ThisSa brief and sweet description of everything that happened in the 8 months before starting my walk for the Pacific Crest Trail. WThey are talking about visas, permits, flights, pre-US and more customs nerves. Open, babies!
September 2024
Imagine this. It is September 2024. I am at home in Australia. Finally I started walking/running again after a fracture by stress of the femoral neck, yes, a fracture in my hip. It seems a moment as good as any other to get a permit for a walk of a couple of a thousand miles long.
The first thing is the first, I will receive an appointment for a B1/B2 US visa, it can’t be so long or a wait, right? MISTAKEN. The next visa appointment available at the Embassy in Sydney (our closest main city) is at the end of April. End of April? He planned to start walking in the middle or end of April, so obviously, the appointment must be a little before that.
Well, no problem. I will check Melbourne, the next closest embassy. Great, December. It is still almost 4 months away, but it is better than April. I reserve that bad boy and reserve a flight to Melbourne.
In addition to ordering my visa interview, I start the process of refining my team. Start cob List, and I plan a couple of walks during the night to make sure I am happy with what I have, this is always very fun for me. Together with planning, I have walking. 8 months is a time, but returning from the injury means that I am starting at almost zero, come on!
October 2024
Fast advance. It is the end of October, today is the day I will receive an email with my time interval to select a permit date. The time slots are randomly assigned from 10 am to 3 pm as soon as the moment is, the better, since these April slot machines are engulfed quite fast.
My email arrives. 2:12:52. Mmmm is fine, I guess it’s not 2:59:59, but surely it’s not 10 am I will do what I can.
Finally it’s 2:12:52! I get to the permissions system and, as expected, all April is gone. I take a while in May, and to be completely honest, I am excited that I have my legs with a permission. Shit are real!
December 2024
Boom, it’s December, I go to Melbourne. I have my visa interview and step with flying colors (I played the paper on the flying colors, but I got a visa, so I would say it was a success).
February 2025
My God, suddenly, is February, jump successfully and change my start date to April 22, the date I wanted and planned all the time. Yeehaa! It’s time to book some flights and finish my team!
April 2025
Fast advance and it is April 19, I will fly to the United States today and spend a couple of nights in San Diego before heading to the field to start walking. This does not feel real!
I will be honest. With everything that happens in the world I was currently a little nervous about customs and the arrival process in the United States, I had read some horror stories and, although they were rare, I was still in my mind. Spoiler alert, everything was easy and turned to customs.
Once I terrified in Lax, I obtained a transport service to San Diego. A couple in the ferry also had some hiking packages with them, we talked and turned out that the PCT were starting a few days after me … what a small world. Little knew that we would become great friends and end up governing in the next 5 months! (Hello and donkey!)
After a couple of days in California, my first hiking food store, a trip to Rei, some tasty Mexican meals and a final refund, is time. I go to the border.
It is April 21, the day before starting to walk and I am camping in TightThe unofficial place to be before starting the PCT. That afternoon my friend Ali and I headed to the southern terminal. It was honestly surreal to be stopped in front of him. This was something he had dreamed for for a long time. We took our photos, we visited the edge wall again and returned to Cleef, still with a total disbelief that this was really happening.
That night we had dinner, we had a talk, we learned skills about rivers and self -stating with an ice ax, we met new friends, we put our first look at a hiker box and leave all the additional things random ridiculous that we brought for some reason, why did a small shampoo suit me? Not even use shampoo at home.
It was incredible to meet all my starters on April 22, so early I did not realize how long I would spend these people in the coming months.
I went to bed in my store. Pre -Trail hits well and really replaced by pure emotion. Shit, it’s time to walk through Pacific Crest Trail.
Let’s go.
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