It Begins

"And so what we've already started now begins." This was our journal entery into the regester notebok at the southern monument of the Pacific Crest Trail. Monday April 28, 2008 was our start date. After taking a bus from San Diego we found ourselves in Campo, CA along with another hiker, Ben. Momentarily after stepping off the bus we were greeted by a honk and swerve of a minivan. It was a couple of Trail Angels who live further north. They introduced themselves with a hug and told us to hop in and they would give us a ride the mile back to the border fence. They were full of energy and delighted in mooning the border patrol driving by,yes mooning. New this year is a barb wire fence keeping you about 20 ft from the main border wall. We took some pictures and began walking north just before noon. It's hard to know what to think when taking the first steps of a 4 month journey. Mostly I was thinking about how much water I would need and what I may have forgten to pa!
ck. It was a hot day, as so many people had commented. We began our dessert trek with 7 liters of water each, needing to travel over 19 miles to next reliable water source. We hiked until sundown with many breaks for the feet to rest. As we were beading down for the night we had a group of 8 immigrants cautiously watch us. I was startled by ther presence but yelled,"It's okay" and they pased by. 20 min later in darkness I would spot the first of another pack of immigrants and yell, "Hola!" which sent an imediate stampede in the other direction. In al we would have 37 immigrants pass us on the trail in 4 different groups. Only one was a female. We bundled up in the chill of the night for much needed sleep.
miles today: 13.7
Camp 1: Immigrants

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