It started with months of planning. Looking at sales on Mountain House foods, deciding whether to buy gear to make it easier, and lining up rides and help along the way. I had already dropped off some extra gear and food with my mom a week earlier. That meant just a 3 hour plus drive from our house in Oregon to the Washington border just north of Cascade Locks across the Bridge of the Gods. I drove and Jacqueline tried one last time to talk me out of the trip. It was a fairly easy drive with a little bit of traffic around Portland as usual. We drove across Bridge of the Gods and arrived at the trailhead at 9:30. Conrad supplied me with a brownie and we took some photos at the trailhead. Lots of hugs. Obviously the hardest thing about doing the Pacific Crest Trail was being away from my family for such a long period of time. That and the endless amount of hiking that I had to do every day. Just a few weeks earlier, I had decided to get a new pack. When I did Oregon, I had some issue with some soreness from the pack. The new pack felt pretty good, even with seven days of food. It was heavy, probably heavier than it should be, but it felt comfortable enough. I was moving pretty well at first.
The trail started out kind of flat just sort of paralleling the road. I was feeling pretty good moving along even though I was moving slow. The flatness of the trail did not last long. Soon it began to climb. It was not surprising as the trail was starting below 1000 feet, nearly at sea level, but would eventually bring me up to 7000 feet. Today, we would not climb that much, but it sure felt like it. I was sweating like crazy. It was a warm day, but I also had to get used to the feeling of carrying a very heavy pack for a long amount of time. I had to be conservative with my water also because there was a stretch of 11 miles that I would have to go without water. Oregon was filled with these long stretches, but Washington did not have many of them.
I tried to hike for an hour at a time before taking a break, but there were times that the trail was so steep and the weather so warm, that I had to take a break after half an hour just to have more water. The fact that the trail was for the most part in the woods was really helpful because I was getting a lot less direct sun. I was planning to stay at Rock Creek for the evening. This was about 18.5 miles in with an elevation gain of over 2000 feet. The problem was that I was having a hard time gauging how far I was going up the trail because the steps on my watch were all wrong. I figured out this was because I was using a hiking pole and it was only counting the times I picked up and put the hiking pole down. So it was missing at least a third of my steps.
I was surprised at how quiet the trail was. I saw a few people, but not many and no one going north. I figured I would be on the same timeline as others, but there really weren't many. I was able to get cell service for most of this day which was pretty well in line with Oregon. This was less necessary, because I had a Garmin inReach Mini 2 which allowed me to get in touch with my family at all points. For now, it was just being used to track me so my family could keep up with me. At about 6:30 pm, I found myself at Rock Creek. There was one other person there. His name was Henry and he had started yesterday. He was doing all of Washington like me, but was taking a little bit more time to accomplish it.
A little later, Patrick and Sam showed up. They were doing Washington also, but taking a little bit more time too. They were from Washington D.C., but also Sam grew up in Washington. I took a dip in Rock Creek which was refreshing. A little bit later, Ryan showed up. He was going south and doing the whole thing. He was from Bellingham. I picked his brain about the trail ahead. I enjoyed my freeze dried dinner. In fact, it would turn out to be my favorite meal on the whole trail. It took a while to get all settled, but by 9 pm, I was settling into sleep. It was a good first day with a lot of elevation gain, but I was feeling pretty good and excited for the trail ahead.
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