I first hiked the Pacific Crest Trail over the course of 1994 and 1996, then I hiked the whole thing in one go in 2013. During the latter hike I kept this website updated as I progressed up the trail. I still have about 45 hours of video to edit, but in the meantime there is a lot for you to look at here. Over the course of the 168 days I wrote 138,734 words and put 13,644 photos on this website.
It was dark when I woke up and got going. A few other hikers were heading out too.
There were a couple climbs on the way to Agua Dulce. Yardsale, Sailor Moon, Anastacia, and I flipped flopped over each other for the next 10 miles. There is a spot where the trail goes through a long tunnel under Highway 14, I got some good video giong through it.
Passed Vazquez Rocks where a ton of movies and TV shows have been filmed. Heard some voices and it was Chief and his wife Maureen! It was good to see him, I haven't seen him since Idyllwild. He was heading that day after spending a couple days in AD.
The PCT actually goes right down the Main Street of Agua Dulce. I looked at my phone and saw that for the first time I had done "10 by 10", 10 miles by 10am. (9:30am actually). A bunch of us had breakfast at the Sweetwater Cafe and then Maureen gave us a ride to the Saufley's house (which was about a mile off the trail).
The Saufley's house is pretty incredible. They have a large camping area and all kinds of stuff set up for hikers. I knew it was their house when I saw the four porta-potties outside. The garage was full of packages they were holding. They are also set up to mail packages out too.
The Saufley's had rented a van and if you paid 10 bucks they would drive you to the REI in Northridge. I needed to get a few things so about five of us piled into the van. The REI was packed to a nauseating degree. Turns out they were having a sale. I bought a Jetboil stove, trekking poles, and a silk sleeping bag liner.
I had decided the other day that I was going to try out trekking poles since my arms were feeling quite useless during the hike. Over a few days I was actually lifting small rocks while I hiked just to give my arms something to do. I also didn't want to get the "t-rex effect" (giant legs and skinny frail arms). The sleeping bag liner is essentially a condom for keeping your dirty body from making your sleeping bag all dirty. The liner can be washed with your clothes, down sleeping bags are much more difficult to wash.
After REI we went to the In and Out burger, that was quite good.
Got back to the Saufley's and I did the usual chores of copying off memory cards and getting stuff packed up. Showered, very important. Matt and Crossover showed up later that night, they had gotten a ride in from the Acton KOA.
The Saufley's had bikes you couple borrow to ride into town for supplies. We borrowed a few and went in to get beer. They were impressed that I could ride an undersized (for me) bicycle uphill, one hand on the handlebars, while carrying an 18 pack of beer in my other hand.
We sat around the fire and drank beer and I ended up in bed around midnight...a late night.
The hiker packages at the Saufley's.
Waiting for food at In and Out:
