PCT Connections (CA18_Day 7)

Brain cancer is...

...connecting with the PCT.

You know the Pacific Crest Trail, right?  It's a hiking trail that goes from Baja to Canada, like this:

Source:  Alltrails.com

We got interested in the PCT when Summer recommended the book Wild .  It's a first-person narrative by a woman who hiked much of the trail alone.  The author, Cheryl Strayed, painted such gorgeous word pictures, and it was such a great adventure tale, that the book kept us talking for a long time.  Beth and Barb loved it too.

Guess what?  You can hike up and join the PCT from Big Bear.  The day we got our adventure pass, that's what Darrell and I did.  You saw a couple pics in the Adventure Pass post, but here's one more:

We entered a new world when we hiked up to the crest.  We met legit hikers, including this nice person, who started in Baja and plans on hiking all the way to Canada.

We'd never talked to a PCT hiker before, and now we can't escape them.  Last night at dinner, three PCT hikers who came down from the trail for a hot meal and a night in a hotel struck up a conversation with us.  They asked for a ride back to the trail come morning.  We said yes.  (Okay I said yes.)

Darrell was pretty sure we might die.  However,  we live to tell the tale.

"Dude's" walking pole doubles as a Go Pro.

Here we all are at the trail head this morning.  What a great chance to talk with awesome people.  They were suitably impressed by Darrell's GBM story, and each told their own cancer stories.  Inescapable.

It was also a great chance to really learn about a whole new world, one occurring just two miles up the mountain from us.  They asked questions like, "You don't know about the animal cages?"  "You don't know about the resort at Mile 260?"  How cool is that?

They promised to text pictures along the way.

After surviving the adventure, Darrell paid me a high compliment:  "You make my life interesting!"

Yay for the PCT!  Yay for connections!  Yay for an interesting life!