Week #1

I’ve got mortgages on homes
I’ve got stiffness in my bones
Ain’t no beauty queens in this locality
-Freddie Mercury (On Hiking the PCT)

Position: 33°4.67’N 116°36.08’W

Distance Hiked: 124km

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Let me tell you a story. A story of two Canadians magically transplanted to a world of cactus, sunburns, underpants full of sand…and other fabulous oddities.

It’s been 6 days since we set out upon the trail. 6 days and 124km’s of walking and we find ourselves holed up in Julian, California. It’s a small gold rush town from back-in-the-day when gold mining was fashionable; kinda like how yoga pants are fashionable today. Fast forward a thousand years and you’ll find that today Julian is famous for one thing: Pie. These people love their pie and the promise of a free slice for all PCT hikers from Mom’s Pie Shop is what has lured us off the trail. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s peer back through the mists of time…way, way back to last Wednesday.

This is “Mile Zero” – the Southern Terminus of the trail. That’s me on the left. On the right is Harrison Ford, disguised as Indiana Jones, disguised as Rachel.

(Rachel: Steve is just jealous of my super awesome hat :P)

From here we saddled up our packs, said goodbye to Mexico on the other side of the wall (yes, there really is a Trump-esque wall here) and started walking north towards Canada and the nearest Swiss Chalet restaurant (only 4200km away); I sure do loves me a 1/4 chicken dinner! The unusualy high rainfall (snowfall) in California this winter has produced a plethora of running water for the first 40 miles of the trail where it would normally be bone dry. This was a wonderful gift for us as we struggled under the weight of our packs combined with the blazing hot sun. Being instantly transported via airplane from the Calgary winter to full-on summer conditions in SoCal took its toll on us and we stopped for an afternoon siesta the first 2 days to reduce the effects of heat stress. Another bonus of the rain is that the desert is in full bloom with all sorts of wonderful prickly things to poke yourself on.

We also passed though some areas that had been ravaged by wildfire in previous years, which was a bit surreal.

Another unusual area we passed through was the site of a 2009 military helicopter gunship crash. Tragically, 2 Marines lost their life in that crash. Apparently the military failed to recover all of the munitions on board, so warning signs abound. Important safety tip: Not the best place to wander off the trail for a poop.

Our campsites so far have been wonderful.

We have a rough idea in the morning where we’ll be spending the night, but ultimately we walk until about an hour before dark and then start sniffing around for a flat patch of ground to fire up the tent. This style of “outdoor living” is new for me and I must admit, pretty cool. We’re using a free standing dome tent which while a bit on the heavy side (compared to sleeping under a tarp) offers the ultimate in pitchability and can be put up almost anywhere. It’s also super easy to clean out the sand in the morning.