Hi wie Geht’s? – Another German hiking on the PCT

Wait what? German on “the Trek”?!

No worries, I’ll switch to English from now on. Now that I got your attention let’s introduce ourselves:

Hi! I’m Björn and I made a little dream come true and blog on the Trek about my PCT attempt in 2023. So thanks for visiting my first blog post!

Wow! Germany? That means Lederhosen, umpa umpa music and Bratwurst?

Well, not really. Yes, I am from Germany, but not the “famous” part. I am a 35-year-old Civil engineer who lives in Kiel, which is the capital of Germany’s northernmost state: Schleswig-Holstein. Never heard of that? To make it a bit easier: Have a look on the Map and find Hamburg, then look for Denmark. Right between that, that’s where I live! So sorry folks, no Lederhosen where I come from. That’s an eight-hour car ride away. But enough about my home town. Who am I?

My passion: Get outside and hike, bike or camp

Alone or together with my Girlfriend Annika, I made several backpacking trips around Germany and Europe.

I hiked the Camino de Santiago in 2018 and made several one-week hikes in Sweden. Also, I did a 10-day route around Sarek National Park North of the arctic circle. For a self-experiment, I also hiked 400 km from Lübeck to the Polish Border. This year we hiked the famous “GR 20” on the Island of Corse. It’s a 14-day-long rollercoaster ride at a height of about 6000 ft. We also bike-packed 800 km around our home state during the lockdown to look at the closed borders.

So I guess our adventure CV is good enough to go one step further, and attempt to thru-hike the PCT with Annika.

 

But what about the Indoors?

Hiking (sometimes) isn’t everything, so before becoming a Civil Engineer, I finished an apprenticeship as a roofer in my teenage years. I love to come around both, in Germany and also the world and so next to renovating old houses in Germany, I even built a house in Perth, Western Australia in 2012. Apart from craftsmanship, I am a passionate chef. Baking, cooking, making sausages (at least one filled cliché), and dehydrating my own backcountry meals amaze me. As Kiel is the only German city which lies directly on the sea, I love the sea, rough weather and you either love or hate them: seagulls!

Finally, I also have a big family, every Christmas, we are like 30 or more people. I became a godfather this year and one of my cousins is currently in the U.S. They mean a lot to me and I will probably miss them.

Well, I guess that’s it! Next time I will write more about hiking, I promise. But let me know if you want to know more about my preparations here in Germany!

Thank you so much for reading this and if you are keen for more, follow me on my Instagram (@Django_hikes) and of course here on the Trek.

P.S.: Our start day will be the 25th of March!