PCT day 1 - mile 0 to mile 11(Southern Terminus)


"Why would you even hike there? It's only rocks and dust" Kerry, the bus driver.

So it has begun! And of course not much went as planned :) First of all Jasper stayed at the hostel as he was still not feeling well (stomach issues) so I ended up going to El Cajon on my own. Got picked up by the 894 driver an hour early as he was going through the bus station to the first bus stop and Wallmart, his name was Kerry and he didn't stop talking to me for the next two hours. He was an absolute character, he claimed that he spend 10 years in prison for a bank robbery, got out in 2007, been homeless for a year and then landed himself a job as a bus driver. He gets paid 22$ an hour, he also got into some kind of accident for which he got paid a large sum of money he used to buy a house in Lake Morena, he was also quite keen to show me naked pictures of his girlfriend, he stood by the right of owning a gun (which he can't have now as a convict) as a way of protecting yourself from.. government, so yeah definitely a character - I'm not quite sure how much of his story was real though..

On the bus I also met Tom from Manchester UK and we ended up walking together all day. We hiked 11 miles in total which is quite good considering we didn't start until 12:30, and the weather was quite hot. At the beginning of the trail we met few trail angels: Legend, Papa Joe and Fantom, which gave us few tips and words of encouragement for the road ahead, we also got a free PCT badge I've attached to my backpack. It's been a busy day for them and apparently nearly 50 hikers checked in throughout the day, we met about 15 of them as we walked. We set up our tents in a cozy, sandy campsite with 7 other people (so far) the plan for tomorrow is to get up early and hike to mile 20 (Lake Morena) have a lunch and do another 10 miles after that.

It's been a good day, and it feels awesome to finally be here.

Mexican border wall:
Kerry the whacky buss driver:
Trail angels and the terminus:

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