Dateline: McDonald’s, Cajon Pass, California (20180530)
The Pacific Crest Trail: California Section C starts and ends in the desert with freeways and trains, but has the mountains of San Bernardino with Big Bear and Silverwood Lakes in the middle. It’s a 132 miles of Southern California PCT. Follow along on this next leg of the journey.
Fair winds
Hi Rob,
Love your videos! I never knew there was such a great
diversity of flowers in the desert.
From Gerald: Big Mac’s are the best!!
Take care of that knee!
Best Wishes!
Aunt Sue and Gerald
Thanks you two. I have been amazed how the flowers keep coming. I was only able to get breakfast at McD’s, but that was still a treat after days of trail food. The knee is better today, but then I’m not carrying a pack. I’m working it and doing lots of stretching. Just as important, I’ve been off trail for two days now and the swelling on my ankle has finally gone this morning. It wasn’t going down while I was on trail. I’m starting to look forward to getting back out there!
Wow, great videos Rob. Thanks for a tour of California’s back country. It looks challenging – but really fun. 🙂
Could you talk about your motivation for hiking the PCT?
Steve
Hi Steve,
I apologize for taking so long to respond to your question but I felt it worthy of taking time for personal reflection. Although I’d forgotten for about forty years, hiking was on my bucket list since my dad pointed it out as it was first being declared a national scenic trail. However, that’s not why I’m doing it now. Here’s what has motivated me to hike the PCT.
1. To enjoy myself – Yep, completely selfish.
2. To see beautiful natural things and take the time to really see them. Taking the time is an important lesson I learned from cruising on a sailboat with my wife.
3. To share with others who, for whatever reason, are unable to make the trip. That’s also a lesson I’ve brought over from sailing where I viewed it as my obligation to have the best time I possibly could and share it with others because there were so many people I knew who would never have the opportunity to do what I was doing. (See http://www.BrontidePeak.com/Voyage if you’re interested in that trip.)
4. To get away from crowds of people. That’s especially true of the people with which I was sharing my commute on Interstate 5 in Southern California! I’m a mechanical engineer that’s come to hate cars.
5. To exercise some of the lessons learned from sailing. Primarily, life is better when you slowdown.
My trip is NOT motivated by trying to prove anything to myself or anyone else. That gives me quite a bit of freedom when on the trail about deciding when and how far to hike on any given day. I have a TON of respect for those people trying to prove something to themselves, like that they can accomplish something as grand as walking from Mexico to Canada in one trip. I also respect those who are trying to ‘find’ themselves on the trail after encountering many of life’s challenges. That’s just not me. My life’s been good. I’m just working to keep it that way.
Glad your ailments are responding to treatment.