Mexico to Canada.
The night fell with bicycle bells, the dark had wooden teeth
Oh we broke on up to hill country, the air was thin and sweet
Lord, the air was thin and sweet
She held onto my coat that night, like a kid lost in her sleeves
Oh we warmed the ground, we hushed our sound
We slept on walking feet
Lord, we slept on walking feet
— “Living Proof” by Gregory Alan Isakov
In 2022, I had my 3rd major season on the PCT, hiking roughly 2,200 miles from Mexico to Ashland, Oregon; as well as the state of Washington. I had to punt Oregon until 2023 on account of fires.
In 2018, I hiked the entire trail from Mexico to Canada, April 20th to September 29th. 163 days. This entailed 484,000 ft of ascent (92 miles up), and 483,000 ft. of descent (91 miles down). A total of 2,650 miles.
The best part of the journey was the people I met. Here are a few of those magical moments.
I hitchhiked 76 times for resupplies. Lost 65 lbs. (29 kg) of body weight. My gear base weight was around 12.5 lbs. I wore through 4 pairs of shoes and 2 pairs of pants.
I encountered 3 black bears, 10 rattlesnakes, 1 tarantula, 0 cats and 0 scorpions. One million mosquitoes.
All told, the trail went through 6 ecozones, 48 wilderness areas, 60 mountain passes, 25 national forests, and 6 national parks.
Oh Darlin, pardon me
Can you help me remember
When we were all flying free
We were dust from our bodies
And we were flicker and flame, yeah we burned till the morning
Darlin, pardon me
But do I look familiar
When we were just larkspur and leaves
We were strung through the tether
And we were all silver and stone
We were the lust of the miners
Darlin, pardon me
— “Living Proof” by Gregory Alan Isakov
At the Southern Terminus, and 5.5 months later at the Northern Terminus.
I’m very appreciative of the numerous trail angels who lent their support and the friends who came to trail.
Lastly, if you have the time, these recent films do an excellent job sharing the experience of the trail:
It is the People, a beautiful 2019 film by New Zealander “TipTap”
She has an 11-part series on the trail here. I can’t give it enough praise.
More excellent films:
The Art of Walking
A Summer on the PCT
Thru-Hiker
To Measure a Mile
Northbound on the PCT
4270 KM documentary
GEAR
Here is a list of my current gear.
And here are several gear videos by other hikers which are excellent reference points if you’re beginning your research. I need a bit more warmth or comfort than most of them (my base weight is around 11 lbs), but they all have good ideas to chew on.
Paddles (In The Open Air)
TipTap
JuiceHikes
John Zahorian
Alan Long
JupiterHikes
Darwin
A couple of fun nerdy gear comparison spreadsheets:
Battery pack comparison
Quilt comparison
Backpack comparison (check out Zimmerbuilt under frameless tab)
I had a made a previous attempt in the 2015 season, where I tried to record daily entries.
Here are my final numbers for the 2015 season:
1500 miles (2400 km) in distance.
273,240 ft. elevation gain (83.3 km).
269,715 ft. elevation loss (82.2 km).
34 lbs. of weight loss! (15.4 kg)
2016 update: Last year was a great experience! If any of you are considering doing it, all I can say is do it, do it, DO IT! I am slowly but surely working through my photos, processing them with Lightroom and trying to gradually polish my entries up.
I’ll be posting more in the days ahead about my brief excursion on the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) in April 2016, and entries from this summer’s adventures! I managed to complete California this past August and drive my total trail mileage to over 2,000. It was another terrific season.