Thanks to the PCT room on Whiteblaze!
I just want to say thanks to everyone who had kind words and good advice for me here.
I'm leaving for San Diego tomorrow morning and starting out in Campo the next day.
Good luck and have a great time! The PCT is an incredible trail. Don't let the desert get you down, the Sierras are just behind, waiting!Originally Posted by Guy
Anything's within walking distance if you've got the time.
GA-ME 03, LT 04/06, PCT 07'
good luck and maybe I'll see you out there
have a fantastic trip.. it is a great trail !
I'm in the same boat. My bus ride starts at midnight tonight. Then wednesday I start hiking.
I also want to thank plenty of people here who helped out and also fast. I am going into yosemite valley and out the grand canyon of TM. JMT thru as well. Thanks again.
peace.......
Don't let the desert haters get you down, either. Southern California is incredibly beautiful.
Some knew me as Piper, others as just Diane.
I hiked the PCT: Mexico to Mt. Shasta, 2008. Santa Barbara to Canada, 2009.
I love the desert. Good luck!
Good luck everyone hope to see you at the KO this weekend.
If you never try you've already failed ~ Me?? Somebody else??
Thanks again to all the hikers on WB that helped me out when I was planning this hike! I finished it 2 days ago, and am now sitting comfortably in a coffee shop in Vancouver, sipping a latte in cotton clothes.
It's a trip that I'll never forget. Especially the 14 straight days of rain in WA!
Congratulations! The PCT was my first hike and I remember being exactly where you are now.
"Throw a loaf of bread and a pound of tea in an old sack and jump over the back fence." John Muir on expedition planning
Yay! Congrats!
Congrats! Keep an online journal by chance?
"Fish Camp Woman.... Baby, I like the way you smell"
- Unknown Hinson
Guy, thanks for sharing your hike by punctuating it with your final notes of appreciation and completion! Thanks for coming back to post the finish of your hike! I would like to see more of this type of successful follow-up by thru-hikers.
FEELS GOOD, DOESN'T IT? How are you now different/better?
Check out the Amsterdam Cafe in Vanny! Fresh squeezed mango juice and ???
Yep!
http://www.postholer.com/swope
I've been looking forward to posting that for about 5 months! It's one of the things that would pop into my head periodically during the hike.
Oh yes! It feels great. A huge feeling of accomplishment and relief mixed with a dash of sadness and loss. I imagine it's similar for anyone who's ever completed what seemed like an impossibly huge project that they were emotionally invested in.
Beyond the obvious stuff like stronger legs and skinnier, I think the most significant change would have to be a new sense of patience and a renewed faith that people are primarily good and want to be percieved as such.
I'll be looking into that cafe!
Thanks Jester! It was cool meeting you at Scissors Crossing when you and Squatch dropped by the water cache.
Hey that was quite a piece of trail demoning when you dropped Bugs off at the wrong trailhead (by accident of course) and he ended up on top of Mt. Baldy!!
The giddy heady feeling of completing a thru-hike brings me back to how I felt when I lost my virginity, oh so many yrs ago! - Couldn't keep the grin off my face! It's the feeling, the knowing that you will never ever be the same again, that somehow you are now more self-aware/awakened!
Hey Swope! Congratulations! I signed your guestbook, too.
Isn't the end of the trail at the road in Manning Park like the Biggest Letdown Ever? I mean, there's nothing there, not even a trailhead sign. I was hoping to see a bunch of people cheering my finish or at least a note left for me tacked to a sign, but no, there was nothing there at all.
Some knew me as Piper, others as just Diane.
I hiked the PCT: Mexico to Mt. Shasta, 2008. Santa Barbara to Canada, 2009.
Oh they've added a sign! It says, "Monument 78 Trail closed due to flooding."
I'm not sure if I'd describe it as letdown (I was mentally prepared for no fanfare) but it sure lonely. I was on my own, it was night and quite dark and cold.
OK, yeah a little bit of letdown... I have to admit I was really wishing that Farmboy whom I hiked with for most of Washington was there too hut he had to go back to Harts Pass.
The strangest part is being in a major metropolis where people don't make eye contact as you pass on the street. I feel like I should be greeting everone I pass, like we do on the trail. I liked that, and miss it already.
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