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.
Woke up when it was dark and got going. Saw Werewolf and Marijke on the road packing things up. We all walked the mile together back to the PCT/Main street. I had to walk to the cafe so I could connect my steps (where I got into Maureen's car), heaven forbid they are not connected.
Passed the church that I slept at in November 1996. It looks like they have a parking lot now.
The trail passed an area that they use for stunt filming. There was even the body of a passenger jet there.
Saw Marijke and Werewolf and we hiked for a chunk of the day. Werewolf also has a computer science degree and we talked of the ins and outs of that.
As the trail started climbing I realized the beauty of the hiking poles. Holy crap, I flew right up them! I am a total convert now.
As we dropped to Bouquet Canyon road we saw a lime green VW bus parked by the trail. It was these two trail angels offering drinks and cookies. Their VW was named Kermit.
The Anderson's maintain a water cache near the trail. They have all kinds of little kooky things there, including a "lead weight cache" that has a sign reading "please take only what you need". There was beer and soda there too. Werewolf said he would rather have a soda than beer, upon discovering that the soda had corn syrup he opted for a beer instead.
They all rested there but I felt like moving. Having the hiking poles kind of changed everything and it made me more than ever excited to be hiking.
I hammered out the next 8 miles and got to the road. I had hiked 25 miles by around 5:30pm. Tried getting a ride but there wasn't much traffic. Ended up walking the two miles to the Anderson's house. At least I can say I walked all the way from the Saufley's house to the Anderson's house.
The Anderson's house is pretty cool, it is basically a party house. It is also apparently a black hole so to speak. The woman, Terrie, says that there is the "walk of shame" for the house. This is when a hiker gets all packed up to leave, brings their pack up front and then hangs out. They end up spending so much time that they have to do the "walk of shame" and carry their pack back up to the camping area and unpack again.
There is a large "manzanita maze" in the back of the house. Basically it is all these paths with little spots carved out where you can pitch a tent.
When I showed up at the house everyone cheered and yelled "Craig!". Dinnertime walked right up to me and handed me a beer.
The Anderson's served taco salad which was good.
A bunch of sat around drinking beer and talking. I was talking to Spoonman and we mentioned how we were not friends on Facebook so I made a friend request. About 10 seconds later I felt a vibration near my leg. I turned to him and said "is this your bag? I think I just felt my friend request!"
I had a second helping of taco salad and then felt way too stuffed to move. Night night.
