Buzz and Izzy are halfway there.
The North County hikers have logged 1,371 miles in their journey from Campo to Canada on the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail.
Editor's note: This is the sixth in an occasional series of stories following two North County residents as they hike the Pacific Crest Trail.
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Known off the trail as Paul Longton, an Oceanside architect, and Nancy Imbertson, co-owner of an Encinitas construction business, the friends have left the High Sierra and entered the volcanic Cascade Range, which they will follow to the finish.
"It feels like we're making progress," Imbertson said Friday from Old Station, a small town surrounded by Lassen Volcanic National Park, about 60 miles east of Redding.
"It's a milestone and that was good."
Longton reported via e-mail that evening that they "just ate a Reuben sandwich for an appetizer and a large pizza for the entree. Ahhh, yes . . . and beer has been involved."
Longton's beard had grown so much that when they arrived in South Lake Tahoe on July 2 and he gazed into a mirror, he thought, "I got skinny! A skinny old guy with a long beard."
He trimmed off an inch and now is "a skinny old guy with a short beard."
Imbertson was suffering from shinsplints and hobbling along the trail, but she has recovered.
"I'm really happy to not do this crazy wobble thing anymore," she said.
Next week they will cross the state line into Oregon. Longton, 55, and Imbertson, 40, began their trek April 23 at the U.S.-Mexico border near Campo and expect to reach the trail's end in Manning Provincial Park in British Columbia on Sept. 7.
Now, in the thick of their journey, they have found themselves with too much company.
"We were at a water source yesterday and there were 10 people there," Imbertson said. "We have to get out of this bubble of hikers."
Yesterday was Imbertson's 40th birthday. There were no specials plans that she knew of. But she did have a concern.
"I'm afraid Buzz will say, 'For your 40th birthday, let's do 40 miles.' "
Elizabeth Fitzsimons:
(760) 737-7578; elizabeth.fitzsimons@uniontrib.com
