#blueskypct

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I like stats. Not as much as a baseball fan but they can tell a story and I'll try to use them to summarize some aspects of my first section on the PCT.

It was pretty relaxed in that I wasn’t walking too many miles per day and wasn't waking up early. In my case “If I can hike anyone can” is not false modesty :). I had been lucky with blisters, which is the most common annoyance with thruhiking, but the soles of my feet felt shattered enough to force a couple of injury days. And considering I had just camped alone twice I hadn’t really started hiking solo yet.

By the time I hobbled into Warner Springs to end Section A, I’d finished 110 miles and two weeks on the trail. My previous longest wilderness backpacking trip was 23 miles and three days- I was beaming with pride!

I hadn’t yet been tempted to hitch hike or skip a section, and that was reassuring as far as motivation levels. I was also beginning to feel and smell like a thruhiker and was bummed when I had to stop.

And yes, was still waiting to meet another Indian on trail.

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As we approached the 100 mile mark we were also beginning to see friends and fellow thruhikers drop off the hike. Some dropped due to injuries, others to tend to family issues, some because the discomfort of the walk was beginning to get to them, and still others because they were burning through money faster than they expected.

As much as this was my own journey, the moment someone I knew well on trail dropped out, it gave me a sinking feeling. Like being abandoned. And for a brief period it would suck the joy out of my own journey. The best way to get past I learned was just to get back on trail or distract yourself with the logistics of the next section.

Here my last pic with a good friend ‘Crisis’ as he headed off trail with a promise to meet on another trail in the future.

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For not being a standout hiker the one reason I did stand out on the trail was my daily start time. I’d normally wake up by 8am, then spend 45 minutes staring with disbelief at the mess I had to pack up again. Finally I'd get on the trail between 10:30-11 am. For most hikers when hiking in the desert that was almost the time in the day that they'd stop in the shade in order to escape the oppressive heat of the sun. And yes, they’d start by 6am or so.

In school or at work I'd have to wake up a little early, and I carried that expectation into the thruhike. By this time two weeks into the hike though I started accepting that I really do love lazy mornings. To "pan fry"(alternatively sleep on my back and my front, like pan frying a fish as an example) for an hour before I actually get up is probably one of my favorite parts of the day. On this specific day I remember the sun bearing down with anger from 7am and me twisting and turning in my 0-deg bag and covering my face, determined to not let it win. Friends & hikers who know me will know what I’m talking about :)

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One of my struggles on this journey was the same as I’d always had in regular life. I love love love people but I need need need to have so much time alone just picking lint, walking in my boxers and untangling some of the knots in my head. That balance I’ve always struggled with.

I walked into Julian alone. Then as I walked into Mom’s Pies to get my free pie I saw another hiker. Then from another chance encounter I heard of a group I had hung with back in Mount Laguna(40 miles ago) being in another hotel around. After dinner I walked into their room fully intending to be there just for half an hour. But then the warm hugs, the beer in the fridge, discussing laundry and dirty socks, and talking about our shared experiences through the same landmarks had me belly laughing and looking around and wondering if my way was the right way to do the trail.

My hiking partner for the last 30 miles, whom I lost in the last two days was apparently high AF scrolling through the channels in his room from 7pm- he finally found what he was looking for at 9pm because that was the scheduled time of the program! That night was the first time on the hike I felt part of a tribe, and although I didn’t do a lot of that on the hike for personal reasons, it was magic! Pic stolen from @littlepackage- also featuring Nick, Christian 'Panda', 'Hand Sanitizer' and 'Legend' :). Missing 'Crisis' :(

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Julian is a really popular town among the thruhikers because we’re treated like royalty there. As I checked in at the hotel and walked towards my room a couple sitting on the porch asked me if I was on the PCT. “You know you guys are an inspiration to us all right?”. I was stinking, hobbling but suddenly I forgot all of that & felt like a million dollars :) 

So many people on the street would give you a smile, a nod or a thumbs up. Mom’s Pies so generously even offered a free slice of pie and a drink to all the thruhikers. All hikers carried a permit from the @pctassociation on them & this was probably the only time we showed it for proof- mostly you could just smell us thruhikers out :)

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Day 9 started with me barely being able to move around even in the tent. While the next planned city stop was Warner Spring at Mile 110, now in this pain the temptation of a town sounded too good to pass up. From Scissor Crossing at Mile 77, Julian was just a 20 mile hitch away that promised food, a bed, shower and some time off my feet. By the time I got there though I was stoically "prisoner hobbling" having figured a system of reverse cupping my feet to make the pain bearable.

As we lowered to the desert basin I wondered how I’d find a ride into town. Just as I set myself on my ass on the side of the road, a Dodge Challenger zoomed in, asked me if I needed a ride into town and threw me a Gatorade. Turned out Big Fish and Firecracker, two fellow thruhikers had to take a few days off the trail due to an injury and decided to spend a couple of them by renting a car and giving rides to hikers. What the fuck?! The trail and the people around just continued to amaze me!

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The picture here is of a perfect desert day. Yet, just the previous evening as we were about the enter this ridge running section of the trail we were scared of the howling winds blowing us off the mountain. We decided to play it safe hope the weather improved the next morning. We were starting to learn that the weather changed really quick on trail.

It was also the first day of my second week on trail which felt monumental.

Sometimes you get into a rhythm on trail and the miles just clock by almost like on a treadmill. You remember so well that just the previous day with the same effort you were going virtually nowhere. This was one of those days and by the time I set camp I had walked 18 miles. My legs were shattered though and I could barely get around camp. I was going to pay for this really soon.

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Mile 50 was the first milestone on the PCT. Most of the milestones on the PCT are marked by very welcoming, *generally* 100% organic arrangements like the stone one in the picture here :).

A  mile later though, the adjacent highway was teeming with Border Patrol SUV's. At that point, although we were more than 50 miles from the border on the PCT, we were just about 20 odd miles from there "as the crow flies". "Illegals" are one of the issues you hear about before you start the hike but rarely when on it. One of the officers was on the trail and when he saw us asked this carefully worded yet what seemed to us at the time a pretty ridiculous question: “Guys, have you seen any trouble on the trail? Umm..of the international kind?”. As the only foreigner in that group I smiled and shrugged. We carried on hiking, and in his defense the officer was very polite.

Gave us enough of a story to laugh about before retiring into our tents anyway :)