Day 1, Mile 1-20 Lk Morena.

4/10/18

The oh s*** what have I gotten myself into moment

I touched the border wall panel #0, while the border patrol watched from a hilltop haha!

Well, 85 degree SoCal desert heat is apparently different than 85 degree Yakima heat. I’ve been wondering what my walking pace and water consumption would be. This section has limited water so I chugged a little before heading out plus taking 4liters and a 20oz bottle. With this, 5days food and gear I’m close to 33ish lbs. My base weight is 14lbs(base weight is everything but food and water).

The day started at 9:30am and was relatively uneventful, the “herd” (the main flow of hikers for the day) had left earlier. Soon I was passing my new classmates resting from the mid-day sun. I pressed onward not really feeling the heat affect me, maybe it was still the adrenaline of getting this underway.
I passed a girl from Germany, her first time in the US. She mentioned seeing a rattle snake early but I hadn’t yet. No more than 100 yard later my PCT snake initiation happened. It was laying on a granite slab, perfectly camouflaged. Fortunately it saw me coming otherwise I would have either stepped on it or straddled it, a definite near miss that could have put me off trail within hours of starting!

This ended up being a 20mile day coming into Lake Morena Campground at 8:30pm. There were probably 20 hikers set-up in a designated PCT hikers area. I decided to cowboy camp on a picnic table rather than set up my tent, clear sky’s no wind, perfect. Or so I thought, worst night sleep I can recall. Wild turkeys squaking, neighborhood dogs barking and maybe the dogs owners yelling obscenities to 2am. Well since I was up I might as well go freshen up with a quick sponge bath as I had no quarters for the shower. What a day!