How on Earth Did I End up Here: A Hiker Intro

Hello fellow humans! Let me preface this by saying that I’ve never actually written anything that wasn’t assigned to me in school so like my thru hike this is another first. On the other hand, I am always looking to try something new and thought this would be a fun way to document my adventures and be able to look back on them later. With that said hi, my name is Makayla, no trail name yet, I’m a 19 year-old nursing student and decided to take the spring semester off from school and walk across the length of Arizona. After years of dreaming about doing a thru hike a new friend from college agreeing to join me ended up being the last push I needed to make it a reality.

How the obsession began

I’d heard bits and pieces about the mysterious triple crown from our neighbors and family friends the Bennetts. They were a family of six and doggo attempting to do all three trails before their oldest daughter left for college. Up until then I had no clue anyone was crazy enough to walk that far, much less for there to be an entire community of people doing it. Then in 2019, my mom invited me to drive twelve hours from Utah to Oregon to do a section of the PCT with our family friends the Bennetts. She told me to get the full experience we’d be eating cold soaked ramen and wearing the same outfit every day of the entire trip. Despite that I was drawn to the idea of having everything you need on your back and the simple goal of walking. I was more than excited. Then after 45 miles of downpours, huckleberries, and dance parties, I was hooked.

From that day forward I consumed anything and everything thru hiking. My evenings were now spent watching endless gear reviews and annoying my friends with nonstop chatter about the trail. Honorable mentions include 2000 miles together by Ben Crawford, Dixie from homemade wanderlust, and of course, Wild by Cheryl Strayed. I made it a goal to one day hike the PCT.

More recently

Having already made the decision to take the spring semester off school and seeing it as a perfect opportunity to finally do a thru hike I brought up the idea to my new friend. To my surprise not only did he encourage it but my wild-spirited friend wanted to join me and thought his two friends from Canada might like to tag along. Excited by the new adventure we got in contact with the Canadians and began planning.