Aaaand they're off!!

It would be an understatement to say "today was a long day." Better yet: Today was an awesome, amazing, unreal, surreal, and a beautifully long day.

It started in Portland at 5:00am, where friend and former PCT thru-hiker Connor DeVane graciously took us to the airport in the early AM.

Taking a flight to San Fransico, and then another to San Diego, we then took two buses and one long trolley ride to get to Campo, CA, arriving just after 5pm. 12 hours of traveling, whew!! We met two other thru-hikers on the last bus (Russ and Jared).

After stopping for some camping fuel at the local store, we hiked the mere 1.4 miles down to the Mexican border and Southern Terminus of the PCT where we met another thru-hiker named Isaac and he took this awesome shot of us: 

We then turned around and hiked 2.3 miles north, past Campo, to the trails intersection with highway 94, where my friend good friend Alanna's mother (Susan) picked us up and took us to their awesome house in the town of Boulevard (20 minutes East). 

The sun was setting over the hills and we witnessed the almost-full moon rising over more hills behind us. Complemented with beautiful scenery and awesome Yucca cactus flower, our 4-mile 1st hiking-day ended perfectly.

Yucca flower. 

Sunset over the hills

Back at Alanna's house we caught up and met her 4 day old baby (Lucille Susan). And "Grandma" Susan cooked us an awesome meal of chicken, biscuits, mashed potatoes, gravy, and an awesome salad. 

We are so lucky that they invited us into their home, as well as treated us to our last home-cooked meal for awhile! 

Tomorrow we wake up early and get dropped off on highway 94, carrying 6 liters of water each, starting day one of two of an 18 mile waterless stretch that lies ahead!

Thanks for reading, stay tuned!