Day 75

PCT Miles: 0

Total Miles: 1154.5 (1847.2km)

Even before I started the PCT, there was one thing that I always wanted to do whenever I had a break from hiking: be a trail angel! Today sounded like the perfect day to do so! Of course Maike, Chris and Jessica were onboard!

Here was our plan: yesterday we bought some cookies 🍪 , gatorades and fresh fruits (🍎, 🍌, 🍒, 🍇) to bring today to the same trailhead where me and Maike finished our section together last Friday. The idea was to stay there and offer a refreshment to any PCT hiker that showed up on the parking lot.

So, after we checked out we drove to the trailhead’s parking lot, put all the food on a wood bench that we found and waited there for hikers. We stayed for a few minutes and nobody showed up. We had agreed that we would spend maybe 1-2 hours there and I was hoping to see at least 4-5 hikers in this timeframe.

I was feeling a little bit frustrated to see nobody so I decided to walk a bit to the actual trail and see if I could find someone coming. And then I saw something that I was not expecting at all!

A few meters down the road, I saw a couple setting up this gazebo, like if they were setting up a small gathering area. As soon as they saw me, the woman excitedly asked me: are you a PCT hiker?

It turned out that this couple were hikers from the Class of 2021 and they lived close to the trail nowadays and they do some trail magic every now and then. They were setting up this space this morning with shade, chairs, drinks and making hot dogs for the thru-hikers! I explained my situation (that I’m indeed a PCT thru-hiker but I was taking a week off and that I was there with my friends to do some trail magic ourselves as well). Can we all join you guys? I asked. OF COURSE they replied in unison and a few moments later we brought our things and combined our trail magic together!

We stayed for probably two hours and had an absolutely great time. We met Pain Perdu and her boyfriend, Space Case, Sharkbait, Rosie, Koda (a czech girl that I met at Scout and Frodo, before I started the PCT!), Helène, Cashew (one of the dogs) and more people that I don’t remember the names. It felt so good to be able to give a little back to my fellow hikers. We left the place with our spirits elevated and empty coolers! We super happy that everything went better than we planned!

Before driving back to San Jose we chilled a bit at the Doner River’s riverside. I was feeling over the moon with this amazing experience that we had today!

Tomorrow me and Maike will be going to San Francisco to be tourists for a few days. The plan is for her to drive me back next saturday to the same trailhead of today so I can continue my hike keeping a continuous foot path). But until then, I’m using the fact that I’m a bit ahead of schedule to take some well deserved vacations from the PCT 😎!