Campo to Lake Morena
20 miles
Nobo mile 20
The day began with a coffee and a protein bar at the diner next door to our lodge in Pine Valley. After that we zipped down to the southern terminus in Campo and were snapping pictures at the monument by 7am.
At the terminus I was greeting by a PCTA volunteer named Phantom. He was a cool dude who hangs out at the trailhead each day to see off fresh PCT hikers. He didn’t bother to check my permit…
Once the obligatory pictures were taken at the monument and border wall, my mom, dad and I hit the trail. We trotted along the first couple of miles before saying our goodbyes. They made my first mile extra special!
Around the same time I met two cool dudes named Andy and Happy…both also thru hikers. Andy was from Seattle and Happy was from Florida. They were great company and made the first few hours breeze by. Around mile 7 I decided to split off to enjoy the hike at my own pace. Turns out I hike fast…
I also saw a few horny toads…they’re pretty neat.
The rest of the day I ran into maybe a dozen fellow hikers. The weather was perfect, just a bit overcast and not too warm. The trail was well graded and the switch backs were forgiving.
Mountain Goat, Amy and Sarah came together from Australia to tackle the PCT. Mountain Goat hiked the AT in 2016. All three were incredibly chill. Hoping to run into them again.
Nico from Los Angeles told a funny story of how he attempted to dig a cat hole for a poo, only to find that exact spot had already been used…if I run into him again I’m going to give him the trail name Landmine.
There were a few others…but their names and backgrounds escape me at the moment.
Today was a good day. Rains on the forecast for tomorrow…so we’ll see how that goes.
Cheers!