Time To Get Back On Trail

Well it’s been almost a month since I exited the trail at Kennedy Meadows South. And now here I sit at the Orlando airport ready to fly back to LAX to get back on trail.

Baby Puts Kink in the Plans

Shortly after I started planning my 2025 PCT thru hike, my daughter found out she was pregnant. It was a tough decision to proceed with plans knowing she would have the baby while I was hiking. But with her blessing, I decided to still do the hike with the caveat I would get off trail for the birth. I had originally planned to only take a couple weeks off in June but the baby came a little earlier than predicted. Fortunately I was at Kennedy Meadows about the time I needed to get off trail for the birth. Long story short. I’m a proud grandfather of a beautiful, healthy baby granddaughter. Because I got off early, I decided to extend my stay and spend some extra quality time with our new family member. I had a great home visit. I got to do all my favorite things like taking some bike rides, playing a round of golf and catching an awesome surf session. I also had some good visits with friends over several breakfasts (nothing better than breakfast out with friends) and some really nice time spent with family. It was also a good opportunity to let my feet heal from the desert hike and to let the snow pack melt some before starting the Sierra section.

So Why Do I want to Leave Home Again?

I will admit the whole time I was home I was stressing about coming back out. It’s such a big transition living a feral life on the trail and then coming back to the comfortable life of civilization. Would I be able to say goodbye to my wife and family for 4 months after the extended time at home? Did I really want to live out of a tent and eat dehydrated food again for 4 months? It made me go back and rethink why I wanted to continue. I’ve had the spiritual recharge and some of the adventure I was originally looking for after hiking the desert section. What was compelling me to continue when I have such a wonderful life at home? Who was I trying to impress? Let’s face it, it’s hard basically being homeless and living out of a tent. The food sucks and I never really sleep well on the trail.

After much internal reflection,  I feel like I’m in a different place now and the main motivation for doing the PCT has somewhat changed since I began this journey. I am still looking forward to the scenery, the spiritual aspects of the hike and the promise of a grand adventure that originally motivated me. But now I think the driving factor is the need to prove I have what it takes to complete this epic challenge. And it is an epic challenge! A friend and I were talking over breakfast one morning about what an unbelievable feat it is to complete a long thru hike like the PCT, CDT or AT. I imagine most people would say that one of the most physical things you could do is climb Mt Everest. But when you consider that one climbs almost 500,00 feet of elevation thru hiking the PCT verses about 29,000 feet for Everest, it’s at least the same level of effort hiking Everest. That’s not even considering other aspects of a PCT thru hike like the variety of environment you encounter and the duration of time needed to complete. And knowing the level of conditioning you’re in at the end of a PCT thru hike, many thru hikers could probably jump right on and complete an Everest hike given they had the equipment and training. Ok, I guess that’s debatable but I maintain that a PCT thru hike is on the same level of epic accomplishment as an Everest summit. So bottom line is I want to finish what I started and conquer this epic challenge! I know the feeling of accomplishment, should I complete the trail, will be something I’ll be proud of for the rest of my life. And maybe it will inspire my children, grandchildren and others to dare to do great things that are really hard. While I am still a little nervous about what’s to come in the next few months, I feel like my head is now in the right place and I’m fired up to conquer the reminder of the trail!