The Baja Ha Ha

20th-27th October

When i woke this morning it took several seconds for me to remember where i was. I was infact in the main cabin bunk of Odissea. Odissea is a 33ft CSY Cutter Sailboat and is the boat I will be crewing on as part of the Baja Ha Ha cruising rally. The Baja Ha Ha is an annual cruising rally running from San Diego in Southern California, and ending in Cabo San Lucas, at the bottom of the Baja California penninsula. It has been running for about 20 years now and this year attracted about 170 boats. It should take about 10 days to sail the 700 or so miles with each boats speed depending on class, size, crew number and overall attitude. I have always wanted to do some ocean sailing, and i thought the Ha Ha would be a good way for me to continue travelling in a manner somewhat comparable to the PCT, in my mind at least. Given I was sleeping in the main cabin i was woken up by Odissea's captain, Shane, as he started getting up and about. Much like the hiking life, cruisers tend to live by the sun and so get up with the sun and sleep as soon as it is dark. The main reason for that, as i was to discover, is that it takes precious electricity to run lights during the dark hours, and once one gets used to it, it becomes the norm. I got up and began to take in my new surroundings. Odissea is a relatively old boat and looks the part. Shane aquired her relatively recently and has had her hauled out (get used to coprious amounts of nautical terminology reader) over the weeks prior to my arrival as part of a much needed overhaul and maintenance program. Shane assured me she is perfectly seaworthy and i was prepared to his word for it not really knowing how to work it out for myself at this stage. Over the next week, Shane's plan was to have the pair of us doing as much work as possible in order to get Odissea ready for the passage down Baja California. My main projects were the changing and cleaning of the engine's heat exchanger, the installation of the scuppers, autohelm, and water maker. All of which had seen better days.

First off, the heat exchanger : Marine diesel engines are internal combustion engines just like diesel engines that power millions of automobiles around the world, the only really difference between them being the fact that they are water-cooled, instead of air-cooled, so have a water based heat exchanger installed in place of an air based radiator. I uncovered the engine as best i could and started trying to uncouple the heat exchanger. This proved to be no easy task, primarily due to the fact that the engine was located under the galley, and was in dire need of tlc. The engine space was so tight it was not possible to work on the heat exchanger and look at it at the same time. Instead i had to work out what i needed to do by wriggling into the engine space and inspecting it, wriggling back out, and then fiddling around with one arm trying to remember which bolt attached to which bit of kit. It took me a while, but after about half a day i had managed to disassemble all the right hose connections, and pry the heat exchanger free, but not without first covering myself in heavy engine oil, as the oil filter was in the way and had to be removed first. Please with my labours i set about taking it apart and then cleaning it out with acid to disolve all the plated crud on the inside. Many hours later, the heat exchanger was installed back in its rightful place and i was proud of a good day's work getting Odissea ready for the voyage down to Mexico. I had thought at the time that with the heat exchanger serviced, we would have no problems with the engine, but alas that was not to be. Instead we had problems with it from start to finish. But after my day of heat exchanger maintenance i was blissfully unaware of all that.

The scuppers : Along with the heat exchanger the other major task which had been asigned to me was the installation of the scuppers. All boats, with the possible exception of dingys, have holes in then, all of which should be intentional. A boat needs to be able to take on water for various systems: engine cooling intakes, water-maker intakes, salt water pumps and more depending on size, and get rid of water coming from engine exhausts, hotel systems, bilges and scuppers. The scuppers are the piping system which removes water from the cockpit should the cockpit become flooded in heavy weather. Odissea had had new through-holes, the actual hull penetrations, put in when she was hauled out, but they needed connecting up to the cockpit before the seacocks, the valves the connect the through-holes to the scupper pipes, could be opened and the system become operational. As with the heat exchanger maintenance, the scupper piping installation required me become a contortionist as such speed i could have put the cirque du soleil to shame by the end of the day. Unlike with with the heat exhangers, the scupper installation dragged out over several days. This was primarily because after having installed all the piping the first time, i then realised the something else wold have to be installed in the same space therefore requiring me to re-route the scupper pipes. Consequently the scuppers didn't become fully operational until the day before we left San Diego, but such is life on a cruiser.

The Autohelm : The autohelm was one of the systems that kept stymying the installation of the scuppers. The function of the autohelm is pretty self explanatory, it allows the crew of a yacht to be lazy and not steer by hand. Infact, helming is not easy, and takes practice and constant attention to do well, so is difficult to do for more than an hour at a time without getting very tired. The autohelm is a relatively simple system consiting of a hydraulic ram attached to the the rudder arm, an electric pump to drive the ram, and an electrical interface allowing for a gps unit to control the course via the ram. Upon my arrival aboard Odissea, the autohelm was being repaired and not on board. This meant i was unable to see exactly where it would be installed, and so in the end had to undo a lot of my scupper pipe network to accomodate the autohelm once it was ready to go back in its place.

The water-maker : The water-maker is somewhat of a luxury on board a cruiser i have determined. Unless doing a several week passage, such as crossing the pacific or atlantic, a water-maker is a mostly unnecessary draw on finances and power, as it takes a lot of both to aquire and operate one. The water-maker onboard Odissea was mostly for show and never once became our principle source of water given as it uses a large amount of electricity and would not make more than about 3-4 litres of water in an hour.

A couple days into the work regime, Shane decided to put Odissea through her paces and take her out on the Ocean to see what should do following all the maintenance work. I didn't know at the time, but it turns out this was the first time Shane had sailed her folloing purchasing her a few months back, not a particularly confidence inspiring piece of information, but as i said i didn;t know at the time so was as happy as the proverbial clam to be out on the water. The shakedown sail would also be an opportunity for us to assess each others sailing abilities, and in my case, start re-learning everything i had once known about sailing. On the day of the sail there was obviously myself and Shane as the two established crew, Karlana, Shane's girlfriend who was looking to come along, and her friend Cherie who was just joining us for the day. Upon taking her out onto the ocean, i could see that Shane knew enough about sailing to be taking her out, and that i was remembering it all fast enough to be at ease with most of it. Cherie it turned out knew a lot about sailing as she was working as a deckhand and steward on a 125ft luxury sailing yacht moored in the marina next to us and so was good to have along, and Karlana, who i don't think had ever worked on  a boat before, was new to everything, and so was unsure of herself and the boat. With all our sailing abilities combined, we managed a great day out on the water giving us all confidence for the upcoming adventure of the Baja Ha Ha.

Post Hike Decompression

13th-19th October

My appologies for not posting anything for a while, over a month infact, but I just haven't wanted to. The trail journal i kept was definitely a chore. At first I had time to write every day before going to bed every night, but as soon as the mileage started to go up, i was mostly unable to write anything due to the overwhelming fatigue that would engulf me when i climbed into my sleeping bag. Often at the end of each day i would write one word notes about what had happened that to to jog my memory later on, but that would be all i would write. This meant that once in town i could and would spend many hours infront of a computer trying to keep the blog up to date, it became a chore like any other. It is mostly for this reason that I haven't blog since i finished, but I will be bringing it up to date over the next few days.

My PCT adventure ended at the Snoqualamie Summit Pancake house, and i was equally glad and sad that it was over. I have yet to work out my exact total mileage, 'yet' being the operative word here, but i will hazard a guess at 2700 miles. It has been the adventure of a lifetime, but by the time i got to Snoqualamie Pass my body was ready for it to be over.

After several celebratory photos at the finish, Frosty, Golidlocks and myself got in the car and headed down the pass towards Seattle away from the Cscades and the Pacific Crest Trail, it was weird. An hour or so later we arrived at the house of Nightcrawler whose parents, Bob and Kelley, were putting us up for the night. Nightcrawler, and her fella Hercules, had both finished the trail a week before with Frosty and Goldilocks in Manning Park, and had been slowly recuperating ever since. A thru hiker that becomes a successful thru hiker is unbelivably tough, and after a few days off trail looks on first appearnce as good as new. I know however, that true recovery will take me weeks if not months. That night was a great way to end the adventure among good friends, and trail angels, and after a shower, a hot meal and a couple beers i was feeling tired but content. Nightcrawler and co were heading south to Santa Barbara the night morning, a 20 hour plus drive, so we said our goodbyes before heading to bed for my first off trail sleep in over 5 months.

The next morning after a lazy start, Frosty, Goldielocks and myself got back in the car for the 3 hour drive down to Vancouver (the US one not Canadian one) where Goldielocks´parent would be putting us all up for a few days. Over the next few days I slowly came to terms with the reality of not being on the trail, and was glad to have other hikers around me as we went through it together. Vancouver is located on the north side of the Columbia river and is in the sate of Washington, but for all intents and purposes is an outer suburb of the much larger city of Portland on the south side of the river. A substantial number of my hiking friends come from, or else live in Portland, and over those few days I managed to meet up with them a couple time to reminisce about the trail, and talk about readjustment back into the real world . One morning, myself, Mark and Ashleigh (I feel that we are no longer hikers we should revert to their other names)  headed across the river to have breakfast with Portlanders T-Rex, Chick-Chack and Starfox (not technically a Portlander but he´s part of this group so i've included him as a Portlander), AKAThyra, Angela and Ben respectively.  Along with my fellow members of PRT, these five, along with Thyra´s absent fella Rocky/Ben I would count among the true friends I made on trail. I started on the same day as the Portlanders, and had shared some of my favourite PCT experiences with them, the pre trail couple of days at Scout and Frodo´s, as well as the Kick Off event a week into the trail. With Angel and Ben I shared the Sierra High Route and Yosemite National Park, and with Thyra and Ben I endured the hardship that was Northern California from Lake Britton to Ashland in Orgeon, celebrating with them as we crossed the border together. I didn´t do any hiking with Mark and Ashleigh that i can think of, but I bumped into them all the way up the trail. The first time i remember them was at the Deep Creek hot springs when i offered them some of a canteloupe melon that one of PRT had kindly added to my rucksack, and at the end of the trail these two had slacked me during my arduous 200 mile road walk.  Weirdly though, Mark and Ashleigh had never met the Portlanders, I was the link between them all. As we sat and ate breakfast we came to the conclusion that the closest the two groups had been been to one another was at Kennedy Meadows, with a gap of only a couple hours or so if my memory serves me, but that was it. I still struggle to comprehend this.

A day or so later we met up again at the Kennedy School, a former secondary school in Portland that has been converted into a complex of bars and restaurants, it was very cool. We were joined at the Kennedy School by FunSize and Puppy, aka Grady and Caroline. I didn´t spend enough time hiking with Grady to know him well unfortunately, but he and Cuddles, the cellist who normally goes by the name Mark were among the most entertaining on trail. Caroline was definitely one of the most interesting person on trail by quite a long way. I met her first at Barrel Springs towards the end of the first week where I remember spending some time chattting to her as we waited out the hot hot sun of Southern California. I bumped into many times all the way up to Crater Lake in Oregon, where I hiked with her for a day before we parted ways on the rim of the former volcanoe. There are no 'weak' successful thru-hikers, but if i had to draw up a list of who i would consider the ´strongest' hikers she would certainly be in contention for the top spot, mentally and physically as there is no separation, in my mind at least, between male and female hikers, so I don´t make distinction, a strong hiker is a strong hiker. Puppy was living for the time being on a boat on the river, and was finding readjustment difficult. She was initially staying inside the boat, but found sleeping indoor to weird so now was sleeping on deck exposed to the elements. Such is the difficulty of readjustment. That evening I also managed to see Ben, formally Rocky, who hadn't been at the breakfast a couple of days before. The reason he hadn't been there is that he'd been at work. I literally could not fathom what that must have been like. Difficult, difficult lemon difficult i imagine. That evening was the last i spent with such a group of hikers, and i was racked by a bizarre mix of emotions as i fell to sleep back at Ashleigh's parents house later. Readjustment was going to be difficult for me too i had no doubt, but I was glad that i would be taking it slowly.

The next eveningI was set up to start the next leg of my adventure which would start out from San Diego, but in between Portland and there was a long, long bus ride. I said goodbye to Ashleigh and Mark, and was seen off at the Greyhound station by Angela and Ben as i got on the bus that would take me south. On the bus I slept as much as i could, and don´t remember a great deal of that first night, so i must have done a good job of sleeping through it. But I remember waking up sometime in the night to look out of the window and see the massive hulk that was Mt Shasta gleeming in the light of the moon. I tried to keep awake as we went past the sections of motorway that i passed all those weeksago, but I didn´t make i and sank back into inconsiousness lulled by the rhythmic rocking motion of the bus.

Later that day the bus made its way down through Southern California and as it did the terrain turned back into the scrub and chapparel that i remember so well. At some point on the outskirts of LA we must have been on section of it that i had already seen as i went on an excursion to an REI outlet from Agua Dulce the home of the Saufley´s and the Vasquez Rocks, but one piece of motorway and suburb looks much like the last so i don't remember. As we drove though I tried to crane my head back to get a glimpse of the San Gabriel mountains that I hiked through during that first month, but the low lying smog and haze obscured any such views unfortunately and i turned back to staring at the rivers of traffic snaking their way throughout the area like arteries pumping blood around the colossal urban area of LA.

Some more hours later I was off the bus in San Diego where it had all started for me. Before my bus journey i had thought about getting back in touch with Scout and Frodo to see if they would put me up for the night. I have no doubt that they would have done, but it wouldn´t have felt right somehow so i got a series of bus and trams across the city to the Shelter Island Marina, which would be my home for the next week as I prepared to start my next adventure.

Day 166 : Mexico to Canada

13th October 2013
Ironhorse trail to Snoqualamie Pass
Mileage : 32
I have hiked from Mexico to Canada. Over the last : 166 days i have hiked almost 2700 miles from Mexico to Canada. My hike ended at the Snoqualamie Pass Summit Inn Pancake House. My feet hurt.

Day 165 : The penultimate day

12th October 2013
Forest Road 7320 to the Iron Horse Trail
Mileage : 32

Today dragged on and on and on. The first 10 miles were spent hiking along a peaceful forest road tracing the former route through this section of the cascades. It was wonderful to be away from the noise of the traffic if only for a few short hours. Soon enough though I was back on the hard shoulder hiking along the hard tarmac. As if the hiking wasn't difficult enough I had to stop and deal with a blister. The last time I had a blister was over 2000 miles ago in Souther California as my feet slowly adapted to the rigors of the trail. Over the last few weeks though i have spent a considerable amount of time not on trail, and no doubt my feet started to soften up. With my blister popped and covered, I continued on my way until eventually, as the light was fading I made to the start of the Iron Horse trail which would lead me up all the way up to Snoqualamie Pass, tomorrow I would finish my hike!

Day 164 : Traffic

11th October 2013
Wenatchee to Forest Road 7320
Mileage : 30

Today was a harrowing day most of which was spent walking along the hard shoulder of heavily trafficed dual carriageway. For the most part the hard shoulder was about the width of a car, but the camber was such that it was actually quite hard to walk on without stressing my ankles repeatedly. The closer I was to the traffic, the more level the shoulder, so I walked as close as I dared keeping a close eye on each and every vehicle that zoomed towards me. If a large truck came close, I could step off to one side down the shoulder avoiding the worst of the buffeting that follows each truck, but then I would return back up close to the traffic where the going was easiest on my ankles. Every few miles or so the road would cross over the Wenatchee river, which is where things would get really hairy. The hard shoulder would be reduced to maybe a metre, with no pedestrian crossing resulting in me having to flatten myself against the barriers whenever a massive truck would come hurtling by, which happened more times than i cared to count. As well as the adrenaline inducing bridges spaced along the road, were stomach churning grotesquely contorted remains of deer that had met their end attempting to cross the road. It was a cruel and apt reminder of what would happen if i lost concentration on that rd for even a moment. I continued in this fashion for about 6 hours before I turned off the dual carriageway onto a single-laned road with a wide shoulder, less traffic, and fewer deer. Another 4 hours later and I was done for the day the junction of a forest road that would let me cut a few miles off the next day's hike, and also give me 10 miles of hiking along peaceful forest forest away from the noise and stress of the traffic. 2 days to go!

Day 163 : Scrumping

10th October 2013
Beebie Bridge to Wenatchee
Mileage : 30

I was determined to do a higher mile day today than i had done yesterday, but it was tough. The road walk was starting to take its toll on me, and i only managed 30 miles before the light was falling and Frosty picked me up again. I started off strong, but the pace was difficult to maintain, especially given the hot sun, and the complete lack of any cover whatsoever. The route was lined with apple orchards which were teaming with crews picking the autumn harvest, and given as the fruit was in such abundance, i helped myself to one or two apples surreptitiously when there was no-one around. Frosty and Goldielocks had left some soft drinks and water for me at about the halfway mark, but stupidly i missed it. While at the Winthrop hostel Goldenboy had given me the audiobooks to Game of Thrones, and although I've read the first two books and seen the show i listened to it anyway, and was so absorbed in the story i walked straight passed the little cairn marking the magic they had left without noticing. During the day I organised to stay with the parents of fellow hiker Rafiki who lived in Wenatchee, so after getting back into the car after another long day on the road we drove into Wenatchee proper to find our accommodation for the night. I am ashamed to say have completely forgotten Rafiki's parents names, but will edit this blog to include them as soon as I find them out, i did however get a picture of them which i will upload as soon as I have Internet connection strong enough to do so. Rafiki's parents held the angel bar high that night as they fed and watered the three of us before we bedded down for an early night. I am pushing myself as hard as I can on the road, and it shows, after about 9pm I can scarcely keep my eyes open, and fell asleep pretty much as soon as my head hit the pillow, i slept for about 9 hours straight before the alarm went off for the third last day of my hike from Mexico to Canada.

Day 162 : Frosty and Goldielocks

9th October 2013
Pateros to Beebie Bridge
Mileage : 33
This morning i was picked up again by Jan who took me back to where i had gotten dropped off the day before, but instead of heading north back down to Winthrop, i was finally heading south towards Chelan, Wenatchee, Snoqualamie Pass and the end of my PCT adventure. After two days of slackpacking, my knees could feel the extra weight when i pulled on my pack that morning, but thankfully it wasn't for long. Frosty and Goldielocks, whom i had seen finish a few days before at Manning Park, had decided they would help me with logistics for the last part of my hike, and were due to slack me the entire way to Snoqualamie Pass. It was just after midday when i saw their car pull up in front of me on the hard shoulder of the highway. They had come prepared with soft drinks, doughnuts, chocolate, and much more, but more importantly, the had come with wheels. Having a car meant that a) I could slackpack, b) that they would be able to pick me up at the end of each day and whisk me off to whatever campsite they had found, and c) whisk me back to the road the next morning. I know I would have managed without them, but it would have been much, much more difficult, so I am incredibly grateful to have had them drive all the way from Vancouver (Washington not Canada) and provide logistical support for me. Soon after meeting Frosty and Glocks, I bumped into a group of thru-hikers in fancy dress coming the other way on their way to the Canadian border at Osoyoos, having started from Steven's Pass. It would have been good fun hiking with them, but they were not going my way, and were only covering about 20 miles a day and I didn't want to drag the road walk out any longer than was absolutely necessary, so i wished them all luck and carried on south. That evening Frosty and Glocks picked me up just after I crossed over the Mighty Columbia River as the light was starting to fade. They had purloined a High Vis vest for me to wear as I walked, and i was glad to have it as I walked along the hard shoulder a metre or so away from the traffic wizzing towards me. I had a sneeking suspicion that I hadn't gone as far as I would have liked, but it was far enough for today. We headed into Chelan for some calories before turning in for the night at a local campsite having closed the the gap by about another 30 miles, and by this time tomorrow I would have less than 100 miles til the end of the PCT.