I believe about 250 hikers registered for the Annual Day Zero PCT Kickoff held at Lake Morena, CA this past weekend. Many of these hikers had already started hiking and got rides back south to attend this event located 20 miles north of the California/Mexico border. Many hikers, already on the trail heading north, did not attend the ADZ event. And then some of the PCT hikers and thrus have not even started their hikes yet.

The thruhikers will hike the 2,660 miles from the southern terminus to the northern terminus, through California, Oregon and Washington.

Section hikers will hike as much as their available time will allow.

[caption id="attachment_3175" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Driving home Saturday night just before Anza."][/caption]

This photo of Ray was taken in our darkish den (while Ray was watching the Masters) with my new Canon 5D Mark ll camera fitted with a new EF85mm f/1.2L ll USM lens. I’m in heaven with how much crisper the photos are and love how Ray’s face pops out from the rest of him and the background.

Initially I was going to be away until April 16th. Now home early, I’m giddy with the extra week of time. Right now I’m looking at how I want to schedule my time.

Next Thursday I leave for the ADZPCTKO weekend. This is an annual weekend backpacking event held in late April as a send off for the current year thru-hikers that will hike 2,660 miles from Mexico to Canada along the PCT.  Since 2003 I bring, to the event at Lake Morena, CA, the free bandanas for the current year PCT hikers. Here is the story of how the ADZPCTKO event started. And here is the page on the official ADZ website talking about how the gifting of PCT bandanas started.

May 6th I drive to Moab, UT to attend the DLWS. They ask that you come fully prepared for their four 18 hour days of learning. I’ll be reviewing ALL the pages and links I was sent to help me be the most prepared I can be before the start of this exciting workshop. I’ll be meeting Laurie Excell, Moose Peterson, Joe McNally – all my heroes.

Off to my calendar now to schedule myself in each day.

Debbie loves movies. Any free time she has she takes in a movie or two or three. As long as I’ve know her she has had an Oscar Party. I’ve never been to one, but I know each year she dresses up as one of the nominated actresses. This year she dressed as Julia Child.

Yesterday was a long day. It was in fact a 24 hour long day.

I drove to Concord, California, a 5.5 hour drive with Milly who I’d picked up at 5:45am, to attend my sponsor Debbie’s 34th birthday brunch. There were about 36 of us in attendance, happy to be seeing each other again. As always the annual gathering was uniquely special, memorable and unifying.

I almost made it back home after leaving Concord at 6pm, and after dropping Milly off in Encino, but I was smart and instead pulled into a rest area at 1:30am, 36 miles short of Palm Springs. I was lucky to find an empty parking space where I became one of many, auto and truck drivers, reclined in our seats hoping to catch enough sleep to continue our journey. Two hours of fitfully napping, I pulled out of the rest area and headed home, still slapping my face to stay awake.

Just another light show over the San Jacinto Range tonight.

Allow me to introduce you to Cindy and Michael Swain.

I have uploaded more dinner photos you may view here. All photos were shot with a small point and shoot camera, the Canon Powershot A650 IS. I learned a lot in reviewing these photos. Closeups turn out ok. Low light distant shots are impossible.

I’ve never seen Cindy happier. She and Michael looked calm and ready for the big day tomorrow.

Cleaning out some old drafts, I inadvertently deleted this post. Haste makes waste.

Can’t remember what I wrote, but I’ve uploaded the photos again just for myself. Sorry.

No blog today. Spent much of the day with Scottie who drove out from LA to help Ray and me with computer stuff. I’m getting a solid state harddrive which will make applications etc open faster (so I can delete things faster!!!!)