Our 2,650 mile Pacific Crest Trail backpack trip
My wife, Kristen Hege, and I hope to complete a six-month backpack trip, from Mexico to Canada through California, Oregon & Washington state. You can follow our progress here. We begin March 25, 2023.
Each year my wife and I backpack for six weeks. With Kristen’s recent retirement, we moved the Pacific Crest Trail to the top of our bucket list. We’ll begin the six-month journey on March 25, 2023, from Campo, California (at the Mexican/U.S. border) to Manning Park in British Columbia, Canada. (Get live updates on our itinerary by clicking here.)
Why are we taking on this challenge?
My wife has always wanted to do the PCT hike. She loves the majestic beauty of high mountain ranges and alpine lakes and the monastic simplicity of backpacking, where you carry everything you need to survive and thrive in a pack on your back. I’m up for it, too.
I appreciate the athletic challenge. Only 14% of hikers complete the trip. Can we lug 30-40 pounds along the highest peaks in California, Oregon, and Washington? Can we navigate snow and water crossings? Avoid fires? Can we maintain a 15-20 mile daily average for six months?
I like extended time off the grid. It’s very healthy— I get lots of exercise and eliminate bad habits like snacking, TV, and alcohol. We’ll be unplugged, so there’s plenty of time for introspection and reading.
I like to learn new things. While I’m a competent backpacker, this will take us to a new level of expertise. (Our most extended thru-hike so far is twelve days.)
I like to explore. This trip will take us to very remote territories and we’ll see many stunning vistas.
Frequently asked questions:
How will you handle the record snowfall? The snow is twenty feet deep in the Sierras, so we have a leapfrog plan to hike the first 650 miles from Campo to Walker Pass, then skip the high Sierras. My sister-in-law, Karen Hege, will pick us up and drive us 500 miles north to Donner Pass near Lake Tahoe. Then we’ll hike 1,000 miles to the Oregon/Washington border, then fly south to walk the five-hundred-mile Sierra section we skipped. By then, it will be August, so the snow should have melted. After the high Sierras, we’ll fly north to Portland, then hike 500 miles across Washington state to Canada. We hope to finish by the end of September before the snow falls in the northern Cascades. Click here for our itinerary. (We’ll update it along the way.)
What do you eat? We have prepared 48 re-supply food boxes to ship to post offices along the route. Every 2-8 days, we’ll hike a few miles off the trail to pick them up. We’ll also supplement our boxes with local groceries and breakfast/dinners. The meals are freeze-dried, although Kristen baked and froze 40 mini loaves of sourdough german seeded rye bread. She also pre-mixed one hundred whole grain breakfasts and prepped powdered milk pudding for dessert (800 calories). Each day we’ll eat ~4,000 calories. That’s not enough, so we’ll probably lose 10-30 pounds during the trip. Here’s our food list.
What will you pack? I haven’t put the pack list together yet, but our base weight (clothes, tent, sleeping bag, mattress pad, stove, and other assorted items) will be ~15+ pounds each, and we’ll each carry 10-20 pounds of food/water on top of that. There are a few stretches — especially in the southern desert— where we will ferry ten pounds of water from one campsite to the next.
Did you train for the trip? Kristen walks ten miles a day, and I skied 75 days this winter, about half of which has been on backcountry skis with many 5,000-foot climbs. Most folks say you get in shape on the trail, but the first day is 20 miles, which will be hard. We each have known weaknesses: I flirt with plantar fasciitis and occasionally tweak my back; Kristen has a sore hip and a neuroma in her foot. Like most endurance challenges, half the battle is mental, and we both do reasonably well on this front.
Will you stay in touch? We both have Garmin InReach emergency satellite devices and our iPhones. (We can also use Garmin to send/receive occasional texts.) We’ll be back on the grid every 2-8 days and have rare access to our laptops via a “bounce box” that moves from one post office to the next.
How do married couples do on the trail? More than two-thirds of PCT hikers go it alone, and it’s unusual for couples to walk together. Kristen and I divide and conquer well on the trail, so we’re hopeful. We have obvious style differences. Kristen loves planning — far in advance — and I am more likely to handle things at the last minute. This last week of preparation will be a scramble. After completing the southern desert section, we’ll celebrate Kristen’s 60th birthday with friends at Donner Lake. We expect to celebrate our 32nd wedding anniversary near the trail's end on September 14th.
How many others are on the trail? There are permits for fifty thru-hikers daily from March 1 to the end of May. Over time, informal “trail families” that hike at the same pace merge and camp together.
Do you have PCT trail names? Most hikers shed their “on the grid” identity, including their real names. While my Burning Man nickname is “Blue Flame,” I will let the PCT trail name me. (This happens via trail families.) Kristen hopes to adopt “KarMMa,” which was the name of the pivotal trial that led to the FDA approval of a breakthrough CART cell for multiple myeloma. (Ask her what that means.)
Is there anything we can do to help? Having friends and family visit us on the trail is fun, and there are a few notoriously challenging places for food re-supplies. Our leapfrog plan requires a few airport and trailhead pick-ups and drop-offs. Ping us if you’d like to visit us on the trail or help somehow. Watermelons are the holy grail of trail food deliveries, but a cold beer sounds good, too! Many thanks to Laurie and Dave Sheehan for hosting us in San Diego plus driving us to the trailhead in Campo at the crack of dawn on March 25th. Ping me at gbiddle616@gmail.com if you’d like to help or meet.
The most extended contiguous backpacking trip we have done together is twelve days, so we will learn a lot about long-distance thru-hiking. My guess is we’ll slowly shed backpack weight and body mass. (We’re debating whether our one-pound chairs are worth the weight.) Most hikers quickly ramp up their daily miles and skip breakfast to complete “ten miles by ten a.m.” which is not consistent with our more laid-back vision. (However, I’ll bet our assumption of 15 miles/day is low.) But we’re 60, dammit, and deserve to relish the experience rather than embark on a sufferfest. We will see.
You can hit the subscribe button below if you’d like an email each time I post an update. I’ll likely post photos and updates every two weeks.
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If you have questions or words of encouragement, feel free to leave a comment. Happy trails!
Gib (and Kris)
PS. For more photos, you can also follow us here:
PPS. If you want a best guess of where we will be when, or see the crazy spreadsheet that predicts our resupply needs, click here.
Past essays:
March 25, 2023: “Day One: Introducing our PCT hike”
March 26, 2023: “The Fears We Carry”
April 1, 2023: “Our First 100 Miles!”
April 7, 2023: “A Day In the Life”
April 15, 2023: “Deserts & Bears & Wind (Oh My!)”
April 22, 2023: “Luxury Light Thru Hiking”
Such an awesome and inspiring journey. God speed Gib!
good luck. Looking forward to reading more about your experiences.