Advice for potential through hikers

Several years ago, I became enamored with the idea of through hiking after reading a book on the Appalachian Trail. What would it be like to start a hike, then simply keep going? For a long time I put off the idea. This was something that other people did, not mid career people with families and kids. As my children got older, the idea persisted, and I started planning in a more serious fashion.

In my work as a hospitalist, I’ve met people my age or younger with life limiting illnesses. All of them had plans, and most of those will not be seen through given their new reality. We all look forward to the future, retirement, thinking then perhaps we’ll have the time and wherewithal to do the things we’ve been waiting for.

What I’ve learned is that future may never come. If there is something you really want to do, find a way do it now, or soon at least, before opportunity passes you by. A physical endeavor, like the Pacific Crest Trail doesn’t get easier with age, and you might be surprised with what incredibly impractical goals you can reach with determined effort.

So, in 2019, I met with my employer and told them I’d be leaving for 6 months in 2021. Slowly I started accumulating gear and fanatically researching everything PCT related on line. My wife and I streamlined our finances to be able to manage a year of half income. The following year, I stepped up my training to prepare for a through hike.

Then the dumpster fire of 2020 hit, and it all seemed to be hanging by a thread. COVID-19 arrived, everything shut down, and even the trail itself was closed. The October permit date was deferred, and it seem that fates were conspiring to crush my dream hike.

Despite everything, I kept planning and training. Either the hike was going to happen or not, and certain elements were beyond my control and not worth obsessing over. I was still going to take the 6 months off, and hike somewhere, if not the PCT. Then the January permits were issued, and things started to look much more real.

Even after I started the trail, there was a feeling in the back of my mind that somewhere, sometime the other shoe was going to drop. Only about a third of hiker departing from Campo reach the Canadian border. Would injury strike, family issues arise, or COVID-19 require me to return to work? I tried to treat my days as if each would be the last on the trail.

Strangely enough, this time, things seemed to work out. I reached one milestone after another, still remaining on the trail. I was able to ramp up daily mileage to maintain the needed pace. It wasn’t until the Oregon border that I allowed myself a hope that I would actually finish. Then all of a sudden, on September 8th, I was at the northern terminus.

The moral of the story is, sometimes things work out as you want them to, but if you don’t do your part, you’ll never find out. Now, go find your through hike.