Day 0
We flew to San Diego from Texas this morning. We accidentally told my brother THE WRONG AIRPORT and were on our way to San Antonio before realizing we were flying out of Austin. It’s okay, we still made it!
When we landed in San Diego, we ubered to our friends house and walked to the grocery store to get some food for the trail. Our cashier was so cool, she gave our instagram a follow and I got a pic of her with my little digital camera that I’ve decided to call The Community Camera. After we walked back we got to see our friends and settle into their beautiful home with some coffee before heading out to Glider Port near La Jolla. We spent the day chatting with their friends and watching people paraglide before grabbing DELICIOUS burritos at one of their favorite spots. Mine had fries in it – YUM!
We spent the night chilling out and preparing for Day 1. I seriously can’t believe it’s here!! Thank you Molly and Mitch for the amazing hospitality!
Day 1
What a day to start the PCT!! We started fast and strong, making great time in the first few hours. Then came the heat of the day, and it smacked me on my ass. Learned some lessons that’s for sure! Lesson 1, start every day with electrolytes. Lesson 2, take a long break during the heat of the day.
We made it 11.4 miles to the group site and hung out with some great people. Honorable mentions include Josh and Laura, Kurt, Big Dill, Max, Jolly Rancher (who yes, handed us jolly ranchers out of a bag he carries) and Lucky! We both had headaches from the heat so we took a nap in the tent and had an easy night. I stretched and massaged my feet and hydrated, then cold soaked some food, ate and headed to bed. Excited for what day 2 brings after learning from day 1!
Songs at forefront of my day: “Down Bad”-Taylor Swift and “How Did It End?”- Taylor Swift
Day 2
What an incredible day! We did 11.7 miles today with a stop in Lake Morena. We woke up with everyone else at the group site around 6am and were moving by 6:35. At 8 we reached Hauser Creek and cameled up, filtering water and drinking enough to comfortably get to town. We did the last 4ish miles into town and arrived around 11! We walked to the famous malt shop where I got a Black Cherry milkshake (YUMMM) and breakfast burrito. Didn’t finish the burrito so I took it with me for a late lunch treat! Since it’s been so hot, we headed to the PCT camp at the local campground and took an afternoon siesta. I woke up with my nemo switchback printed onto my face – it was that good. We hit the trail around 2pm and did the last 3ish miles to our campsite, and it was still pretty freaking hot. We took our time and had some breaks before getting to the site around 3:30, where we set up camp and stretched, ate, gabbed like silly goosers and enjoyed some solitude. Our site has a nice pile of rocks that overlooks the valley and I’m looking forward to sunset!!
I’m so happy with how we paced our day, yesterday’s headaches were NOT it so I’m glad we learned how to handle that. Don’t think anyone will be joining us tonight as everyone seemed inclined to stay in town. The next few days we’re pushing more mileage and I’m looking forward to the challenge!
Songs at the forefront of my mind: “Reason to Pretend”- Flipturn and “Burnout Day”- Flipturn
Day 3
Day 3 started with an early 5am wake up. I was in the middle of some rattlesnake dreams (or nightmares?) and Noah and I both didn’t feel like getting up so we snoozed for a half hour. By 530 we were packing up and around 6 we were headed out for the day! Day 2’s campsite was truly unparalleled. So glad we stayed there! We hiked down towards the highway and I was pretty overstimulated by the amount of noise I was hearing. Can’t believe it’s only been a few days and I’m feeling like that! We hiked under the pass and through a beautiful meadow that seemed to have some prescribed burn areas. The clouds were hanging in a big gray sheet over us but the sun was rising and it reminded me of days when I used to work at the Monterey Plaza Hotel and Spa in Monterey, CA. We ran into someone we met last night, “Forgetful” and forged on, making it to a campground with A WATER SPOUT AND A TOILET!!!! Huge HUGE win. Forgetful caught up with us and we hiked 6 miles together, talking about our lives and pushing each other in mileage. He’s from New Zealand, and we’re moving there in November for a year!
Once we hit mile 9 at 11, we found a beautiful shaded area with some lovely trees and Noah and I took our afternoon siesta, waking up an hour later. I was HUNGRY so I stuffed my face, digested a bit and we headed out around noon thirty. The next stretch was hot with the cloud coverage gone and the sun beating down on us. We passed Josh and Laura and missed some trail magic by LITERALLY FIVE MINUTES! 🙁 These last five miles were in the sun going up, coming down a bit and flattening out – and repeat. I had a mantra in my head “I am strong I am brave I am powerful I can do this, It might take longer but I can do this It might take longer but I can do this!”
We came up to our water refill right before the campground and it was so cold and wonderful. I washed my face and hands and dumped some water on my head too! Once we got to the campground, we stretched and massaged our feet, took another nap, ate some dinner, read, and had a chill night. This spot also marked the first pine tree of the trail!
Josh and Laura are with us too, they’ve been great company! Literally shoutout Laura for the cork ball, my back is so tight!!! 14.1 miles completed today and aiming for 17 tomorrow!
Songs at the forefront of my mind: “Freshman”- The Verve Pipe and “Self Titled”- a mantra by yours truly
Day 4
SEVENTEEN MILES DONE TODAY!! Wowweee I am feeling so grateful for today in so many ways. Last week I had a mass checked out in my right breast and today around mile 3 I got the results that it’s nothing to worry about! Shoutout to the doctors, family and friends who took care of me during this time. Always put your health first!!
Anyways, we woke up around 6am and I didn’t have the best sleep because of some snoring folks at camp last night but I was ready to tackle the day. We did 5 miles to Mt. Laguna where we picked up our first resupply!! Those 5 miles were unreal. We saw beautiful cloud inversions and hiked through our first forest full of pine trees. I love a good view but I feel right at home hiking in the forest. Shoutout to my childhood bestie Kirt for the resupply – you 100000% spoiled us! We ate some of the snacks she packed in the box, wrote a postcard, called family with the good test result news and kept on trekking. I was certainly feeling grateful to continue on the PCT!
We had 12 miles to go to our campground. It was super windy the whole way. It helped out because we weren’t hot but it picked up a bit, enough to have to muscle on! The views today were the best we’ve had since starting. We walked up and over some hills and got to turn around and see where we came from the whole way. We hiked along a cliff which was super beautiful but because of the wind I was pretty wary and tense. I kept taking pictures and videos of Noah in front of me. We also hit 50 miles today! Did a little dance and celebrated a milestone.
The last two miles were tough but we did it. The wind picked up even more and we fought to make it to camp. When we finally arrived, we fought our tent to stay on the ground as we staked it down. We stretched for about a half hour outside and finally gave in and got in the tent because of the wind. We had an incredible meal made by Kirt – rice beans cheese on tortillas with Fritos!!! YUM. We are both so grateful for the food she supplied us, it’s been the best day!
Songs at the forefront of my mind: “Mele Kalikimaka”-Bing Crosby and “Fresh Out The Slammer”- Taylor Swift
Day 5
Day 5 was the windiest day I have ever experienced, and that’s saying something because I lived in Chicago for three years!! Today was a tough one. I feel pretty exhausted writing this. There will be days like that, but the trail continues to provide.
We slept in this morning until 7. The wind was blowing all night and my side of the tent kept having one stake be blown out of the ground – I staked it down 6 times throughout the night and Noah didn’t even notice! All to say I didn’t have a great sleep. We left our warm cocoon of a tent after eating some overnight oats provided by Kirt and hopped outside to wind and mist. We were in the middle of a cloud!
We packed up quickly and started hiking. I was wearing pretty much all my gear, that’s how chilly it was! We hiked for a couple of miles before finally leaving the cloud cover and entering exposed hill after exposed hill, all with the wind fighting to offset us. I swear at one point I was throwing fighting words at the wind.
We only had 13ish miles on the books today and it ended with a water tank; however, when we arrived there we felt that we could do a few more. We hung out with a bunch of people there, including Laura and Josh, and shared some silly stories of our favorite and worst poops in the woods. After we resupplied our water, we chose to end at mile 72, meaning we had 3.5 miles to go. We were tired from fighting the wind, and those last miles took us a little under 2 hours. I’ve been feeling some soreness in my right achilles, but I think because I’ve been bearing more weight on my left, my left started acting up in those last miles. I got frustrated, tried to muscle it out, then slowed down and had a big cry about it. Some days are like that! It’s not all going to be beautiful days like yesterday, but I still feel grateful to be here. Plus, crying literally helps everything. I felt so much better after a big cry at the campsite looking out at the most GORGEOUS view with my man right next to me.
We ended the day stretching, eating in the tent and giving each other back massages. I feel so lucky to be doing this with my best friend 🙂
Songs at the forefront of my mind: “White Flag”-Dido, “Rattlin Bog”-Carlyle Fraser and “Take Me to Church”-Hozier
Day 6
After a day like yesterday, today was an absolute dream. Like I said, the trail provides!!
We woke up at 615 and got moving by 7. We had a sorta lazy morning because the sunrise was so beautiful! We had 5 miles to the next water cache, but this one was under the highway and we weren’t sure if there’d be water. We made it down there by 9, and SURPRISE! OUR FIRST TRAIL MAGIC! 5 miles in at the underpass of Scissors Crossing and our day was completely made. Legend and Bee made us pancakes with peanut butter, chocolate caramel drizzle, and even provided us with some hot instant coffee.
As we’re cold soaking, this was a TRUE delight. We sat and talked with Legend, Michael and Almut (two German hikers who started the same day as us), and Legend told us he’s been doing this for twenty years. He said he first thru hiked the PCT in 1995- the year before I was born! His hospitality was incredible. I felt so at home talking with him, and I felt so taken care of. About 15 min into us hanging out, more hikers arrived and also some more TRAIL MAGIC! A few people who live in a community together brought COSMIC CRISP APPLES, home made green juice, and homemade cookies!!! We felt so much gratitude for the community. After an hour of pure happiness, our bellies were full and we were ready to hit the trail. We took it easy today, aiming for 14 miles, so we had about 9 more to go. They went by so fast. The wind was still pretty strong, but there were moments we had a reprieve from them. Noah took a small tumble and his water bottle fell into a canyon and broke and shortly after I ran into a cactus. The landscape was beautiful and prickly. Lots of cacti, lots of new plants we haven’t seen before.
We passed a few hikers, all of whom we spent time with down at the underpass. We trekked on, our bodies feeling strong and our bellies happy from the pancakes. We arrived to our campsite around 230, and while part of me wanted to continue on because of how early it was, I knew that my body was ready to stop. I’m glad I listened to her 🙂
Some people passed us and chatted on the way to the next water cache which is about 4ish miles away, and we even got to see Lucky! We hadn’t seen her since day 1 and her energy is something I truly enjoy. I hope to see her again!
The past few hours we’ve been replenishing with water and food, stretching, hitting the toilet (the ground) and enjoying each others company. We’re hoping to make it to Warner Springs on Monday because we have a package to pick up at USPS and they’re closed tomorrow so I think we’ve got it planned out pretty good! We have 22.8 miles until we’re there and the community center for hikers in Warner Springs is open all day on Monday so we’re hoping to get some mileage in tomorrow and then do a bit more before grabbing our resupply and taking showers, doing laundry and charging our devices. Til tomorrow!
Songs at the forefront of my mind: “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)”-James Taylor and “Funkytown”-Lipps inc
Day 7
Another beautiful day on the trail! We put 14 miles in today and hit mile 100! I don’t think I have much to write on today because it felt like a lot of the same, even if the landscape changed.
Last night around 1am the wind picked up, howling so much that it jolted us awake. We staked the tent down tighter but it kept flapping, so we were up for a bit. When the alarm went off at 6, Noah turned it off so fast I thought it was a dream. We didn’t get up til 640 because the wind was still going, but we packed up quickly and hit the road by 7:15. We had 4 miles to the next water cache, and they went by pretty quickly. The landscape was pretty much the same – we’ve been hiking cliffside for a few days which is definitely sketchy in some parts, especially with the wind blowing on us. After we filled up on water (shoutout Corey for the manmade cache!) we continued on. We’ve been hiking on the left side of the mountain for the past few days, and my arch was feeling it. I felt pretty grumpy for a lot of those miles, but we said goodbye to the mountains we had crossed a few days ago and entered a new landscape which perked me up! Also, we switched sides and hiked on the right side of the mountains for the rest of the day, and I could feel how happy my body was about it. We took some breaks and ate some food, and then I was ready to get to our camp. I picked up the pace and soon enough we were at mile 100!!!
What a milestone. Triple digits!! Those last few miles were beautiful with a green landscape and lots of cloud coverage. I spent a lot of time today thinking about poetry and my love hate relationship with the wind. We arrived to camp around 230 and have been hanging out ever since. There’s a lot of people camping here tonight, and we met #2 Pencil who has his own Youtube series, Tom and Blister. Since we’re headed to the community center tomorrow we took it easy on the social gathering and instead rested, stretched and used some cell service to wish my cousin’s son a happy 7th bday! Also got to talk to my bestie – shoutout Mel, I LOVE YOU!
I’m looking forward to a shower and laundry tomorrow. I can’t believe it’s been 7 days on the trail and we have yet to do either. (Honestly, I’m lying. I can’t imagine doing it any other way)
Til tomorrow! Another beautiful day in the books, and it looks like we’ll be falling asleep to a symphony of frogs. 🙂
Songs at the forefront of my mind: “Bodak Yellow”-Cardi B and “Cinderella Man”-Eminem
Week 1 done at around mile 101.5! Looking back on it I can definitely say that I am more prepared than I thought I would be. I feel so thankful to have friends and family cheering us on! Looking forward to tackle San Jacinto next week and hopefully get our first zero!
Some of my fav week 1 photos below:
