A “Warm” Welcome to the PCT

Day 1 – 15 miles

Looking at the forecast for day 1, we were worried. An inch or more of rain was predicted to fall most of the day. That concerned us to say the least…

Morning came with mostly sunny skies, which made us optimistic the weather would be better than predicted. Jane made us eggs and toast for breakfast, then we loaded up made the drive to the southern terminus of the PCT. We took a few obligatory pictures on the monument, signed the log book, and spoke with the PCTA volunteer, trail name Phantom. He gave us a quick pep talk on “leave no trace” and trail ettiquette. I really appreciated how Phantom discussed these, recognizing that people are only human. The PCT has exploded in popularity and I’ve heard tales of the trail being loved to death, and of unruly hikers building a bad reputation for all thru hikers in trail towns. Hearing how to be a good ambassador from another thru hiker, who cares deeply about preserving the trail, was much more meaningful to me than the required training videos for the permit.

We admired the beautiful and tremendous (TM) Mexican border wall protecting all those American jobs (which, apparently, nobody wants these days) then turned north and set off for Canada. To say we were jazzed would be an understatement. Spirits were high a we explored our new home.

The diversity of plants was mind blowing! The first 700 miles is endearingly referred to as the desert. Whoever came up with that name has clearly never been to New Mexico, where the desert is little more than scrawny grasses, mesquite, and cholla. This initial section of trail is lined with dense scrub, and any space in between has something blooming. We took so many pictures of flowers! Not to mention a rattle snake(!), a horned toad, and other small critters.

We saw a handful of hikers starting their adventures, but mostly enjoyed solitude while we walked. Around 2 p.m. the forecast finally came to fruition. A light mist turned into a drizzle for the first hour. It honestly felt kind of nice after all the sun. But the drizzle devolved into full on rain, and after three hours we were getting soaked, cold, and ready to crawl into our tent. Quite a bad turn from the joyful morning. When motivation wanes on the trail, I get into a mode I call “rage hiking”. Going as fast as possible to get the walking over with, no time to take in views or appreciate nature. Definitely did a little bit of rage hiking to get to a tent site near a water source 15 miles in. With cold fingers, we hastily set up our tent. By 5 o’clock we were in, where we hunkered down for the rest of the evening.

The rain let up around sunset, giving us some peace and quiet to fall asleep to. That did not last.. at several points during the night the heavens opened up delivering torrents of rain. Camped under a large oak tree, the leaves collected water into large heavy drops which fell on us, releasing condensation inside our tent as a sporadic mist on our faces. No thanks. I was telling myself that as long as the tent was standing and I didn’t feel water flowing into my sleeping bag, everything was ok.

Day 1 was full value. Challenging but confidence building.