Follow me from Canada to Mexico as I hike the PCT!
I want to thank all of my new followers who subscribed in response to recent social media posts about my impending journey! I hope you will enjoy what I have to say, and share with anyone you think might be interested.
I intend to schedule weekly blog posts ahead of time as I work my way down the trail, giving you all an in-depth glimpse of life on the trail, as well as personal updates, regional quirks, and funny anecdotes. I’ll give you some advice on how to backpack with minimal risks, use great Leave No Trace skills, and who knows, maybe I’ll convince you to become a thru-hiker (hopefully one of you will make a movie that paints thru-hiking in a better light than Sheryl’s “Wild”). I also intend to do more regular instagram posts, that I will base my blog posts off of. These posts will not be current with where I am on trail, for safety reasons; if you are close friends or family, I’ll keep you better updated 🙂
The Pacific Crest Trail
The Pacific Crest Trail (or PCT for short) is a 2,650 mile hiking and riding trail that goes through Washington, Oregon and California, from the US border with Canada to the US border with Mexico. The trail goes through desert, temperate rainforest (ish), lush and muddy meadows, high altitude granite alpine crags, dusty forests, snowy passes, and so much more, through some of the most beautiful places on the planet. The highest part of the trail hits 13,153 feet above sea level, and the lowest comes all the way down to 140ft, with 824, 370 feet of elevation gain and loss.
The PCT is one of three fairly well known exceptionally long distance trails in the US (don’t tell that to some of the other even longer lesser known trails!), and the completion of all three means a hiker is a Triple Crowner. At the moment, the Continental Divide Trail has caught my interest, but the Appalachian Trail is too wet; some other trails that I’ve been looking at are the CT, AZT, and a couple outside of the US.
Introductory vocabulary of a thru-hike
- Thru-hike: This is a hottly debated definition within the thru-hiking community, but ultimately I would call a thru-hike a long-distance backpacking trip (hiking with a tent and stove and everything else that you need to survive, not backpacking through hostels in Thailand) with high daily mileage; usually this hike is done from point A to point B continuously in one direction–but any real PCT hiker could tell you that the weather, natural disasters and injuries don’t always allow that to happen.
- Section Hiking: section hiking is backpacking or hiking shorter sections of longer trails, sometimes with the goal of eventually completing, section by section, the entire trail
- Sobo: This is a reference to a South Bound hike (heading south from Canada towards Mexico). This is the direction I will be traveling.
- Nobo: The opposite of Sobo: North Bound
- High-mileage days: You’ll meet thru-hikers that never top 15 miles per day, and you’ll find others that are topping 50 miles for the majority of their trip; my current goal is to have a minimum average mileage of about 24mi/day, subject to change. My current highest mileage day is 26.3 miles, without being in shape!
- “Hike your own hike”: the unofficial motto of a thru-hiker, that basically just means that everyone is on the trail for different reasons, with different goals and different ways of accomplishing those goals. Some people party and drink their way through the trail, some hike it without speaking at all, some go Sobo, etc.
- Trail Angels: Trail Angels (TA’s) are people who help out thru-hikers in various ways, including: helping hikers get to and from trail, sending resupplies, allowing hikers to camp in their lawns or stay in their homes, feeding hikers at a restaurant or giving them some food out of their own packs, etc. These TA’s can be friends or family of individual hikers, random strangers who see a hiker in need, or well-established Angels that help hikers out every year! I’ve had a trail angel or two over the years who I hitchhiked with, or who I payed for gas for a 3 hour trip to the trailhead.
- Trail Magic: Trail magic is often performed by Trail Angels, and can be in the form of food left on the trail, water caches in the desert section, a friendly face when a hiker is feeling exhausted, a ride to town, etc. We once found trail magic in the form of a huge bag of cookies labeled Trail Magic.
- Tramily: Tramily is a Trail Family, Trail + Family = Tramily. It’s basically comprised of the other hikers that one meets on the trail, often overlapping or hiking together, camping together, going into town or sharing a meal with each other. They say the Tramily bond is thicker than blood, because everyone is going through a similarly impossibly difficult experience.
- Ultralight Backpacker: (UL) this is a backpacker that has decided to lighten their pack exponentially by getting rid of anything that isn’t absolutely essential (except for one or two so called luxury items); these packs when full (not including consumables such as food and water) can weigh in between 15 and 5 pounds (give or take a few) and often have some interesting quirks to cut weight, like no frame, a toothbrush that is cut in half, no underwear, straps cut off, etc. The purpose of the sacrifice is many-fold, allowing longer mileage days, less impact, less potential for injury, and a certain amount of freedom and self-sufficience. I am currently more of a lightweight hiker at approximately 17lbs with my full winter gear (ice axe, microspikes, warmer layers and sleeping bag), with several items that I haven’t yet been able to part with, and will probably part with once I am on trail for a month or so and have decided I’d rather not carry the extra weight.
- Traditional Backpacker: this type of backpacker is the norm, with packs weighing in between 25 and 90lbs, full of extra clothing, pots and pans, a chair, a machete, the lap dog, etc.
- Leave No Trace: this is a national environmental movement that all National (and probably State) Parks go follow to try to teach people about how to interact with nature in a less impactful way. I am certified as a Leave No Trace Trainer, and have trained people over the last couple of years; personally I think of Leave No Trace more as guidelines for beginner outdoorspeople, and I know that there is room to interact with nature in sustainable ways that are not allowed for within the rules of the movement.
- Resupply: a resupply is when a hiker has to go into town to restock food and other consumables, and sometimes other items like broken gear or new shoes. This has to happen pretty often, between 2 and 8 days, depending on how much food a person is willing to lug around and how far apart the trail towns are. A resupply can also come in the form of a box sent in the mail ahead of time.
- Zero Day: (a Zero) this is a day where the hiker plans to hike 0 miles, to just relax, get some chores done, etc. This can be done in a hotel in town, or on the trail, or even at home if they got a ride. Most people take several of these throughout the trail.
- Nero Day: (a Nero) this is a day where the hiker hikes “nearly zero” miles.
Why do the PCT?
A lot of people can’t fathom doing something as emotionally, physically and mentally challenging as the PCT, and many hikers get a lot of questions, well-meaningly clueless well wishes, and excitement in response to others hearing about their adventure (as well as derision, misunderstanding, and other negative responses that never quite make sense, except perhaps if the other person is jealous and doesn’t know how to express their emotions in a way that is mature).
In truth, everyone goes into the PCT for different reasons, and although many people have overlapping reasoning, a hiker’s choice to do a trail like this is immensely personal.
My own choice to do the PCT has evolved considerably since I made tentative plans to do part of it with my friend and backpacking partner Blake “Chunky Chuckwalla”. The summer of 2018 I did my first (and still longest-to-date) thru-hike with him: a 12 day, 165 mile hike around the Tahoe Rim Trail, when I still had an almost 20lbs base weight (no winter gear). There he tried to convince me of the merits of the PCT and other absurdly long thru-hikes; needless to say, I was pretty skeptical. Look at me now though! Setting out ALONE, on the ENTIRE PCT!!
I’ve made a list of reasons and big and small that I am doing the PCT, to help keep me motivated to stay on trail when the going gets tough. Some of the less inane reasons include: become a real Ultralight thru-hiker–I’ve already got a list of the things I think I can cut back; it’s been a dream over 3 years in the making that was stomped on last year when we had to cancel due to COVID-19; it’s a great stepping stone for entering the outdoor industry as a professional, if that is what I decide to do; etc. Some of the inane ones include: a chance to chop all of my hair of; I have no other future plans so why not; bragging rights; etc.
Thanks for reading
Thanks for reading! Check back for more updates, or subscribe below to get emails when I post something.
My sister started a GoFundMe for me because she is worried I’m going to die alone in the woods, starving or something (hopefully not). If you are interested, please share this link! ( or copy and paste https://gofund.me/0c447716 into your browser )
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Kirsten is an enthusiastic, bilingual naturalist with 11+ years of experience as a non-formal environmental educator, 6+ years as an outdoor recreation guide, 6+ years as a content writer, and 13+ years as an eco-friendly horticulturist and landscaper. She has designed and maintained 2 websites dedicated to public-facing environmental and outdoor education information for community consumption. Successfully taught 5 online, multi-week zoom workshop series to 5-10 regular participants on an international scale.
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