Pacific Crest Trail
March 2020
The morning of March 15, I took my first steps on the Pacific Crest Trail, and I was the happiest I’d been in a long time. The miles came easy and the views were beautiful. I did my first 20-mile day on my third day and met some great people.
On my fifth day, we received the bad news: California issued a shelter-in-place order and the Pacific Crest Trail Association asked all hikers to postpone or cancel their hikes. I had guessed it was coming at some point, but I didn’t think it would be so soon. After debating whether the group of people I was hiking with and I should continue on and avoid towns and other people, we decided the best thing to do was to respect the PCTA’s orders and postpone our hikes.
It was hard to make that decision and I was very sad to be getting off so soon, but my feeling is that it wasn’t meant to be this year. I feel like the time wasn’t right, and I will be more prepared and ready to take on such a big adventure next year.
Even in five days, I learned so much about myself and the hiking lifestyle and I am beyond grateful that I was able to have the time I did on the trail and meet some amazing people.
What I did to prepare
I decided to pre-make all of my food for the trip and send resupply boxes to myself every week or so. This requires much more preparation than the typical resupplying-in-town method, but I felt it was the most cost-effective and nutritious approach. I spent over a hundred hours shopping, chopping, cooking, dehydrating, vacuum sealing, and sorting food into boxes, which was the most stressful part of the preparation.
As for gear, I also spent about a hundred hours comparing and shopping online, taking multiple trips to different outdoor gear stores, trying to find the best deals, and fine-tuning my gear list.
Another part of my preparation was writing. I decided to apply for grants and gear sponsorships, write stories about my alternative path and why I was taking it, and reach out to people and companies for guidance on my undertaking. After countless revisions on emails, stories, and application essays, I finally finished and despite the stress it caused me, I was beyond happy with the outcome.
What I’ll do differently next time
Each year the weather on the PCT is different. Some years, it’s hot and dry from the very beginning, and other years it’s cold and wet. This year was the latter, especially starting mid-March. I began the trail knowing I would encounter snow and cold, but not to the extreme that I experienced. On my fourth morning, I woke up to three inches of snow and it barely stopped for the rest of my time on trail.
Although it’s hard to know what the weather conditions will be next year, I plan to bring more warm clothing to prevent the risk of hypothermia and make the hike more enjoyable in the case of cold, snowy, or rainy days.
What I learned
Within the first hour of hiking, I realized that the hard part was behind me. The woods was my home, and all I had to do was hike. The deliberate planning and stress was over, and ahead of me was months of eating, walking and sleeping. No, it’s not easy 100% of the time, but I felt I had finally crossed the threshold to a place where life was simple.