Morgen Glessing’s friends dropped him off at the California Mexico border around 5 p.m. He only hiked about five miles that night and was nervous about what he had gotten himself into. He briefly passed one other person, a girl with a husky. As he trekked beyond them and eventually set up camp, it was quiet and calm — a big empty night in the Californian desert. He only had 2,595 more miles to go.