Month: April 2019

Day -1: at Scout and Frodos

People4 Comments

Today and yesterday we have been staying at the house of some trail angels with the trail names of Scout and Frodo. These people, and several volunteers, have helped us and 1300 other PCT wanabees (this season) by pickups, lodging, advice, meals, packing facilities, and finally (for us 6am tomorrow) a one hour ride out of San Diego to the start of the hike near Campo.

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Each night there have been about 30 hikers here. Most sleep outside in big marquees on the lawn but we were fortunate to be allocated to a guest bedroom. I think we are the only married couple here at the moment. It seems that the country with the highest representation is Germany. Also there are French, Swedish, NZ, Canadian, US, Brazilian, UK, Austrian and would you believe, a guy from Nerang.

We are pretty pleased with our final packs. Our base weights are 7.6kg and 5kg, and when we add our food and 2.6 litres of water, we have 13kg and 12.5kg. I think (hope) we will lose a bit as we get into the rhythm of the hike.

Day -3: San Diego, California Republic, United States of America

Path3 Comments

Yes, we have arrived, after a straightforward but long 28 hours of traveling door (home) to door (airbnb San Diego). The flight over was only 12.5 hours, but then we had a 2.5 hour wait to get through immigration. The queue was huge and had more zigzags than something that has a lot of zigzags. But the outcome was permission to stay for up to 6 months, so we have no excuse now.

We got the train down to San Diego, with an extra one hour delay while we waited for a “trespassing incident” to be cleared. We have been staying in a nice airbnb apartment near the centre of the city and taking our time to do things like getting a Sim card and other gear.

So we having been doing plenty of walking before the real walk (=training?), visiting supermarkets where you can buy empty gelatin capsules to make your own medicines if you can’t find a ready made one to suit.

I have put a few San Diego photos on the Photos page.

Do the math!

Ponderings

Some numbers to start the US travel story:

1 1/2 = hours of sleep in the first 1 1/2 days of travel

2 1/2 = hours spent waiting in line at San Diego Airport to pass through immigration

3 1/2 = hours taken to cut my hair at the school of hairdressing

On the plus side of the equation:

We have adjusted quite quickly to local US time (17 hours behind Australian EST)

The poor harassed border security officer granted the requested 6 month visa with no questions asked

I saved $80 (US) by having a novice hair dressing apprentice cut my hair

Some more maths for you:

We now measure distance in miles 1km = 5/8 of a mile. We will be hiking about 2655 miles which sounds a lot less than over 4200km.

We now weigh ourselves and our gear in pounds instead of kg. My starting wt is 51.7kg and Rob is 82kg. In pounds we are 114lb and 180lb. (1kg = 2.205lb)

We are eating and burning calories instead of kJs (1kJ = 0.239 calories)

The best one though is the temperature which is about 40 minimum and 90 maximum in the desert (1deg C x 9/5) + 32 = 33. 8deg F)