aaarrggghhh the PCT

Thursday 2nd July

25 years ago today our dear sweet angel Louise Ruth left this earth and went to be with Jesus we miss her soo much every single day and know that one day we will see her again, which brings us great comfort.  meanwhile if Louise had never been part of our family and hadn't had Trisomy 18 we probably would never have travelled to the USA in 1999, would never have made some of the most amazing friends in the world and would not be contemplating hiking 2660 miles along the PCT.  She gave us so much in her short 5 months of life I am so grateful for her.  I am looking forward to catching up with our SOFT USA family next week in SLC.

We went down to the harbour to check out the Midway Museum.  The ship itself is huge!!!!!  At the harbourside there's a really cute statue of a returned soldier kissing his girl and in the park there is a monument to remember the contribution Bob Hope made to the soldiers by entertaining overseas.  On the way out of San Diego we drove up to Point Loma and the massive Military Cemetery overlooking the city.

Then things got really exciting!!  We travelled to the Southern terminus of the PCT.  It is just 50 metres from the Mexican border and we had our very own border guard LOL we saw many border guard vehicles while we were there and had a helicopter fly over us.  We walked a little way along the trail and looked at the trail register which is kept in a box at the back of the monument on the site.  Then we tracked to PCT up the highway to Morena Lake where we had lunch in the day use area and spoke to one of the rangers and told him that we planned to hike the PCT he was very impressed and gave us a few tips.  We spotted where the trail comes out at Morena Lake and then where it leaves and heads for Warner Springs.  We arrive in Idyllwild at around 5:30pm after me having a turn at driving.  Had some hairy moments with vehicles crossing the centre line.  We went down into town after checking in to get some beer and dessert we have some noodle bowls for dinner.  We eat dinner out on the small deck off the back of our room overlooking the forest and valley it's really pretty.   The room we are staying in is so cute and once the sun goes down it starts to get quite cool.  Tomorrow it's up to Kennedy Meadows another PCT stop.