Day One

Finally seated on the southern monument of the PCT, as i had waited for this moment for so many years, I didn’t really realize at first what was happening to me, and I was comfortably numb, feeling joyful.

I was not walking on a cloud but on the sand of the trail, which was soft and gentle under my feet. The excitement increased with every first time. First marker at the edge of the path, first mile, first water to filter, first snake that Kiki, my hiking partner, nearly step on, first stink bug we cluelessly tried to pet.

I was finally on the big adventure. Kiki and I had met the day before and shared an UBER to reach the terminus on this Sunday. I joked that we would go together to the northern terminus. Little did i know. The probability was very low. That's why one sets out on the trail alone, to be able to go at one's own pace.

Then a man approached us. It was James, a 50-year-old man who was discovering the PCT for a day hike. He lived in a van but said he was a millionaire and owned gold mines. He asked us our age and, upon learning that I was 34, he looked at me gravely and affirmed, "You must have had a very sheltered life." This made us laugh, and we would regularly remember that sentence fondly. Then he told Kiki that hiking was a good way to go bak to shape, and she surprinsingly didn’t destroy him on the sport. A little later I parted ways with my temporary trail companions.

Now I was alone. I had to stop and it was while eating M&Msin the afternoon heat that I realized. Nothing could hold me back and at this moment I would have destroyed any barrier that had come my way.

The first miles to Lake Morena are certainly not the most spectacular but they are beautiful, hot, awaited, flowered, and they will remain engraved in the memory of any PCT adventurer.

Driven by excitement and a little competition’s spirit, I climbed a cliff in the scorching sun. My vision became blurry, I started to get dizzy, my heart was racing, and I felt the sweat streaming down my body, cold, abundant, threatening. I only had one liter of water left because I had gotten rid of the rest to lighten my load, when i decided to make it to Lake Morena, 8km later.

I told myself: You're really too stupid. You're going to be part of the statistics of dumb people who have to be rescued on the first day.

I sat in the light shadow of my sun umbrella, my heart slowed down slowly. After 20 minutes I was able to leave. This episode had tired me out, and the long day I had just lived, but all I had to do at that point was go down.

That evening, the chili burger I devoured at lake Morena with Alex had the taste of triumph.