Start Date: May 2nd, 2018
Finish Date: October 1st, 2018
Miles Hiked: 2,650
At mile: 2652-Canada! That's right, we're finally done. We are so so happy to be done hiking. It was a bit of a grind and frankly, the last few days were all around miserable. Let's look at the last leg of our trip by the numbers: 150.9 Trail miles traveled since our last update. The […]
David and I are almost to the end of our journey. There are less than 200 trail miles until we are in Canada. There is only one more town stop in between where we are now and the end of the trail, which is exciting. Unfortunately, that last town is Stehekin, and apparently it is […]
At mile: 2295 Hello friends! Last time we wrote, David and I were in Sisters, Oregon. Since then, we have hiked around Mt.Jefferson and up the side of Mt. Hood to Timberline Lodge where we took full advantage of an all you can eat buffet. The trail then descended all the way into the Columbia […]
At mile: 1983 We are in Oregon! For now at least. After spending 3.5 months traipsing the length of California, our time in Oregon will be remarkably brief. We will probably only be in this state for another week. Which is a shame, because we really like it here. The trail has been easy. Our […]
Wednesday-I woke up right around 6:00 am because I heard a strange noise from outside. Sure enough, a chipmunk was outside the tent trying to drag my food bag away. It was way too heavy, but he had the last laugh because I later realized while he hadn't managed to get away with the whole […]
At mile: 1407 So friends, David and I had a plan to present a day in our life where we would recap a full day of our hike and you all could follow along and feel like you were out here with us. We chose a day and kept track of all the things we […]
At Mile: 1267.9 We are firmly in Northern California now, the most mysterious of the five sections of trail (Desert, Sierras, NorCal, Oregon, Washington). Prior to the start of our adventure we heard rumors about everywhere else: the Sierras are beautiful but difficult, the Washington section gets rainy, the Desert is long and hot, Oregon […]
At Mile: 1017 We didn't know it at the time, but our stop in Mammoth Lakes marked the end of the most extreme portion of the Sierras. We only hiked for two days out of Mammoth before reaching Tuolomne Meadows and a paved road. It was the first road we had crossed in 250 miles […]
At Mile: 906 Earlier today, David and I wandered out of the woods in rough shape. We were dirty and smelly, cranky and hungry. We are covered in scrapes, bruises, and mosquito bites, our lips are cracked and bleeding, and we are visibly thinner than we were ten days ago. It has been a tough […]
At Mile 745.3 We are resting up today in Lone Pine, CA. As we approached Kennedy Meadows and then as we left it behind, the trail has slowly been transitioning from high desert into the high Sierras. Sagebrush and chapparel is slowly giving way to soft pines and huge boulders. The countless lizards that scurried […]
At Mile: 652 We are in the home stretch of the desert right now. There are only 47 more miles until we hit Kennedy Meadows and the start of the Sierra Nevadas. It will be a great relief to see some new scenery and have more water sources. We had to switch from the Desert […]
We know it has been a while since we last posted. We have been busy and hot and tired and the cell service spotty. But buckle up, because we are going to make sure to catch you all up on everything you might have missed.
At mile: 369.3 Hiking out of Big Bear Lake We left Big Bear on Saturday morning. Because it was the weekend, the trail was filled with people. We hiked among dayhikers raising money for charity and dodged off-roading jeeps and mountain bikers. We were planning a big mile day, but at the 20 mile mark […]
At mile: 266 Hello all! Just a short one today and a lot of pictures. We left Idyllwild Sunday afternoon, hiking three miles on a side trail to get back up to the PCT. We then proceeded to only hike three actual trail miles that evening, a choice that inadvertently put us in the position […]
At Mile: 178 Well, our bodies don't feel any better but we have been pushing on. Sometimes it feels like we aren't making any progress. The morning miles come slow because our bodies are stiff and it takes a while for our feet to remember how to walk. The afternoon miles are slow because the […]
At mile: 77.3 We have been hiking for four and a half days along the PCT. And it sucks. It is so hot, and somehow, the hiker hobble that affected us weeks into our AT thru-hike only took one day on this hike to rear up its ugly head. David has blisters all over the […]
We are finally on the way! As I write this, David and I are making our way across the mesa-studded landscape of New Mexico on the way to San Diego and the beginning of our hike. All packed up and ready to go! We left Michigan last Wednesday morning with just our backpacks and whatever […]
It is both exciting and horrible to buy gear for a long distance hike. Exciting because every purchase feels like it moves us closer to our adventure. Horrible because there are so many choices. Too many choices.
There are going to be a lot of difficult things about hiking the PCT. But the thing that makes me the most worried is...the sun.
After a few weeks it became obvious that David and I had developed completely different philosophies about the gear we had researched, purchased, used, and in some cases (mostly mine) completely destroyed.
There is a hiker/blogger, Mac, who surveys PCT thru-hikers every year on his blog, Halfway Anywhere. The results can be a little nitty-gritty for the casual observer. Here are a few quick take-aways.
While thru-hiking, you will often be smelly, exhausted, dirty, sore, and soaking wet. It takes work to keep the romance alive.
Have you ever wondered how much it costs to thru-hike the Pacific Crest Trail? Our estimate is that this thru-hike will take 5 months and cost $22,055. What!? How is that possible!? Let's break it down.
This is going to happen. You can’t mention you are going to spend months walking across the western seaboard without getting, at the very least, some weird looks. It’s important to know what to say to the doubters and the unconvinced.
It has been nearly 5 years since we both started thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail and every year since, as winter rolled around, we’ve toyed with the idea of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail the following spring. But now, at the beginning of 2018 and over 4 years since we summited Katahdin, the timing feels right. We’re doing it.
As a potential thru-hiker, you get to talk about the trail pretty often. That means you also get to answer the same questions over and over. Here are the most common questions we hear and some quick answers.