On 4/5 we did 15.4 miles to Hauser Creek and slept at 2,260 feet. On 4/6 we did 18.6 miles to just after Cibbets road and slept at 4,810 feet.
Okay, so I actually never listened to the whole song of "Here I go Again" by White Snake. Clara told me to watch the music video for it and, after I watched it, the only thing I could say is I am glad that I don't remember the 80's, I might as well have suggested listening to the "Final Countdown" by Europe. What a strange era, the amount of hair spray everyone was using probably contributed the the holes in the atmosphere.
The beginning of the trail is a very arid region and the first water supply is at Mile 20. The reference material suggested hikers should start hydrating 2-3 weeks before the trail and to limit caffeine and alcohol intake to ensure you are completely hydrated before setting of into the desert. Well, I had a lot of good intentions of limiting my coffee and beer consumption but I just couldn't find the will power to to kick 2 out of my 3 biggest vices. Plus there were a lot of going away parties and final good byes that just so happened to take place at the bars. I figured once I got to San Diego and hung out with Clara's Parents in the city for a few days before departing for the trail we would relax and be done with the celebrating. Unfortunately there was a perfect storm of beautiful weather, craft beer tours, awesome seafood and great conversations which led to the indulging of more than a few beverages. I guess I started the Appalachian Trail with a stomach full of malt and hops, I might as well keep the tradition alive. Plus I was never really good at taking advice.
While in San Diego in-between the sight seeing and beach walking we managed to get our first two resupplies purchased. Unlike the AT where you can stop frequently into towns to get a resupply, the PCT resupplies are more spread out, and when you do get to town, some of them don't have much more than a convenience store. When we went to the store to resupply, we bought food for the first 3 days of the trail and then bought an additional 4 days of food for later down the trail. We took the additional food to the post office and mailed it to ourselves. We will be using this hybrid resupply strategy for the duration of the trip, where each time we stop, we will look ahead to the next few resupply points and determine if they have a grocery store, and if they don't, we will purchase extra food and send it to ourselves. I will admit, I took slight pleasure during our resupply shopping watching Clara's face as I grabbed boxes of snickers, dozens of tuna packets and four jars of peanut butter, bricks of cheese and then asked her very important questions like do you want the Spanish instant rice or the Mexican instant rice? I promised her that we would be so tired during the hike that everything will taste good, she responded that she wish she had blood tests done before the trail, to see what all of this "food" was going to do to her body.
The start of journey commenced on Cinco de Mayo when Clara's parents dropped us off at the US/Mexico border in Campo. We took the obligatory photos in front of the southern terminus monument and made sure we touched the actual border wall. The border patrol was there to send us on our way by doing fly overs in their helicopters and airplanes as well as kicking up dust in their 4x4 just to commemorate the start.
Within the first few miles of the trail I became befuddled by the amount of vegetation I saw along the trail. Everything I read about the trail said it would be starting in the desert. I asked Clara about it and she said this was the desert, and if I was expecting the Sahara desert? The sad part is that I actually was expecting the Sahara and I don't know which is worst; the fact that I intended to walk across a barron dessert full of sand dunes for fun, or that I thought this sort of desert existed an hour outside San Diego.
Once I got my head wrapped around the idea I wasn't going to be walking from oasis to oasis I started to recognize the extreme diversity of plants along the trail. From one ridge to the next the fauna changed dramatically from cactus, sage, manzanita, to hill sides of wild flowers, live oaks and missile toe. I was surprised to see oaks in the desert, but not nearly as suprised when I saw a flocks of turkey roaming around them. If oak trees and turkeys weren't enough to have me questioning where I was; on 4/6 it was raining all day with a high of 55 degrees. This desert is not good at being a desert
and we are off
The start with our support team
so far the trail has been easy to find
Saw this mountain from a fat, debated with Clara if the trail went up and over it... it did
Good thing there is no such thing as fashion points out here.