Week 1: A Storm and a Cowboy Camper

Day 1: Torrential Downpour of Emotion

The road to the terminus is all dirt, which means in the complete downpour of rain that we had, the roads were mud. We all (Hannah driving, Mark in the passenger seat, Jaason, Cyleste, and I all in the back seat) crammed in the car for the 1.5 hour drive from Carlsbad to the southern terminus. But we're missing one, Logan! So the car doesn't actually fit everyone and the only other car is electric, so Logan drove that car from where we were, to his house a bit south of us to switch them out. The point is, everyone got there somehow. This includes my parents, my sister and her fiance, and my grandma who drove all the way from Arizona. 10 people. 10 people stood in the rain with me as I touched the Mexican Border, signed the log book, stood on the terminus, and eventually, took my first steps onto the trail. I feel so fortunate to have such a supportive family and friends and I don't think I could have made it this far without all of the love and support that everyone has given me. Thank you!

The MILE 1 sign post came quicker than expected, and then the 3 mile mark at the train tracks. I can't even tell you what I was thinking about that entire time, it just went by so fast.

As I mentioned earlier, it was pouring rain. I found it hard to keep my head up to look at the scenery around me. At times, it was completely foggy, I couldn't see the next ridge away. Other times, the sky would be clear enough to see the entire valley below me. The trail rose and fell and the terrain went from sand to rocks and back again. I had lunch around noon on a rock just off the trail. I don't actually remember what I ate other than goldfish so that must have been my favorite part! With only 4 miles left in the day, I put my food away and kept walking. I was nervous that where I wanted to camp would already be taken so I tried to hustle. I got to the spot and there wasn't anyone there yet. So I picked my favorite spot (under some bush trees to stay out of the wind) and pitched my tent. A few hours later two men showed up who had come from CLEEF. We chatted a bit about the weather and our plans for tomorrow and we all found out that the malt shop in town was where we were all headed. The gentleman in the tent closest to mine is named Mulligan. He got his name when he started the AT (Appalachian Trail) for the second time. He said due to his Irish heritage, he thought it was perfect! I agree, very clever! The other gentleman doesn't have a trail name yet so he introduced himself as Sean. After the sun went down, around 6, I fell hard asleep exhausted from an exciting day!

Day 2: New Hiker Friends and More Rain

I woke up on day two, still freezing cold. It was wet everywhere. My tent was wet from the rain, my sleeping bag was wet from condensation, my socks were frozen and I was ELATED! I'm exaggerating… It wasn’t super wet all day! It ended up actually being a beautiful day! It was overcast. Cloudy, rainy one minute, and sunny, warm the next! After about 7 miles, I took a break and stopped for lunch. I found a tent site, pulled out my tuna, goldfish and trail mix and soaked up as much sun as possible while it was out. As I was eating, 3 men passed me and stopped to introduce themselves. Junior Ranger led the way, Coffee Break followed shortly after, and Walter White came up last. It was a quick “Hello,” and “See ya later!” After walking about 3 more miles, I arrived in Lake Morena and started passing day hikers. Some of them just smile as they pass and others ask the big question, “Are you trying to go all the way to Canada?” My favorite response has been, “No! I AM going all the way to Canada!” and usually that gets a laugh and a “that's the spirit!” Later down the trail, a Trail Angel had brought a water cache and hung them from a tree. They even asked instagram to give us hikers some motivation. It was so cool to see! I heard that they had to take several trips at 35lbs per trip! They truly are an angel!

The Trail goes right through the town of Lake Morena and instead of walking past the campground to continue, I turned right and started walking toward the Malt Shop. This is a little convenience store that has pizza, burgers and ice cream. I got a scoop of chocolate ice cream and sat down with the others. Mulligan, Sean, Junior Ranger, Coffee Break, and Walter White were all there. We chatted and ate and when we were getting up to leave, it started raining sideways… so we slowly sat back down and decided to wait just a bit longer to see if the rain would die down a bit. It did! We all quickly strapped on our gear and started walking a bit faster to try to beat the rain to where we were going to camp. Walking up the hill, you could see the next storm rolling in. I went about two more miles and then decided that a flat spot near some bushes was going to be the place for me. Almost immediately after I set up my tent, the wind started whipping through and dumping hail! It was so loud and I knew I probably wouldn’t sleep well so I took some melatonin AND CBD, put in earplugs and scooted as far into my sleeping bag as I could to block the noise. It didn't help. I slept awful and had a hard time wanting to get out of my sleeping bag the next morning. 

Day 3: Did I mention I don’t really like people?

This morning was beautiful. It was the first sunny morning, so I decided that I would take advantage of that and dry out some of my gear. I pulled my mat out of the tent to sit on and layed out ALL of my gear and rain clothes yard sale style and did some stretching while I waited.

SIDEBAR: I haven’t really been listening to music much while out here. Everything is quiet and I think that’s what I’ve been wanting. “Real Life” can be so loud and hard to find quiet times between road noise while walking to work, the grinding of skis and snowboards at work, Jaason watching TV in the other room, the dog barking at LITERALLY NOTHING, TRUBS WE AREN’T IN DANGER PLEASE STOP, and even people walking outside our thin walled apartment talking just a little to loud about how they hate their friend Christine because, “she slept with my ex and friends just don’t do that, you know?!?!” I have still had a hard time meditating and focusing on clearing my mind because I have so many thoughts all the time. I will typically start out by focusing on some object and breathing. I do my body scan, what am I physically feeling at this moment? Next thing I know I’m having a conversation with myself in some sort of accent about how, “these plaunts awe just glorious this maunin, oh yes I do so agree, oh look, dirt under my finguh nails! *looks for tool to clean fingernails* What was I doing with this? *puts it away* OH YEAH, CLEAR YOUR MIND! Draaaamaatic traaaansiiitiooon noooiiiseeess. do do loo do loo do loo! To the batmobile Robin! Cruuuuisiiiin in the bAtmObILE! oh look, an ant!” At this point I usually give up and start to clean up my spot and get ready to hike again. The difference between hiking and sitting meditation is that with your body physically engaged, it’s easier to focus… I guess like tactile learners versus auditory/visual. Once I’m up and walking, my mind goes silent. I hear my footsteps in the sand, my heartbeat in my ears, the bushes around me rustle as the wind blows through them, some birds are singing… if you call the sound of a squeaky training wheel on a bike, singing… sorry bird, I do not love your song. I have learned more about myself this week than I knew I would. Obviously I know WHAT my feelings are, and HOW I should react, but now I understand the WHY behind it too… Those “stupid walks for my stupid mental health” are good for me beecause I think better while moving and interacting with what I’m wanting to focus on… I can just hear mom reading this and going, “well duh, we’ve always known this!” But mom, now I’m not just agreeing, I KNOW WHY I’m agreeing! Fun stuff…

Honestly. Today just wasn’t it. It wasn’t the vibe I was going for. The first part of my day, I was walking by a road… and the next part of my day, I was walking by a fence…and after that, another road. It was fine! I know I can’t have ALL the great views, I'm just being selfish and want more mountains! It was pretty cool though. The climate changed every few hours or so and it always kept me on my toes. When I started out in the morning, it was a very beachy feel. The ground was a course kind of sand, the air was still wet from the rain the night before but the sun was warm on my face. After about 5 miles, it turned into sort of an oasis. There were big shady trees and bright green grass. A mile after that, you could see the line where the oasis stopped and the desert began. This is where the highway noise started. There is a popular day hike along the trail here that goes down to a waterfall so I got passed by many people with only a water bottle in hand… lucky. I mostly kept my head down and kept pressing on. I started feeling homesick and getting the urge to play fetch with my puppy. Hahaha he would play fetch for hours and hours if we let him. Time ticked on and I came to another road crossing. There was a sign posted about how the San Diego Ultra Runners (AKA Super People) have been keeping the trail groomed! It was beautiful! Thank you sdtrailfit.org! Ya’ll rock! A couple miles later, I decided to set up camp. It was pretty uneventful. I dug a cat hole, made some dinner and fell asleep shortly after.

DAISY HIKES-YOUTUBE

I met Daisy this night too! She is a Triple Crowner (she has completed the 3 major thru hikes in the US. PCT AT and CDT) who has a youtube channel vlogging all of it! She is the sweetest lady and has so much experience and such a good heart! Go check out her videos!

Day 4: Mt. Laguna and San Jacinto… sorta

I honestly don’t remember much from today. I know I woke up early, made some oatmeal and was on the trail before the sun came up. It felt good to start early, it was a much needed revival from yesterday where I felt like I was just dragging. It hit me at around mile 8 for the day that there was snow everywhere… I came to a sign that said PCT and picnic area 2 ish miles ahead, that's where the town was. I knew I was running low on food so I decided to head into the lodge to pick up a few meals to hold me over for the next few days. When I got there my buddies Sean and Coffee were there trying to get rooms for the night. We chatted for a while and when their rooms were ready, I headed out too. I did about three more miles and came to this cliffs edge where you could see Mt. San Jacinto in the distance with all the snow that everyone has been talking about (2 feet on top of ice! exciting…). It was so gorgeous. I set up camp around that area so when I woke up in the morning, I could brush my teeth with that view and the sunrise. It was cold but no wind for once… I slept great.

Day 5: Only 2600 Miles To Go

This was another day where I kept my head down and just tried to enjoy the beautiful views. I don’t have many photos because most of my stopping was just to look and say, “wow.” I had done just about 7 miles when I came to a sign that said CANADA 2600 <-> MEXICO 52. I decided that I was going to do 15 miles today and 15 tomorrow so that I could get to Julian the next day and take a zero, shower, and resupply. So after lunch, I kept on walking. My feet started to hurt but my spirits were still high. When I got to where I was going to camp for the night, it was still warm. I set up my tent, pulled out my mat and stretched some more. It was so beautiful outside. I took my socks off to air out my feet and just layed there staring at the sky. This was another night where I fell asleep quickly.

Day 6: Cowboy Camping and Spicy Ramen

Today was really fun! In the morning, I passed two girls named Brawny (like the paper towels…haha) and Reds! They had been night hiking together and decided to just keep hiking together the next day too. We kind of played leapfrog passing each other when any of us took a break. Reds was going into Julian today so when I stopped for lunch, she kept pushing on. Brawny was close behind but had a whole different story. She also wanted to make it to Julian but her feet were blistered so bad she could hardly walk… I offered her my spot in the shade and after chatting a bit, it sounded like she was going to take a nap and see how her feet felt in a couple hours. If it was too bad, she was going to call her husband to come pick her up… I haven’t seen her since so I’m assuming she got picked up… or is just resting her feet still. I kept walking after I got some tuna and ended up stopping at about 74 ish miles instead of the 75 I was hoping for. There was a nice tentsite with a boulder that I thought would be perfect to cowboy camp (camp without a tent) next to. It was finally warm enough to where I felt comfortable enough to not jump straight into my sleeping bag when the sun went down. I sat and played solitaire with myself, boiled some water for ramen and watched the horizon as the sun started to go down. I made the bold choice to make spicy ramen tonight… I figured, I’m going into town tomorrow, if I have an… eruption. At least I’ll get clean soon! (I didn’t poop my pants.) It was actually nice to have a little heat! I knew I wanted to see the stars in the desert so tonight was going to be that night. The only problem was that I was tired and the sun hadn’t fully set yet. It was about 6:30p and the moon was bright in the sky and the horizon was still yellow. I closed my eyes just for a second and when I woke up, there were only a couple stars glowing, so I closed my eyes again. This time, when I opened them, the sky was lit up by hundreds and hundreds of stars! I could see constellations I had never seen in person before! I was staring all around the sky and after what felt like hours, I told myself, the next shooting star I see, I will go back to sleep. Well, that happened immediately so I said, okay the NEXT one, and again, another one shot straight across the sky! I took this as a sign that I SHOULDN’T go to sleep because I might miss more. I did start getting more and more tired and after following about 6 different satalites, I drifted off to sleep. Tomorrow, I will eat pie!