Posted by A crazy long travel day has my body clock thrown completely out of whack as I write this but I have a couple of days to get sorted before getting to the trail proper.
Long haul flights suck big time no matter which way you look at it. My flight strategy has always been to reset my watch to the destination time and try to match sleep patterns to this. But it was hard on this trip. Minimal sleep had on the longest flight. I caught the odd nap at the airport and on the shorter flight to San Diego.
Previous PCT hiker ‘Proton’ was there to meet me at San Diego, despite my flight being delayed by 30mins and quickly whisked me away to Scout and Frodo’s place. Their place is basically pre PCT central. It was a quiet night apparently with only 16 hikers staying. This is building to 32 tonight.
Scout and Frodo are truely amazing people. They have completely opened their house to host hikers before hitting the trail. They provide a place to stay, all meals and plenty of advice, as well as pulling an army of people together to drive hikers to the trail head – all completely out of the kindness of their hearts and no payment accepted. Absolutely incredible!
By 8pm last night I was done for and slept right through until 6am this morning, sleeping through the 5am departure of hikers next to me bagging up and hitting the trail today.
I’ve spent the morning getting to know the other hikers around me as we are bound to keep crossing paths over the next few months. They’re from the world over – UK, Luxembourg, a fellow Aussie, Brazil, Italy and plenty from the US.
Got myself sorted with 3 days of food, bought some gas and have sent my bounce box ahead to Idyllwild already. All I need to do now is sort out a US SIM card so not reliant on wifi for service.
There is a chance that if I can get a SIM card sorted I could start a day early. We’ll see. If not, I’m happy to just rest up a bit more and get used to the strange ways of the US like looking over the wrong shoulder for traffic, working out the money (all notes look alike) and tipping – what’s up with the expectation of tipping?
That’s it for now. Catch you on the trail.
Mick Beckers 
Tipping and paying sales tax on most things. Nothing (except for food in most states) costs what it says it costs. Welcome! 🙂
good luck. Wait until you go to a bar and discover you have to tip up to 20% for every drink order. The reasoning behind this is that waiters and bar staff are paid a pathetic wage, & it truly is minimal. I find it really bizarre that the USA thinks it should be up to the customer to cover the difference. Have fun – USA is one of my favourite countries, it is so beautiful and the people are so friendly and welcoming.