Why the PCT?

My friends and family think I’m nuts. Truly this is no big surprise. Most people don’t choose to dedicate 6 months to hiking in the middle of nowhere with everything they need on their backs. Truly I believe it takes a special breed to do this.

The first time I really heard about the PCT was back in 2015. I had just moved from California to a ski resort in Colorado, Copper Mountain, to work for the winter. I had this really cool old lady who was going skiing that day but had a snowboard lesson the next. This woman was in her late 60s and was trying snowboarding for the first time. We got talking and she told me some of the crazy things she had done in the past couple of years. She had Hiked the PCT, was planning the Appalachian the next summer. She had tried skydiving and now snowboarding. This crazy old lady had so much energy and zest for life. It blew me away.

She told me about her PCT hike, how she did it alone but that hadn’t bothered her. She said she hoped she would be able to go back one day. It changed her life and she recommended it to everyone. I thought that was so cool, but I was nowhere near fit enough for something like that, nor did it really sound fun. Dragging way to many pounds of stuff through the desert, the idea was cool but doing it…..? I didn’t think it was for me, no matter how cool and exciting it sounded.

Her words stuck with me for the rest of that season and I looked at going to Yellowstone or Alaska for the summer season with the plan to do some light hiking. I had done some hiking in the past, a few with church groups as a kid and a few as an adult with friends. So I was thinking I would do short hikes, nothing too crazy. I had been camping every summer for years and loved it, so I was looking forward to working somewhere with easy access to the back country. I bought some gear and decided to go ahead and give backpacking a try. Me and my boyfriend had both expressed interest before, what better time to do it? Spent the summer in Yellowstone backpacking and hiking and LOVED it. (Seriously I recommend this to just about everyone! Nothing like it.)

I went in thinking a 5 mile hike was long and probably what I would do. After the first 2 weeks I had decided I wanted to hike Mary Mountain (23 miles). That was my biggest hike of the season. And turns out i loved it.

I went back to Copper the next winter and talked with more people about hiking and outdoors stuff and what we planned to do the next summer. The PCT and AT were always in the back of my mind as places I kinda wanted to go (a friend in Yellowstone talked up the AT quite a bit since it was her neck of the woods). Near the end of the season, posted in the hallway of my dorm, was a picture of the PCT. A couple of the guys who worked ski school were spending their summer hiking it and were spreading the word. I remember walking past that poster every day for over a month dreaming of doing that one day but reluctant. I didn’t think I could. I didn’t think I had the will power to push thorough 6 whole months of non-stop walking.

It took a lot of personal growth over the past year to finally get me to the point of confidence in myself. I know I’m not fit. I know I’ve never tackled something of this magnitude before, but why should I let that stop me. I know the basics and have put them to the test in shorter trips. Why shouldn’t I try? Why shouldn’t I push my own boundaries? Why should I let ‘I don’t know’ rule my life? I’m tires of not trying, of not putting myself out there. Even if it means failure. You never know till you try. Sometimes you have to leave your bubble and stand exposed and scared to see what you truly are capable of.