Pacific Crest Trail California Section

The PCT in California traverses through the desert, fields of wind turbines, snow-covered mountains and some of the best scenery in America! It’s beauty is sublime, even while the trail’s never-ending ups and downs bring even the best hikers to their knees at times.  We love this trail and keep going back to it.  Here’s a look at our 2019 thru hike adventure.  California was good to us and at the same time, she challenged us.

The PCT California begins near the town of Campo, right at the border of Mexico.  It climbs the Laguna & San Jacinto Mountains before dropping back down to cross under the I10 freeway.   A highlight is walking along the LA aqueduct, something that many hikers do at night in order to beat the heat of the day.  We saw more cactus and wind turbines than you can imagine.  And every kind of desert flower, during the year’s super bloom.  The Sierras, the Trinity Alps, Mt Shasta.  There are just too many beautiful and rugged areas to tell about here.  You can check out the PCTA’s pages for lots of section detail or you can just start below.  See where our journey took us.  Hopefully it’ll inspire you to take your own trail journey, by day or section or backpacking the whole dang thing!  Let’s get hiking!

PCT: Day 30: Rest & Weight loss

PCT: Day 30: Rest & Weight loss

The weight loss results are in from our first 30 days of hiking: Steve has lost 18 lbs and Noelle has lost 14 lbs. I think we're both hungry when we arrive in a town, but we both agree the rumored "hiker hunger" hasn't hit just yet. Soon. Supply package from friends...

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PCT: Day 29: Heading into another trail town, Big Bear

PCT: Day 29: Heading into another trail town, Big Bear

Miles today: 10 Trail miles: 266.2 Elevation: 6832 Spinning on the turntable: Mumford and sons: Babel Today we hustled to make it to the trailhead quickly so that we could go into Big Bear to pick our bounce box up from the post office. We had a nice bit of downhill...

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PCT: 250 miles

PCT: 250 miles

Noelle here: We celebrate with everyone since there seems to be some uncertainty where the real mile marker is! That first one written in the sand, we showed at 249.2, but we still took a picture! I think the last one is the real one. Also Steve said I don't know how...

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Side trip to Urgent Care

Side trip to Urgent Care

Noelle here: We made a rookie mistake and forgot to turn off our GPS for a ride over to urgent care, so it showed all of you that we took a trip to the hospital and we started getting messages about it. No need for alarm though! It's actually my second stop in a week!...

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PCT: Day 28: thinking about resupply

PCT: Day 28: thinking about resupply

Miles today: 16.7 Trail miles: 256.2 Elevation: 7595 Spinning on the turntable: Kid Rock: Born Free Today we needed big miles to make it to the next water source. On the map below we stayed at the arrow on the lower left and we needed to make it to the water symbol at...

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PCT: Day 27:

PCT: Day 27:

Miles today: 7.4 Trail miles: 239.5 Elevation: 7922 Spinning on the turntable: Alanis Morissette: havoc and bright lights Tonight I'm sleeping in two pairs of socks. After the rain/hail/snow it's downright cold. [wpvideo g6Bzmsul ] I've not yet acclimated to high...

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PCT: Mission Creek to Big Bear

PCT: Mission Creek to Big Bear

Noelle here: Traversing through the Mission Creek area was super fun in the morning. It was hot. The creek was cool. We had to use GPS to stay on track a couple times but mostly as long as we roughly followed the creek, we were headed in the right direction. We must...

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PCT: Day 26: Trail?  What trail?

PCT: Day 26: Trail? What trail?

Miles today: 8.6 Trail miles: 232.1 Elevation: 4835 Spinning on the turntable: Coldplay Live in Beunos Aries Today we hiked into the Whitewater river area. Around 9:30 we stopped and chatted with a man named Bret who was hanging out under a tree next to the river....

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Siamese twin lizards

Siamese twin lizards

Noelle here: Yesterday I saw a Siamese twin lizard. I'm not even kidding! It was insane. It would not, however, pose properly so my pictures aren't great. Lizards One was bigger than the other, you can see it's longer tail. Siamese twin lizards They had two complete...

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PCT: Day 23 I-10 Oasis

PCT: Day 23 I-10 Oasis

It’s crazy difficult to hike from freezing conditions to heat stroke conditions within a 24 hour window, but that’s what this PCT section was all about.

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PCT Snow Day 21, Noelle’s perspective

PCT Snow Day 21, Noelle’s perspective

We got a ride from the post office to Deer Springs trailhead from a nice lady. And then we climbed. Climbing up Deer Creek Trail And climbed And just for fun, we climbed some more, till we got this great campground, Strawberry Creek, where we set up for the night. We...

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PCT Trail Names!

PCT Trail Names!

Noelle here: Well, Steve got his trail name! It’s Toboggan! He earned it on Mt San Jacinto as he kept slipping and sliding on the snow and ice. But first, let me back up to a beautiful hamburger at Paradise Cafe! We sat with "Roger That" and ate nachos &...

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PCT: First day without work email

PCT: First day without work email

Making the decision to leave my job was one of the most difficult decisions I've made in my life. Walking away from money on the table was not logical. The safe financial answer was to hunker down and enjoy the benefits of years of hard work. When I announced that I...

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Blues on the trail

Blues on the trail

A couple days last week were super hard for me, as I contemplated quitting the trail. For the better part of one full day I could not get it out of my mind.

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PCT: Day 16: snakes, flowers and scorpions

PCT: Day 16: snakes, flowers and scorpions

Rattlesnake sighting Once the snake had slithered into the brush we high tailed it through this area and put some distance between us and the rattler. After the rattle snake sighting I was on high alert for the rest of the afternoon looking for additional rattlers. It...

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Trail Magic & Hitchhiking

Trail Magic & Hitchhiking

Noelle here: A few days ago we hitch hiked from Scissors Crossing up to the town of Julian. It was an experience! Hitchhiking to Julian On our way up, a very nice man (Scott) picked us up. Steve tried to put his window down a little, just because we smell, but the...

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PCT: Day 14: It’s all about the feet

PCT: Day 14: It’s all about the feet

We started the day with a trip to the post office to mail home shoes and socks. We discussed which child could most easily handle the stench that will assault their nostrils upon opening the box. Guess it's like a lethal lotto for our kids! Who will have the pleasure...

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PCT: Day 13: Zero day diet woes

PCT: Day 13: Zero day diet woes

Today we're zeroing in Warner Springs. Edwardo, my blister, is happy for a day of relaxation and rejuvenation. We walked to the local community center late this afternoon. They host hikers and there's a trail gear company nearby. We wanted to look at different tent...

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PCT: Day 12

PCT: Day 12

Last night we camped close to the Montezuma trail crossing after seeing our daughter/son-in-law and grandkids. It was great to see them so early in the trek! They were in San Diego on holiday so they made the trek out to see us! Family visits on the PCT It was great...

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PCT: The kindness of strangers

PCT: The kindness of strangers

Noelle at a Water Cache Here we were, parked in the middle of nowhere and running low'ish on water. our trusty trail application, Guthook, told us that there was a water cache up ahead. We located the water cache and replenished our supplies. Who fills up the water...

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PCT: Day 8-Windy city

PCT: Day 8-Windy city

Our day began at 2AM when several tent stakes dislodged due to the high wind. Our ultra light frameless tent is great for being light, but wind isn't its strongest suit. [wpvideo 8ng9hukv ] Somewhere around 5:30 we gave up trying to shore it up and just waited for...

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PCT: Day 7

PCT: Day 7

Today was our first resupply package pickup. We had the package shipped to the local post office (thanks JMc!) and retrieved it today when the post office opened at noon. First PCT Resupply The main resupply was vitamins and a few prescription meds. We intentionally...

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PCT: Relax day and kinda sad morning

PCT: Relax day and kinda sad morning

Noelle here for a change: Yesterday we arrived at Mt Laguna. It's a sleepy tiny town with two inns, two restaurants, a post office and one store. We ate dinner last night with two groups that we've really gotten close to in a very short time. Oddly enough it's two...

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PCT: Day 4

PCT: Day 4

It was near freezing last night. Slowly, throughout the night I added additional layers of clothing. I ended up tightening the sleeping bags face cord to minimize my skin exposure. I tried sleeping with my face in the bag but my own body odor was too strong and I gave...

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PCT: Day 3

PCT: Day 3

This was one of those days where it all makes sense. Glorious hiking and lots of new friends. We slogged up the Hauser Creek Canyon early this morning and were treated with great views of Lake Morena. We stoped for a early lunch at a Malt shop near the lake and hung...

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PCT: Day 2

PCT: Day 2

We're still moving things around in our backpacks, looking for items that we thought were here and are not, finding items that have magically appeared and we have no idea why we packed them. Soon we'll figure it out. We cranked out a ten mile hike today. There's some...

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PCT: Day 1

PCT: Day 1

It's hard to believe that we're here, on our PCT journey. So much planning, preparation and a massive amount of nerves have all collided into a sweaty, stinky mess. Today I focused on starting the hike in the right mental zone. I listened to Yann Tiersen and enjoyed...

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PCT: Burning the boats

PCT: Burning the boats

It's 3AM and I'm wide awake. We'll start our day in a few hours; breakfast followed by a car ride to the trails southern terminus. Someone will shoot a few pictures to capture our wide eyed enthusiasm and clean clothes. Shortly after arriving the transport crew will...

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The Journey Begins

The Journey Begins

Thanks for joining us!  Today is our 17th wedding anniversary, so it seems like a great day to start sharing our journey.  In a couple days we begin hiking the Pacific Crest Trail.  We're excited and apprehensive, all at the same time.  We hope you'll enjoy following...

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Check Out our PCT Oregon section

Read more about our Pacific Crest Trail thru hike by clicking to go the Oregon section.  We didn’t see any rattlesnakes here, but there are a ton of lava fields to cross over.  Plus mountains and lakes and so many deer. Good friends along the way made the trail so much fun.  And Crater Lake, what beauty.  After months in California, Steve flew through Oregon!  His legs were like chiseled marble and he was looking mighty fine (can you tell Noelle is typing this?!) At the Bridge of the Gods, family came to meet us and then we got to go home for a week!  Oregon’s a great section of the PCT, don’t miss it.

We hope you’re enjoying our adventure and making plans for your own!