Thousands of hikers are heading to the Campo area in eastern San Diego County to begin a journey along the Pacific Crest Trail that will last four to five months and cover 2,650 miles from Mexico to Canada.
The trek is extremely challenging—usually only half of hikers finish—but it's more popular than ever, thanks largely to the best-selling book "Wild," which was turned into a movie starring Reese Witherspoon.
More than 3,500 people have taken out permits this year to hike the Pacific Crest Trail, 10 times more than the 300 to 400 a year that tried the hike before the book came out in 2013, said Jules Fijolek, a forestry technician with the U.S. Forest Service.
Brett Hallock, an airplane mechanic from Fort Collins, Colorado is one of them, although he said he decided to do the hike before he'd heard of the book.
"I was like, oh, uh oh, there’s going to be a lot of people out here and there are, but it’s not too bad, it’s good to have people out here," Hallock said.
As he talked, he dug out a chocolate bar from his large backpack. He'd started that morning in Campo and hiked 20 miles to Lake Morena County Park.
"The plan is to go all the way to the border if I make it," he said. "I’m going to be out here until the trail kicks me off for one reason or the other."
Potential reasons for stopping include "injury, running out of money and getting eaten by a bear," he said.
For hikers attempting to follow the entire Pacific Crest Trail, April is the best time to start because it helps them avoid the scorching heat and some of the snow in the mountains.
Starting 16 years ago, veteran hikers have hosted a mid-April kickoff at Lake Morena County Park. It started with a few guys offering passersby beer and burgers and grew into two-day orientation sessions for 1,000 people, said Carl Siechert, one of the organizers.
"In addition to calming the butterflies, which is still an important part of it, because people setting off on this kind of adventure don’t know what they’re getting into, we provide various seminars on flora and fauna, geology, leave no trace technique," he said. "For those who haven’t put a lot of thought into it, that’s part of what we’re about, too, is providing a lot of the information that improves their chances of success and survival for that matter."
Booths are set up at the park to sell gear and provide information. At one booth, called the Wolverine Shakedown Shack, veteran hikers go through novices’ backpacks to weed out extra weight.
"What’s this?" a veteran hiker asked a young couple, the insides of their bags spilled over a tarp on the ground.
"Laundry liquid," the young hiker said.
"Are you going to wash your things on the trail?"
"Uh, no."
"Keeping clean on the trail is generally a lost cause anyway," the veteran hiker advised. "You may or may not have heard that hikers smell. I’m here to tell you it’s true."
While the Wild book and movie have made the trail far more popular, kickoff organizer Siechert said he doesn’t think many unprepared hikers will try to follow in Witherspoon’s footsteps.
"I actually thought the movie was a very realistic portrayal of thru-hiker life," he said. "It didn’t glamorize it. It showed her losing toenails and bruises all over and being hungry and lonely and all that stuff happens."
And he doesn’t mind the trail getting extra attention.
"It has raised awareness of the trail, which is a good thing," he said. "It’s great to have more people out there enjoying all the trail has to offer."
Still, to mitigate the extra foot traffic this year, the U.S. Forestry Service is setting up a new permit system that only allows 50 people to begin the hike each day. Forestry technician Fijolek said while the system is mostly enforced by the honor code, hikers have been abiding by it.
After resting for the night at Lake Morena's campground, hiker Hallock planned to travel another 20 miles the next day, followed by another 20 and another 20 and another 20, until he hopefully reaches Canada in four or five months.
"It’s definitely good to have a goal, have something I’m working towards," he said.
