The Very Beginning.

First post! I have so much to share from the last month on trail, so stick with me… we’ll just start from the very beginning!

Flying into San Diego, I was so nervous to start. Seriously I had never been more scared in my life. Sleep deprived and anxious Aisulu and I boarded a plane, sharing the same look of oh my gosh. What are we doing?

The next 5 months of my life were going to be an unknown, and all that was running through this mind was, “Am I ready? Oh no. I see why everyone was so worried. ” Stuff like that, you know?

Aisulu started with me for the first week, which was SUCH a blessing. Cannot emphasize that enough. I was comforted that we were going to figure out this outdoorsy stuff together.

Thank you One Speed for the photos!

The night before we stayed at CLEEF campground which is right by the terminus. Not going to lie, setting up our tent that night in the dark was one of the most nerve wracking experiences of my life. It felt like, oh no. Did I put that stake in deep enough? how do we put the tent pole together. AISULU THE TENT IS SLOPING SLIGHTLY. It was like my last 2 brain cells were rubbing together to set up this tent. Terrible.

Not my pic, but CLEEF

After that lovely tent pitch, we met up with everyone at the campfire and 3 awesome trail hosts, Papa Bear, OneSpeed, and Just Paul gave some very sage advice. They told us most people get off the PCT because of overuse injuries, and boy did we learn that, but we’ll get to that later. 🫠 The next morning we ate a complimentary breakfast of bagels and muffins, weighed our packs, and set out for the terminus! AHHH

A smile fueled by nerves

PHYSICS at the Mexican Border

The rest of the day was awesome. They say the first day is the hardest because it’s the climb out of Hauser Canyon. We started out with 15 miles, which felt great to me, but unfortunately only for me. Aisulu was so funny, like oh my gosh definitely realized how long a mile is real quick that day. But that very first day, I felt like.. wow. “We’re really doing this!” We’d just turn towards each other and yell that, which made all the fear melt away.