Saturday, May 7, 2016

Day 1 mile 18 (0.7% of the trail)

I vowed to take it easy on my first day, and I did. 18 miles in 7 hours, but I felt I could have gone an additional 7 miles or so. I'm camped just before Lake Morena which is the first town on the trail from the southern terminus. I won't have to pay for a campsite in town, and I can grab a "gigantic" (per Yogi) breakfast burrito in the morning.

One very interesting thing about the trail is the camping arrangement. A PCT permit gives permission to camp anywhere along the trail. Every half mile or so, you find a pocket or two carved out of the brush, usually big enough for one tent, either adjacent to the trail or down a short use path. It's pretty random, and fun to evaluate each site. Some are on rock slabs, some are next to sharp turns in the trail, some contain long abandoned gear from people who quit on day 1 (spooky).

Otherwise, not much noteworthy today. Weather was drizzly and cloudy, quite nice. Haven't witnessed any Cheryl-esque meltdowns thus far. Ran across hikers from the US, Western Europe, and Japan. 

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