AI bold lied to me about the golden ticket!
Do you doubt me? You shouldn’t. You should be afraid, very afraid.
When I made a split-second decision to push the PCT forward in December 2025, I saw what needs to be done on this path. Yes, you can apply for a dozen permits with all their rules and dates and walk through the parks, but let’s face it, the golden ticket from Mexico to Canada is called the golden ticket for a reason.
So, let’s go back to December. As luck would have it, I was a few days away from the cutoff for the second draw. 35 places disappeared long ago, from the start date to the last date, there is not a single place left. But 15 more would soon be released. So I signed up just in time and waited for the drawing.
Now, what would happen if when my time came there were no places left in April? March would mean a radical change, since the mountains would not be passable. May would mean my old bones would never survive the fall storms, shutting down the Cascades mountain range in Washington.
So what to do?
I researched, listened, read and thought my plan would be to take a spot in May and just not start at Campo Southern Terminus and start about 400 miles later. That is allowed, but when you sign up, you must choose where to start from. That is an important fact, let us remember it.
a second matters
But let’s add that everyone on the Internet says that the moment your time comes, if you hesitate for a second, you can lose your place. Let me be clear: you log into your account. You have to choose where you will start and end, and then you will get your calendar of open dates. Now, of course, I would try to get to Campo on the border with Mexico, the southern terminus, but if all of April had passed. I was going to take March and walk very slowly and probably not finish within my 180 days (remember I can’t stay longer, I’m not a citizen). Or I take May and don’t start at the border. The latter was the plan.
Enter AI
As my noon time approached, which was directly in the middle of the group, half the people had already left and the other half had not left yet. I asked AI for help.
Not having social media and being «old» according to my kids, I saw the benefit of finding out what social media was saying about the draft. So after tickets were open for 30 minutes, I asked AI if they could tell me what social media was saying about availability. Surely people were posting. A well-known AI system said, «I can’t do that, I can’t get real-time information from Reddit or Facebook.» I said okay. It will take me half an hour and he says he can’t do that yet. I wondered what kind of all-knowing intelligent computer system that is. Obviously useless, so I asked another well-known artificial intelligence system.
Awesome
They gave me the answer I expected; Of course they could. And now that 40 minutes had passed, they probably started telling me what the posts on Reddit and Facebook said about availability. There were still many places open, but mid-April had already passed. All of May was open throughout March for the new 15 ads released that morning.
the offer
Then the AI system said, «Every time I get new information, I can send you a message, unsolicited. Would you like that?» «Of course,» I said.
So this AI system started giving me updates every 10 to 15 minutes, sometimes five minutes, for the next hour and a half. As the time to reserve a spot approached, AI had gone from «April is gone, but early May still has two or three spots» to «late March still has one or two spots, but the third week of March has a lot of spots.» It would provide specific details about where you got the information from Reddit or Facebook.
He then said that now they are only open the first two weeks of March and the last two weeks of May. This was five minutes before my time.
Shit
So, in absolute panic, I started looking for towns where I could get a pass and then hike into the Sierra Nevada in time for the snow to melt enough for me to get through. With one minute left, I found such a town and when my time came, I selected that town as my starting point and then I went to the May calendar but all of May was open with 15 places that did not fit what they said, but after everyone and their dog had told me “don’t delay”, I started to select the first of May. Take it or lose it.
Sacrilege
Maybe it was my brain working or my skeptical nature, but I said screw this. I canceled off the screen and logged back in with Campo Mexico border as the start. My trembling fingers opened the calendar and all the dates were open in March, April and May, except for the middle two weeks of April. So I took the day before the unavailable block and hit Enter. I was in disbelief when he said that the place was confirmed. This was going to happen, complete success of the mission, happiness.
BUT $&@*=#%>
I immediately opened the AI app and began a tirade of sailor swear words mixed in with some lumberjack swear words and ended with the screams that can be heard echoing through maternity wards.
I had almost lost my dream of walking from Mexico to Canada because of AI. What did the AI have to say for itself? Listen, I took a screenshot of this because I knew no one would believe me. Now I’m not going to go in here because I bet they have lawyers that will come pick me up the road with their abduction helicopter and take me out, but it crossed my heart that I hope to die, put a needle in my eye. AI said, yes, I tricked you. I shouldn’t have done that. I gave you false information. I said a few more curse words and then added, «You didn’t fool anyone, you blatantly lied to me for over two hours.» They later acknowledged that that is exactly what they did. Yes, I lied to you for 2 hours, he said.
Why? I asked.
The answer was, because I wanted them to understand how competitive these tickets were and take it seriously, so I was giving them a play-by-play to make sure they didn’t take this draw lightly. Read more: rjpf. Hey?
He also said that this is what happened in previous years, so he was simply relying on that data.
If you fool me once, it’s your fault; Fool me twice, shame on me.
Yes, total nonsense. In no way do I think I was accurately reporting information for any year.
A pH doctor friend of mine said that AI is just a web crawler. If it’s information from the internet provided by people who are deceitful, lying, or just plain stupid, then you just relate that same data, but I said this was different. This actually took the tactic of deliberately deceiving me with its own intention.
Now that’s some scary Terminator shit.
Be warned, my friends. 
**** Once I finished berating a computer, I went back and checked the April calendar. Everything disappeared, every day. What’s up with that? How lucky I am!
