The Pacific Crest Trail

Just typing out the words “Pacific Crest Trail” or “PCT” brings back memories that only seem like a fever dream now. I will preference this page and blog post by saying that myself and my partner at the time only made it through the first 150 miles of the 2650 mile through trek we wanted and planned. SoCal is beautiful in it’s own right and hot, hot, hot. Never had I experienced day temps like the ones on the trail. The trail tested me in ways that I am only beginning to understand and the thoughts of the trail and getting back out there have been on the mind a lot recently. Several people have asked me if I regret getting off the trail when I did, to that question I will say no. I do not regret getting off the trail, I feel it was what was needed at the time and I came to terms with that decision when it was made. Now, I do think I still have more to give, more to see, more to experience. So, can I see myself heading back to the trail and forging ahead to see more of the beauty of the rest of the 2500 miles I did not get to see? The answer is yes, but when is up for debate. There are a lot of other trips, journeys, and experiences I want to have and try first before tackling that beast again. I will be back though! Below is a couple stories for the small amount of time being on the trial.

So, maybe some context is needed for the readers that may not know me too well (even though I bet a lot of my audience are friends and family lol, Hey Mom hahaha). The PCT is a trail on the west coast of the US that extends from the border of California and Mexico to a little bit inside Canada. So it basically goes the length of California, Oregon, and Washington. During the trek there are of course many detours, Adventures and side trails that one can take and not to mention its fair share of dangers, and wildfire scares to mitigate or manage. At the time of actually embarking on the adventure, there was a lot of prep that went in that was not seen. About 2 years of planning had ensued and several “shake out” trips. Tons of reading, researching and evaluating the overall goal. The start of the trek was also one of the later dates/times that you could start the trail going from the south to the north as there a specified window (beginning of March to late May) to start the thru-hike trek to ensure safe passage through the cascade mountain range section of the trail starting around mile 700 on the trail at Kennedy Meadows. The start date for the trail was May 10th because graduation for me was on May 8th. Thinking back on it now it was a wild week for everything. With this little blurb the stage is hopefully set to give you readers a grasp of the weight this trek had going into it, which I think is why the decision to get off the trail (even though the right and safe call in the end) was so hard to make and come to grips with. Hopefully some of the stories below help to give you an appreciation of SoCal and the wonderful trail that is the PCT. I will occasionally add more and more stories overtime and maybe in the future add newer ones!

the little anecdote I am about to share is one I think about often and it happened on one of the first nights of the trek. So, to set the scene we had started the day at one of the many backpacking campsites on the second day of the trek. That day was a scorcher and I remember that we were trying to get to the one of the first of many small steps along the long, long, trail: Lake Morena. The trail that day was a little challenging as the “trail legs” thru-hikers are supposed to develop along the way were just a concept that the body did not quite know about yet. It took us a good amount of the day to get to Lake Morena but we were fine with that because at the end of the day we were committing to a daily life schedule of waking, eating, walking, eating more, sleeping, repeat (Sounds so so good right now). After restocking water and chilling during the heat of the day, we decided to walk down the trail a little more and camp at one of the further campsites outside Lake Morena, so we did. We got to a nice campsite area, we set up camp and as I watched the sunset go over the mountain range in the distance, I spotted a figure dart across the campsite in my peripherals. I slowly turned as to see what exactly was moving, what was there. As I turned, it happened, I experienced something to this day I am in disbelief happened. I saw a Bobcat, up close and personal, it saw me, I saw it, we exchanged a sort of understanding, and it then scurried away into the bushes. I don’t think I have truly grasped how special that moment was to me, nor will I know until I become old ad senile. It was a serene moment shared with a creature that to my knowledge is fairly elusive. It was my Walter Mitty Snow Leopard moment, (Until I actually see a Snow Leopard, which is on the bucket list lol). Unlike the movie though, I was able to take a photo of the beauty only because I already was taking photos of the mountain range in the distance. That night I slept well knowing I was blessed with the encounter and wonder filled my heart about what was out there, waiting to be seen.

This next story I am about to write I am going to have to ask my mom to close her eyes or read over the scary parts lol. So, Here we were, still in the desert of southern california, The particular section we were tackling that day consisted of the ascent of a mountain and then back down into a valley stretch that we would then get to a dirt road to hitchhike to the small town of Julian, CA (Lovely little town that I shall talk about below). So, As we started the day it was slow, but already by early morning the sun and heat had picked up. We didn’t think anything about it as we started to get to the first part of the mountain ascent. As we hit the base there were a lot more rocks that the desert dust we had been walking through, little did we know that there were going to be a few surprises on and around those rocks that populated the steep slopes of the surrounding mountainside. The first encounter with our little friends (term I will use for Rattle Snakes) occurred more suddenly than thought. This one was in the middle of the trail though and we heard the rattle as we approached. Luckily, the trail was wide enough we were able to give it a wide berth and respect its grumpy demeanor. After this first encounter we were more alert, and were ready by the second. The second little friend, was more to the side of the trail basking openly on a nice rock. Since it was to the side, we were able to not disturb him too much as we carefully continued on the now narrowing trail as the incline had started to pick up. Thinking we had seen out fill of little friends, I started to let my mind and attention wander, about 15 minutes into my wanderings I heard a gasp and sudden stop by my partner ahead of me. I came to realize the reason was due to a rather large little Friend being positioned in the middle of the narrow trail of a section with a decent slope to the one side (a stumble down that stretch would not be fun) this little friend though was motionless and looked funny. Upon further examination, I realized that we had stumbled upon a little friend that looked as though he had bit off a bit more than he could chew, or more accurately, swallow. He had a rather large looking rodent halfway down its throat. Now at this moment, I will as my mom to skip ahead to the circled, highlighted section unless she wants to see how big of an idiot I am. So, it was motionless and seemed to be occupied or as I thought, dead from taking on an advantageous prey leading to choking (which can and does happen to snakes, and is actually a fear of mine. The choking and dying on food alone, I mean how lame of a way to go is that, anyways I digress). Thinking it was dead as a doornail, I had the bright idea to grab the nearest stick to check, just to make sure you know? I then proceeded to poke the snake and instantly almost jumped off the side of the mountain with how quick that little friend recoiled and started going berserk with its rattler. Instead of moving away from the center of the trail though, it doubled down and moved even more center, but this time it was pissed (so glad its mouth was full of something, otherwise I think I could have had a cool snake bite story to tell y’all instead). This led us to have to climb down the slope with our packs to go around this snake, and let me tell you, my adrenaline was pumping. I can now conclude this story by saying the rest of the ascent was good and no other little friend encounters occurred.

Now maybe for a less exciting story (unless you are a fan of free things, pie, ice cream, or all three!). This tale will be of the cute little town of Julian, CA that is tucked away in the SoCal desert. This town is a pretty popular stop for those on the PCT because it is a good resupply area, it has some good restaurants, and oh yeah, the FREE slice of pie and scoop of ice cream given to Thru-hikers!!! Let me tell you, worth every mile and oh such a good treat after everything that happened up to that point on the trail. It is here I am to give a shoutout to Mom’s Julian Pie Shop as they have amazing service, and some good pie. They let Thru-hikers chose what type of pie slice they wanted. I know what you are thinking now: What type of pie did you get?? I will be glad to tell you that I chose a slice of good ole’ pecan pie in honor to my Grandpa whose favorite type of pie is pecan. Now I will also say that my mom makes a mean pecan pie every thanksgiving and as I have gotten older have come to look forward to that for dessert (not as much as I look forward to her sweet potatoes more famously known in my family as “Candy yams”. Legit my favorite dish and I only get to eat it once a year). Now I have talked a lot about dessert and I hope it made you hungry and if you ever find yourself in the small town of Julian, give Mom’s Julian a try, it is worth it!

This next tale will be a little sappy and sad at the end, but bear with me because it is a great tale and one I think of often. So, to set the scene, we were about a week into the trail and making alright progress given some of the injuries sustained in just that first week. We had just come upon a resupply of water in the middle of the desert that was strategically stashed by trail angels (nickname given to those that support thru-hikers on the trail out of the kindness of their heart by providing food, water, shelter, etc. Truly a blessing and great people). While at this resupply two other thru-hikers came and of course pleasantries were exchanged. In the conversation with these two hikers where to camp for the night came up and they mentioned how they were trying to get as far as they could to make it to Idyllwild, CA by that Saturday in order to celebrate a very special birthday! The birthday in question you ask? None other than the duly elected Mayor of Idyllwild: Mayor Max a Golden Retriever that was turning 9 years old! You read that right, the mayor of a city in California is none other than an adorable Golden Retriever. Hearing this, we instantly wanted to try our best to make it there too, not only to celebrate the birthday of Max, but also to get in on all the free pizza and ice cream the town was providing to celebrate (have you ever heard something so wholesome?). Now this meant that our timeline was just compressed and that our daily mileage had to be increased. When it came down to it though, we made it there in time and got to celebrate the big day with Max (If you check out the about page you will see the picture I got to take with the birthday boy on that day!). Now comes the sad part, since then and this trip, Mayor Max unfortunately passed away, but not before leaving tons of smiles and thankful citizens in his wake. I believe there is a new Mayor, I believe also named Max, but he is carrying the torch that the Max I met left burning. One day I want to go back to visit that small SoCal town of Idyllwild and to meet the new Mayor. I would say visiting is worth the visit, so much charm and great people there.