Mile 15.4

Day 1 summary
+ High: walked 15 miles the very first day. Good job me!
- Low: last mile or so my feet were killing me
• Best gear of the day: my zpack 5F degree sleeping bag
• Worst gear of the day: cooking pot

It was fresh in the morning. Everyone woke up at 4:46 to 5 o’clock to pack our packs. I think I still had jetlag, plus I went to bed at 9pm, 5 o’clock is doable. By 5:30, everyone had their packs at the front porch and ready for breakfast. It was like the last proper meal before this unknown adventure. I had egg sth plus melons and muffins and orange. I was not hungry. Maybe I was nervous; maybe it’s just too early. Greywolf greeted me with his calm voice “Your pack looks well put-together. And it’s pretty small.” “Yeah..., but it weights 39 pounds...” I like Greywolf. He sends out a peaceful and confident vibe that calms me down.

6 o’clock sharp, we headed out to the southern terminal. It took us about 70 mins to get there. The person who drove me and 3 other people was Halfmile, the legend of the trail. Everyone has printed out his trail maps, everyone. He section hiked the PCT and used his own satellite data to put together the maps that we are using, incredibly accurate. He didn’t say much, but he sends out the same vibe as greywolf.

Finally we got to the southern terminal. It was really foggy, almost can not see anything. I’m not sure if I was excited or afraid. It seemed that all those days of map studying were useless. I felt lost at mile 0.

I decided to follow people. That was very smart of me. There were 20ish people heading out on the same day. While everyone was still taking all kind of pictures with the monument, I started to head out with Michael and a surgeon-to-be. Sorry I forgot his name, let’s call him X.

Michael had a lot of hiking experience and X was very eager to start the adventure. X walked so fast that we lost the sight of him at mile 5. Michael and I passed each other several times on the trail. But most of the time, I walked by myself.

The first day ended at mile 15, Hauser creek. It was all the way up up up from 2300 ft from sea level to 3400 ft and then drop down back to 2300. In the last mile that 500 ft drop killed my feet. I walk almost an hour for that mile. Finally got to the Hauser Creek campground, I was exhausted already.

I rejoined several people I met at Scout and Frodo’s, Meg from Britain, Michelle from Canada, Kinga and her BF from Poland, and Y from Germany. (I forgot his name...) It’s a very young crowd, mid 20s.

I cooked my first meal, dehydrated curry. It was really not that good and I burned my pot on the very first day. After dinner about 6:30, it was chilly and I put my sleeping bag over myself and was thinking lying down for a little bit but I never woke up till 5am in the morning.