May 25th 2016
Day 1: Trail Virgins
12.miles.later. I can’t wait to pitch our tent. I am literally exhausted. Natalie drove us down into warner springs
from her house in Anaheim, which is about a 2 hour drive. We arrived in Warner Springs at about 12:00pm
today feeling nervous and unprepared. I prepared so much for this hike, I kept
reminding myself, but once it actually came down to it, it was
nerve-racking. It didn’t help that all
the other hikers in the area stared at us like we were idiots, even the people
in the community center looked at us strangely. Like “2 girls hiking the PCT?”
“Really?” After this, we even struggled
to find where the trail exactly started.
Warner Springs is in the middle of nowhere with pretty much a population
of like 20 it felt like anyway, so how did they expect us to see the tiny PCT
sign along the dirt road? Who knows, but
after finally finding it we were off! The
first 2 miles or so was flat dry desert with the mountains quickly approaching
in the distance.
Today’s hike was mostly uphill, so we will see how our legs
feel tomorrow. After encountering a beheaded snake along the trail, my partner,
Lex, had a mental breakdown and did not want to push on. However, I quickly
influenced her that everything would be okay and that we could do this. Today,
we encountered a fair number of people on the trail, who I was able to talk to
about their own muscle fatigue and preparation for the trail. All of the people we met today plan on hiking
the whole thing and all started from Campo, right next to the Mexican border.
We first met two men one being 64 & the other 39, who we didn’t talk much
with, but found out that both thought hiking downhill was harder. We then ran into a man named Diego, who told
me that his whole body was destroyed and he used a method of breathing
techniques to cleanse himself. He told
me he carried an 80 pound pack, which is utterly ridiculous, but I guess if you
can handle it, why not. I think that is maybe why his whole body is destroyed.
He also informed me that he had to take two 0 days (days where you hike 0
miles) just for his body to recover.
After chatting with him for about 10 minutes, he finally came to the
conclusion that hiking downhill was harder for himself. Lastly, we ran into Witt and Graysville (I
call him Graysville because his 1st name is hard to remember &
Graysville is where he’s from), waiting for their friend Jared, who was a
little behind them. Witt told me that he doesn’t get sore because he had been
preparing for the hike with a much larger pack. Graysville told me that downhill was harder
for him because he had been in many motocross accidents and his knees weren’t
exactly as good as new. Graysville ironically ended up being from the east
coast only an hour from W&J and had a bunch of friends go to school there!
How funny! Their friend Jared, who they gave the trail name “Team Leader”
because he was always right, was the odd ball out and found that hiking uphill
was harder for him.
Our packs are packed to the
absolute max and our bodies are absolutely empty. We didn’t eat much today because we were busy
hiking and didn’t seem to notice hunger much at all. After finally stopping, I am ready to try out
our propane stove and our first mountain house meal. I think we are camping
next to Witt, Graysville, and Jared tonight, which makes me feel a little safer
in these rugged mountains.
-extremely tired and sore
Grimmzlybear
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