This is the story of our honeymoon… 200 days of continuous hiking on the Pacific Crest Trail. The chapters take you along a 2,650 mile trail highlighting our photo & video collection. It’s a story of our newlywed life on the trail from novice hikers selecting our gear & learning food preparation, to hitchhiking, resupply towns and setting up camp. We hope you enjoy our adventure.
Day 1
4/18/2015
Mile 0
Pacific Crest Trail, Southern Terminus
Mexico/California border, outside Campo, CA
Hiked to Mile 12.25
Camped outside Campo, CA
Chapter 1: The Adventure Begins…
Little did we know what exactly was in store for us as we took those first dusty steps at the Southern Terminus on the Pacific Crest Trail.
Life as we knew it would never be the same, from that moment, there would only be “Before Trail Life” & “After Trail Life”. The PCT begins state side of the Mexico border outside the sleepy desert town of Campo, California.
Only locals and hikers make Campo their destination, such an unassuming place to begin something so incredibly epic and life changing… the trail changes you to your very core.
For over a year, we poured ourselves into the details of the two biggest events of our lives to date… our wedding and our honeymoon thru-hike. After getting engaged on our first ever backpacking experience, we became determined to have the ultimate honeymoon experience come to a reality.
Attaining all the right gear for a long distance hike is like a surgeon selecting his tools, everything had to be functional, lightweight and reliable. We planned to go as ultralight as possible while still maintaining a few luxuries so we cut weight where we could taking measures of trimming tags off clothing and gear and making modifications to lighten our loads. Our motto became “every ounce counts”. Having a minimal base weight is the key to survival and overall enjoyment of a long distance hike experience.
Our starting pack weight in pounds (lbs).
Base weight (no water, food or fuel):
- David 21.6
- Hilary 16.2
Starting weight (everything):
- David 36.4
- Hilary 36.2
We had to know details like where water sources were and how long between them, potential camp sites and how long between them, how far we would have to hike each day so that we didn’t run out of food or time. Every night we studied up on the trail towns, what their amenities and postal capabilities were, and whether or not we were going to take a zero day of no hiking in a particular town. Critical details were near impossible to know, like exactly how much food do two exhausted and famished hikers need each day? The living room became our hiking headquarters, we started stockpiling anything we thought we needed… energy bars and dehydrated foods, hand sanitizer and baby wipes, sunscreen and travel sized toothpastes.
We perfected things like our oatmeal and hot chocolate recipes. We went on shakedown hikes in the snow and in the heat of the summer & put boots to the desert trails, testing our gear and stamina in preparation for the first segment… the notoriously dry and dangerously unforgiving desert.
Living in Oceanside, CA we were only a little over an hour away from the Southern Terminus PCT Monument. Our plan was to have our parents drop us off as early as possible in hopes of getting a good 20 miles on our first day of hiking.
With all the excitement and activity of the wedding just a week prior to our PCT start date, we had fallen behind on food preparation. Hilary scrambled to get enough meals prepped to get the resupply boxes completed in time for us to leave the morning of April 18th. By the time we got everything weighed in, packed and ready to head out, it was almost 2:00pm and daylight was waning.
Arriving at the trailhead, we were so close to the towering metal border wall that we could have touched it if not for the surrounding barbed wire.
We snapped a few photos and signed the official class of 2015 PCT trail register. Our hike was off to a slow start, the trail meandered along the road, we waved goodbye to the parents as they drove off.
Our sprits lifted as we came upon the momentous Mile Marker 1… as we snapped our first photos of our adventure, it all started to sink in. This WAS really happening! This was ACTUALLY our life!
Our little disclaimer; hike your own hike, do your own research. Trail conditions could be different or re-supply points closed. If you are planning on thru or section hiking the PCT and have any questions please visit our website and send us a message, we would love to help any fellow hikers! http://www.honeymoononthepct.com/
Continue the story…
Chapter 2 – Sawtooth (coming soon)
All images and content are property of:
David "Hold-Out" & Hilary "Molasses" Mantz
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