PCT 101 – Definitions
Trail Angel – Person or Persons that provide resources to PCT hikers
Trail Magic – The resources provided by trail angels (such as cold water, rides, food, etc.)
Trail Name – A name a PCT hiker adopts as their new name for their through hike.
Hiker Trash – What PCT hikers are called, by themselves or by others. An example, ”Carlotta, come over here next to momma, and stay away from that Hiker Trash. You’re liable to catch sumthin.”
Day 2, we hit the trail at 8am, heading to the much anticipated Malt Shoppe at Lake Morena. Eight miles to hike. Down 1 thousand feet, and up 1 thousand feet. Hot today, with lots of signs reminding us of rattlesnakes. We came to our first trail magic, 4 large bottles of water, but all empty. We had plenty of water, luckily.
Made it to Morena Malt shoppe by lunch. Had a good meal and loaded up on water for our next 5 miles, a hot , exposed 5 miles.
Three hrs of desert hiking brought us to Bolder Oaks Campground, our destination. We met our first large group of hiker trash, all great people, and all really young. We were welcomed in for lots of meet and greet time. Everyone seemed interested to hear your story.
That evening a trail angel, trail name Shepherd, shared the absolute best trail magic,a generator for us to all charge our devises.
Day 3, out of camp and hiking at 6:40, to avoid the heat. Our goal was Mount Laguna for the night, roughly 17 miles. Great cool winds all day, more beautiful views. A lot of elevation today. We would be climbing from 3400ish ft to a bit over 6000 by days end.
This section has us walking through an unexploded ordinance range, one of those spots all PCT hikers know about, and want a photo of the signage.
All day long we snack, from early morning until we stop for the day. A hikers choice of snacks is very individualized, and is pretty numerous. Cliff favors honey mustard flavored pretzels and cheez-itz crackers. Im into peanut butter anything and these little guys, candy sugary orange wedges.
There must be enough junk food on the trail to stock a small convenience store.
We made it to Mount Laguna Lodge for our night indoors. Its not all sitting back watching pay per-view and ordering pizza. None of that. Tonight we charged devices, restocked for the next 4 days of travel, and hand washed laundry. Oh, and bathed. We waited too long for dinner, everything closed, so we had to cook camp food at the motel.
Song of the post: Here Comes The Sun by The Beatles
Love it, and jealous!