The idea of hiking the PCT is something that has been rattling around in the back of my mind for the past 4 years or so. The thought process has always been “well that sounds really cool, but I’ll never have the time” or “that would be incredible, but how could I even make that happen?”
In 2023, I set aside 3 weeks to hike the John Muir Trail, a 211 mile thru-hike across California’s Sierra Nevada, from Mt Whitney (highest peak in the lower 48) to Happy Isles in Yosemite National Park. The JMT just so happens to share about 160 miles of Trail with the PCT. It turns out that this 160 miles was just enough to make me absolutely crazy about the PCT. I only encountered a dozen or so PCT hikers that summer, as it was August (late season for PCT hikers to be in the Sierra) and it was the second-highest ever recorded snow year for the Sierra Nevada – meaning hardly anyone was out there to begin with. Those few hikers I did get a chance to interact with, along with the jaw-dropping, endless beauty of the Sierra sealed the deal for me – I had to get another taste of this trail.
The following year, I found myself back in the Sierra Nevada – this time to hike the Tahoe Rim Trail. The TRT is a 170 mile loop around Lake Tahoe in Northern California and Nevada that shares about 50 miles of trail with the PCT. Just as enamored and captivated by the allure of these mountains as I was the prior year, I found my craving to return and conquer more trail even harder to resist. Upon returning home now unemployed for the first time in over a decade, I found it hard to think about anything else. I bounced the idea off of a few friends and family and received fairly mixed, mostly skeptical reactions. Why would I want to even do this? Why the whole thing? Why now? At the time, it did honestly feel logistically impossible, but I just couldn’t let go of the desire that easily. The mountains were calling me..
Fast-forward another month and it was time for 2025 PCT hopefuls to register for permits. I was still on the fence as to whether I could make it work. I was (thankfully) working again and pinching pennies “just-in-case,” but the idea of leaving my cats behind for 5 months and dropping everything else in my life just to walk to Canada still felt unrealistic. I put my name in the hat anyway – the mountains were calling.
By the end of October, I found myself thoroughly convinced. I could do this. I’ve got to do this. I’ll make it work, no matter what. When else will I have an opportunity like this? How could I know for sure that “the trail will always be there” as people often retort? I’m not getting any younger, and neither are the people/pets in my life that I care about.
I secured a permit for 4/20/25, the exact date I had been tossing around in my head. Most people don’t get the exact date they want, and many don’t even land a permit for the week or month that they want. To me, this had to mean something..
It’s now the middle of March, I’ve just put in my notice at work, and I’m nearly done with my pre-hike preparations. Plans for the cats have been (mostly) established, money has been saved, gear has been purchased, tested, and organized and resupplies and bail-outs have been studied meticulously. It’s been a rough 8 months with a dozen other non-PCT-related complications and challenges that I’ve had to juggle and maneuver around, but I’m feeling ready. Hiking 2,650 miles is no joke and I don’t take it lightly, but at the same time, I know how crushing overplanning and overpreparing can be when things don’t work out. I feel confident that I’ve done what I could with the time I’ve had and for everything else, I’ll just have to take it one step at a time.
Myles From Nowhere 