Helpful Stores, Hiker Bonding, and Hairy Faces...

It is Wednesday, June 29th - 28 days into Ted's PCT adventure.  I have, along with many of our family and friends, had the great opportunity to speak with Teddy a lot over the past few days.  He is hiking in or near areas with cell service, or better yet, wonderful human service, that have allowed him to use their phones and facilities.  People and places are welcoming the PCT thruhikers all along the way.

Hiker friendly stores... 

Teddy said stores posted signs like the one at the left - what a sense of belonging and pride to be one of those hikers... these places have exactly what he needs to restock for the trail - things like granola, carnation breakfast drinks, poptarts, snickers, bagels with peanut butter, lipton dinners, ramen noodles, and gorp.  In case you weren't sure, that's hiker talk for trail mix. - I had to ask too.

TOG and Evil Goat

Along with the hiker friendly stores, Teddy found there were friendly hikers as well.  Let me reintroduce two you have already met in a previous blog entry.  To the right are TOG (we knew him as U.K. - his trail name is actually TOG, for The Old Guy) and Evil Goat.  These two guys hung out with several times along the way with Scarecrow.  TOG has even reached out and emailed me with his contact info, as well as his family back in the U.K. I have been in contact with him, as well as his partner Diana, who are both wonderful, amazing people sharing in the same exact experience as Ted and I.  The correspondence has been helpful as well, as we were able to transfer information back and forth that was helpful for Teddy.


Teddy shared a beautiful story with me, as did Diana via email,  about the same wonderful gesture. Below is an excerpt from the email from Diana, explaining Teddy's latest addition - a trekking pole.  Diana writes, "He (TOG) has been walking with two poles that belonged to his wife, Hazel, who died in 2008.  They used to do a lot of walking together in all sorts of wild and wonderful places and he was using them in her memory. While he was walking recently on the PCT he broke one of the poles. He met up with Scarecrow later on and offered the remaining pole to him to help him go through snow covered mountains.  Scarecrow now has it in his care which pleased TOG very much as he is not walking the PCT in quite the same way as Scarecrow so far as I can understand it."
I am proud of you Scarecrow - may that trekking pole bring you safety and comfort - from what Diana said, it has already traveled through those mountains with TOG and Hazel - may you have the same success as they did.  Thank you TOG for trusting Ted with some of your precious memories, and thank you Diana for passing along the beautiful story defining its significance.  I am sure Scarecrow appreciates your kindness.

15 pounds lighter

As you can see above, as Teddy arrives in Agua Dulce, which is 455 miles into his hike, he has lost 15 pounds.  He sends his pictures via text message on the cell phone.  He asks each time, "Shave or don't shave."  I always say, "Don't shave" - the grizzly look adds to the whole story, don't you think?

shave or don't shave?

His latest headshot, left, had the caption "would you climb into a tent with this man?" My answer, of course, is NO - I don't do tents Teddy - remember? But I do love you so much, and we continue to fill up with pride for your determination and strength, and appreciation for your character and love for others.  I hope you are enjoying this journey as much as we are enjoying hearing about it.  Happy Trails, my love.

The Thruhiker's Wife