Sunday afternoon Janet brought me down to the border area from her home in Rolling Hills – it’s in the Rancho Palos Verdes area. We stayed in a cute place in Alpine. Before we got there we stopped at a place called Marechiaro’s in El Cajon and picked up a mushroom pizza. It was amazing!! I hope to go there again.
In the morning I had to finish work on setting up my blog and attending to some emails, etc as I was trying to get all of the loose ends tied up. I still don’t have them tied up. Janet and I had breakfast there. It was more fun than delicious.
We then headed out to Campo – the small town where the Southern Terminus of the PCT is located. By this time it was quite late – especially for a May 19 start date in the heat of the desert. We got lost a bit for a second but we finally made it. It was after 11:30am when I started. Mistake #1. But I wanted to at least get some miles in that day.
All started very well. I called my mom. She’s 90 years old and now that we live together again it’s sad to leave her for a few months. My weekly prayer call meets on Mondays at noon and so the members prayed for me and sang songs of encouragement. I had energy and strength and I was able to push. Unfortunately I way underestimated how much water I would need before the next water source. Mistake #2. The heat was just too much for me and my body. By 2pm I was seeking shade. Found a bush and hid for a while.
I realized that I could not make it safely to the next water source in the heat, so I had to make a choice to camp somewhere and wait until the early morning while it was still dark. The place I found couldn’t accommodate the size of my tent, so I had to, “cowboy camp.” Just my mat and sleeping bag and the stars. As I lay there I realized not only what a predicament I was in, but also how sunburned I was – especially my hands. Mistake #3.
