Why do people thru-hike? Thru-hiking attracts people for all sorts of different reasons.

So, we asked 2026 thru-hikers:

Why are you hiking? What are you looking for? What are you trying to learn? What’s your unique story?

And here is what they said:

 

 

---

Meet the Thru-Hikers

Justin “Camel” Sleep

Hey, my name is Justin Sleep and I’m from Portland, Oregon. People have been calling me “Camel” on trail since 2017, when I first started long-distance hiking. I’ve hiked 16,000 miles since then, all in the west. This year, I’m headed east by train to Appalachia.

♩ All aboard, we’re taking a train to Appalachia.
Don’t worry, I’ll never throw an apple-atcha.
I’m just a hiker trying to get his triple crown. ♫ 

Now when I’m in the city, I have this feeling like the walls are always closing in on me. But when I’m on trail, all I feel is free. That’s why I hike.

And this year, I’m hiking the AT because honestly, I’m lonely. And the AT is busy, and sharing is caring. I’m excited to share my hike with you.

Are you having fun yet?

♩ All aboard, we’re taking a train to Appalachia.
Don’t worry, I’ll never throw an apple-atcha.
So I just wanted to say, happy trails. ♫ 

Let’s go hiking.

 

---

Aly “TC”

Hello, from a very drizzly and icy southern Appalachia. My name is Aly, my trail name is TC, and I am known online through my channels called @AppalachianAdventurista, and I have big trail plans for 2026.

This year in 2026, I will be attempting a through hike of the Pacific Crest Trail. I will be going true northbound, starting at the Mexican border, and walking every day toward the Canadian border.

This is not my first thru-hike. This is a continuation of just kind of a lifelong passion I have for trails and exploring outside and advocating for women outdoors. In 2023, I did complete a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail, and I have done several trails kind of in-between, including a thru-hike of the Foothills Trail, and a few other things.

So, I have a lot of experience outside and hiking long distances, but I am coming into this humbly knowing that the Pacific Crest Trail will be its own beast.

The reason I am hiking the Pacific Crest Trail is kind of for a hard reset button and a rediscovery of a part of myself that I know is there from my previous hikes. I want to rediscover that wildness, that sense of adventure, that sense of freedom, and that very strong singular goal mindset. I love the simplicity of a thru-hike, and I am looking for all of that again as kind of a reset, as I am between a couple different phases in my regular life.

I hope to take away from the Pacific Crest Trail a renewed and heightened sense of self, similar to what I experienced on the Appalachian Trail, and this kind of like renewed sense of passion for what my next phase is going to be.

I also hope to come away with this kind of deep joy and reconnection to the trail community that I know and love so much.

I’m also hoping to gain just some like true inner simplicity and joy and reconnecting to the passion I have for communities around me, both social and ecological.

And I’m also looking for some clarity on some of the other little pieces of my life that just need a little bit more intentional time and thought to move through.

I’m really looking forward to my thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail in 2026. It feels so good to share that, and I hope that you all enjoy whatever trails you find yourself on this year, and feel free to follow along with mine if you would like.

 

---

Daniel “Lucky Colleague”

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you may be. My name is Daniel Clark. I’m 63. My trail name is Lucky Colleague. Got that on the AT in 2023.

I come from a small village southwest of Cambridge in the east of England, where I live with my wife. Our village is old enough that it appears in the Doomsday Book. So look that up, you’ll see how old it is. I’ve lived in this part of England for the last 40 years, but I originate from London.

So for 2026, I’m attempting three hikes, two with my wife and one of my own.

The first one is the Portuguese Camino. It’s Albergue based, 150 miles from Porto in Portugal, all the way up to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. It should be anywhere 10-12 days. Just see how it takes us.

The second hike we’re going to do is something called the Hebridean Way. It’s a series of islands off the northwest coast of Scotland. It’s about 185 miles and you go from island to island, either on a causeway or you have to catch a ferry, but that will be predominantly wild camping with maybe a couple of days in B&Bs.

Then the third hike I’m going to do is the Hexatrek, which is 1800 miles, sort of the PCT of France. It takes in all the major mountain ranges in France, so the Jura and the Alps and the Pyrenees. And I should be doing that hopefully from June onwards. So those are the three hikes I’m going to attempt for 2026.

And as with all people, why? Why am I hiking?

Well, I mean, I love hiking. I’ve done it for a very long time. It’s really only since I’ve stopped working that I’m able to do hikes that take more than a week.

Well, obviously when you do hike, you get to see places that nobody else sees because you don’t get there unless you walk. I love landscapes. I love the human impact on landscapes, the churches, the villages, the agriculture, all that sort of stuff.

And for all the hikes, it’s just the people. It’s just meeting the people and different cultures and getting on with it. So as somebody from England, having hiked in the US and having hiked in Europe, yeah, it’s good getting these different cultures and seeing different people.

And you see kindness, and you receive kindness, and hopefully you give some kindness, pretty much every day. And it does restore your faith in humanity, that actually we’re not bad out there.

On a sort of Maslowian level, obviously, it’s a very simple thing to do. You hike, you pitch your tent, you eat, you sleep, you get up, you hike, you pitch your tent. There’s very little to deal with. And obviously, because of that, there’s actually quite a lot you achieve because you’re not that far up the Maslowian triangle, as it were.

But there’s nothing else like it.

So that’s it. A quick introduction of who I am and where I’m going and why.

And if you’re interested, follow along at @EnglishmanJustWalking and hopefully raise a bit of money for cancer research.

 

---

David “Alchemist” Whitehair

The Pacific Crest Trail isn’t something I’m doing to escape my life. It’s something I’m doing because my life has finally made the room for it.

My name is David. On trail, I’m known as Alchemist, and I’m from Santa Barbara, California, here on the Central Coast.

I’ve spent most of my adult life working as a winemaker, and I’m also a long distance thru0hiker and a very proud Trek blogger. This year, I’m hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. I’m going northbound from Mexico to Canada.

I’ve been drawn to long trails for a long time. There’s something about committing to one direction and staying with it day after day that’s always made sense to me. After a long career, my life has reached one of those rare moments where the timing is finally lined up. And it’s not because something went wrong, but because the space has opened up. And instead of rushing to fill it, I have chosen to step into a dream that I’ve been carrying quietly for the last 10 years.

Thru-hiking isn’t an escape for me. It’s a way of paying attention.

On trail, things get simpler, but not easier. You still have to show up every day, adapt to what the terrain gives you, listen to your body, and stay patient when plans change. Long trails have taught me that progress isn’t about speed. It’s about consistency and continuing forward through uncertainty and being present enough to appreciate those good miles when they come.

I’m hiking the PCT because this opportunity has shown up at the right moment, and I don’t want to look back and wonder what might have happened if I hadn’t taken it.

I’m hoping to reach Canada tired, grounded, and clear. Not as a different person, but as a more honest one.

 

---

Josh Murphy

Hey there, my name is Josh Murphy. I’m from Sarah, Pennsylvania. And this April, I’m going to be heading out on the Continental Divide Trail for a northbound thru-hike.

My “why” for hiking the Continental Divide Trail has largely to do with my background.

I grew up here in northeast Pennsylvania, and for the majority of my life, I was extremely overweight, drank, ate whatever I wanted, smoked a pack a day, and found it difficult to even walk up a flight of steps.

Over the course of my mid to late 20s, I lost 200 pounds through diet and exercise, completely changed the way I live my life, and started actually living life.

One of the things I did with that newfound lease on life was hike the Pacific Crest Trail in 2022. It changed everything for me, showed me what was possible, not just for myself, but for human beings in general.

Through that experience, I discovered wildland firefighting, where I spent the last three seasons working in various capacities, from engines to hand crews, all over the American West. Ironically, setting foot back on the Pacific Crest Trail at times.

And the notion of doing another thru-hike has always been there. And after three fire seasons, it’s time.

It’s time for me to get back out and experience our public lands in a whole new light, a whole new way, with a whole newfound appreciation and perspective of them.

And the Continental Divide is going to challenge me in ways I’ve never been challenged before.

It’s also going to push my limits as a creative. I am a photographer, videographer, writer, follow me on The Trek

And one of the things that makes me feel the most alive is telling stories, especially telling stories in out of the ordinary or austere environments, whether that’s on a through hike, in the fire line, traveling abroad.

I live for the adventures that make up the short, sweet life that we have.

And what’s motivating me and my why on top of everything else I just mentioned is, I guess, simply the fact that there was a point in time when I couldn’t. And there are a lot of people out there now that think they can’t.

And hopefully through my blog posts, what I put out online, hopefully I can convince some people that they too can start chasing some dreams of their own.

That’s my why.

 

---

Palmer Hurst

What’s up, everybody? My name’s Palmer. No trail name yet, but hopefully I’ll have one soon.

I’m from Norfolk, Virginia, and I’ve been a weekend warrior backpacker for many years now. But I finally decided to bite the bullet. And in 2026, I’m going to be thru-hiking the Tahoe Rim Trail.

It’ll be my biggest trip and longest trail that I’ve ever done. And I’m so, so stoked to be doing it.

Target start date is July 18th, getting out to the Lake Tahoe area a couple of days before.

You can follow my adventures on Instagram at @kinda_chunky_hiker.

And stay tuned because I’ll be blogging for The Trek as well.

Hope to see everybody out there.

 

---

Sage “Clawfish”

What’s up, guys? It’s a beautiful day in Bay Area, California. Sage here, a.k.a. Clawfish here to tell you a little bit about my story and why I’m hiking the Pacific Crest Trail.

I was born in the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, where my family was relocated after Hurricane Katrina to Carlisle, Pennsylvania. And it’s Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where I first found the Appalachian Trail.

Several friends of mine have been repeat offenders, serial thru-hikers on the Appalachian Trail and other trails, and I very much have been with them in spirit.

I’m an avid outdoorsman, a geologist. One of my greatest geology projects I’ve been involved with was for my master’s thesis. I studied the evolution of the Amazon Basin in South America. I had the good fortune of taking a one day boat ride down the Peruvian jungle, Rio Madre de Dios, and I found that to be profound.

I’ll be leaving first week of May from Campo, going northbound on the Pacific Crest Trail. And I aim to hike the trail in 120 days. Now, that’s a very ambitious goal. I acknowledge that. But with training, preparation and intent, I aspire to make it all the way to Canada.

Why I’m hiking? That’s a really tough question to answer.

It’s not tough to understand emotionally in my soul, but it’s really hard to put my intentions into words. And so this is my best attempt.

I’ve, for the most part, spent majority of my early adulthood chasing a career as an engineering geologist. I’ve found a lot of success, but also a lot of discomfort. So, the intent with through hiking the Pacific Crest Trail is to employ a deliberate reset. Some time to truly stop and attempt to find what’s real.

I’ve had several moments in my life where it’s been evident that life is finite, life is discreet. And any day may be your last. I say this as about 10 years ago, my mother died of cancer, died too young. Fast forward two years ago, my father died of cancer.

So with this comfortable life I’ve built for myself… I’m afraid to take that leap. But in anything I’ve ever done and anything I’ve been successful with, it’s because I was willing to take a risk, an interesting adventure, always with the desire to see what could be more.

I’m trying to hike to better understand the pursuit of happiness in this world.

Certainly, I’m aspiring to try to learn about my purpose outside of what I’ve built in the corporate world.

Also trying to pursue grief in the sense that dedicating my hike to my lost loved ones as a promise between myself and them.

Be sure to check out Sage’s YouTube.