I am Thru-Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail

It has been a dream of mine to thru-hike the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) for a while now. The PCT is a trail that stretches 2,659 miles from Mexico to Canada through California, Oregon, and Washington. Ever since I went on a backpacking trip in Yosemite the desire to thru-hike the PCT has been even stronger. I want to enjoy creation, get away from the busyness of life, walk a couple thousand miles, and push myself farther than I ever have. There will be good days and bad days, laughter and crying, pain and relief, sun and rain. I’m still not sure what all I will face, but I’m looking forward to whatever the trail brings my way.

I got married in April of 2017 to my best friend and love, Monica. Before getting married we had shared a backpacking trip together and had separately gone on several outdoor adventure trips. While dating I shared with Monica my desire to thru-hike the PCT, but at that point it was just a dream — something I wanted to do someday but didn’t see anywhere in the near future. After we got married Monica and I started looking at what we wanted for our future. We both had a desire to move west and grow a family. Monica wants some land and horses. We both want a place to settle down and have for family and friends to come visit and see the beautiful west, go hunting, and enjoy creation. By some happenstance we both had Montana in mind as where we wanted these desires to become realities.

Not wanting our dreams and desires to stay dreams and desires we decided to make a plan and set dates to make things happen. Twenty-eighteen would be the year we moved to Montana — if we sat around waiting for a job to pop up out there we might never move. While making the plans for the move we started talking about the PCT — what if we could do the PCT before we moved to Montana? We both figured we might be out of work when we moved to Montana. We wouldn’t have a house payment or other debt to keep us from paying for the adventure. We were cautious as we needed enough money to do the PCT, move, and live while we looked for jobs in Montana. As the months went by we prayed, saved our money, and read up on the trail. We had a financial setback of several thousand dollars when I cut my hand November of 2017, but God provided and we are still on track to have just enough money for the trail as well as the move to Montana.

On April 25th Monica and I have permits to start our thru-hike and walk from Mexico to Canada. It’s going to be a crazy adventure and I invite you to follow along here on my blog.