Introduction
From May 01, 2022 to October 01, 2022, I hiked the roughly 2,650-mile long Pacific Crest Trail, which spans from the California/Mexico border to the Washington/Canada border.
Through the deserts, mountains, forests, and beyond, I shared this journey with hundreds of other amazing hikers.
Although not everything went according to plan, I had an unforgettable summer and wanted to capture my experience here.
A few quick notes before we start.
First, I'm going to do my best to keep my writing short. Normally, my writing style is quite effusive, but I mostly wanted to share what was unique to my trip, as well as some photographs I took along the way.
I will also focus on highlights from my trip, which means cutting out a lot of hiking, despite it being most of the experience. This will give the impression that the PCT is just walking from town, to point of interest, to another town, which is definitely not the case. It just better matches my memories.
If you're interested in more detailed accounts of what the PCT is like, feel free to check out the following, all of which inspired this hike:
- Thru-Hiking Will Break Your Heart
- Thirst
- Journeys North
- This is not a beautiful hiking video
- It Is The People
I adapted much of my writing here from a daily online journal I kept. Originally, I planned on simply rewriting it, but found that the level of detail I wrote day by day varied. I also noticed that most entries began with “I woke up early”.
To save you from that, I've rewritten the entire experience from scratch. You may also assume from here on out that I woke up early, unless otherwise noted.
Finally, I will be using everyone's “trail names”, where applicable. Trail names are a long distance hiking tradition, where instead of sharing our real names, we give each other nicknames based on some attribute or anecdote from the trail.
For example, my trail name was “Ask Jeeves”, though most people shortened it to just Jeeves. This is in reference to my habit of always having an answer to a question asked out loud, as well as questions not asked.
If you'd like this in other forms, please check out one of the following versions:
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