Tell someone you’re about to start hiking the Pacific Crest Trail and often a smile spreads across their face and a dream-filled look fills their eyes. They wish you safe travels, beautiful views and sound knees… they even begin to offer you food! It’s awesome to experience such a positive flow of energy when sharing plans and dreams of soon to be trail experiences.

PCT hikers speak very fondly of the positive community surrounding the trail. And a significant influence on the trail’s culture of good will comes from the trail magic performed by trail angels.

Gabriel and I have already enjoyed ripples of this amazing community and experienced trail magic! Fellow PCT hikers Blue Butterfly and One Step have loaned us their Bearikade Weekender MKII bear canisters to hike through the Sierras. Little did we know when we accepted this generous offer that we would be getting to use the lightest weight and maximum volume containers suitable for hiking through Sequoia & Kings Canyon NPs and Yosemite NP.

As Gabriel put it, “These are the Cadillacs of bear canisters.” Many thanks to Blue Butterfly and One Step, we’ll take good of the canisters so you can have them back for your adventures next year!

More trail magic that we anticipate experiencing in just a few more days is the generosity of Frodo and Scout, who thru-hiked the PCT in 2007. The couple live in San Diego which is the closest metropolitan area to the southern terminus of the PCT in Campo, CA. Hence, San Diego is the staging ground for many hikers as they start a northbound hike of the PCT. Each spring, Frodo and Scout generously and graciously open up their home to host more than 100 hikers. Picking hikers up from the airport, helping them run those last minute errands, providing them with a bed for the last night of pre-trail sleep, and then driving hikers to the trailhead. All they ask return is for hikers to “pay it forward” and help fellow hikers and others in the future. It truly amazes and inspires me to think that these people are willing to give so much of their time and open up their home to strangers; all because we simply desire to hike the PCT.

I’m excited to know that we will soon to be joining this PCT community!

P.S. Happy Birthday Mom! Love you and look forward to seeing you somewhere along the trail.