Victor's PCT Adventure

Editor's Pick Award

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Imagine being a 17 year old just out of high school. Imagine having
never having spent more then a night alone in the wilderness. Imagine
your backpacking experience being limited to a few weeks here and there
with your family. Now imagine deciding to hike over 650 miles by
yourself from the middle of Washington state to the Oregon/California
border. That was my plan, and that's what I did.

A backpacking trip of any length requires an enormous amount of
planning. In fact, its said that to maximize your experience on the
Pacific Crest Trail you'll have to spend as much time planning as
hiking. Well...I didn't really believe that and although I spent days
and days planning, as always it could have been better. But I planned
where my food was going and what to include and I spent two days in
Portland with my dad organizing my gear (my dad would spend the first
week of my trek with me- a real life saver).

The first week hiking with my Dad was through the roughest yet most
spectacular terrain I would encounter. We hiked through Goat Rocks
Wilderness in sun, rain, snow, sleet, hail, calm and wind- all in 2
days, we hiked through Mt. Adams Wilderness in beautiful weather with
views of Hood, Adams, Helens and even on occasion distant Rainier. It
was stupendous and yet I found myself wanting to quit. My feet were
blistering despite serious preventative measures (due to the rain), my
body was protesting carrying a pack that despite my best intentions was
too heavy, and I was just flat out not used to this life. My dad,
suffering right there next to me, was a lifesaver. After 7 days and 110
miles we had completed my first section of the Pacific Crest Trail. I
promptly enjoyed being bought a huge meal- the last time I wouldn't be
spending my own money on food, and a few days later embarked by myself
into the great unknown.

When I said goodbye to my dad I tried to be tough, I tried not to act
nervous and scared. But I'm sure he could see that I was, and the
minute I turned around and started hiking, with my hiking poles flying,
I started to cry- what the hell was I thinking doing this, who was I to
presume that I had the skills or the talent to continue 500+ miles by
myself. But I got it together and that first day went quickly. When
you're hiking alone you tend not to stop as much- after all what do you
do with a break except eat and rest? It wasn't until much later that I would spend my breaks engaged in heated internal arguments and dialogue.

Those first few days passed quickly and I began to develop a
deep confidence not only in my ability to navigate and take care of
myself on the trail, but in my decision that hiking this trail alone
would be valuable. I began to uncover aspects of myself that I hadn't
known were there, and I delved into what I believed and why. But I was still unused
to hiking and as my mileage increased from 12-15 miles a day to 20
miles a day I was still dealing with the aches and the pains of
constant day in day out hiking. Needless to say, this second week on
the trail wasn't all fun.

Being out in the Wilderness by yourself, or simply being in the Wilderness, causes time to become warped. You live by the sun, you live by the phases of the day. Each day was roughly
deliniated into the morning camp breakdown in subfreezing temperatures where I just wanted to get going to warm up, the morning hike where everything was vivid and I was fresh and full of energy, the midmorning hike where the only thing I did was fantasize about what I would eat for lunch, the post lunch hike which was spent thinking about how far I still had to go, the afternoon hike where I started getting tired, and finally the evening hike into camp to set up where I never failed to feel a sense of accomplishment, helped of course by devouring as much food as I could find.

My trip took 4 weeks and I could spend hours and hours describing what I saw- the blizzard in 3 Sisters Wilderness, the quiet reflective beauty of Jefferson Wilderness and Sky Lakes Wilderness, but in the end it wouldn't matter. My trip was an odessy that I didn't anticipate. Long distance hiking I learned is about self-discovery. It's about finding your threshold for what you're willing to endure, it's about the quiet sunsets and the reflective moments of writing. I found myself on the trail in a way I didn't expect to. Before my hike I was not a spiritual person, but what I saw made me believe in something, there was too much beauty, too many coincidences. Everytime I was angry, frustrated, or at a loss about what to do, something would happen that would reaffirm my path.

 When people asked, or still ask me why I went on this hike, I didn't and still don't have an
answer. I don't know why I went I said, I'm only certain that it was important to me. I'm glad I did.

Hiking by yourself is a great way to meet people who have a genuine interest in what you're doing, and a desire to help you. I don't know what it is, maybe people wanted to share in my adventure in a small way, maybe it was that they saw a kid by himself, maybe it was my
hunger for human contact, but in that month on the trail I met and interacted with complete strangers who became my friends. I hitch-hiked to towns, I ate with people I'd never seen before, the trip reaffirmed my belief in how good people are and can be. Before I went I would never have considered picking up a hitchhiker, I've heard too many horror stories, now if I ever pass a trailhead and someone needs a lift, I won't even hesitate because after all that was me once and will be again. Life is risks, hiking alone is a risk, but there's usually a
reward.

If I did this trip over again, I would definitely do a lot of things differently. I wouldn't hike 25 miles a day everyday, I sure as hell wouldn't carry as much food and gear, I would have done more pre-planning, and I would have tried harder to convince someone to hike with me the whole time.  But I wouldn't have given up the experience I had for anything. I wouldn't have given up walking around the town of Sisters trying to find lightweight backpacking food that
didn't exist until someone saw me and out of the blue asked if I was a hiker and would I like some freeze dried food, I wouldn't give up sitting there with Luke and Tammy, two Thru-hikers who hours before were strangers, gorging on Chile and hotdogs at Crater Lake after a long week of eating the same food everyday because I hadn't planned the variety of my food down to a T, I wouldn't give up the experience of being alone 24 hours a day for days at a time with nothing to do but to get to know myself.