A little over 2 years ago (March 2015) I went on a short backpacking trip to some hot springs in the Olympic National Park. While soaking with some new friends, the subject of the Pacific Crest Trail came up. We talked about what it would be like to hike it and I somewhat jokingly said I wanted to do it in Summer 2017. On that same trip I met my friend Damon, who was planning on hiking the Wonderland Trail, a 93 mile hike around Mt. Rainier. Meghan and I had been trying to decide on a summer trip and were considering the same thing. The next day, we put in our permit application for the Wonderland and started planning our first long backpacking trip.
For the next two years, that Summer 2017 date stuck in my head. I would tell people I was going to hike the PCT then, mostly because it was far enough out that there was no expectation that it would happen. It was something I wanted to do, but you need a lot of things in your life to line up to make it work. The more time passed, the more I really wanted to do it. I read books, watched videos, and spent a lot of time researching the PCT.
In August 2016, Meghan and I got engaged. We decided that 2017 was too soon to plan a wedding and we wanted to wait until 2018. While I was thinking about the PCT, Meghan was applying to Physician Assistant schools. She was trying to start in 2017 and that could mean a huge life change for both of us. If she was going to leave the state for school, and we were getting married the next summer, now was the time to take a four month walk in the woods.
As winter was winding up, it was looking less and less like Meghan would be starting PA school in the summer. She was on a waitlist, but hadn’t been accepted anywhere. I had applied for a PCT permit for May 12th, but wasn’t sure what to do. After talking, we decided I would hike the trail and she started making plans for a summer in Seattle.
A month before my start date, she heard from Marist College in New York. She was off the wait list. School starts May 15th. Everything changed. Meghan would be moving to New York. My support for the trail was going to be thousands of miles and three time zones away. This was the original plan though, and we could handle it.
On May 10th, Meghan and I are flying to San Diego. We’ll spend a day at the beach before picking up some last minute supplies. Then we’ll drive to Campo, CA where she’ll drop me off at the Southern Terminus of the PCT. She’ll fly back to Seattle, pick up our cat, Qwerty, and fly to New York the next day.
It’s going to be one hell of an adventure.