Another Year, Another Adventure

Hello again 🙂

The moments beyond hiking the AT in 2022 have been some of the hardest of my life, but I’m back to say that another adventure is brewing! It’s no surprise where I’m going next; I’ll be hiking the Pacific Crest Trail this year. My start date is April 10, 2024.

It’s funny because I feel like I’ve forgotten how to blog. I’ve been doing so much scientific writing for my job that it just seems easier to do that now. As far as keeping up goes, I am unsure of how I want to keep tabs on my adventure on the PCT. The more I think about it, the more I think about adding episodes to my personal YouTube, AnnaintheWilderness, so keep up there!

Pre-Trail Thoughts:

Coming home from the AT, it took me about six months to find my first “big girl job,” if you will. I work in the environmental science field, and it has been a whirlwind of an experience to say the least. I can’t say the company, or the work has been for my best interest, so the transition of leaving this job next week and moving onto preparing for this thru hike seems like a fairly seamless process. As many of you know, the PCT is astronomically more expensive to hike than the AT, so I found myself staying at home, cooking simple meals, and only allowing myself the luxuries of consumerism and craft beer once in a blue moon for the past year. Through these practices, I have met my budget goal for the PCT with extra to carry me back into the black hole of an economy that I’m sure to come home to after the hike.

In 2023 and thus far in 2024, I have spent my time advocating (and being incomparably angry) at the political climate in America. It feels as though all of my social media has been just doom posting about the current political climate and it has been fairly detrimental watching these events happen when my power to change it is almost impossible. I’m excited to announce that I truly believe the PCT will help silence the anxiety and stress around these events for a bit.

Hiking the PCT doesn’t have the same implications that hiking the AT had. I don’t feel the “soul push” to complete the PCT as I did on the AT. My soul is and forever will be a part of the soil, water, and trees of the Appalachian Trail. Hiking the PCT has just felt like the natural next move, as I know I am my best self on trail. These last days before leaving my “stable” life and “career” are fear rendering, but I know that I got this, and I’ll come out on top.

Happy trails, y’all!