The Pacific Crest Trail runs approximately 2650 miles from border to border. Yet the actual air distance between Campo and Manning is just 1200 miles.
One might think that a hardscrabble border outpost such as Campo would contain at least one entrepreneurial soul seeking to capitalize on the hundreds -- if not thousands -- of PCT hikers and family members streaming to the border monument each season. But that's hardly the situation we found in 2005. The community couldn't give a lick about the business of those who are heading to Canada. The real economic engine in Campo is people who are going nowhere: several hundred felons-in-training at two youth detention facilities. There is also brisk trade in people who are heading south, those hapless illegal aliens who have had their hikes cut short by the Border Patrol and are waiting to make a vehicle-assisted U-turn back to whence they came. You will walk right by both a sprawling youth prison complex and an equally impressive Border Patrol facility in the first few minutes of your journey. A fine time to reflect on just how fortunate you are -- PCT hikers being among the most free people on the face of the earth. The putative "trading post" at Campo's main intersection -- Forrest Gate Road and Highway 94 -- holds little if anything for PCT hikers. The former Village Inn is now McGuffy's Bar and Grill (29804 Oak Dr, 619 478-5480). According to online reports the Oak Shore Malt Shop (2425 Lake Morena Drive, 619 478-5845), which had been the first bankable food of the journey, a half-mile east of the trailhead at Lake Morena County Park, is still operating as a convenience store but no longer serving food. However it did serve breakfast during the Kickoff weekend 2006. We know nothing about the Campo Diner (1367 Dewey Place, just south of 94, 619 478-2888) other than it was open during Kickoff weekend in 2008.
As for lodging in this section, we found metro San Diego to be a very expensive market for motels. A short surf through the Web travel consolidators yielded no bargains at all. Rather than stay in San Diego on the eve of the big day, we opted to book three nights up the hill at Mt. Laguna, which allowed me to luxuriate in a cozy cabin the first two nights, load a ton of calories in the eating establishments of Pine Valley and, best of all, slackpack the first two days on the trail.