Miles hiked: 0
Through yesterday and last evening, I decided to go back to Lake Morena for the Annual Day Zero PCT Kick Off event, which is a big gathering at the beginning of the hiking season where past, current, and future PCT hikers get together to share information and celebrate the trail. I had been planning to skip the kick off, but after talking with a few other hikers and thinking it over I changed my mind. Since I was still so close, I figured I should at least go see what it was al about.
So this morning Libby, Abbey and I had a walk on a dirt road out of town (where we checked out what appears to be a long-dead Ringtail, then she drove me back down to Lake Morena at around 9. When Libby volunteered to do this drive, I asked her if she was sure she wanted to do this extra driving since she's also making the drive back to Bolinas today. She laughed a bit and said, "No offense, but it's really not that far back down there!" One's sense of distance changes quickly.
We arrived at the lake and said our real goodbyes, since it will now be about a month before we see each other again. The event was just getting set up, so I had to wait around until noon to check in and find out where I could set up my camp (the event is in a county campground, and there can only be so many people per site so things have to be pretty organized). So I had a morning of just sort of sitting around; there were a few hikers here and there, and I talked to some, but mainly just watched birds and had a nap and worked on eating all the food Libby left me with.
I registered and set up camp, then chatted with Gary, here from Australia to hike the trail. He was a good guy to talk to, I think he's retired now, from a career in horticulture. I also talked with Kirby, who biked down the coast from Seattle, and is now going to turn around and walk back.
There were a few vendors at the event too, showing off the latest in space age backpacking gear, some of which seems to weigh negative ounces. I definitely have a good time geeking out on gear, so it was fun to check this stuff out. But I resisted the temptation to buy anything new.
In the afternoon there are seminar-type things on trail-related subjects. I went to "Mindfulness on the trail" and learned some tips about staying present and clearing the mind, which I think will be fun to try a bit of while hiking and also might help me fall asleep. In the evening after burrito dinner there was an entertaining Geology of the Trail talk, then everyone relocated to an outdoor screen to watch some videos (oh yeah, earlier in the day I helped put the screen up, climbing onto the top of a trailer to zip tie the screen frame to a 2x4 frame which was bolted to the trailer). First there was a tribute to "Strider" who hiked the trail in the 70's and was one of the founders of the kick off event and who recently lost his battle with ALS. Then some trail films played. One of these, called "Do More With Less" was really well done and will be freely available on the internet sometime in the next week or 2; check it out, if you want. All together these made me very excited for to rest of the hike, and also gave me a greater appreciation for the strong bonds that can form between people who do things like a PCT hike.
Birds:
Not doing a full bird list for today, just the new species.
KILL
Grackle, probably Great-tailed
AMRO
Also saw an ATFL building her nest
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