Outdoor Adventures with Ancient Brit
PCT 2006 - Pre-hike 10th April
Monday 10th April
Fortunately I had left plenty of time to get to Heathrow Airport. It
was the beginning of the Easter holidays so the plane was full with a big
school party heading for 10 days in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. The
girl on my left was ‘bored’ throughout the trip and let everyone know
it. She was up and down all the time which didn’t affect me too much
since I can’t sleep on a plane anyway. I spent the flight watching ‘The
Chronicles of Nadia’ (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe), starting
to read ‘The Company’, an 1150 page novel about the CIA and doing
‘Kakuro’. The 12 hour flight arrived at Los Angeles at 4pm US time.
I got through US immigration fairly quickly, having fingerprints
photograph taken. I picked up a car from ALAMO. The ‘Economy’ car
I hired was still a medium size saloon car in British terms. It was a
long slow drive out of LA in the rush-hour to Northridge where I
picked up the supplies I had pre-ordered from REI and bought 40 days
supplies from Albertson’s Supermarket. Prices seemed a lot higher
than 4 years ago. It was then on to Hiker’s Heaven in Aqua Dulce
where I arrived at 10pm and went straight to bed after being up for 24
hours.
Fortunately I had left plenty of time to get to Heathrow Airport. It
was the beginning of the Easter holidays so the plane was full with a big
school party heading for 10 days in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. The
girl on my left was ‘bored’ throughout the trip and let everyone know
it. She was up and down all the time which didn’t affect me too much
since I can’t sleep on a plane anyway. I spent the flight watching ‘The
Chronicles of Nadia’ (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe), starting
to read ‘The Company’, an 1150 page novel about the CIA and doing
‘Kakuro’. The 12 hour flight arrived at Los Angeles at 4pm US time.
I got through US immigration fairly quickly, having fingerprints
photograph taken. I picked up a car from ALAMO. The ‘Economy’ car
I hired was still a medium size saloon car in British terms. It was a
long slow drive out of LA in the rush-hour to Northridge where I
picked up the supplies I had pre-ordered from REI and bought 40 days
supplies from Albertson’s Supermarket. Prices seemed a lot higher
than 4 years ago. It was then on to Hiker’s Heaven in Aqua Dulce
where I arrived at 10pm and went straight to bed after being up for 24
hours.
Pacific Crest Trail emblem
 |  |