PCT 2022: Campo to Mount Laguna

Here is the 1st installation of my 2022 northbound Pacific Crest Trail trail journal (a few weeks off the present timeline as a safety precaution, and because I haven’t had a chance to catch up with posting my journals until literally day 16).

And so begins my journey northbound through the desert. Canada bound!

For readers new to my blog, I post all my journal entries in groups from resupply town to resupply town, with the earliest date at the bottom of the page. So this post has days 0-4, with 4 at the top, day 0 being the drive down to the southern terminus, and day 4 being the first resupply day.

Follow my thruhike in section-by-section blog posts by subscribing to my blog, or in daily posts on Instagram or Facebook. Please attribute all spelling/grammar errors to autocorrect and exhaustion at the end of the day.

Day 4 Wednesday March 30: mile 32 to 41.5 + .5 to Mount Laguna, night in San Diego (10mi).

People woke up early, with Brujita already gone because she couldn’t sleep it was so cold.

“I had resorted to using my emergency space blanket to not freeze to death over night, but had still barely slept a wink and everything was covered in condensation”

Slowly Dying

I had resorted to using my emergency space blanket to not freeze to death over night, but had still barely slept a wink and everything was covered in condensation. The cold, wet ground had just sucked all of the heat from my body all night, even with my backpack under my legs. When I’d packed my gear, I was expecting chilly desert nights, but not cold, wet nights. I’d also forgotten how little insulation half of a well-used foam pad gives (probably R=1 or R=0.5 considering how flat it is). I wasn’t the only one who was cold, but was definitely the coldest.

On my garmin, I texted Shelley, my sister’s godmother and one of my mother’s closest, lifelong friends, and asked her if she could pick me up and bring me to an REI after I got into town later in the day. She lives in San Diego and she even said I could bring some other hikers that were in need of better shoes. Twinkle Toes, Natalie and a girl whose name I can’t remember all asked to get a ride with me, but the girl ended up not coming and Keeper took her place.

One of the people who had spent the night in the area was Condor, who was a apparently a fairly well known YouTuber. Natalie, Twinkle Toes, Mel and I were the last out of camp, and Mel and I took off ahead of the other two because our matching pace is considerably faster than theirs.

At some point I broke off, but we met back up at a stop in the first real area of conifer trees (coulter pines) we’d seen in trail. We saw our first snow of the trail, just a few patches left.

There were some amazing trees full of acorns from the acorn woodpeckers that store their food for the winter.

We walked through a campground into Mount Laguna (a town with a post office, general store and a cafe), throwing ourselves into the outdoor tables at the French tavern and cafe where a few other hikers were eating. We ate so much and so quickly, hanging out with all the other folks walking by. We were lucky to see the others from the night before, walking by with armfuls of food on their way back to trail.

Shelley picked us up, stuffed full of food, and brought us to REI for the shoes the others needed and for the warmer gear I needed. She also said that we could spend the night at her place and do laundry and take showers! Amazing woman, thank you so much!

I talked to a PCT expat, Marmalade, who was working there, and we decided layering my squished half pad with a full sized new foam pad would be a lot better than spending a billion dollars on a blow up. And I added a real buff (not sure how I managed to bring the wimpiest buff ever on trail) and a mid layer that was really a merino wool base layer that I was going to layer on top of my current base layer.

We then went to Shelley’s mother’s house to start our laundry, shower and prepping for tomorrow. They all got to meet Johanna and her three pups, as well as Kevin, Shelley’s son, over a Thai food dinner.

We paired up for bed, sharing a pullout and a Queen, but before we passed out completely exhausted, we chatted and learned a lot about each other while stretching. It’s amazing how open and caring trail people are. No topic is too soon to talk about. The three of them are very physically affectionate, their love language being Physical Touch, so it was very interesting to be around people who are always hugging me and throwing an arm around my shoulders.

Day 3: Tuesday March 29. Mile 20.0 to 32.0 Fred Canyon tent site (12mi).

The early risers woke me up at 5am, making a racket while eating pancakes in the other room. I tried to sleep for another hour but Noodles eventually left the room and the rest of us followed. I got on the list for a giant pancake and enjoyed it, some fruit and a few coffees from a shared cup with everyone in the common room.

After making a donation and packing up, I got on the later ride back to trail with Andy. Everyone else except Taser (Laura’s new name since we discovered that she carries a taser for safety on trail) was waiting for us at the gazebo, having a few breakfast brews (do not ask me why haha) in the campground, so we got moving in the drizzly morning.

Mel looked like a turtle with her poncho on, and the two of us walked ahead, speeding up the mountain and having a good conversation about all manner of things, including plants.

Everything was so wet and green and different in the cloudy morning than it had been in the sunny heat of yesterday.

We met back up with everyone for lunch and again to get water.

The side trail to water was so steep and not fun at all since my knee had started angrily having sharp pains with every step, especially on the downhill. Brujita, the resident massage therapist of the group, took a look and we decided that maybe taking my fanny pack off my hip belt, shortening my strides and massaging my knee would help. It really did help a lot, especially after some Motrin.

There were some really impressive rocky outcroppings, one of which looked like Pride Rock. Unfortunately, when Andy climbed up to it, we saw it was pretty loose and we had him get down asap.

We bumped into a few other groups and actually joined together for awhile and most of us stopped at the Fred Canyon tent sites for the night, around 3pm. We all set up and sat for 5 or 6 hours, talking, eating and laughing, inviting incoming hikers to join us, for a total of over 12 tents in the surrounding area.

The soil in the air was very sandy and damp, making it the best medium for a perfect cathole to bury my poop.

Twinkle Toes and Natalie rolled in later on and the two of them, Mel, Andy and I got to know each other while everyone else went to sleep. The icebreaker questions were: Where you’re from and early background, Favorite color, Strangest place you’ve had sex, Thruhiking experience. It’s about 35*F as I write this, and my legs are freezing on the cold wet ground through my ground sheet. Tonight might be really rough.

Day 2: Monday March 28. Mile 11.4 to 20.0 Lake Morena (9.6mi)

I woke up at 6:45am to the sounds of everyone else packing up. I got all of my things together and poked my head out to see that Sarah had already headed out and Andy was packing. I stretched while Andy started his hike.

The morning was just below 40*F with clouds causing the sunlight to hit the surrounding hills beautifully.

I caught up with him after passing a few other hikers and we walked together for a little bit until an uphill had me speeding up and him slowing down. I caught up to Brujita at the top of the hill, but passed her since I was on a roll and only 2.5 from Lake Morena where there is a campground and the Oak Shores Malt Shop, which is a convenience store and diner.

I pulled into the shop around 10:30, grabbed bacon, eggs, toast, hash browns and coffee, and sat down with Eulke. Andy and Sarah trickled in, along with Noodle (he hit his head a lot on a bunkbed on the AT, and on the 5th time someone asked him if he hit his noodle again) and Laura. We enjoyed lunch and all decided to stay the night in the campground since it was supposed to rain from 3pm until the next day and it was already chilly.

We then had an exciting time filling up water bottles with the machine outside that charges 35¢ for a gallon. We were throwing around empty bottles and shuttling full ones back and forth. It was a lot of fun.

A guy named ReRun pulled up with a truck labeled Pacific Crest Trail and offered a ride to a hostel near the terminus (only about a 15 minute drive away) where we could be warm and dry for only a small donation. A gal named Mel joined us for the ride.

We arrived and were sat down in the common area by The Legend and told some background on the hostel, which had literally opened the day before and was on school district property (so no smoking or alcohol allowed!). We were given some chores to do, right as the rain started, including loading all the trash that was outside into the truck to bring to the dump and helping prep dinner.

We chatted for hours as 50 or so other hikers were driven in out of the rain. Around 5pm a few short 5 minutes presentations started, that were just people sharing some information about trail life that they were self-proclaimed experts in. A physical therapist, Morgan, who had done the PCT last year and was back on trail, gave some advice for knees and shins. She was back this year with her mobile van clinic and her adorable therapy dog, Honey, to help give hikers advice and wraps (for free or cheap) for injuries to help keep people on trail longer. I spoke up about plants (specifically poison oak identification) and mentioned that I could also talk about ultralight or leave no trace with anyone who was interested. Twinkle Toes came up to me afterwards and asked to see my lighterpack and asked a few questions about the UL lifestyle.

For most of the evening, our group of 6 (Mel, Noodle, Brujita, Andy, Laura and I) were holed up in the little office we’d been assigned for the night, chatting and having a good time. Dinner was a giant pot of spaghetti (made by Chef Mel) and salad that we all inhaled, and a lady whose name escapes me asked me some polite chit chat questions.

We all crowded back into the little office, the 6 of us throwing down sleeping pads and bags with our feet overlapping and fell asleep early.

Day 1: Sunday March 27. Mexican Border, mile 0 to 11.4 (11.4mi).

Faith, Abbi and I grabbed a traditional diner breakfast before heading to the southern terminus. I had butterflies fluttering in my belly the whole drive. We arrived in Campo around 10:30 and got pics with the monument.

Tony, the PCTA host, had a table out and was giving Leave No Trace advice, PCT stickers, black Ziploc bags for dirty toilet paper, and plastic PCT crests with zip ties for our packs. She told us that the start date on the permit doesn’t actually matter, you can start whenever (what is the point then, PCTA??). Phantom was a friendly older dude at the terminus just walking his dog who told us that there were never 50 people starting on any given date, and there were a few other folks with their packs on getting ready to head north.

I made my goodbyes to Faith and Abbi, and gave David a call to tell him I was finally getting back to it. He surprised me by handing the phone to my little sister Kaitlyn and her boyfriend, who on a whim had decided to get a tour of Miami and had called him up.

The red slatted border wall (fence?) fell away behind me as I started skipping through the chaparral, at last beginning what could only be the longest, most expensive way to get to Canada.

At the second water crossing (the first drinkable water), I met a Dutch guy from the Netherlands, called Eulke, and a group of ladies who were doing a 10 day trip, with cute trail names like Sparkles and Trail Bliss. There was also a guy and gal who were hiking together from the border, Mel and Sarah.

As I was attempting to filter water for the next 16 mile carry, I discovered that my Sawyer filter wasn’t working. No water was coming out. I tried squeezing for awhile and back flushing and sucking but only succeeded in getting a few drops through. I’d heard about this happening with Sawyers after they had been sitting around for awhile, and was hoping thta just letting some water soak through would eventually help it work properly, but since I wasn’t sure if it would actually end up working, I messaged Andrea, my trail angel fairy godmother, asking her to send a new Sawyer when she sent my fanny pack to me that had arrived just after I headed south. Thankfully I had brought some bleach and used 4 drops to purify the 2L.

I decided to move on once I had water and eat lunch in the shade somewhere a little less crowded.

Mel, Sarah and I walked together for a little bit and passed each other a few times before I decided to camp at mile 11.4. Since it’s the first week on trail, I’m going to take it pretty easy so that I don’t hurt myself; my current plan is 7-12 mi/day.

Sarah joined me at camp and after we set up our tents (it took me three tries because I had never set up my new Hexamid before and the second time I was too close to a bush) we chatted and started making dinner.

She pulled out tarot cards that her sister bought for her to learn to read on trail, and read mine. I got the 6 of cups for past, 10 of cups for present and queen of cups for future. From what we could tell, they were all good things! I called her a witch, then she said Bruja, and I said we should call her Brujita (“little witch” in Spanish), and so her trail name was born.

We were sharing an area with a couple, but they didn’t make an effort to come over and neither did we. Andy, with the tentative trail name of Chunky (given to him by a rude older man who was commenting on his weight), arrived and I helped squeeze his tent in next to mine.

They both seem like good folks and we talked and laughed for another hour. Once the sun went down and it got chilly, we went our separate ways.

Day 0: Saturday March 28

My mom and I woke up early and hopped in the car to meet my friend Abbi and her riding partner Faith on I5 in Los Banos to drive me the rest of the way to Mexico. Their plan was to get the lay of the land so that when they bring their 5 horses down next week to start the trail, they’ll be ready.

Faith’s riding name is Twelve and that has to do with how she is “actually 12 year old boy” (which is hilarious because she’s literally a 70+ year old woman). Abbi doesn’t have one yet, but her mom wants to call her kidNAP because she’s the youngest in their team by 30+ years, and NAP because she’s Not a Princess; Abbi hates it.

Faith wouldn’t let us drive, so we just chatted and I worked on my blog posts. We decided to stay in a motel in a town near Campo and grabbed dinner and pie at a local restaurant (one of the only open past 6pm).

What’s Next?

Check back in in a few days for the next section’s trail journal entries!