Bree Fuqua’s adventure along the Pacific Crest Trail nearly came to a cruel end late last week, but with the help of her sister, she’s forging onward.
After Bree crossed the high-mountain desert of the Mojave she found her younger sister Jess waiting to join her for the toughest section of the 2,650-mile hiking trail. Bree has hiked over 700 miles in a month.
Jess met Bree near Kennedy Meadows in Central California and on Saturday, June 8, they were in the Sierras climbing toward the highest point in the Lower 48 states, Mount Whitney, with an elevation of 14,505.
But the sisters’ adventure nearly ended before it started after they ran into a big problem on the eve of their daunting challenge. Bree has had to mail supplies to herself throughout this four-month journey. She mailed a box of gear and food to Kennedy Meadows but someone stole everything from the box. It was a cruel act for several reasons, mostly because of the thief’s maliciousness. Not only did the person steal all her items, including one of Bree’s new shoes that she desperately needed, but they replaced the sisters’ stuff with car parts and other random items to make the packs heavier weight.
This was a major problem because the sisters were preparing to enter one of the most remote and difficult sections of the entire trip for almost two weeks. On a time crunch, the girls caught a ride into a nearby town and quickly replaced some of the stolen gear. But they couldn’t find some key items, including an ice axe, crampons and good food supplements, which means the days ahead will be extra challenging.
After the upsetting experience, Bree wrote that the life lesson of the day was, “Make the best of a bad situation. I hope the thief really needed our gear more than we did.”
She said their goal was to not panic and roll with the punches. They would have to do their best to be resourceful now that some of their key gear was gone.
Nevertheless they pushed forward. On June 7 they hiked all day, climbing 23.5 miles above 11,000 feet elevation.
Follow Bree’s day-to-day journey at her blog.
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