day one!

Well, today was the first official day on the Pacific Crest Trail for The Dusty Camel. A smooth 5-mile jaunt in the desert to start it off, and then a beautiful, open camp site.

Dave and Andy stayed with some old friends last night, while I stayed with my girlfriend's dad, Jim, and step mom, Karen. In the morning, we woke up, had a hearty breakfast and met up with Andy and Dave. The ride down to Campo was smooth sailing and actually fairly quick. We made a pit stop on the road to have some Mexican "inspired" food; I think it may have been Santana's restaurant. It was good, and had a couple margaritas to ease the nerves.

We were all very solemn and our stomachs had butterflies. As we got closer to Campo, we decided to stop off and start searching for fuel for our stove...AND NOBODY KNEW WHAT ISOBUTANE IS. People insisted butane was the same (for lighters), and Coleman propane works for all camp stoves. Poor Jim and Karen had to drive us every which way in search of fuel, to no avail. So, we accepted the fact that for the next few days would only be eating cold to lukewarm food. We stocked up on last minute food we needed and headed to the starting line.

Border Patrol was EVERYWHERE. Rightfully so, since we were literally ON the border wall. The excitement finally hit, the nerves left, and our trail life started once again. Jim and Karen snapped some photos and said thank you (HA!) and goodbye. The trail was dusty (pun intended) and smooth, and the scenery unlike anything any of us had hiked in before. We were so very, very, very happy. We only hiked a few miles out so we could get off the wall, and found a nice running brook and a flat spot to camp. We actually met a friend of a friend's on the trail already! Small world, eh? Tonight we are sharing a campsite with an English couple who intends to hike most of the trail.

We are happy to be out here. While we have left way more back at home this time around and were sad to leave, we are happy to once more embark upon epic adventure.

--Ian