April and Jeff Hike North America

This morning we made it the last few miles from camp to the top of the ridge and into the area referred to as Mt Laguna, a mix of state park and forest service lands that parallel the sunrise highway. Our packs were light, as we were low on food and had access to water all day at the various closed picnic grounds and campgrounds along the way, so we didn’t have to carry much at a time. We took a peek into the Burnt Rancheria campground, which was the first place we passed, but quickly retreated as we felt like intruding criminals. A little further on we found a picnic area with benches hidden from the road and got to enjoy sitting on one and eating our final foods in peace. It is nice that we have the trail practically to ourselves, but it’s unfortunate that all of these public areas are closed and we have to feel like we shouldn’t be in them. On this section many people hike 1/4 mile off trail into the little village of Mt Laguna and get resupply or at the least least some refreshment...

We wake with the sun each day, but took our time getting out of camp this morning. We usually like to walk a couple miles before eating anything, but we took advantage of the many sitting areas on smooth rocks at our campsites to eat our breakfast. Once we began hiking, we continued up. We were at the beginning of our first real climb to the pine forest of the Laguna Escarpment at around 6,000 feet. So far we’ve only been going up and down little rises around 3,000 feet of elevation. We had to slow our pace even further, taking many leisurely breaks along the way. We followed Kitchen Creek for the first few hours stopping to filter water and thoroughly enjoy a cooling soak at the edge of in one of its pools. We saw a few different groups of day hikers in this area going to a popular waterfall called Kitchen Creek Falls. All of the side trails are supposed to be closed, but the PCT remains open. It’s nice to see some people are still getting out. We missed the side trail to the falls. B...

We slept poorly. It will take a while to get used to sleeping in the tent again. We bought some nice new ThermaRest mattresses that weigh less than a pound with an R value of more than 6, which is really warm and really light! They come with a bag that looks like a large stuff sack, but it attaches to the air valve and you use it to fill the mattress by expanding it and quickly closing the air into in and then pushing it into the mattress. The bag must be filled at minimum 8 times and often more depending on how much air you manage to lock into each bag. It’s a little tedious inside the small space of our tent. We may get really sick of it, but they sure are comfortable mattresses! We were also reminded last night, as we were attempting to eat dinner inside, that our tent is incredibly small and is best reserved for sleeping only, in order to maintain our sanity. Many solo hikers use 2 person tents such as the one we have and many couples use 3 person tents for this reason, because the...

After a week of being cooped up in the house and watching the doom and gloom of the corona virus news (and doubting our decision to go through with hiking), we set out for the Southern Terminus of the Pacific Crest Trail. It was a Monday and our driver was my mom, so we left early to allow her to get back to work on time. We are only an hour away from the trailhead where we live in El Cajon. It was a lovely scenic drive with the rising sun on country roads that we have driven many times on the way to various other local hikes. We saw tons of border patrol trucks and even saw 3 young men being detained on the side of the road. That made a somewhat sad start to our day, as we couldn’t help but feel bad for them. There are normally 50 permitted through hikers starting at the border every day, and that doesn’t include the people doing shorter sections, such as just a week, or just San Diego County or just Southern California. I imagine the trailhead is normally a busy place, but the percen...