The Trek Synergy

The Trail Provides

I have benefited from a lot of trail magic from the abundant generosity of trail angels.  In retrospect, some of these gestures were kind of minor efforts for the angels while feeling monumental to me as a backpacker.  Haven’t we all been thrilled when someone takes our trash or hands us a coke?  The Trail changes our perspective and our relationships, always for the better.  Because of that, I’ve already tried to help other backpackers by letting strangers stay in my condo or giving hikers rides whenever I can.

From San Diego to Campo With Alaskan Panther

I have been friends with Alaskan Panther for several years now.  She has a very impressive long distance backpacking history including a multi-day solo hike in the Brooks Range.   Just in the past 3 years or so she has thru hiked the Arizona Trail and the Mid State Trail ( Pennsylvania).  Recently she did a long trip on El Camino from Portugal to Compostela.   So when she told me she was flying into San Diego from Alaska to start the PCT in late March, I figured I’d have the opportunity to catch-up with her and offer Panther a bit of trail magic by driving her to the southern terminus of the PCT.   The trail provides when others treat their friends or total strangers with generosity.  We only call it magic because the real world, the one we espace from on the trail, seems to have mostly abandoned the idea of doing kindness without expecting anything in return.  That is an unfortunate reality.

Oddly Linked by The Trek

So Alaskan Panther and I are heading east on Interstate 8 at about 85+ MPH (keeping up with the pace of traffic ?) when she drops a bit of a bomb.  It seems that Panther is going to be a trail correspondent for The Trek podcast, Trail Correspondents the same year I’ll be blogging from the AT.  If you’ve never listened, the Trail Corresponds podcast is a great way to get a deeper understanding of what life on the trail is really like.  I am pretty sure this year’s correspondents include people from the AT, CDT, PCT, and the American Discovery Trail.

So my recommendation is to subscribe to Trail Correspondents for the 2023 thru hiking season. You’ll get to learn about my friend, Panther, and all the 2023 correspondents. It is a great podcast.

Wazo

PS – I leave for the AT in 5 days to start in Tennessee just south of Virginia.  To say the least, I’ve planned an alternate agenda.  Anyway, I am so stoked after seeing people taking their first steps on their 2023 PCT thru hike.  Also, apparently SoCal is being pelted with 30 hours of hale as reported by Panther.

Photo by author.  Panther mailing resupply in Campo, CA.  Last stop before the monument.