Skip to main content

The Start! Campo- Mt. Laguna

Here I am on day 1! The trail start is designated by a monument in Campo, California. Two of my dearest friends, Maddie and Melissa, drove me from their home in San Diego early Monday morning. A few others starting that morning were there- we all signed the trail register, received a little briefing from the trail organizations representative, and got some photos.




Here’s a photo of me and Scout, the author of Journeys North (a very popular book about his and his wife’s trek on the PCT) and a previous PCTA president! I saw him walking up as he had driven a few folks and dragged him in for a photo. 
https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1o6vWVWmzfHjwJW1aHf9a3prBlUmDnoKF
The hike itself on the first day was beautiful, lots of new people to meet and views to enjoy! 

The stats I care about: 20 miles! My longest hike in one day, ever. 

The stats you might care about: 3 snake sightings, one rattle that really was not pleased to make my acquaintance. 

Day two was equally as enjoyable, continuing to settle into meeting new people, learning the tricks of the trade, etc. There have already been three groups of folks out here at various campgrounds, fire roads, etc serving up cold drinks, making burgers, and providing a shady place to sit. You call them trail angels, a very fitting name- when you carry enough food for exactly three days and get handed a bag of strawberries and an apple juice in lieu of your packed lunch, that means you get to eat BIG the next day. You make friends and they get to enjoy the trail too, everyone wins. 

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1bPvL9H26boiFY4oQRYTcTf-nsB-aUkJ3
The stats I care about: 13 miles, with lots of chatting and resting woven in.

The stats you might care about: 1 snake friend made, a rattler. 

Day three consisted of a lovely morning hike up a ridge into Mt. Laguna- my first resupply! We all (all meaning everyone who started around the time I did, 13 of us!) hiked back out of town and are making camp in a meadow “big enough for an army”.
 https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1vqN_h6L7YPVJ2M0Z-XU5A7tcuyAG-E-p
https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1ToTIJmGT9L0HK_yN55slygOGEeYrtydf
No snakes today, woo! I don’t have any blisters yet, and have been taking good care of myself in the desert heat. 

Again, some stats: 16 miles, very nice.
No snakes, and I opted not to sleep outside without a tent quite yet as some others did as I have a story too present in my mind of when a friend slept without a tent and woke up with a rattlesnake snuggled in his sleeping bag with him. Not for me, not today. 

So, all is good from the trail so far! Thanks for reading :)

A side note: apparently the photos only show up on some phones and not others. Stay tuned, brother Dylan is working on it. 

Comments

  1. Jean AnneApril 6, 2022 at 10:13 PM

    Someone has to be first…love the blog, not a fan of the snakes. Fully support the inside the tent plan! Keep up the great work. Can’t wait to see you next week!

    ReplyDelete
  2. SterlsApril 7, 2022 at 3:27 AM

    Making great progress, I was in Warner Springs the day you left and wondered when you would arrive there.
    Stay extra hydrated today we’re gonna have a heat wave

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownApril 7, 2022 at 5:30 AM

    So great, keep the pictures coming and stay clear of those SNAKES!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousMay 31, 2022 at 1:34 PM

    Safe travels and I’m following you vicariously. Jim Mellor

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kennedy Meadows - Bishop

I am so behind with my updates here that I am going to breeze through the last section of the desert and jump right into recounting the start of the sierra! A quick recap for the final days of the desert: I reminisced on the days spent in the sun, soaking hot and swollen feet in rare creeks, and planning our mileage around the sun and siestas. I said goodbye to the desert flowers that I became so aquainted with, and I bid a happy farewell to the tremendously heavy 5 to 6 liter water carries. Goodbye water caches and rationing, I’m headed to the MOUNTAINS! The desert will always have a special place in my heart for bringing me some best buds, for being the place where I learned to through hike, and for teaching me strength, resiliency and perseverance through the elements and emotions of this experience.  When we hit the road to Kennedy Meadows, we turned a new leaf in our hike. A whole section down!!! Feeling proud of how far we’ve come, and anxious to see what awaits us in the mou...
1 comment
Read more

Oops, I'm back!

Hi friends! As you probably already know, I am back in "conventional" life and am doing my best at reintegrating myself into concrete society. Orange County is very different than the woods, very different. There aren't bears here and I get my water from the tap and my plans for the day rarely include "walk until you're tired, eat some candy, walk again" (sadly).  I have a lot to organize in terms of thoughts, feelings, photos, gear and the like surrounding my hike! And I have had a few requests to get some photos and stories on the blog, so I'll be doing that over the next few weeks- as a practice for myself to reflect on the past few months, and so that my family and friends have a chance to hear the stories that I probably wouldn't do justice to in a short conversation. If you have any questions you are really wondering about and we haven't had a chance to chat, please comment them and I'll answer them in my posts. So bear with me, it'...
Post a Comment
Read more

Bishop- Mammoth

I did it! I hit the point where hiking the Pacific Crest Trail feels like my normal day to day life. How does that happen? The morning sun on the snowy mountain tops still makes my spine shiver a bit, but a good rest of it feels like I’m doing my daily routine: waking up at 6am, assessing what belongings of mine are soaked. Am I soaked? No? Great! Yes? Well, what was I expecting sleeping by the creek? Pack up as much of my pack as possible without getting out of my quilt. Brushing my teeth and spitting into tree wells, eating my 500 calorie protein bar and heading off. I even have a meal prep system, of course. Now that my life is a bit more routine out here, I’ve found that I rely on my daily journals a whole lot more to remind me what I’ve been up to.  I’m in Mammoth now, a mountain town that I know and love dearly! I hit my favorite coffee shop three times within a 30 hour stay (Stellar Brew, of course) and meandered around my favorite gear store (Mammoth Mountaineering Co., I l...
3 comments
Read more