Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. Proverbs 4:26
The Pacific Crest Trail....
In September of 2005 a friend and I hiked the 9.4 mile Ozette Triangle: Cape Alava - Sand Point Loop on the Olympic Coast in Washington. A gorgeous three days on the Washington coast, but I knew it was a different story in the North Cascades. Our plan was to hike part of the Pacific Crest Trail over to Stehekin. Bad weather and little knowledge of a much longer hike sent us packing to the coast. The dream of hiking it never went away though. Over the years I've spent countless hours learning about this incredible trail. I knew the more I read about it, the more I would want to hike it. Of course as time moves on, reality and life happens, dreams tend to fade. Life moves along at a pace we can barely keep up with. However I never forgot about the dream of the PCT and I'm almost embarrassed to admit how often I've thought about it. Never leaving my mind, I have patiently waited for the day I could say this is my year. Almost ten years and exhausting research later, I can say 2014 is my year! Well, almost. My husband and I own a little café and running it leaves little time for anything but, well, running a café. However, it's an old building and we've decided to rebuild our business. Literally. We are in the process of planning on tearing down the entire building and rebuilding a new one. While my husband Jim is home taking on Goliath, I have a window of opportunity. Well, I think it's a once in a life time chance. I'm 48 and the clock is ticking. I'm in good shape today, but will I be down the road. I know a lot of people who hike in their sixties and even seventies, but in reality, there's no guarantee for any of us. So, when I asked our architect how long he thought it'd take to build it.....oh about six months:) So here I am and this is my dream hike:
The Pacific Crest Trail or as we refer to it as the PCT is a trail spanning from Campo, California's Mexican border all the way to Manning Park in Canada.....a 2,650 mile trail that will take me roughly six months to hike.....solo.
This trail is amazing! It passes through 3 states, California, Oregon, and Washington and climbs nearly 60 major mountain passes. It's actually made up of four long distance trails: The John Muir Trail in California, Tahoe-Yosemite Trail in California, the Skyline Trail in Oregon and the Cascade Crest Trail in Washington. It winds through 25 national forests, 7 national parks, passes 3 national monuments and goes through 33 federally mandated wildernesses. It descends into 19 major canyons and ambles past 1,000 lakes and tarns. The PCT crosses the world famous San-Andreas Fault 3 times and the longest waterless stretch of the trail is 35.5 miles north of Tehachapi in California. And I will go through it all carrying a 25 to 30 pound backpack resupplying in trail towns as I make my way from one end to the other.
