For Pacific Crest Trail hikers, a new militarized zone on the US-Mexico border challenges a longstanding tradition

SAN DIEGO - The recent creation of a national defense area along the U.S.-Mexico border may affect a longstanding tradition for Pacific Crest Trail hikers starting their nearly 3,000-mile journey north in San Diego County.

Late last year, the Trump administration announced a militarized zone along the border in San Diego and Imperial counties - one of several sections of the border now controlled by the U.S. military as part of expanded immigration enforcement.

The 60-foot wide zone extends 104 miles, from the Otay Mountain Wilderness east to just west of the Arizona state line. In Campo, it's located directly next to the southern terminus of the Pacific Crest Trail, where thousands of hikers begin their thru hike to the Canadian border each spring.

For years, it's been a tradition for many hikers to touch the border fence when starting or ending their hike - an activity no longer permitted.

Access to the national defense area must be requested through the U.S. Navy, which owns the land for the next three years, after a land transfer last year from the Department of the Interior.

"People are upset about this. People are sad," said Chris Rylee, spokesperson for the Pacific Crest Trail Association, a nonprofit that advocates for access to and maintenance of the 2,650-mile trail.

"This is a pretty substantial change for the land ownership and management, and there's enough in writing that it's a concern that may affect the trail experience by military installations and personnel being nearby," he added. "Just the presence of it would change the feeling of the southern terminus of the PCT."

The Joint Task Force-Southern Border - the Department of Defense unit sent to support Customs and Border Protection with border security within the national defense area - declined to comment on potential deployment plans. Neither it nor the Pentagon would say whether hikers should expect a greater military presence.

PCT hikers aren't the only hikers faced with the impacts of a national defense area. Other sections of the militarized zone extend along the border in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

Access to the southern terminus monument of the Continental Divide Trail - which begins in New Mexico and travels 3,100 miles through the Rocky Mountains to the Canadian border - now requires a permit from the U.S. Army.

Last fall, the Arizona Trail Association reported that concertina wire had been installed around that trail's southern monument, blocking access.

And last January, the Canadian Border Services Agency announced that it would no longer issue permits to PCT hikers to cross from the United States into Canada without first visiting a port of entry.

Signs are now posted along the national defense area in San Diego and Imperial counties to alert people about the new designation, said Kristopher Haugh, the spokesperson for the Naval Air Facility El Centro. The area is considered an extension of the Naval Air Facility El Centro, and those who trespass on the militarized zone may face the same penalty as trespassing on a military base.

Hough would not say how access to the national defense area will be enforced but said visitors can apply for access through the air facility's website.

"Best bet is play by the rules and request access," he wrote in an email. He said the "goal is to allow people to recreate to the maximum extent possible."

Dee Milosch runs a campground for PCT hikers at the Camp Lockett Event & Equestrian Facility in Campo, less than half a mile from the trail's southern terminus. About 2,000 hikers stayed at the campground last season; she expects the same this year. The campground opened for the season on March 1.

Milosch doesn't think the national defense area - and the new restrictions on access to the border wall - will hinder hikers at the start of the trail, especially since they have such a long way to go.

The PCT heads north through San Diego County, traversing more than 600 miles of Southern California before heading north along the crest of the Sierra Nevada and the Cascade Range beyond it.

"It may be a wrinkle for some people," she said. "I would hope it's not an issue and that the focus is on looking north and walking."

But for any hikers who do cross the national defense area to touch the border fence, she hopes the Navy takes a "common-sense approach" to enforcement - especially for hikers who simply walk across for a quick photo.

The Trump administration announced its expanded military oversight at the southern border last March. It subsequently began establishing national defense areas where it says U.S. troops can temporarily detain anyone accused of trespassing.

About 9,000 troops are currently assigned to the border through the Joint Task Force, according to a Joint Task Force-Southern Border spokesperson, with more than 500 in San Diego and Imperial counties.

In a statement in December, the Interior Department called the section of border in San Diego and Imperial counties "one of the highest traffic regions for unlawful crossings along the southern border." But migrant encounters at the U.S-Mexico border are at their lowest level in more than 50 years, historic CBP data shows.

Barney Scout Mann hiked the PCT in 2007 and for nearly two decades provided support for hikers in San Diego, including hosting them at his house with his wife and driving them to the southern terminus. Mann said that roughly a quarter of the hikers he drove to the southern terminus planned to participate in the tradition of touching the border wall before starting their hike.

Access to the border has grown stricter over the decades as immigration enforcement has become more of a national concern.

Mann has written extensively about the PCT and its history, including a book about his experience hiking the trail.

He points to some of the first people who hiked it in the 1930s - and who began their trek a short distance from a former Mexican customs office, back when a thin fence was the only physical barrier between the two countries.

The PCT's first southern monument was installed in 1988, facing north, so that hikers could see the border fence in the background of the photos when they started the trail.

But in 2016, Mann helped rebuild the monument, this time facing it east. That way, hikers would instead have the rolling hills behind them in their photos, not the border fence - which by 2016 had evolved from a small fence to an 18- to 30-foot-high steel wall.

For some, the border wall is simply the backdrop to the start of their long distance hike, and the new national defense area won't make much of a difference.

But for Mann, the new militarized zone could take away some of the thrill of hiking from Mexico to Canada and the idealized ruggedness of the experience. He says it also feels like an unnecessary step from the federal government - one that could cause unnecessary stress for the hikers starting out on their trek.

"This feels crummy," he said.

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This story was originally published March 5, 2026 at 8:03 AM.