Day 1 on trail: 5 snakes and a mountain lion

The following is a transcript of Episode 2 of the Hiking to Canada podcast recorded July 19, 2016. For the best experience, press the orange play button below.

Walking over Bridge of the Gods. View the full 360 photo here.

Yay! I’m at the start. I am at Bridge of the Gods walking ever so responsibly against oncoming traffic. And I’m SO EXCITED. It’s a beautiful day right now. This bridge is absolutely stunning, and I’m super excited to hike the trail.

First mile of the PCT completed. View the full 360 photo here.

Just completed my first mile on the Pacific Crest Trail. Only 506.1 miles til the Canadian border. And I’m having a good time so far.

First fresh water on the PCT. View the full 360 photo here.

First fresh water on the PCT and I am doing what’s called cameling up, which means eating some salty foods and drinking as much of this guy as I can. There’s one more water source available and then there’s a drop off for 11 miles.

Getting water straight from the source (no filter). View the full 360 photo here.

So I’m at the last water that’s available for another 11.4 miles so I’m cameling up again. It’s 5 o’clock. I’ve gone about 8 miles in 3 and a half hours which is pretty good. I’m happy with that pace.

My initial goal was to do 10 miles today, but I’m feeling good and would love to hike into the sunset if possible just ’cause it’s so gorgeous to be out there. So I might try to go another 2, 3, or 5 more miles. And that will probably be cool too because I won’t have as much uphill tomorrow morning.

Here’s my sounds.

The world offers itself to you. View the full 360 photo here.

Just had one of those magic moments on the trail where I was so focused on my feet and getting over this rocky part that I forgot to look around and then when I did there was just this insane beautiful, expansive view of a sea of evergreens. And it’s crazy when you see so many because for me they act like waves where they just ripple over each other almost like a Magic Eye.

It was a good moment. And this has been a really good day so far, to [be able to] just focus on putting my feet in front of each other and listening to my body and seeing what I feel like doing. It’s such a gift.

So I just saw my 5th snake of the day today in just 13 miles. I’m going to go home and identify them later. One was black with an orange stripe down the middle and the others seemed kind of like garden snakes. *Wild animal encounters.*

Potential campsite in freshly logged area with dirt road crossing. View the full 360 photo here.

So I’m at mile 2157 now and I’m just trying to figure out if I want to camp here or not. It’s in a bunch of cut down trees like some kind of lumber site or something. I don’t know, it makes me feel kind of weird.

Also, I had a mountain lion experience where I was like “oh cute, what’s crossing the road? Is it my first deer?” Turns out, it was not a deer. I figure this out because I only saw the half of the body, and then when I saw the tail go through, it was not a deer tail, it was a mountain lion tail.

I’ve heard about mountain lions stalking women for miles and miles of the Pacific Crest Trail, so I’m just trying to keep up a good pace and feel and act strong and puffy and have this guy not think that I am prey that’s worth his time.

I think I’ve decided that I’ve just got to keep walking. I think sunsets around 9/9:30 so I’ve got an hour to do two more miles and — let’s see how much more uphill this will be — it’s pretty flat. I think I’m going to go for it, and that will be a cool day because then I’ll cap it off at 15 miles my first day from 1:30pm to whenever I’m done.