Training for a midlife crisis hike on the Pacific Crest Trail

Introduction

First, I’d like to say thank you to the Pacific Crest Trail Association (PCTA) for streamlining the permit process for this thru hike. While the PCTA is not a covering body in regard to permits, they work with multiple agencies from local, state and federal in order to hike on a single permit for the entire trail which makes it a lot easier these days to hike. I was fortunate enough to get a permit during the first permit release back in October. And now that the holidays are wrapped up its time to get training for this grand adventure. I am an electrician by trade and spend my days on my feet for the vast majority of the day and in the elements, so I already have a good base layer which to build upon. Thus, I will only need the next 12 weeks or so to add on the finishing touches to what’s already been a pretty active year between hiking and outdoor activities at home. I have never attempted a thru hike so I do not know what exactly I will need but know for day hikes and overnight trips what’s needed so that’s where my focus will lay. I am looking at this thru hike as though its 26 weeklong trips rather than one long trip and by breaking it down this way my focus is not on surviving it as a whole but surviving each week independently of each other.  I do not know what works for others and am not suggesting this is it. I am simply showing folks what I am doing to prepare for my thru hike.  The 3 biggest areas I shall focus on over these next 12 weeks are money, strength training, and mental training. After watching and reading dozens upon dozens of hiker’s blogs and YouTube videos I felt like these 3 things were the biggest areas that ruined a hikers dream of completing a thru hike.

Money training

 I think this one is one  of the hardest parts about this thru hike. How do I determine what this trip will cost. Every other trip I have ever taken has had a fixed cost to it and I knew the costs before leaving home. And to muddle the waters even more is fact there is no real hard set cost analysis on the subject. Halfway Anywhere does a PCT exit survey which is about as close as we can hope for any reliable data on the subject. But the amount is extremely wide ranging as in the 2023 class which had 751 completed 7% spent between $5,000-7,500 while just over 39% spent between $10,000-12,500 and yet 2.5% spent $20,000-22,500. And this amount this cost on trail and is not factoring in any expenses you incur off trail for things like cell phone, rent or car insurance. Nor does it factor in any gear that you may need to purchase on trail to replace broken gear. Now one huge factor in all this is how do I want to do my hike as there is several ways to do a thru hike. Do you get off trail into town and do a load of laundry and get a resupply and head back out to trail? You can also add in spending the night, not every town but a select handful of towns? And if you really like you could add in closing down the local watering hole in every single town you pass thru? I have never done a thru hike so seeing this may be a one and done adventure I think I’ll do some zero days in a handful of towns. So, I think I will be in the middle of the financial costs stated above. So now that I have an idea on costs how do I keep costs in check and train them? Well, we start by cutting the low hanging fruit in all this. We start with looking at where we can cost share on the trail. Some things on trail we can share costs is rides and hotels with other hikers while in town cannot really train for this but knowing this is something you are likely to do you can start mentally preparing and once on trail find people you want to share with .  We test our gear at home for fit, to make sure it keeps us dry and keeps us warm. We also buy quality gear that will last the entire trip thus we do not need to buy replacement gear while on trail. But this is low hanging fruit as if funds were to run low towards end of hike one simple could switch up strategy and skip staying over in town and just resupply and return to trail. It’s this part of equation that is training. The one thing every hiker need is food, lots and lots of food. And with convivence comes a hefty price as a Mountain House meal for example locally at a big box store is around $9.50 which is 2 servings or 1 actual hiker meal. Where a box of   couscous is around $2.50 and is just as convenient if not easier than any instant meal as it can be cold soaked. Cold soaking is simply dumping food in a container adding appropriate amount of water, giving it a shake to mix and then letting sit to absorb the water. It’s really a quick and simple process. Many foods like couscous or ramen are a great cold soak choice but learning the correct amount of water and time is something to be learned, It’s something you want to have an idea about before stepping on trail as after long day on trail and you are hungry there’s nothing worse than a bad meal. And yes, I hear you that you want a nice hot meal after a hike. Well, you are in luck as that’s just as easy with things like Knorr rice or pasta sides, stuffing, instant potatoes. All readily available in any market. Reasonably priced. But like with cold soaking these foods may need some adjusting as many of the camping stoves we carry are not designed to simmer and if we do simmer it starts another problem as we start burning more fuel which adds an additional cost to our budget.  So, by cooking at home with your cook set up you are hiking with and using foods you will eat on trail you can dial in on your budget. As you will know how to make those foods on trail and you will know which food you love and which ones you absolutely deplore.

Strength Training

Strength Training

The best way to train to hike is to hike or at least that’s what I’ve heard and been told. So that’s pretty much my game plan as time on feet and weight on your back cannot be recreated in the gym. Unfortunately, by time I get off work and head towards the trails its nightfall. So, for the weekdays I will turn to my other passion which is rucking. Rucking is just urban backpacking as we carry a weighted pack. But unlike my hiking pack which is light weight and delicate my ruck is not. A ruck or at least mine looks like a backpack  we took to grade school just a big open pouch in the back and no waist belt to help the load. And the fabric is heavy duty nylon, its designed to be used as a mobile gym and drug thru the dirt. While rucking will not replace my time on trail it will certainly complement those days. And trail days will be just that, time out on trail. Now these days are not just about getting fit, these days are also about testing everything in real world situations. How dry does that rain gear keep me in the rain? How dry does my gear stay in my pack? How hard is it to get my rain gear out and on during a sudden shower? Testing gear at “home” is vital as at worse you head back to car soaked and miserable and back into a warm and dry house where you can take a warm shower and put on dry clothes where had this been the trail you may have been two days from town and you certainly would not be going into a warm dry house and getting a warm shower. The second component to strength training is flexibility. Now I’m not planning on doing yoga from the mountain tops or maybe I am you will have to just follow along to see. The trail is not this smooth flat ground like the sidewalks and roads in the city. The trail can be sloped, rock strewn, washed out, a scramble or slippery as snot after a rain on any given day. It also can be a steep inclines and steeper descents. And with 30 to 40 pounds on your back being flexible to twist, turn and bend is essential to minimize impact on joints and prevent injury is essential. 

Mental Training

Mental Training

This is perhaps the hardest part of training and the most important one. As your mind will give out long before your body does.  It’s really hard to gauge mental strength as opposed to money or physical strength as with those you can see what you have and know where you need to be and can see the difference. After many day hikes and a short section hike, I have come to realize how much time one spends in their own head. And yes there will be plenty of days where you will have company on trail. And most certainly you will have company in camp. Having company is fairly easy. It’s the hours alone that most people have a hard time with as people are ae naturally a social species. Just look at your day-to-day activities. Look at how much time you engage with your spouse, your children, your coworkers, social media or television. There will be times on trail where besides the occasional hello or a conversation at a lunch spot or watering hole you spend the day alone. And that’s on a good day and not all days will be good days. In fact, that’s something you should be focusing on from the start. Days on trail can be the greatest day and within a tenth of a mile change to the worse day if you let it. And when one stops having fun on trail they pack it away and go home not realizing that possibly if they would have pushed on and ignored that voice the day would have been better. Over the years I have read numerous stories of athletes and taken bits and pieces of their training advice and adopted and adapted them into this mantra of not quitting. But the biggest thing I have heard is from the hiking community is to have a “why”. Your why is your mission statement of why you are out there. It’s your goal of the hike. And your why can be anything you want as its your why. There are no correct answers, and it can be as specific or vague as you wish as it is yours.

Mental training

Mental training “My why”

Way back in the 1900’s oh around I’d say 94 myself and a couple buddies had this idea to hike from our small town to the coast following the train tracks during the three-day weekend coming up. This was the sort of crazy things we did growing up in small town America. Seeing how this was just spur of the moment and seeing how none of us were backpackers minus one who did some Scouting as a boy. Well, we went home and packed our exterior metal frame packs, lashed on our heavy goose down sleeping bags that must have been at least 5 pounds. Then set off to the kitchen where we raided the cupboards for some cans of soup and chili and don’t forget a can opener. We wore Levis pants, heavy work boots, Levi fleece lined jackets and Army supply store Boonie caps. We had no map or compass and certainly, no cell phone or GPS as these had yet to be invented. It was a simple hike we just followed the railroad tracks from our small town for about 30 miles to the coast. It was a carefree trip. We just walked, laughed and joked. It was that weird time in life where you were an “adult” but at the same time you were a “child”. We all still lived at home, and all were either fresh out of school or entering the last year of it. The hike was just simply walk till you needed a break, take a break and continue walking. When we camped at night, we’d just roll out our sleeping bags onto the bare ground. It was just a simple time in life. Fast forward another couple years and I fell in love and got married, started a family, bought a house and started a career. The picture of the American dream. Over the next 2 decades my wife, kids and I would go on numerous adventures all across America. Every year we’d plan a vacation and go seek out fun. We spent many years going to the Disney theme parks; we saw the beaches in Hawaii and the grand mountains of Montana. But some of the best vacations we had were on the Northern California Coast where we would go car camping. These trips were at a time technology was just coming online and this area was not as advanced as the city we were escaping from. So even those who had the newest technology it only worked in certain places and camp was not one of those places. The kids spent their days running free at camp, this great time for them. Plenty of brothers and sisters and cousins to play with.  At night around the campfire, we would stay up late and just enjoy each other’s company laughing and telling jokes and stories well into the night. The world around us was gone. We didn’t worry about anything outside of camp during those trips. Work and the outside world were put on hold. These were great years full of great times and memories. Times I wouldn’t trade for anything in this world. But in today’s fast paced world and constant barrage of technology you know the 24 hour a day news or social media. Or fact that you now carry a computer the size of a deck of cards in your hands. I just want to put the world of today on hold. I want to just go on an adventure to see the unspoiled world to see the sun rise and fall from a mountain top. Sit at a stream and fill a water bottle and chat with anyone about anything that’s not politics or the latest Tik Tok trend.  And while I love my job Id really love to toss my alarm and schedule and just go with the tide. Wake when I please, nap when I want to and eat a Snickers bar for breakfast and not be judged for it. My “why” is not easily defined in fact I don’t think I could define it as it’s not a word but rather a feeling. A feeling of just utter happiness at being in nature without a plan or goal in mind. Yes, I’d like to do all 2,650 miles in one season but that is just the trail. It’s just the canvas for my adventure.