A Walking Meditation

Adventure On the PCT

2008-05-20T10:20:00.000-07:00

For the best information on planning your Pacific Crest Trail Hike go to:

www.adventureonthepct.com

They have tons of great info, a discussion forum, and all the links you'll need to start planning your PCT hike. I highly recommend this site!

Off the Trail

2006-10-01T19:28:00.000-07:00

Trail Journals, Part VII

2006-09-19T23:31:00.000-07:00

Three new pages, which chronicle August 14th and the climbing of Mt. Shasta.

Video from Mt. Shasta

2006-09-15T23:37:00.000-07:00

Dear People of Ashland, Oregon

2006-08-25T15:13:00.000-07:00

Dear People of Ashland,

You're really going to have to start making some changes if you want to convince people not to move here. For starters, you need to stop picking up hitch hikers and taking them home with you and telling them that they can stay with you as long as they want. Also, when some stranger asks you where the post office is, you might want to try telling them to "get lost" rather than driving them there and then taking them to your garden and loading them up with your homegrown fruits and veggies. And perhaps you shouldn't be inviting them to a bbq where you're grilling up a fresh steelhead you just caught that morning, served with roasted corn on the cob and a nice selection of cheeses and local microbrews. Also, inviting them to your Reggae show, where you get them in for free, isn't helping matters either. likewise, buying pizza for out of town strangers and loading them up with healthy snacks for the road from the co-op isn't really sending the appropriate "message". And don't even get me started on the free Shakespeare performances in Lithia park, healthy people riding bicycles every where, hip-hop poetry jams, smiling people asking "How's your day?", beautiful weather, an amazing library, and a bounty of wild delicous blackberries, oh and your own ski resort??? Sheesh! In short, Ashland, you suck!

Thank You Young's!

2006-08-25T15:10:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to say thank you to Dan and Lila Young who hosted Groomsmen, Twisted Sister, T-Bird and myself at their home in Castella. You guys are amazing and we all had a wonderful time with you! Thank you again for your kindness and incredible hospitality.

Check out the new photos to see all the all the fun we had with the Young's!

Mail Drop Update Etna and Seid Valley = NO

2006-08-10T14:04:00.000-07:00

Due to possible re-routing as the result of wild fires please DO NOT send me anything to Etna or Seid Valley until further notice. Thanks!

Old Station Got Trail Angels!

2006-08-10T07:47:00.000-07:00

Great big giant THANK YOU's to Dennis and Georgi Heitman, my most kind and generous trail angel hosts for the past 2 days! These guys are incredible, not only do they have every hiker on the trail stopping by, but they also serve breakfast and dinner every day! (Oh and they happen to live in the coolest house ever, with an even more cool TREE HOUSE in their back yard, oh and calling it a tree house is like calling the Taj Mahal a flat, stay tuned for photos!).

So last night, Twisted Sister, and Groomsmen and I headed up to hike to the peak of Mt. Lassen. I had been admiring the beauty of this mountain for the past several days wondering if I would ever have the opportunity to hike to the top, wishing for that chance. So when Twisted Sister offered to drive us up, I about jumped out of my seat.

We hiked up at sunset and as we neared the top, watched the most incredible orange full moon rise from behind the distant mountains. It made me laugh out loud, it was so beautiful.

When we got to the top Twisted Sister surprised us with a round of Fat Tire Ales and we toasted Lassen Volcanic National Park's 90th Birthday. Happy Birthday Lassen!

The thing that never ceases to amaze me about this journey is the kindess of strangers, and my continued joy of discovery. I am truly blessed. Thank you everyone.

Love,

Chai Guy : )

Lose 40 lbs. NOW ask me how!

2006-08-09T13:56:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone,

Just an update to let you know that I am safe and sound in Old Station, CA. I've got a LOT of journal writing to catch up on (I know!) but I wanted to take advantage of this computer time to give you a few updates:

1. I saw my first bear on the trail! He was a full grown adult brown bear and he (or she?) was beautiful. I came up a small ridge and saw it before it saw me. I then "barked" a few times and it ran off (glad to know that my barking technique is good for scaring off bears).

2. I've lost 40 lbs. , and it now looks like my weight has stabilized over the past 2 weeks. I haven't lost any weight since then and I feel great!

3. There are some wild fires up ahead on the trail in the Shasta Trinity, and Kalamath National Forests http://www.inciweb.org/ . We are being advised to find alternate routes around these sections of trail. I just want everyone to know that I will NOT be attempting to go through this fire routes unless cleared to do so by the agencies involved in fighting these fires, so PLEASE do not worry about me. Also I will be checking in (as always) with my brother and he has my route and schedule written down and knows my location, direction and estimated time of arrival at all times. He will notify the proper agencies if I fail to contact him within our agreed upon time. Thanks for your concern.

4. I miss all you guys, and I can't wait to see you again! Please join me on the trail!

Ok, that's it for now. Keep the cards and letters coming, they sure help lift my spirits and I will have new pictures and new journal entries up soon!

Thanks For Everything,

Chai Guy : )

Rachel, Adam, Freak Show and Me.

2006-07-25T23:13:00.000-07:00

Recently, I had the privilege of hiking with my friends Rachel and Adam (and their new puppy dog "Freak Show") This is Rachel's account of our journey.

PCT section hike Southbound Boreal trailhead (Soda Springs) to Forest Road 3 (~35 miles, 3.5 days) Civilization Index - 4/35 (instances/total miles)

Last night I listened to the wind skirling in the pine trees like inconstant surf, ebbing and fading and passing all about us and then away. That day we scrambled over snow. July sun beating down on us and all around snow like scraps, like swaths, like whole bolts of cloth shining in the sun. They fell sheer from crevasses like melting scoops of ice cream, trickling over the trail, the ground, everywhere, in cool clear meltwater streams. We came to one slippery in the sun and steep, stretching out in front of us broad and smooth for about 20 yards. Scrambling across, trying to hold on. Two pairs of footprints to follow, the dog pulling left and right and back and down, frantic with the way the snow felt under his paws.

Today fixed that panic. This morning I dug a hole in our first few miles, a stand of trees to my back and a meadow of green leaves and yellow, red, purple flowers waving in the sun before me. To my left was a rocky mountain knob almost mossy-looking with green. Spread out in front of me, a range of mountains and snow and granite – forbidding even in the early morning sun. 2 hours later we were climbing that mossy knob. The moss resolved itself into sprays of wildflowers and tiny butterflies in blue and orange. There is an herb I can’t place growing in sprawly patches everywhere, and it smells like home.

Crawling across the skin of the green green earth like ants, like turtles. Nothing around us but green and brown thrown into relief by white patches of snow, nothing in sight but the green green blue mountains serrating off into the distance, all overdomed by a perfect blue sky. We occasionally meet other hikers on the trail. When we pass close to a trailhead, day hikers appear like some sort of aliens, walking down the trail clean and white with jogging shorts, children, babies. Almost all the backpackers we meet are through-hikers, all heading towards Canada. We met an older gentleman who showed us the obituary of his friend, who had died his second day out alone on the PCT. He had been seventy, and died of a punctured lung. We nodded solemnly. Today we meet Ewa, a leathery man with a long, wiry beard and wild hair. He is slung all over with packages, wearing a backpacker’s pack with sacks attached behind and a daypack on his front. He tells us he carries a solar shower, and talks about how infrequently he hikes on trails. He points to a peak behind him, Needle Peak, that has a lake frozen straight through, blue ice even in July. You have to bushwack your way up to it, though. He advises us to take the second Tevis fork from our trail to find a really great, broad granite plain to camp on. He talks about lowering your pack over a cliff with a rope, and this one time he slid 1000 vertical feet down a snow face. We come to a great, broad snowfield, with vague footprints tracking off several ways in the distance. There are many spots without snow at the base of trees and in great rocky mudpaths, but the trail is often lost. I tie a rag over my eyes to keep from going blind and we plow up. The steep face rising before us is obviously where we are supposed to go. It is hard, slow work, and although we cut a decent amount of length off the trail by plowing straight up instead of switchbacking, it is no savings. The dog does not help, although he hates the snow less than yesterday. After what seems like hours, we crest the peak and are granted a distant blueing view of Tahoe and its far rim mountains. The other face of the mountain is blissfully free of snow, and we descend into a land of meadows again, only to see a long curving ascent to a windy, rocky, nasty ridge. The trail ends there and we have lost three miles of our day – we followed the wrong trail out of the snowfield. The detour granted us the pleasure of viewing an endless chair lift and abandoned ski resort. Another peak. We climb over and around felled trees, a different obstacle for the dog than for our monkey selves. We mount patches of snow all high and narrow instead of yesterday’s broad. Five miles of dreamlike switchback ascent through big, fat pines, gradually growing gnarly and stunted, eventually breaking through to scrubby bushes that grab across the trail with thorny arms. The trail almost reaches the crest of the ridge and turns, heading laterally 10 feet from the top. A powerful, constant wind blows up and over the ridge. We have split up and I am alone with the dog. I could walk forever, yet each step is a drunkard’s and has been all day. The rocky trail makes me stagger, the wind holding me up like a sober friend. I ought to be playing the part of the drunk, singing and swearing. I shout into the wind. Lake Tahoe has been tantalizing us in the distance for days, appearing and disappearing with the vagaries of the trail. It pitches into view again and sits, shining deep and blue and not so far away, with a ragged fringe of mountains behind it. We descend towards the north fork of Blackwood Creek, and make camp together for the last time. The creek is terraced with snow, great curving arches on each side that reach out and over and touch in places to form perfect, deadly, bridges. The dog escapes and runs out onto one and does not fall through. In the morning, I crane my head out the tent door and around the side to watch, sandwiched between a tree trunk five feet across and a turn of the hill, a tiny sliver of Tahoe’s mountains and the sky above them golding from pink as the hot red sliver of the sun edges up over the side of the world. I shout Here it comes! and we all cheer.

New Mail Drop Dates!

2006-07-25T15:47:00.000-07:00

For everyone that has been asking, check out the new mail drop dates! I'm going to try to keep them more current from now own, but be sure to call my 800# for my most recent location.

Thanks!

Trail Journals, Part VI

2006-07-20T23:40:00.000-07:00

Nine new pages, eight which chronicle up to June 28th and one from June 29th.

Call Chai Guy!

2006-07-07T01:08:00.000-07:00

No, I don't have a cell phone, but I do have voice mail!

Just dial 1 -800 My Yahoo (1-800 699-2466)
When you hear the voice hit the # key.
Then dial 800 Chai Guy (800 242-4489)

I can't respond to your voice mail, but if you send me an email, I can drop a voice mail back in your inbox. So if you need a response, use email, if you just want to give a shout-out then give me a call.

Chai Guy sighting!

2006-07-04T10:47:00.000-07:00

Short video of Chai Guy at Moontribe.

Happy Birthday!

2006-06-30T06:19:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Dawn!

Thanks for all the love and support on this hike and throughout my life! I hope you are having a wonderful day!

Love,

Chai Guy

Trail Journals, Part V

2006-06-28T00:27:00.000-07:00

Two new pages, which chronicle June 23rd.

Happy Father's Day Dad!

2006-06-18T08:40:00.000-07:00

Hey Dad,

I just wanted to say how much I love you and how much your support on this trip has meant to me. I miss you and I hope I will see you again soon. Have a very Happy Father's Day!

Love,

Ron

Chai Guy's Interview on Burncast!

2006-06-16T13:39:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

Just wanted to post this here, it's the audio interview that Da Bomb recorded for "Burncast" during her visit with me on the trail. While you're there check out some of the other interviews in this exciting new project!

Direct Link To the Chai Guy Interview
http://nospectators.com/burncasts/mp3/Burncast_007.mp3

All other interviews:
http://burncast.net

At night I walk the streets of Bakersfield

2006-06-16T08:26:00.000-07:00

Actually, no I didn't. I did however ride my cousin's mountain bike to the store last night. Does that count? Ok, let me start from the beginning.

I arrived at Walker Pass and quickly received a ride into Onyx without really even having to get my thumb out. I tried calling Jason, that's my cousin. We were born on the exact same day, and spent some great times fishing and hanging out at my uncle's cabin together when we were kids. I haven't seen him since we were in grade school! Anyway, I tried calling him but I wrote down his cell phone number incorrectly so I called his house and left a message for him. It was around noon so I figured I'd hang out in Onyx (which is essentially a gas station and a post office) until he could get home and retrieve the message and then pick me up.

As I was waiting a US Army Recruiting Sergeant (Sergeant Dunnick) asked me how my hike was going and wanted to know if I needed a ride. The opportunity to yogi a ride from the US Army was just too good to pass up, so I left a new message on Jason's machine telling him NOT to pick me up and Sergeant Dunnick and I drove down the mountain into Bakersfield.

I talked with sergeant Dunnick about my Army experience and we had a great conversation on the way into town. She let me use her cell to call my cousin again to see if he was home, but it was still before 5:00 pm so she dropped me off at the library and logged me onto the internet with her card so that I could check my email while I waited.

Later she called my cousin to make sure that we had connected and that everything was OK. Good lookin' out Sergeant! I appreciate all your help! A big "Hoo-rah" to you and remember that "Engineers Lead the Way"!

After 5:00 pm I called Jason and he and his girlfriend Emily came and picked me up (they were just a block or two away). We went back to their house and Emily cooked a fantastic dinner for us.

The next day we woke up and Jason and I went up to my uncle's cabin where we had spent time together as kids. It was such a rush to be back there as I have so many fond memories of playing there as a boy. We had to cut back some weeds from the cabin due to the local fire prevention program. I also took a short trip to the nearby "Indian Writings" (see photos). I hope I can return soon after my hike to spend some more time with Jason up at the cabin and make some new memories up there. I really missed that place.

After cutting some weeds, Jason asked if I wanted to go rafting (Jason is a part time rafting guide on the Kern River with Mountain & River Adventures). Of course I said "YES!". Now when he said "rafting" I'm thinking one of those large rafts with several people and a guide to steer it for us. When we get there however, I'm given a wetsuit and we load up these very, very small one person inflatable kayaks (called a "Maniyak"). There were no clients going out at that time, but we were allowed to tag along with a group of guides who were going out for one last run.

Jason then asks if I've ever done any kayaking. Uh, "In the ocean and on a lake, yes." Oh, "You'll be fine" he says. As we're heading up one of the guides inquires about my skill set, to which Jason replies "He's going to be great, he's hiking the PCT!" which makes me wonder exactly what hiking has doing to with going down a class 3 rapid in a small inflatable boat! But I take the vote of confidence in stride, and try to focus on the positive which is not getting killed.

Once in the water I stick to Jason like a duckling to it's mother. Apparently I'm sticking a little too close because as soon as we enter the rapids I end up T-boning him and putting us both in the soup. As soon as my head surfaces I'm aware of several people blowing whistles. I figure this must be the "man-overboard" signal, I then realize that I'm the man overboard as I struggle to right my small boat and get back in it.

On our first run I end up capsizing twice, on our second run I managed to stay in the entire trip. It was a wild ride, and I had a blast. The whole time I'm thinking, "I can't believe that I'm kayaking the Kern River while hiking the PCT!" who would have thought?

Mountain & River Adventures also offers mountain bike trips, rock climbing trips and a whole host of other activities, including a ropes course! They even have a campground and facilities for large groups and corporate events. The Kern River is just a few hours from L.A. If you're looking for some serious whitewater fun with safe and experienced guides, check out Mountain & River Adventures at http://www.mtnriver.com and if you're coming up on a weekend, ask to have my cousin Jason guide you and tell him Chai Guy says hi!

Later that night we returned home and Emily cooked up some elk steaks! I've never had elk before. Those were some delicious steaks, Mmmmm.....

The next day I returned to the cabin to finish up some work, and then met up with Jason at the end of his work day (he's very busy as a construction supervisor). When we returned home a new pair of shoes was waiting for me sent to me by my Dad and step-mom, Dawn. I really, really needed new shoes and was incredibly happy that they fit so well. Thanks Dad & Dawn, you guys are the best! I spent the rest of the evening going to the store and packing up for my departure this morning.

I'm sad to leave Jason and Emily but excited to finally be reaching the Sierras. I've loved being able to reconnect with my cousin and learn that we have so much in common. I can't wait to hang out with him again. I wish Jason and Emily could join me on the trail, and who knows? Maybe they will?

- Chai Guy : )

Trail Journals, Part IV

2006-06-16T01:04:00.000-07:00

Six new pages, three that chronicle June 9th and three that chronicle Moontribe.

The Name Game and Random Trail Quotes

2006-06-16T00:46:00.000-07:00

This first page contains a little game and the answer key follows on the second page.

Miles From Home

2006-06-15T23:38:00.000-07:00

Miles From Our Home
Cowboy Junkies

No one in sight for fifty miles
Sleeping fields sigh as I glide across their spines.
If I can just reach the crest of that hill
This whole day will tumble, out the night will spill.
The sky as still as a spinning top
Shooting stars drop like burning words from above
If I could just connect all these dots
The truth would tumble like a Cynic vexed by love.
And yet people keep saying
I'm miles from my home,
Miles from my home.
I met you again in my sleep last night,
These are days of slow switchbacks and false starts.
Hearts remain under lock and key,
You will be the one to set them both free.
And yet people will tell you
You're miles from your home,
Miles from your home.
But that's where I want to be.
Out there searching,
Out here fumbling,
Out here waiting
For you and you for me.
The moon hangs like a question mark,
Pale as milk, bold as promise.
When will you share these sights with us?
When will we hold you in our arms?
And people will tell them
We're miles from our home,
Miles from our home.

Thank you Saufleys!

2006-06-02T15:46:00.000-07:00

Imagine hosting a party every year at your home, for 300+ people. Imagine if the party lasted 6-8 weeks. Imagine if you had to set up tents to house everyone, and bring in porta-potties, and hire a water truck to mitigate the strain placed on your well. The Saufleys do this every year and have for the last 10 years, for the benefit of everyone hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. I'm overwhelmed by their generosity and kindness.

While it's difficult to leave here, I must get back on the trail and cross the Mojave. I'll see you all in 5 days or so.

-Chai Guy

Trail Journals, Part III

2006-06-02T01:00:00.000-07:00

Four new pages, which chronicle May 2oth-23rd.

Mojave NOT Tehachapi

2006-06-01T12:08:00.000-07:00

I've elected to go to Mojave, not Tehachapi, if you've sent me anything to Tehacapi, let me know so that I can have it forwarded to my next stop. I should arrive in Mojave in approximately 6 days from today. Sorry for any inconvenience. Please send mail to:

Ron "Chai Guy" Tetirick
C/O General Delivery
Mojave, CA
93501

Thanks.