About the Author: This author likes playing sports, being outside, and eating gummy bears.
The Pacific Crest trail is one of the longest hiking trails in the US, and it goes from the Mexico border to the Canada border. The Pacific Crest trail is 2,659 miles, and the route passes through 25 national forest and 7 national parks.
Five years ago my two friends and I had just graduated from high school, so we decided that before we start college that we should do something together. You would think that since we just graduated high school that we would just want to relax and eat food, but somehow we decided to go on the Pacific Crest trail. Before I tell the story I just want you to know that we knew nothing about hiking or camping before we went on the hike.
After our graduation ceremony all of my friends went to Noah’s house for our graduation party. Noah has been my friend since third grade the year I moved to LA. At the beginning of the party we were just talking about the memories we made and stuffing our faces with the food my mom brought from our family restaurant. When all the parents left to have cocktail hour at my house Noah, Sam, and I were left. Sam has also been my friend since third grade, and my family took him in last year when his mom was in the hospital for chemotherapy and his dad was at rehab.
“Since the parents are finally gone, I have a surprise for you” Noah looked excited. He had hid 3 six packs of Bud Light under the couch.
“Congratulations you finally have all the permits you need to hike the Pacific Crest trail.” I later learned that to get all the permits you have to pay like $500. Not only was I basically broke but I had been saving every penny to go to college. After I saw the note and my empty wallet I practically ran over to Noah’s house.
When I got to Noah’s house I stood in front of the door for five minutes trying to catch my breath. Ever since I’ve known Noah his family has always slept late, so I wasn’t surprised when I found him totally passed out of his floor. I kicked him two times before he lifted up his head and looked at his alarm clock.
“ Logan what do you want, it’s like ten in the morning ” he mumbled. I looked a lot worse that Noah, but that’s just because Noah gets drunk all the time and he’s used to the hangover.
“Noah what happened last night? I don’t remember anything” I was probably yelling but I couldn't tell because everything sounded loud to me.
“Dude last night you were so drunk, you basically cried while complaining about how this was our last summer together and we were never going to see each other again”
“I don’t care about that! This morning I woke up with this paper” I held up the Parks Permit paper “And an empty wallet. What happened?” Noah just looked at the paper grinning from ear to ear.
“Well you said that our mom knew somebody who had hiked the Pacific Crest trail, and that we should do it since it’s the last time we will all be together before college, you were practically crying. I tried talking you out of it but you were pretty set on going.”
A couple days later after I had researched the Pacific Crest trail I was actually starting to warm up to the idea of doing the hike. I had talked with Noah and Mason, and we all agreed that we needed to do something big before we all went to college. We had gotten together a couple times in that last week to talk about logistics for the trip. Somehow we all convinced our parents to let us go, and my parents especially were hesitant about the whole thing because they had wanted to spend time with me during the summer, since I would be going to college in the fall. While Noah, Sam, and I did research about the trip we learned that we had to do three preparation classes, to prepare us for the obstacles we could face. As we learned more about all the things that could go wrong on the trip I was getting a little worried, so I started doing some of my own research about building homemade huts and other stuff I thought was helpful. I also bought some books I could bring on the hike.
The next few weeks were filled with planning our trip and packing for our trip. When we took all the required steps to get certified and hike the Pacific Crest trail me and the boys flew to San Diego airport. We spent a couple days in Del Mar to make sure we had everything. Everynight in San Diego we would go to a different restaurant for dinner because we were not looking forward to eating ramen for dinner every night for the three months. Saturday morning during sunrise we drove to Mexico where the Pacific Crest trail starts. Our guide said that we should get to the trailhead early so we could double check we had everything and sign the trail log.
The first hour of hiking I was really energized but then the two cups of coffee started to wear off and my legs started to burn. Noah and Mason had a huge breakfast that morning, so they were running in front of me for the first couple hours. The weather was beautiful; the sky was clear, the birds chirped and scenery was amazing.
The first night we camped beside a pond filled with frogs and fish that kept me up. Noah, Sam and I laid under the stars in our sleeping bags listening to the frogs croak and the fish splash.
We got an early start that morning since we where are eager to adventure more. I didn’t think that the trail could get any more beautiful but somehow the second day was even more fantastic. As we hiked through Arizona the sun soaked up all our energy.
At mile 41.5 we came across Mt. Laguna Sports and Supply, there we restocked on food, water and other items. After a couple days we finally got into a routine and we could determine a good place to camp. We usually camped next to streams and rivers, so we could get water easily.
A couple weeks past and so far I had seen more wildlife in five weeks than I had seen in my past eighteen years. Now we were at mile 2461. It was late afternoon and we had found a place to sleep, so we started setting up our tents when a huge thunderstorm rolled in. The storm rolled so fast that we just decided to sprint under a group of trees to escape the rain. The lighting started right after we heard the first clap of thunder. The storm died down after a couple hours of us huddling under a tree. I didn't even realize the storm had past until Sam yelled,
“OUR STUFF!”
He ran into the field where we ditched our stuff . We had hurried out of the rain so fast that we had forgotten to grab everything.
That night we decided to camp under the trees we hid under during the storm. All our stuff had gotten destroyed, so I took out the books I had brought in case of an emergency. The bag that held all our food had gotten struck by lightning because of the metal zipper. I had remembered that one of the books I packed was about how to scavenge for food, Noah and I had been looking over it for more than an hour, so we decided to go look for berries while Sam tried to started a fire. I had the book with me but Noah wanted to go look on his own, so we split up. I went to look by a small stream and Noah went to look by a group of tall oak trees. I was searching for a certain berrie called the PawPaw, its a cross between a banana and a mango. I had found some blackberries and raspberries so I decided to head back to our camp. I was looking at the book when I tripped over something. Noah was laying on the ground breathing hard. I thought that maybe it was some sort of joke so started to walk, but Noah grabbed my leg before I could go anywhere. He tried to say something but it sounded like he was out of breath. I quickly dropped to the ground beside him.
“Noah what’s wrong? Are you okay?”
I said frantically. I started freaking out when he didn't answer. I looked all around him but the it was to dark that I could see anything and my flashlight had died earlier. I started yelling for Sam but I was too far away from camp for him to hear me. I had left my phone back at the camp but I remembered that Noah had brought his, so I started looking in all pockets. By this time Noah was passed out in my lap barely breathing. It was really dark but I could see something in Noah's hand , so I quickly grabbed it. It was some sort of green tomato type thing. I had remembered reading about some poisonous berrie called Horse Nettle that looked like a green tomato. I flipped through the pages of my book to see if there was anything about how to save someone who ate Horse Nettle. Sam finally came running over with a something that looked like a needle.
“Sam what are you doing, why do you have a needle?” I screamed while Noah was laying on my lap with his hands squeezing mine. I had brought the needle in our medical aid bag for emergencies.
“Logan I know what I’m doing don’t worry.”
“NO SAM WAIT DON'T DO IT.”