Coronado Bay Resort: 05:00 hours – The alarm sounded off. Brother Eric, who apparently never sleeps, was already up and about. Phantom and I got a slow start getting packed up to leave the resort.
05:30 – We left the four star resort behind for the desert and the Mexican border. We arrived at the southern terminus of the PCT around 7:00 a.m., spent 25 minutes snapping pictures and gawking across the fence into Mexico. Eric soon returned to his rented Infiniti and it was time for us to begin the journey north.
The morning was crisp and mostly cloudy, and amazingly enough it was 43˚ when we left the border. So who says it never rains in the desert? We had a few intermittent sprinkles the first hour or two before the sun finally broke through and began its domination of the day. The trail provided easy hiking, and we knocked off 9 miles before an early lunch. I was shocked by the vast array of vegetation, by the lushness, by the beautiful wildflowers along the trail, by the amount of water flowing in creeks, and by the beautiful songbirds who kept us company throughout the hike. By mid afternoon we had hiked 15 miles, and my feet were beginning to get sore and the legs were beginning to tire. We slowly pushed up a 1,000 foot canyon after bottoming out at Hauser Creek from the other canyon wall.
4:30 p.m. – We arrived at Morena County Park, 20.2 miles into the day. Seattle Mike, who we met this morning at the border and who was kind enough to share a celebratory liqueur with us earlier this morning, suggested we visit the small store ½ mile from the park to check out the burgers. Well, we need calories, and the opportunity presented itself, soooo…we ordered big burgers and sodas. Yippee! It’s already starting again. The food cravings only took a 20-mile day to get started, and we kicked it off in grand style.
Tonight we’re camping in the county park along with lots of families who keep rolling in for the weekend. Dogs are barking, music is playing, and kids are running around. It’s certainly not the wilderness experience (actually, I just took a Tylenol PM to help me drown out the noisy distractions). Our designated hiker site includes new trail buddies including Mike from Seattle, Debit Roger from Portland, OR, John from California, B.S. and Jessica from New Mexico (but originally from Asheville, NC) and Phantom and me. Looks like we’ll lose this crowd tomorrow as they all plan to do only 12 miles and we will push on from 18 to 22 miles if our bodies hold up. It’s great to be back on the trail…the adventure has just begun!
Today’s weather: Low 42, High 64, partly cloudy to mostly sunny. Cumulative mileage: 20.6