PCT catch-up blog Part 1

What a ride.

It's been about three weeks since Robin and Rachel began their hike. Or should I say, Toots Magoots and Tears for Beers. I have even earned a trail name - Aloha - though some hikers farther along the trail have taken to calling me Budweiser.

And so we go back to the beginning. Toots and Tears (TNT) started on April 22. It was a little strange just after they left, because the world felt so wide open to me. For the last five weeks we'd been driving toward Campo. For the previous two years we'd been preparing. So there was always a direction. Suddenly, there was nothing.

I felt so aimless that I just drove around Campo for a bit (it's a SMALL town), and found my first thru hiker to help besides TNT. He introduced himself as Red Bearfield. I drove him three miles to the monument that marks the southern terminus of the PCT and went back toward Lake Morena, where I was to meet and camp with TNT after their first day on the trail.

While waiting for them to arrive, I made some friends that had started the trail earlier or had made it to Lake Morena faster than TNT. The fact that I had Budweiser waiting for them may have had something to do with why they were so friendly. I met Pukie and Voodoo Cheese, #2, Luke and Ellie, Paul and Amelia, The Kid, Taylor and Wildfire, The Swedes, Darin, Rocky, Peter Pan, and several others that I would be seeing many times over the next couple weeks.

All I could really do - besides hand out free beer - was offer rides to the convenience store. It was only about a ten minute drive away, but every hiker was very grateful not to have to walk there. It was so exciting to help out, I just wanted to take everybody. Finally, when night fell, hikers began to go to sleep and the rides stopped.

TNT came into camp about an hour earlier than expected, so they had a strong start. A few of us stayed up until after dark sitting around the fire and talking. We stayed up until Hiker thirty and turned in for the night.

Pukie hangs out with TNT after a hard first day on the trail.

I've got three weeks to catch up on. The start of the hike seems like yesterday and last year all at the same time. I have never been so busy, happy, tired, grateful...nor have I ever felt more useful than I do right now. So many of my past occupations have prepared me for this role.

I am so looking forward to tomorrow. Just like I have every night for the last three weeks.