PCT permits became available today, so I applied for one at pcta.org. Unlike previous years, they're limiting starts at the southern end of the trail to 50 people a day... more rationale here: http://www.pcta.org/2015/improvements-southern-california-aim-protect-visitor-experiences-pct-environment-27304/
I was #2 out of 50, starting on Monday March 30th. Looks like a whole lot of people are planning to start on Wed April 1st--right now there are 20 starting that day, just a few hours after the permits opened! On my day, not so many so far, just 4 out of 50.
Now I can apply for my permit to walk into Canada.
On another more discouraging note, I felt a twinge of plantar fasciitis yesterday morning on my run, just in front of the back ball of my foot of my left foot. It's the first time since May 2012 that I've felt it (when we were tromping around Ukraine and Russia), but it wasn't as bad then. It didn't start happening in my run until 25 minutes in, about 2 1/2 miles... and it went away the rest of the day.
But last night at 2pm there was a noise and I woke up--and I felt it, stressed out, and couldn't get back to sleep. It's a tough condition to cure; the worst I ever had it was in 2005 or 2006, when I was really doing a lot of rugby and running around. When I had it that time, it took six months to heal, and I thought I was broken permanently.
I'm trying to recall what I did then--I treated it with resting it for sure, I had custom orthotics made but they made it worse, and I think I took a lot of ibuprofen. I should go back in my journal and look at the notes I took then to figure out exactly what worked and did that time (time to dig through old LiveJournal entries from way-back-when!)
I also suspect that it was all the snowshoeing this weekend and walking in those cold stiff new leather boots that triggered it. I liked the snowshoeing I did this weekend, but it wass really hard for me to hold my left foot in a straight line. That left foot of mine is attached to my lower leg at a goofy angle, so I walk like a duck. I had to to unnaturally twist my left knee and upper leg to keep my left snowshoe pointed straight so I didn't trip over the end of it--or stomp on it--with my right showshoe.
It could also be the new shoes I tried out yesterday, the same model I normally wear but with lugs on the insole for more aggressive grips on trail conditions. They really felt more grabby on the street, and on the trails I ran on in Balboa Park.
Anyways, whatever the cause and cure, I'm resting from running until the weekend. I'm pretty fit right now, so my overall fitness won't suffer, and that plantar fasciitis should be improved by a few days off.