Follow our PCT Journey!

Hello friends and family! This is my first test post for this blog. Before we enter the workforce again (ugh!), Shawn and I are wrapping up the world tour we began in August 2016 with a thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). Our start date for the hike is right around the corner – April 18! I’m going to attempt to keep up with this blog, so if you’d like to follow our journey, check in here or sign up for email updates (along the right side of the page if you’re on a laptop/PC or below if you’re viewing from your phone).

What is the PCT?

What is the PCT, you ask? The Pacific Crest Trail is one of the three famous long thru-hikes in the U.S., which also include the Appalachian Trail in the east and the Continental Divide Trail through the Rockies. The PCT is the westernmost of these trails, an approximately 2,650mi trail that begins at the Mexican border and traverses stunning environs through California, Oregon, and Washington en route to its terminus at the Canadian border.

Some of the highlights of the hike include the desert landscape of southern California, the high Sierras, and the Cascades (to name only a few), and careful timing is necessary to hit each of these regions in the appropriate season.

The trail can be hiked either northbound (NoBo) from Mexico to Canada or southbound (SoBo) from Canada to Mexico, each direction with its own seasonal planning logistics.

We will be hiking northbound (the more popular of the two hiking directions), and we start at the Mexican border in only a couple short weeks! Hiking northbound, timing considerations include: traversing the desert before it gets too hot, arriving in the Sierras after the bullk of the snow pack has melted, but making it through the Cascades before the snow flies, which varies each year, but can be anytime from early September to late October.

The journey will take approximately 5 months.

We traveled around in our Jeep the last few months doing lots of hiking to prep for our journey, attempting to get in shape (ask us how this went later) and gear testing in/along some awesome national forests, parks, and trails along the way, including hikes in Death Valley, Joshua Tree, and Grand Canyon National Parks, and the Na Pali (Hawaii) and Arizona trails.

Taco House and West O make for good long trail prep

We returned to Iowa at the beginning of April to visit family and take care of final preparations (including eating lots of Taco House!) before beginning our hike on April 18! Stay tuned to follow our journey!

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