Portrait 14: The Danger Brothers

There was some speculation at the start of the PCT whether the Danger Brothers were actually brothers or if they met on trail and quickly became friends. They're definitely brothers. They're also definitely the ones who started the rumor that they're not brothers. When I met them, I found it rather odd that people were discussing it. It was immediately obvious that they grew up together.

At the beginning of the desert, the Bros hiked together all day long. I met them while resupplying before Mount Baden-Powell. They got into town before I did and were sitting at a sunny picnic table having beers with the others in their group. By this point, I had solo hiked almost 300 miles out of the first 360. And then I found myself alone at the picnic table with Stranger while I waited. Despite some social awkwardness and all the barriers I had up, he started a conversation with me that lasted over a thousand miles. My first day hiking with the Bros included a long road walk. I followed them for miles on the pavement. We wound up hiking about 20 miles that day. We camped at a gorgeous campground, which was not yet open for the season. It was a beautiful place and we had it all to ourselves. I sat with the Bros and watched the two of them take playful jabs at each other over dinner, then start planning their next day of hiking together.

Like a lot of people, I got on trail to deal with some stuff. Hiking was my happy place. It still is. But seeing the Danger Brothers play together, and sweat together, and argue with each other made me happy too. I took a lot of zeroes in the desert. Partially, I can blame that on an early start date and lots of snow. Partially, I can acknowledge that I truly enjoyed hanging out with the tramily in town. The group really helped me learn to love people again. And it all started with an awkward chat with a random hiker in the desert.