It’s with A LOT of excitement, we’re announcing that Bryan and I will be thru-hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in 2018!

Yep! You read that right. We’re going to continuously hike 2650 miles from Mexico to Canada. It won’t be easy but it will be a hell of a good time!

What is the PCT or Pacific Crest Trail?

The Pacific Crest Trail spans 2,650 miles (4,265 kilometers) from Mexico to Canada through California, Oregon, and Washington. It reveals the beauty of the desert, unfolds the glaciated expanses of the Sierra Nevada, travels deep forests, and provides commanding vistas of volcanic peaks in the Cascade Range. The trail symbolizes everything there is to love—and protect—in the Western United States.

— Pacific Crest Trail Association

When do you start? We’ve received confirmation that our permits were approved and are scheduled to depart on April 1st, 2018. April’s Fool Day! This is no joke haha! The date has significance to us: it’s the same day we set off on our RV adventures, almost two years ago! Seemed to be a good time to set off on a new adventure, right?

What about your jobs? Bryan received approval from his company to leave for 5 months… how awesome is THAT? As for me, I’m a freelancer and am flexible with work assignments.

How long will it take? To finish in less than 5 months, we will average about 20miles of hiking per day but hopefully more as we get accustomed to hiking on a daily basis. Last year, the PCT received enormous amounts of snow and made it very difficult for hikers to make it through without having to skip sections or quit altogether. As of right now, it is too early to say what this snow year will be like but we are only hoping for a safe passage.

How do you resupply food and when do you shower? The concept is exactly the same as my Florida Trail thru-hike back in 2016. Every few days, we will be hiking/hitchhiking into towns to rest, resupply and shower. The PCT goes through varied terrains from desert, snowy peaks to lush forest and we’ll have to adjust our gear as we go. Certain areas will require bear canisters or warmer clothing and we’ll ship ourselves the necessaries items for those sections.

How are you preparing for such hike? Hike, Hike & Hike some more. We’re spending our weekends section hiking the Arizona Traill, trying to build up some endurance for long hiking days. As far as logistics, we are fortunate to have two friends from our backpacking club back in Wisconsin that thru-hiked the trail back in 2013 and I’ve been bombarding them with logistics questions. I’ve created a spreadsheet of daily mileage and logistics but as soon as we set foot on the trail; it will all change.

What are you carrying? The same stuff we carry every time we go backpacking on the weekend. You can see my pack list here.

Here’s an overview map of the trail: