Trek America - Trailblazer begins

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My alarm went off at 6AM this morning after I had only slept a few hours but I was way too excited to worry about how tired I was because today was the beginning of a massive Trek America tour which travelled the country for 64 nights. I got out of bed, had a shower, got dressed and went down to the lobby to meet the rest of the tour group at 7AM. There were quite a few tours leaving this morning so it was difficult to know who was in my tour group or not. I put my bags down at sat with a small group of people who were already getting to know each other. The first person who spoke to me and introduced himself was a guy called Dave from England, who was also doing the trailblazer trek. We sat there chatting away meeting other travelers when the tour leaders came around and called out the names of their groups. A guy with a cowboy hat, dark shades and scruffy beard called out mine and Dave's name, it was good to know we were on the same tour, we got our stuff and went outside for a pre-tour meeting.

We all sat around outside in a circle while our tour leader introduced himself as Jon. It was crazy to think that I’d be spending the next 9 weeks travelling the entire country with these complete strangers. First off, we started to introduce ourselves to the group one by one when another person joined our group after going to the wrong one. There was Lucy, from Australia who turned up after getting confused which group she was in. Ben from Australia, Dave from England, Tina from England, Marcia from England, Min from South Korea, Sara from Denmark, Elaine from Ireland and myself. A nice mix of people from all over the world. Jon introduced himself...again and continued to tell us how awesome this trip was going to be but also how dangerous it is. He took some paperwork out of his folder and we all had to write our insurance and passport details, Ben felt he needed to write it down four times, just in case, it was hilarious. Jon handed out some more paperwork while we had a little chat and it was time to grab our luggage and set off.

We headed outside to our transport for the next 9 weeks, a large white van with a blue trailer attached to the back. Jon opened the trailer and explained how to properly pack the van each day, and how important it was. He also introduced us to "Matilda" his couch that he slept on and lugged around the country. We loaded the trailer for the first time and got in the van to head for our first stop...."Ralfs", the supermarket across the road. We got out of the van and had another meeting. Jon explained how we were to do the shopping and that each person is sent to get an item while one stays to look after the trolley, it worked really well, we were done in no time. We put everything into eskies then got into the van and headed off. Van time was more chill back and relax time where we usually just sat around chatting or played some games, listened to music etc. not a whole lot ever went on, most of the time it was sleeping time.

We drove for a while trying out some of Jon's weird taste for music and stopped to have lunch in Santa Barbara, our first lunch stop. It wasn't particularly interesting, ham sandwiches and crisps, we ate and left shortly after. A few hours more driving and we stopped at a cliff face where elephant seals could be seen on the beach. There wasn't a lot to see really they just lay there, didn't ever move, though we took our photos and left. We got to the campsite not long after which was located at "Big Sur", where we were to spend our first night camping. Jon parked the van, we unloaded it, and he explained in full detail how to put up the tent, making sure we knew, he was only going to tell us once. It was easy as though, it wasn't long before we all had our tents up and started preparing for dinner. Dave and I thought we'd have some welcoming drinks so we went searching for the nearest liquor store. After walking through the campsite, crossing a river and climbing a hill we saw it down the road. We stocked up on booze and headed back to camp, all the way chatting about our new friends.

We arrived back at our campsite with plenty of booze to celebrate, by that time dinner was ready. Our campsite was rather nice, we set up our tents around the picnic table and brought out Matilda and sat it overlooking the stream. Most of the group were happy for a quiet night but Dave and I stayed up drinking before joining some other campers around their campfire. They introduced us to 'smores' which was a roasted marshmallow between two chocolate cookies, they were awesome. We got told off a few times for making lots of noise so we eventually called it a night and before we left the girls at the campsite gave us a keg of Heineken to take on our travels, a great first day! Dave and I headed off to sleep, we had to get up early the next day.


Day 1:
Los Angeles - Big Sur
340 MILES TRAVELLED // 340 TOTAL
Riverside Campground

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Photos

Los Angeles
Where we first met as a trek group and introduced ourselves

California Coast
Our first lunch stop in Santa Barbara

California Coast
Californian coast with elephant seals

California Coast
Beautiful Californian coastline

Big Sur
Our first campsite, our tents are up, with Sara and Elaine standing around

Big Sur
Home sweet home, our first campsite, the picnic table and 'Matilda'

Comments

[Tilly]

Money
Hey I just read your trek America blog and sounds amazing but how much money did you take with you in dollars because I see you did a lot of drinking ahah thanks

[CMSchism]

Trek Money
Hi Tilly, I spent loads. But I had saved for ages and I took leave from work and so was getting paid while out there which helped! The entire trip probably cost me close to $10K AUD, but I did do every extra activity, and spent alot on alcohol, and didn't really hold back, I'm sure it could be done for a lot cheaper! It was an amazing trip and worth spending the $'s!!

[Tilly]

Thanks alot for you help :)