5am my alarm goes off. We are on a tight schedule, breakfast is at 5:30am backs should be packed and ready to go and on the front porch by then. Load up starts at 5:50, caravan leaves at 6am, today there were 2 cars and 8 hikers. We should arrive at the monument at 7:15am.
We arrived at 7:14. Man these Guys are good! The drive was great we all talked and we're on our phones, then we passed the sign for Campo and the car fell silent. That is when it really start to feel real.. I am really doing this!
Then I saw the monument. The official starting point of the Pacific Crest Trail! I've seen so many pictures of it... but seeing it in person was so sureal, and a bit emotional. We all started taking pictures and got a great group photo, then I snuck down the road a bit to get onto the border patrol road so I could actually touch the fence. I lingured for awhile taking it all in then headed down the trail.
From the border to the next water source is 20 miles, which means a big carry! I carried 6 1/2 liters of water which weighs about 15 lbs... the same weight as my entire pack! I also was carrying 3 days of food and 6 extra snickers bars, they were on sale in San Diego and I couldn't pass up the deal. Snickers - PCT hikers favorite snack
I didn't want to hike 20 miles so there were 2 camps before that, 1 around mile 12? And one at 15.2. It was still early when I passed the first one and no one was there so I pushed on to the second... about 2 miles before the end my feet had enough! And started to rebel! It was a tough walk from there but luckily Jeff a hiker I met earlier in the day caught up to me and we hiked that last bit together which helped a lot. When I got to camp there were 3 people already set up, they had all eaten dinner and we're getting ready for bed. I put up my tent quickly, boiled some water for dinner and crawled in my tent. I did it though! Hiked 15 miles of pretty rough terrain on my first day! Sorry it's day one, so lots of pics!
We arrived at 7:14. Man these Guys are good! The drive was great we all talked and we're on our phones, then we passed the sign for Campo and the car fell silent. That is when it really start to feel real.. I am really doing this!
Then I saw the monument. The official starting point of the Pacific Crest Trail! I've seen so many pictures of it... but seeing it in person was so sureal, and a bit emotional. We all started taking pictures and got a great group photo, then I snuck down the road a bit to get onto the border patrol road so I could actually touch the fence. I lingured for awhile taking it all in then headed down the trail.
From the border to the next water source is 20 miles, which means a big carry! I carried 6 1/2 liters of water which weighs about 15 lbs... the same weight as my entire pack! I also was carrying 3 days of food and 6 extra snickers bars, they were on sale in San Diego and I couldn't pass up the deal. Snickers - PCT hikers favorite snack
I didn't want to hike 20 miles so there were 2 camps before that, 1 around mile 12? And one at 15.2. It was still early when I passed the first one and no one was there so I pushed on to the second... about 2 miles before the end my feet had enough! And started to rebel! It was a tough walk from there but luckily Jeff a hiker I met earlier in the day caught up to me and we hiked that last bit together which helped a lot. When I got to camp there were 3 people already set up, they had all eaten dinner and we're getting ready for bed. I put up my tent quickly, boiled some water for dinner and crawled in my tent. I did it though! Hiked 15 miles of pretty rough terrain on my first day! Sorry it's day one, so lots of pics!
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