Month: April 2024

I started the PCT at Campo, California one year ago today.

I almost don’t remember it. It is weird, but helpful to look back on it right now. The years of planning, literally YEARS, had all culminated in this moment. The bundle of nerves that I had contorted myself into at that point was almost overwhelming. I found that out 8 miles in.

I have hiked 8 miles hundreds of times in my life. The weather was lovely. Temperature was in the 70s. It should have been fine. But yet I found myself huddled under my umbrella after lunch, wondering if I was going to have to hit the SOS button on my inreach. Was I going to be that person? Was I going to maybe be that person that you read about that gets airlifted out on the first day of the trail?

As if I hadn’t trained and worked for this for YEARS and prepared myself to avoid this very situation? The thought was terrifying. The thought.

That was my experience in the first four hours of the PCT.

What I found out, as everyone does, is that the trail provides.

As I sat under my umbrella, dousing myself with water to keep cool, a fellow PCT hiker finally appeared. Until that point, I hadn’t seen anyone all day.

“Hey man, can I hike with you a bit? I’m not doing great and I just want to be with someone.”

“Of course!”, came his reply.

His name was John and I never saw him again after we parted ways a couple of miles later.

I started feeling better and then met a Danish brother and sister that I made the hike down into Hauser Canyon with to end the day. We got to the bottom and there were already a few other groups set up to camp for the night at the bottom of this canyon with a nice creek that normally wouldn’t be flowing at this time of year.

This was 15 miles in. I was terrified. Once I got my tent set up, I cooked dinner. I ate almost nothing. I felt sick as a dog. I felt like an alien in my skin (credit to Nikki for that description). I had never felt so vulnerable.

Now I am sitting in Austin reflecting on this day and writing about it.

My month on this trail changed me in ways that I wanted to be changed. I have so many miles to go, but I am forever grateful for this experience and I am going to follow my soul to try and add more miles in the coming years.

I plan to hike SoBo (southbound) on the trail at the end of July from South Lake Tahoe to Mammoth Lakes, 189 miles. My buddy Stix, who has been hiking the Arizona Trail this spring (#walk_in_memory_and_peace on instagram) is going to hike sobo from Chester, CA to Kennedy Meadows and finish the Sierra he skipped last year due to snow, so I’m going to join him for two weeks.

The trail is epic. The experience is completely unique. I will continue to hike it and eventually will finish, though the miles aren’t the point. The journey along the way is the point. As in life.