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  • Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail
    • Pacific Crest Trail 2018 >
      • PCT Gear List
    • Arriving in Canada
    • Pacific Crest Trail 2019
  • Who We Are
  • Get In Touch
a journey of 2,652 miles

THE PACIFIC CREST TRAIL 2018

starts with a single step.

Hello San Diego!

4/5/2018

1 Comment

 
English:
​We left Switzerland last Tuesday and arrived in Los Angeles on the same evening. We were lucky to stay at Maya's awesome uncle Kuki‘s house in the city for the first night. We were quite exhausted from the trip (Zurich-Istanbul-LA) and jetlagged and were asleep by 9pm. The next day he kindly drove us to the rather miniature train station in „Van Nuys". From there we took the Amtrak train to San Diego.
San Diego looks like a great place! We have booked a lovely hotel and enjoyed a delicious dinner (thanks L&S!!!), however, we did not see much of the city, as we were already picked up on Thursday morning to spend the last two days at Scout and Frodo‘s, two so-called "trail angels" who had hiked the trail before and are hosting aspiring PCT thruhikers every year. 1100 this year. For free. They don‘t accept donations for the free rides, meals and beds and just ask for a donation to the PCTA (Pacific Crest Trail Association). They are incredibly generous people. In fact, the generosity we‘ve experienced here so far has rendered us quite speechless. We really couldn‘t have asked for a better place to stay to prepare for such an adventure!
At the moment 33 hikers live here with us. About 25 of them live in 5 large tents, which were set up in the garden especially for this purpose.
Maya and I had the luck that we were divided into one of the 3 rooms and so we (ok only me) were spared a synphony in 25 snore acts.
The atmosphere here is really cool! For the first time we are not considered absolute lunatics for taking on this trail, but find ourselves as part of this amazing hiking community. It feels really good. :)
Today we got some last small purchases like trail mix etc. and shipped a large resupply box ahead on the trail. The bags are packed, we are ready. Tomorrow is the big day, the start of this great journey we’ve dreamed about for so long. After a one hour ride we will be standing in front of the Southern Terminus of the PCT and the adventure can begin!
​
Deutsch:
​Seit letztem Dienstag sind wir nun unterwegs. Zuerst übernachteten wir bei Mayas Grossonkel Kuki. Dieser fuhr uns netterweise dann am Mittwoch Morgen an den doch eher überschaubaren Bahnhof "Van Nuys" . Von hier fuhren wir dann mit dem Amtrac Zug nach San Diego.
Sehr viel von der Stadt haben wir nicht gesehen, da wir bereits am Donnerstag Morgen abgeholt wurden um bei Scout & Frodo, zwei der sogennanten "Trail Angels", die letzten beiden Tage bis zum Start zu verbringen.
"Frodo" (Trailname), die mit bürgerlichem Namen Sandy heisst, erzählte uns dann, dass dieses Jahr geschlagene 1'100 Hikers innerhalb von 7.5 Woche bei ihnen gratis und franko eine Unterkunft inkl. 3 Mahlzeiten bekommen! Echt krass, so eine Grosszügigkeit gibt's wohl nur hier in den USA.
Momentan hausen hier mit uns zusammen 33 Hikers. Etwa 25 davon wohnen in 5 grossen Zelten, welche extra dafür im Garten aufgestellt wurden.
Maya und ich hatten das Glück, dass wir in eines der 3 Zimmer eingeteilt wurden und uns (ok nur mir) somit eine Synphone in 25 Schnarchakten erspart blieb.
Die Atmosphäre hier ist echt cool! Jemand meinte, hier wirst du erstmals nicht als Spinner angeschaut - ausser du nimmst zu viel Gepäck mit :)
Heute besorgen wir noch die letzten kleineren Einkäufe, wie Trail Mix (aka Studentenfutter), Schnur usw. bevor es dann morgen um 05:30 AM per Autofahrt zum Start endlich, endlich losgeht. Nach einer guten Stunde sollten wir dann vor dem Southern Terminus stehen und das Abenteuer beginnt!!
1 Comment
Christian
5/5/2018 12:23:22 am

Keep this lovely angel-place and the great feelings you were in by then well in your mind when sneaking-up the trail, sweating in the bare sunshine and cursing about every gram of weight of your backpack. I wish you a great take-off and a lot of awesome experiences as well as plenty of staying-power for this very first section of the trail.

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