Grit & Glam: 60 Glorious Hiker Portraits From PCT Days 2026

Whether you’re a SOBO marking your first state down, a NOBO pre-partying the end of your thru-hike as you head into Washington, or just a hobo like me returning for my fifth year to reconnect with the thru-hiking community, there’s no weekend quite like Pacific Crest Trail Days in Cascade Locks, Oregon, to look around and realize not only that you’ve found your people, but that there sure are more of us feral woodland creatures than you’d expect!

This year, The Trek celebrated the weekend by raffling off over $3,500 in free gear from dozens of outdoor brands, hosting hiker yoga so thru-hikers could stretch their creaky joints for presumably the first time on trail, interviewing hikers for YouTube and Backpacker Radio, and providing free hiker portraits by yours truly.

Hikers are some of my favorite subjects to shoot portraits of because there’s nothing more authentic than your unshowered, perpetually sunburnt, grimy self in salt-encrusted trail wear.

You can always take a photo of yourself when you look your best. But there’s something different about capturing who you are when you’re at your strongest, hardest, dirtiest, most exhausted, and most completely alive. A thru-hike strips away a lot of what we normally use to present ourselves to the world, and what’s left makes for a pretty damn good portrait.

Without further ado, I hope the grit and glam of these portraits give you a little taste of the spirit of PCT Days, minus the smell.

If you’d like a full-size copy of your portrait, or want to see more trail portraits and photography, you can find me on Instagram at @jamesgoesplaces.

And if you’re wrapping up your Pacific Crest Trail thru-hike soon, be sure to send us your finisher photo, terminus or otherwise, to be featured in The Trek’s PCT Finisher series later this fall!