The Pacific Crest Trail is a long journey and when I started this hike, I knew it was going to teach me some life lessons and I can say at the halfway point I have already learned so much. The reason people start this hike is different for each person and the lessons each person hopes to learn from it differ, so I wanted to share with you some of the things I’ve learned up until the halfway point.
#1
The first and potentially most obvious lesson that we’ve all heard before is that your body is more capable than we give it credit. Before the PCT, the idea of walking 20 to 25 miles, essentially a marathon, every day sounded like an absolutely crazy idea reserved only for crazy people.
For me doing an hour walk or run on a treadmill was exhausting so the thought of doing that for nearly 12 to 16 hours a day seemed like a huge challenge. On day one I was able to only do 11 miles which at the time was discouraging because I knew I would have to increase those numbers to be able to finish this trail before winter.
It wasn’t long before my body had totally adapted and evolved to the new environment and challenges in front of it and I was doing 25 miles every single day. What was previously an incomprehensible challenge, my body was tackling with far more ease than I ever imagined.
#2
The second lesson I learned was to let go of the perfect vision I had for this adventure and to try and enjoy what comes. Every person heading into the Pacific Crest Trail imagines walking 2650 miles unbroken and flawlessly, but the reality is that by the halfway point I’ve already seen more than roughly 30% of everybody leave or have to change what it looks like in some way. Whether it was injury, the trail, motivations and inspirations fading, or other reasons, so many people have had to adapt what their vision of this journey looked like or even end it completely.
For me, I had a purist mindset heading into the trail, but unfortunately this year has been particularly bad for wildfires and a severe injury with my ankle. This has meant that I’ve had to miss some miles for safety and health reasons, in order to continue and make sure I finish the trail in time. This took a lot of internal struggling to come to peace with because as a competitive person and former athlete, I often view challenges as all or nothing. But the trail has taught me how to accept what comes my way and to enjoy every mile that I get because nothing is promised.
#3
The third lesson: there are more good people in the world than bad! Before starting the trail, I had a lot of anxiety of being a solo female out in the wilderness. Especially because I didn’t have a lot of wilderness experience or confidence in my ability to be independent. Heading into the trail I shared quite a bit about my anxiety and fears surrounding this, but overtime, those anxieties and fears subsided step-by-step as I continue to the halfway point.
There are so many good people and whether it’s the people you’re hiking with or the trail angels who go out of the way to make this possible, you come across so many interesting and caring individuals who genuinely want to help you succeed. Whether you have an injury, run out of water, or are struggling mentally, or are just hungry as heck, people you’ve never met in your life will go so far out of their way to make your life better.
As I’ve been sharing this journey, I’ve had countless individuals reach out to me via social media offering rides, places to stay, food, or to even send me resupplies ahead! It’s giving me a new belief and faith in people and helped me realize that we don’t need to be as scared of the world as we may be led to believe. Of course it’s always good to still be aware but when you start to focus on all the good around you, you’ll see there’s a lot more of it than there is bad.
#4
Fourth lesson: You should always try to chase your dreams, no matter how big they are! After 3 to 4 years of dreaming about the PCT, it was very difficult to take the first step of doing it and I had so much anxiety and fear surrounding it because of the expectation I had built up from watching all the content online, and it felt like an overwhelming thing to actually do as I didn’t have a belief in myself.
But what I found is in just taking small steps and every day working towards that goal, whether it was taking the first step to register, starting the process of planning, the journey and supplies needed, buying that first piece of gear, or actually taking the first step onto the trail and filtering from my very first water source, I’ve learned that it’s easy to not go after your dreams when you look at the total challenge ahead, but it’s very possible if you just start to focus on the small individual tasks and you’ll be so proud of yourself that you did it when it’s all said and done."
- Dedra (AKA Forest Gump)
