My Pacific Crest Trail Backstory
So I thought I’d give a run down of my backstory: how I got to the point of starting the 2650 mile hike that is the Pacific Crest Trail. This post is related to some instagram posts that have been published and will be published over the next week or so. So check that out @justagirlandabackpack.blog on IG or facebook.
Since these are already in the form of a photo series on IG, and I wanted to continue that method here, but my phone won’t let me upload photos right now :(( check out my FB for the pics. I’ll fix this when I get home in 4-6 months haha
@chunkychuckwalla, our friend Simon and I then did a shake down hike in the high desert of the Los Padres mountains to see if Blake and I were ready to do 165 miles together on the Tahoe Rim Trail.
We had some mishaps (blisters everywhere, ran out of water, etc) and were excited to find we hiked well together
On the Tahoe Rim Trail, @chunkychuckwalla and I found a mutual love and respect for long distance trails, big mileage days, and everything thru hiking. He told me about the Pacific Crest Trail (I thought he was crazy to even consider 2650miles, considering how dead we were after 165) and all the thruhikers he followed on IG. At this point in time, doing the PCT was not even a twinkle in my eye haha
At some point, Blake and I decided we wanted to attempt the PCT. The trail was his dream; I was planning to do parts of it, or to go as far as I could so he’d have company. We did another big hike on the Uinta Highline Trail in Utah: 105 miles, half of which was way finding, and all of it was huge summit after grueling descent. Glorious trip.
On either side of this trip, i was studying abroad in south America, so we decided to attempt the PCT after graduating in June 2020
While in Chile, i finished off my year abroad with an 80 loop through the Tierra del Fuego with some friends Karly and Audrey. Unfortunately our packs we’re pretty heavy because we were doing short mileage days and the food options in south America aren’t very lightweight. This is objectively one of the prettiest places on the planet
My first night ever camping alone, I hiked in maybe 2 miles close to sunset in Tahoe on a trip with my sister and her bf. It was weird to not have someone helping and talking and mirroring my actions and eating with me. But it was interesting to learn that the solitude brought peace, not fear.
@chunkyhuckwalla and I did our first two consecutive 20+ mile days on the three sisters wilderness loop in Oregon. He hated me the entire first and second day because I was pushing to get the miles in. The third day though he wanted to summit the south sister; she is a bitch and I literally almost keeled over and died
This year (April 2021) I did my first snow camping trip in Buena Vista Colorado with some friends and my boyfriend. It was grueling, and I learned a LOT that will do me well in my first couple of weeks in Washington.
In the last 11 months I’ve road tripped all around the US, hitting about 30 or so states. Some of the trips I did with friends, some with family, and some alone. The almost 20 days I did Solo were a really good opportunity to get used to being alone, entertaining myself, setting up camp and eating alone, etc. I felt that this helped me prepare for the psychological side of thruhiking for 4 months. I also got to see amazing wildlife and views, meet random people from different parts of the US, and just drive for miles and miles
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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.
3 Comments
Thomas
You truly have wanderlust!
Miles M. Mason
Good for you. I will be there with you vicariously from Hawaii …
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Great to hear it! Thanks for following. Hope HA is treating you well