Border to Julian: Days 1-4

It’s official! I’m on the Pacific Crest Trail and, as of 3/25/25, I have begun my journey to Canada. These first few days have been a wild mix of emotions: pain, sorrow, defeat, and, most overwhelmingly, joy.

First off, the good. In the past 3 days my plan outlined in the previous post seems to be doable and well thought out. Trail Angels and experienced hikers have assuaged my fears that an early Sierras crossing is not only doable, but fairly normal. That doesn’t mean it’s as good as done, but it does mean that it’s possible and that is all I need. The other good news is that my gear, hiking style, and mileage seems to be dialed in. I‘m avoiding injuries while averaging around 25 miles a day, and while I am a bit sore as of writing this, I could keep up that pace for the foreseeable future if needed. It also cannot be overstated how gorgeous this experience has been for me. I am so thankful every day to be able to do what I’m doing and hope that the radiant joy I am feeling does not go away, except briefly from 2pm-5pm when everything feels too difficult and myself, too weak.

Now, the bad. This is so tough. I knew it was going to be hard but it’s been brutal at parts. Starting early has given me milder temperatures but on the one day that the high came up to 85, I was struggling. I’ll need to keep this in mind as I approach the true desert sections coming up. Additionally, being away from home, especially being away from my partner has been a very difficult adjustment. It is much harder than I expected to maintain relationships while on trail. Hopefully I will get better at it moving forward, but part of me feels like successfully navigating this difficulty will entail making peace with what is possible and putting trust in those I love to be understanding.

Finally, as a quick recap, here is how I’ve spent the start of my trail. On Monday I took the train down to San Diego and stayed with a friend of a friend, Patrick and his partner Claire. They were such phenomenal hosts and I felt beyond grateful that they were so willing to take me in. Wonderful people in every sense of the word and I hope I get to see them again at some point. The next morning, they took me to the Southern Terminus and I was off.

The first day was punishing and had me questioning if I was really cut out for this. Thankfully, I met a hiker, Papa Chef, early on and he gave me such much needed advice on water management and motivation to keep going. I bid him farewell and hiked on, before meeting another hiker, AO, just before Howzer Creek. After drinking some water at the creek, I began my ascent up a brutal ridge, pausing halfway through, unsure if I was pushing myself too hard. While taking a break, I saw the hikers Jolly Rancher and Barbara, who said they were planning on grabbing food at Lake Morena. The prospect of a warm meal, even though I was not even a day out of town, gave me the strength needed to push on and reach Lake Morena before nightfall. After arriving, I grabbed food and headed back to the campground where I set up camp and attempted to sleep. I didn’t get much shut eye as a border patrol helicopter kept flying overhead well into the wee hours of the morning.

The next morning, I packed up camp and headed off to Mt. Laguna, about 20 miles away. After hiking solo for most of the day I ran into a couple hikers including a Triple Crown hopeful named Forgetful. Forgetful and I had started on the same day and both were planning on making it to around Mt. Laguna that night. After bidding him farewell, he was skipping town to camp slightly outside, I arrived at Mt. Laguna where I grabbed a delicious California Burrito and called my partner. After talking on the phone for a while, God I really missed their voice, I headed back on trail to find a spot to camp.

The next morning I began trudging up to a ridge line and was greeted with the most amazing view of the trip so far. Sunlight streamed over a vast and desolate desert landscape, illuminating both the Salton Sea and Mt. San Jacincto. The wind was intense, a sign of the day to come, and so I started heading down the ridge where I met up with Forgetful and a few other hikers. Funnily enough, one hiker, Lucky, went to the same university as me at the same time (go salukis!) . I decided to hike with them for a while, and at our first water stop we met up with another hiker, Eddy, from Switzerland.

We did some serious hiking in the first half of the day and crushed miles to our lunch break spot, where I got more water and popped my first blister (apparently you generally shouldn’t pop them, but I was able to paint it with iodine and cover with leukotape so I think it’ll be fine)! After lunch, I decided to head out to catch some more miles and was pleasantly surprised to find Eddy and Forgetful hot on my tail. We grabbed water and hiked the rest of the day until I conked out.

In the morning, I booked it to scissors crossing to grab some breakfast from a trail angel before catching a hitch into Julian. My plan is to take it easy today and do some chores before heading back to Stagecoach RV for camping. So far this has been an incredibly wonderful experience and I am so excited to begin the next leg of my journey!