Wanda's Wanda-rings: PCT #1 LbNA #56533
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Add Location| Owner: | wandaandpete  |
|---|---|
| Plant date: | Nov 6, 2010 |
| Location: | |
| City: | Campo |
| County: | San Diego |
| State: | California |
| Boxes: | 1 |
| Found by: | katielu |
|---|---|
| Last found: | Dec 17, 2011 |
| Status: | FF |
| Last edited: | Feb 26, 2021 |
419. WANDA'S WANDA-RINGS: PCT#1
A quick visit to the current southern terminus of the Pacific Crest Trail at the Mexican border near Campo, commemorating my first of three PCT "thru-hikes"!
This stamp carved by DON (of Don & Gwen from CA) shows just the CA portion of the PCT, but - make no mistake - it stands in for my entire first PCT backpacking journey of the whole distance between Mexico and Canada! It's quite appropriate, too, that this box is the first one of the original WANDA's WANDA-RINGS series that is now getting a "more permanent home", here so very near the beginning of the PCT, since that first PCT of mine was also so very near the beginning of my "backpacking career", going back, in fact, to 1984, the very next year after my very first Appalachian Trail backpacking adventure from Georgia to Maine, which was soon to be followed by four others! (Click on Wanda's Wanda-rings link above to read more.)
Of course, things were quite different back then - very few hikers, no parties, no trail angels, no slackpacking, no border problems... the trail even started at a different spot that required a hike to get to the border, as opposed to the present-day "drive-up". Now all you have to do to get to the start of the PCT is drive south from the Campo general store practically right up to the PCT monument at the highly patrolled border wall. If you look northwest from the monument, you should see a white sign beside a tree on the far side of a dirt road. From this sign, if you follow the PCT north for 15 steps, then walk 4 steps east off trail, you should find the box for my PCT #1 well hidden within the base of a bush. Please act like you are really just very interested in seeing where the PCT goes, since it seems that border patrol cars pass by every few minutes, and we wouldn't want them to think that you were doing anything dangerous or illegal!
A quick visit to the current southern terminus of the Pacific Crest Trail at the Mexican border near Campo, commemorating my first of three PCT "thru-hikes"!
This stamp carved by DON (of Don & Gwen from CA) shows just the CA portion of the PCT, but - make no mistake - it stands in for my entire first PCT backpacking journey of the whole distance between Mexico and Canada! It's quite appropriate, too, that this box is the first one of the original WANDA's WANDA-RINGS series that is now getting a "more permanent home", here so very near the beginning of the PCT, since that first PCT of mine was also so very near the beginning of my "backpacking career", going back, in fact, to 1984, the very next year after my very first Appalachian Trail backpacking adventure from Georgia to Maine, which was soon to be followed by four others! (Click on Wanda's Wanda-rings link above to read more.)
Of course, things were quite different back then - very few hikers, no parties, no trail angels, no slackpacking, no border problems... the trail even started at a different spot that required a hike to get to the border, as opposed to the present-day "drive-up". Now all you have to do to get to the start of the PCT is drive south from the Campo general store practically right up to the PCT monument at the highly patrolled border wall. If you look northwest from the monument, you should see a white sign beside a tree on the far side of a dirt road. From this sign, if you follow the PCT north for 15 steps, then walk 4 steps east off trail, you should find the box for my PCT #1 well hidden within the base of a bush. Please act like you are really just very interested in seeing where the PCT goes, since it seems that border patrol cars pass by every few minutes, and we wouldn't want them to think that you were doing anything dangerous or illegal!