Day 2-3, miles 11.4-36.1

Day 2-3, miles 11.4-36.1

Day 2 (april 8) was when the nerves of starting the trail started to recede, letting me focus on the experience of hiking the trail. The day started with hiking down into Hauser canyon, then immediately hiking back out of it. It is the first decent climb of the trail, and it actually felt pretty good! It was nice not having to carry a ton of water from Hauser creek, because there was a stream at the top of the climb. 

By noon I arrived in Lake Morena, the first town on the trail. I ate Lunch at the Oak shores malt shop with Chris, Alashua, and Elizabeth from the camp the night before. The three hours I spent at Lake Morena was really chill and relaxing, and a group us were resting in the shade at the campground there. 

I set up camp at mile 23.0, eventually joined by 5 other thru hikers: Chris and Elizabeth from the night before; Jinx and two-tone, 2 experienced Appalachian Trail thru hikers; and two-tone’s friend Jamie from new york.

On day three (april 9) I felt like the miles were starting to come easier. I fell into the rhythm of jumping from water source to water source (which hasn’t been a stretch of more than 3 miles so far), while not carrying more water than I need. There are parts coming up that require carrying more water, so I will savor this for now.

The first few miles of the day was a gentle decent toward Boulder Oaks campground. There I found the first trail magic so far! Trail magic is the act of people hanging out near trailheads to hand out free food and drinks to PCT hikers. A man whose trail name is Magnito was responsible for the refreshments, and he hiked the trail in 2018. Several pieces of fresh fruit gave me a much needed boost to begin the climb up to Mt Laguna. 

I came across many day hikers after Boulder Oakes. After a long hot climb I stopped at mile 36.1 where I was eventually joined by most of the previous night’s group: Chris, Jinx, Elizabeth, and Jamie.

I am trying to embrace the take it slow mindset, as it will ease my body into hiking longer distances, and because the longer this first section takes the less snow there will be at the San Jacinto mountains.