balance of work vs play that I feel is now in imbalance. Not that this isn’t nice, but these days/hours add up over time. I like to have a time buffer for weather, unexpected things, and truly needed rest days, but the buffer is shrinking and this is just the first hike of the summer. I don’t want to get 3wks from now and realize I don’t have time to do the hikes I’d like this summer, but that is my mind-racing “wired” side that I can’t seem to turn off and I need to work on internalizing that for the sake of my hiking partners. I need to chillax about it and enjoy a day to watch shows.

Speaking of shows, I got some great binge watching in today! I seriously had like 7hrs of downtime! I had my solo time at the campground for the day and caved it up watching the 3 episodes of Orange Is The New Black that I had on my phone and the first four episodes of season one of UnReal. I was quite content and entertained by both. This season of OITNB started off bumpy, but it was hitting a stride right when I ran out of episodes I had available offline, ah! Now I’m going through UnReal and am getting hooked. I’m late to jump on the bandwagon on that one and am enjoying it. Yes, it’s totally fluff and mindless, but hey, I’m enjoying it!

So, now the backpacker camp has filled up with tons of PCTers, JMTers, and other backpackers doing various trips. I’m wide awake and wondering how I’ll sleep. We are on the periphery of the sites, but there is still plenty of movement and noise, so this will be interesting…good thing I have shows to watch, haha! Back to hiking tomorrow.

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Walking With Wired
Winter Break In San Diego!😎
What a great trip! With so much sun and great weather, it felt more like spring break than winter break. San Diego has definitely won us over. Here is a compilation of some of the many things we did. 
-Coastal walking 🌴🌊
-Biking around the bays🚴🏻‍♀️
-Revisiting the Pacific Crest Trail💕
-Exploring the city 🌇
-Sea World 🐬🦦🦭🎢
-Beautiful sunsets 🌅
-Puzzling:)🧩

#sandiego #winterbreak
Thanks for all the bday wishes! Since my birthday falls on a Monday this year, it was a great excuse to take an extra day off and make it a 3 day weekend🥳. I indulged in puzzling and pasta (artisan jumbo raviolis) over a great fall weekend. Today was a fun day of going to local places for bday freebies. Almost $100 worth of treats and there are more I can get throughout the month! Here’s the list for anyone looking for bday treats. 
*The hand-made artisan raviolis came from Foglia in Beaverton. 
-Dutch Bros
-Einstein Bagels
-Starbucks
-Jersey Mikes
-Baskin Robbins
-Baja Fresh
-Noodles & Co
-Pips (donuts)
-Old Spaghetti Factory
-Cheesecake Factory
-Dennys
The week got away from me and I meant to post this last weekend. Better late than never! Three weekends in a row spent in the Gorge. It’s been a great fall so far and we feel lucky to have all this nearby for quick excursions. Hiking in the gorge, camping at Ainsworth SP, checking out the “fruit loop” in Hood River, and a visit and some trail work at Nesika Lodge with the Trails Club of Oregon.🍁💛🍂🧡
#columbiarivergorge
We finished up our July trip with some days at Olympic National Park. The original plan included a backpacking trip to the Seven Lakes Basin, but we had to cancel it due to a foul weather front that moved through the days of our permit. Someday we will do that one. Once the skies cleared, we spent the remaining time we had exploring the Hurricane Ridge area. I’m a big fan of mountains, ridge walks, and clouds, so it was a good finale to this summer’s travels:)

Included in the photos is our campsite at Heart O’ the Hills Campground and the puzzles we completed over the last few weeks (many of them waiting out that weather the last few days🧩). #hurricaneridge #olympicnationalpark
We moved over to the east side of Mt. Rainier and explored the Sunrise area for a handful of days. Still many grand views of Mt. Rainier, but with even more wildflowers on this side. I even got to visit an old friend;) Feeling fortunate that the weather has continued to be clear, good temps, and minimal bugs. Summer break continues! #mtrainiernationalpark
Back in the PNW and taking a couple weeks to explore and relax at Mt Rainier Nat’l Park. Our first week was spent in the Paradise area of the park with impressive views of the south side of Mt Rainier. The weather was so ideal (and somehow no bugs!) that we easily spent half the day getting some much needed R&R at camp (especially hammocking and puzzling) before heading out for afternoon hiking. It’s great to have this area just a few hours from home. #mtrainiernationalpark
For the last leg of our Northeast Coast trip, we spent a few days camping at Blackwoods Campground in Acadia National Park. We did many of the recommendations for first time visitors to Acadia: popovers at Jordan Pond, hiked the Bubbles, rode bikes along a carriage road, toured around Bar Harbor and stopped for a whoopie pie, walked the popular ocean path, and went up to Cadillac Mountain at sunset.  Overall, a successful trip to the opposite coast. We look forward to finishing up the rest of summer break in the PNW!  #acadianationalpark
Next stop on our northeast coast trip, Cliff Island off the coast of Maine. We got a taste the island life from our amazing hosts Abby, Matt, Joan, and Scott: our own lobster boil, fireworks on the beach, a bit of sea kayaking, biking around the island, exploring the tide pools, puzzling, and collecting sea glass. The best part was reconnecting with Little Lottie who I cared for and bonded with in Portland during the first year of her life. It was great to see the world Lottie lives in now💕🦞🌊🐚🦀
Kicked off our summer break with an east coast trip this year. First up, a couple days in Boston. Great to see friends Andrea and @jdavischi85 again! We were happy to get our legs warmed up for summer hikes with walking and biking around Boston. Even got in some candlestick bowling and my first evah lobstah roll. A great start to our northeast part of the summer:)
Aunt Erin’s Portland Adventures, Days 7&8: Coast Camping Cont’d
The last two days of the visit were more camping along the coast. They were filled with all the things I’d hoped for the boys to experience. They made friends and played with the other kids at camp, feely rode bikes around the loop, played in the hammock, played soccer and frisbee on the beach, ate s’mores, ran over dunes, explored a low tide (Hug Point and Haystack Rock), had a foggy coastal day and a blue bird day, and slept in the trailer making it their little cabin. They really loved the trailer and it was super cute to see then use it so well. They had a great time and hopefully a memorable trip overall of all the things I love to share living in the PNW💚💙.
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