Friday – April 23
Awoke to the birds singing at 5:30am. No nocturnal visits from illegal aliens or border patrol, except in a coupple of dreams. Its a shame too – we have some yard work at home that would be easier with a little cheap labor.
morning, it was really quite pleasant. We made the 4.5 miles to Lake Morena by 9:15 and checked in with the ADZPKO organizers. This will be the 6th “Annual Day Zero PCT Kick Off party” and the attendance is expected to top 450. There will be many thru hikers fromthis year’s “class”as well asformer thru hikers, trail angels, gear vendors,assorted trail “groupies” and “wannabes”, your basic collection of “hiker trash.”
We are at site 35, mingling already with other hikers as they arrive.
It was a day full of reunions and introductions, meeting past friends and making new ones. Burgers in the malt shop with “do it yourself” and “Molasas”, meeting Marisa’s many relatives, and happy hour at the Ert Wakker and Ert Angels camp site and the Easy Recreational Traveler (otherwise known as a Eurovan with its cooler of beer and wine and Reid’s bean dip.
Paul, “One Braid” another thru hiker from ’94 is in our camp site and spent more time with him today than during our brief meeting in Oregon almost ten years ago.
As the evening wears on we have been entertained with presentaitions on “plants of the PCTL as well as a video from 2002 and slides from ’77.
