The first few days on the trail have been so full. It started with the flight to San Diego, which was filled with thoughts of “what am I doing?” But when I got to the airport and was picked up by Trail angels (people who help hikers out of the goodness of their hearts), and taken to their home, I met the other hikers. There were about 40 of us staying the night there and 26 of us set out on the trail the next day. It was really cool to finally get going, especially to get to know other people crazy enough to try this thing. There are a lot of international hikers and the group I started out with included people from Germany, Israel, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria, and Canada. The first night, I knocked over my cookpot with my ramen onto the ground, and solidified my hikertrash status by eating it anyway, dirt and all.

The terrain in the desert has been more variable than I’d expected, from pine forests to chilly mountaintops to the standard, how can anything live in this god awful heat, desert.

I’m definitely seeing more value in the little things, like a warm beer and an orange when you’ve hiked an extra two miles by accident. That almost brought tears to my eyes. Counting lizards to pass the time and occupy my mind is an unexpected pleasure (36 on day one, 41, then 41 again, and 16, then 4). Also, the joy of drinking water that I haven’t had to carry for five to ten miles can’t be overstated. The trail so far has been more than I could have imagined.