Conserve energy and put floors on it

Welcome to the west coast!

Well, this is all. We are doing it. Here it is. I’ve been hiking the PCT for a while and it’s time to share some stories.

As we begin this walk, the name of the game has been conservation. In my past experience with longer hikes, I have had some pretty bad times with overuse injuries. Things may feel good at first, but then you wake up on day 4 and your knee feels like it’s going to explode. Upon entering the PCT, I decided to stick to a rigid 10 miles a day plan. The idea is to start small but stay fresh.

Day 1 It was quite a stir. I made it to 11.4 miles (you may already know where this is going). I felt great all day. It’s surreal to finally be here after so much time of planning. I was a little socially exhausted after meeting so many new people and very grateful to finally be able to start my favorite activity: hiking. The weather was perfect and from the beginning we carried enough water to last the entire day. Quite a great day. As I watched the sunset from camp and took in all the new plants and cacti, I breathed deeply and the air was sweet and pure as snow.

Day 2 It was more of the same. I woke up feeling great and ready to go home. I made an early push to a water tank and rested before the first climb of the trail out of Hauser Creek at mile 15.4. A little before noon the climb became hot. Exposed to the sun, I had to stop and apply more sunscreen halfway through. After reaching the top, we started chatting with another hiker and before we realized how far we had hiked, we reached Morena Lake at mile 20. We decided not to push our mile-a-day plan and only hiked two more miles out of town.

Day 3 It started with a late wake-up and some stretching. My body still felt great and my confidence was now very high. Everything was going according to plan. With no knee or foot pain, the idealistic emotion of day 1 is still present. We headed down a short descent into the mountains and then through some beautiful countryside before arriving at Boulder Oaks Campground, a car campground but with room for PCT hikers. We drank water from a tap and sat in some lawn chairs for about an hour and a half. I wasn’t worried about time after two days of finishing daily miles so quickly.

Leaving Boulder Oaks, we crossed a road and then began climbing back into the mountains. About 20 minutes into the climb I looked back to where we had come and was met with a peculiar sight. On the other side of a small mountain, what appeared to be a cloud rose into the sky. Three biplanes painted red and white circulated above. I stared dumbly at the view for a minute before checking an app on my phone that shows local fires.

This was it. A wave of fear washed over me. I looked anxiously at my phone and then back at the billowing smoke and circling air attack planes. We were starting to panic and made a quick decision to head north along the trail rather than head back into the smoke. There would be another road crossing in about six miles, and I was thinking that there we could at least run into people and get help if needed.

After two and a half days of treading carefully and cautiously, I hit the accelerator. I hurtled down the trail like a charging bull, bushes hitting me, tripping and kicking rocks here and there. About 2 miles later we met our first other hiker. Sweating and panting after almost running, I asked him if he had seen the smoke. “I think the wind is blowing in another direction,” he replied. He didn’t seem concerned at all about the smoke and continued taking pictures.

We continued for another mile before encountering a second group of hikers. We ran into them and started warning them about the smoke we had seen. Once again, they did not worry too much about the news we brought them and resumed their activity. The anxiety began to fade and I realized that I had almost run six miles down the trail for no reason. My East Coast brain saw smoke and went into panic mode, but it wasn’t really a big deal. I felt like a big fool. He might as well have had a big donkey cap on his head for the last two hours.

We continued camping that night at another drive-in that was 0.8 miles from the PCT. I felt very stupid all day. Energy conservation had gone out the window and I was totally exhausted. Lying in the tent before going to sleep, I was bothered by the smell of smoke from other campers’ campfires in their stoves. It’s different here and will take some time to adjust to.

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