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Going Nowhere For A While: My Pacific Crest Trail Blog
After a day of hiking in Iowa’s Loess Hills State Forest.
Hello!
Hello friends, family, acquaintances, enemies, and anybody else. Welcome to the introduction of my trail blog! I’m so excited to share my experiences preparing for and eventually hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. Generally this is the part of an introduction where a writer would say something about themselves, establishing credibility and providing an interesting experience for the reader. Unfortunately, I am a bad writer, but I like lists. So here is a short, mostly coherent list of things I like, believe, or are just general facts about myself. I trust that you are a good reader, so I’ll let you draw your own conclusions from it:
- “There’s nothing wrong with going nowhere, son. It’s a privilege of youth.” (Fandango, 1985)
Good line. Better movie. - John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats is perhaps the greatest living songwriter.
- Star Trek
- Believe it or not, Nebraska is a perfectly fine place to live and prepare for a long trail.*
- Grainbelt Nordeast
And finally, the important part
- My name is Jesse Christensen (he/him), and on April 17, 2023 I will start my northbound thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail.
*To be clear, most of my training for this hike took place in the Loess Hills of western Iowa while I was living in Nebraska. So am I lying or commuting?
Looking south over the Missouri River Valley of Nebraska and Iowa from Murray Hill Scenic Overlook (sans Jesse)
Before I go too much further, I want to say a thank you to anybody reading this post as well as anybody I’ve talked to about this whole deal already.
- To anybody reading this blog: You’re supporting this journey just by being here and following along, and I really appreciate it!
- To the people I talked to about the trail before starting the blog: Thanks for putting up with me and letting me ramble about gear and fabrics and snowpack.
- And to the people reading the blog AND had to listen to me for the weeks (months) leading up to now: You deserve a break from me. Which is why I’m hoping to be gone for about five months. You’re welcome.
A large man stands over a camera, watching it curiously.
Moving Forward – Hiking Pun Intended
Over the next few weeks (Days (Procrastination)) leading up to April 17, I will be posting here trying to answer some of the more common questions I’ve been asked about this whole “thing”. Hopefully in that time I can figure out how to explain my “why” for doing this in a clear and concise way. However, I’m really not good with brevity, and the 17th is quickly approaching, so I make no guarantees. That pretty much exhausts everything I had to say for this first blog, so I’ll end it now before I ramble any more (Re: Brevity). Anyway, I’m thankful you’re here, happy to share my experiences, and excited to start!
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Comments 4
Hey man, it’s been a while!
I’m glad that you are using your creativity and humor along with going at a goal! So fun, inspiring and enthusiastic, keep it up!
I wish you luck and that this journey surely bring a sense of fulfillment and joy to you!
I’ll be doing my best to keep up with your blogs! Way to go!!
Dude this is awesome! I can’t wait to follow this journey of yours. It’s always great to go big and reach far. Trails like the PCT define the common trope “it’s more about the journey than the destination,” and it’s exciting to read this and anticipate great change, great friendships, and great experiences for you along your approaching journey. I am so excited for you! I wish for you an eventful and inspiring journey with the words of one Captain Jean-Luc Picard: “Make it so.”
As a post for the uninformed but highly interested, would you be kind enough to share what the pacific crest trail is? I know I’m literally on the page in which I could find that out. But that isn’t written by Jesse Christensen, so I don’t want to read it. Also I’m lazy. However, I understand if you are also lazy, and don’t want to explain something when I could very well just click around this little ole website and find out what this trail is and where it goes. Although instead of doing that I’m going to click on the x on this window and close it out. But before I do that, I still need to wish you a fun time. So have fun! Sounds like this is a fun adventure. Look out for mountain lions of course those guys are absolute bastards.
The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) is a 2,653 long-distance hiking/horse riding trail with a southern terminus near the Mexico-US border and a northern terminus near the Canada-US border. It passes through California, Oregon, and Washington, generally near the highest points of the mountain ranges that go up the West Coast hence the “crest” part. Luckily, I think the mountain lions are more of a “they’ll call you if they want you” type situation, so I’ll just hope they never call!