Day 3 - New People

Lake Morena to Cibbet Flats - 12 miles

So I learned something new last night. Dogs don't sleep, or at least they take turns barking all night long in an echo chamber of a valley. I think they may have teamed up with the turkeys as well. There was almost NO sleep to be had last night....

But anyways. Clint and I started out the day with out new found friends, Molly, Steven, and Max. Molly and Steven had taken a zero the day before after doing the first 20 miles in one day.

After kind of getting of track and walking an extra quarter mile in an insanely dog infested neighborhood, all of these dogs barked incessantly by the way, we were off on the trail once again.

Its funny when you hike with people you go through these routine questions about where they're from, why they're out here, how much is in their pack, and so many more. But just the sheer amount if time spent with people, even if only for a day, yields such amazing results. A feeling like you really know them pretty well in only a short span. Now, one's trail self can be different from one's usual self, but for all the purposes of our trips, one's trail is who one is for the next couple months anyways. After a leisurely morning, we stopped for a blister check and a snack under a tree. A couple people stopped along the way to break too. Andrew, Thor, Ferntoe, Elise, and Sky, to name a few.

After some more enjoyable morning hiking we arrived at boulder oaks camp ground for water and lunch. After getting  situated Clint suggested we join the party under a big oak tree near by. It was there that we all met for the first time. Porter, Sammie, Mark, Andrew, Elise, Sky, and the rest if us. It was a nice sit down with a good bit of laughing and conversation. Somewhere in there Sammie asked her fiancé Porter for a tea bag. As he reaches for the wet used tea bag in his drink she exclaims, ”no, a new one!” but it is too late, the wet bag is airborne. She defends herself and it smacks her in the hand inches from her face. It was at this time that porter earned his trail name, T-Bag.

I'm not sure if it was official, unofficial, or what. But we all decided that our goal for the night was Cibbet Flats. Hiking onward in the heat if the so cal afternoon we trudged up this exposed hill all afternoon. Only speaking for myself, my muscles didn't hurt, I wasn't short of breath, it was just sooooo damn hot! Mab oh man was it hot... The kinda hot where your clothes are soaked but a refreshing ridgeside wind can't ever dry them and your salty sweat burns your eyes constantly. Hot hot hot. But it was ok for most of us. Mark had seen better days, tired, in quite a bit of dark clothing, and a little peeky in my opinion.

When we arrived at the highway crossing 4 miles from camp there was a man, or I should say, angel, named David. Beer, wine, snacks. It was here that we found some joy be for making those last beautiful four miles into camp.

The campsite was at the bottom of almost a mile of old forest road, but when Clint, Molly, and I arrived, we found our new friends there! A fellow named Dan was there who payed for the campsite. A retied firefighter I do believe, and one hell of a great guy. We would be leapfrogging with him the next 4 days, at least from the time of this posting.

Down at camp everyone was a little more tired and a little more quiet than at lunch, which was to be expected. We ate dinner, conversed and enjoyed each others company. Mark was sick, puking, not able to eat much. Although he was exhausted he had made it to the campground. However, he would leave the trail. Perhaps he will return later. Hopefully..

As we all lay in our bags, we continue to joke and laugh after dinner. We are all dead tired and it's certainly bedtime even though it must be earlier than 9pm.

As I lay under the stars for the third night in a row in place I am unfamiliar with, I begin to have a feeling of home. This group of young people who has seemingly met by fate is more than I had ever hoped for on this trip. As our camping neighbors play classic tunes like fleetwood mac, van Morrison, and more. I fall asleep a more than happy man. This. Is. Amazing.

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Day 2 - Bring the Heat!

Jeep Road to Lake Morena

With a goal of 11 miles in mind, we were off to an 8 am start.

Passed as we were still in our bags by two hikers known who I later met, Matt from Montreal and Chris. We eventually caught up with both. By mile 6 for the day. We also leapfrogged with another fellow named Spencer who I spoke very little with for some reason. I treated a possible hot spot on my left foot before anything else became of it. Keeping blisterless feet is huge for me, as blisters are a drain on recourses, hike speed, morale, and risk infection.

A little whole later, we all convened at Hauser Creek. Lunch was had with a new groups. Ross, myself, Big Red, Gottawalk, Matt, Chris, Clint, and others.  As we all took our queues to leave, Ross and Mat stayed behind, opting to camp. Both had used more than 5 liters to get here, and Ross was relieved to find a water cache of 20 or so jugs, nestled in the dry creek bed. Clint and I left together at a brisk pace. Eager to conquer the looming pull ahead in the heat of the day.

Not too much later I began to feel pretty awful. Slightly nauseous, feelings of uncertainty and wavering, I expressed to Clint, who I had only known for the past hour, my discomforts. He rested with me while I drank water. That wasn't enough though, as I soon felt worse and worse. We rested again. I took this chance to head into the brush for some relief. I realized that I needed to get myself together physically because that was the root of my symptoms. 80 degrees in the shade, with no shade to be had. I knew we should take it slow, get off this exposed face, and take a break then. So I drank more water and continued on slowly. It was a long process and a hot one. But I was obviously not drinking enough water previous to this, and was showing signs of heat exhaustion. Eventually making it over and grabbing some shade, we rested and talked. We shared a love for benchmade knives and it was good to connect at least. May hikers don't carry single blade knives and opt for multi tools or tiny swiss army knives. It was nice to see another traditional knife at use. Even if it's mostly for cheese and things...

Once feeling up to it, we made the final two miles into Lake Morena with ease. Saw a baby rattler with no rattle yet, and soon were at the campground.

Upon our arrival we found Big Red, and some other folks. Molly, Max, Steven, and maybe a few others. Clint and I proceeded down the road and bought beer and then took showers. Max had a friend at there who had shrimp and other great food and beers! It was a rewarding first two days and we knew that in the morning we'd be leaving with some new friends on the trail.

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Day 1

Southern Terminus to Mile 8.8 (Jeep Road)

Dan and I woke up early, trying to get a good start to the day. After grabbing a couple small things at the local hardware store we were on our way. A missed turn put us maybe 20 minutes behind schedule but it was all still so real... Right before the terminus, we spotted some outgoing hikers, a support van for team turtle (teamturtle is a group of hikers supported by a a van and wagon that coordinates their resupply). Dan and I picked up a woman called Anita and drive the remaining half mile to the terminus.

Upon getting there we took the obligatory photos and signed the register, a book that all thru hikers sign there. There are also other registers along the way. My register number us 323 I think... Anita and I started hiking together and did so for about 5 miles. As it turns out, she was a construction manager who had recently retired, funny, since that's my field of expertise.

After about five miles, we came upon some other hikers. Bev, who was in poor spirits and in need of care. She was not adjusting well to the desert heat and had been vomiting and trying to rehydrate. A man named Just Mike took her back south while I hiked on with Anita, Sweet Spot, and Ross. As we made our way, Ross and I pulled ahead. Talking about our pasts, motivation for hiking, and swapping funny stories. This type of talk would become common place among everyone upon first meeting, at least for a now, at the time of this writing.

We stopped at around mile 8.8in a nice flat spot. Ate dinner, potatoes, bacon, Ross had whole grain blueberry waffles with protein powder. After a couple hours we both faded off. Awaking occasionally to see the different phases of the lunar eclipse.

In good spirits,  with very little physical discomfort, day 1 cokes to an end.

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Tomorrow

It's finally time! It seems like the day would never come, even only a couple days ago. Now, I'm actually becoming nervous. I flew down to Santa Ana yesterday morning and got picked up by my friend Dan. We spent yesterday on the beach and had a fun time just running some errands, having a couple beers, watching some TV. Pretty typical stuff. It's been great catching up though.

The past couple days I've been more sentimental than anything else. I think that a combination of all the good luck wishes from friends and family and just leaving the realm of the known for the unknown, has brought about more appreciation for the people in my life.

But, sitting on the beach in Carlsbad has also spurred some nervousness. All these questions flying through my brain. Am I prepared? Physically? Mentally? After everyone has been so supportive, I can't just fail and go home... What if I hurt myself? Knees, feet, legs... These insecurities have always been here but now their voices are loud enough to cause mme worry. But that's no matter,  a combination of rationality, (if you can say anything I'm trying to do even resembles rationality) a sprinkle of unfounded arrogance ( just to keep me calm) and the fact that I know going to go out there no matter how I feel about it now, keeps me feelin kind of alright.

An REI visit, grocery list, and 20.6 miles to Lake Morena are my next three to-do's. One step at a time!

Oh, and I'm already sunburt...

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One Month

So a month from tomorrow I'll be boarding a plane to San Diego to hang with my friend Dan for a couple days before hitting the trail on the 14th of April..

Food is finally in the works, starting out at around 3000-4000 calories daily for the first month.. And anticipate upping my load to 5000/day after the hiker hunger sets in. I can't truly conceptualize eating that many calories a day.. But I know it happens to most hikers. I'll have burned a lot of fat off of my body and even at those high ranges I'll still be running a deficit. I can't say I'm looking forward to the insatiable hunger, but I do look forward to eating as much as I want (whole pizzas, chickens, giant burgers... Etc etc) on my stops in rural towns. My mailed supply boxes has been upped to 10.. More than I want.. But oh well...

Final bit for this post. Some people carry funny, technically useless things along the trail. Something with meaning but little function.. Like a small toy or trinket. I think it's kind cool. I mean, so many hikers work so hard to cut weight from their packs, but to go and carry something so "useless" is almost against the light weight dogma. That little something must have strong meaning. I've decided that I'm going to carry a baseball. I got the idea from my friend Ryley. Not directly, but he did unintentionally inspire me. I think it'd be an awful cool keepsake to have a ball signed by all the meaningful people I met or hiked with or who help me along the way. A game ball, carried 2,660 miles, if you will. Can you say, keepsake?

It's getting so official.

I've quit my job, I've received my maps, I've got my fire permit, long distance permit, and my entry into Canada via the PCT permit... I've made some more gear purchases in the area of first aid and misc. goodies. (Though every gear purchase I make is no longer fun nor exciting, because it simply raises my pack weight).

All of these things are making my trip even more of a reality. Once I nail down my resupply points, purchase groceries for my 5-10 boxes, and get all that in order, I won't have much more to do but worry, wait, and work out for the next month.

Furthermore, I am closing in on a start date. I'm thinking around the 14th of April (maybe the following Monday?)... Many things are influencing that decision...

• I would like to be slightly ahead of the pack. The pack is the large group of hikers that will start their journeys after the Annual Day Zero Pacific Crest Trail Kick Off which takes place on the 25th and 26th of April. By being ahead of the pack, I will avoid some bit of crowding and have a little breathing room for my resupply. I have a small worry about too many hikers cleaning out the good food before me in small grocery stores...
• I also don't want to be THAT far ahead of the pack. I really do enjoy hiker company, and I hope to meet some fantastic individuals, so by being near or at the front-ish (at least for a little while) I'll still have high probability of meeting some great folks!
• I also want to attend kickoff... Meaning I will have to hitch-hike or find a ride back (probably from somewhere around Idyllwild. I know that sounds kind of weird to some of you, but hitching or finding a generous and wonderful kick-off going trail angel* won't be TOO difficult. 
• I could easily fly into San Diego and bus - trolley - bus to Campo to start my hike, and time it to meet up with Kickoff in Lake Morena County Park, but  my good friend Dan who now lives in Carlsbad (yes, may of you college friends know exactly who I'm talking about) says he can take me to the trail and there's actually some great opportunity for us to catch up and hang out before hand!
  
  So yes, I want a lot of conflicting things out of my start date... However, in the end, there may have been missed opportunities or difficulties involving this whole start date mess, but there isn't any use worrying about it much. I expect great things and shitty things from the whole trip, start to finish and embracing the trail and my course along it is really the only thing I can do if (and when) my plans fall apart. In the end, I think the trail will provide what I am looking for and what I need. Or at least that is what I hear.
  
  * Trail Angel: Someone who goes out of their way to perform acts of kindness for thru-hikers. Things like giving rides, posting a phone number people can call for a multitude of things. Having food, water, and other goodies along the trail. Supplying water caches. Hosting hikers at their homes. Offering services like laundry, lodging, food, etc. And many more wonderful acts of kindness and charitable good will. Angel really is a great word for these people.
  
  Up next: a gear rundown? resupply stops?

Because I get asked the same questions a LOT...

-- How long will it take? Roughly 150 days, give or take. I really can't know what I'm capable of until I get into the journey.

-- Are you going alone? Yes I am. The right combination of availability, craziness, and compatibility has never presented itself with anyone I currently know, but there are many people along the way and I'm sure I will meet some good ones.

-- How will I get food? I will resupply via towns about once a week. A combination of buying as I go and and mailing myself packages to the occasional post office with food, maps, clothing, etc... I've planned out some, but again, I really can't know what exactly to expect until I am on the trail. So I will be using this hybrid strategy. I really can't motivate myself to buy all my food ahead of time, it's more planning than I want to do, and I'm not worried about the consiquences. I also don't feel that i can anticipate my dietary wants and needs throughout my entire trip and fear that I will buy and send myself a lot of shit that I will hate. Buying as I go, except in remote locations, will help me retain variety and the ability to change my diet as I see fit, rather than being stuck in some food rut that I decided months before.

-- Am I carrying a gun/weapon? Only my wits and my favorite Benchmade will accompany me on this trip, and hopefully not too much of a lethal stench... Weight, practicality, necessity, legality, and my self-trust, are all great reasons NOT to carry a firearm.  No bear mace either..