I will never know if I could have finished unless I start (Mile Marker "0", Campo, CA)

Day One, Southern Terminus

I apologize for the formatting of this first post.  New software needs to be figured out.   However, I wanted to get a post going so please excuse the way this one looks.
The day finally arrived to hit the Pacific Crest Trail.  The day was overcast and a bit cool and breezy...perfect hiking weather.  You can see the Mexican/American border wall to my right in the picture, on the other side of the barbed-wire fence.

On my way at last!

Wild Flowers Everywhere

I met up with a couple of other hikers, one a thru hiker and one a section hiker.  The thru hiker I will run into several times over the next week.  My progress was celebrated by marking the 1, 2 and 3. mile mark into the hike.

Made the first mile

 

WOW! Three miles already!

It is wonderful that generous landowners graciously allow hikers to hike across their property.  I felt honored that they entrust hikers to respect their land and exercise "leave no trace" practices.

More wild flowers

Cactus in bloom too!

Gorgeous!

Beautiful borders to the trail.

More flowers

And even more.

As I hiked the first day, Marv could see that some of the functions 

my GPS device had not been set up properly so it was not working

correctly.  Therefore, before going on to day two, it was important

to get this problem solved. Therefore, I had to hike 1.5 miles off the

trail to meet up with Marv to solve the problem.

I realized this first day, that I could have used more training on

my ascending skills.  Also, I had hoped to get another 100 miles out

of the hiking shoes that I had been using for training.  However, my

feet were tired at days end and the shoes really felt worn out. There-

fore, I decided to switch out shoes while Marv fixed the GPS.  All 

and all, it was a good first day.

Blackened bushes contrast new flowers  in a recovering burn area.

I was here first.  You hikers can go around!