PCT Info and FAQ Answers
Not so shockingly, there are lots of questions when you undertake something like the PCT! Here are a few answers to FAQs, plus some general background info on the trail, in addition to many of my own thoughts and opinions:
Thru-hiking
Thru-hiking refers to hiking point to point, without looping or retracing your route back to where you started. Thru-hikes are typically lengthy by definition. The Pacific Crest Trail is a lengthy for a thru-hike but not the longest out there.
My first thru-hike was the Trans Catalina Trail (TCT) in 2023, which is about 40 miles. During PCT training, I completed the Nakahechi Kumano Kodo route in Japan (a little over 40 mi) and Tyler and I completed the West Highland Way in Scotland (around 100 mi). Tyler hiked around 200 mi on a route of the Camino de Santiago (I was injured so I did not). In addition to full thru-hikes, we also hiked sections of the AZT and multi-day loops/out and back trails.
Other very well-known thru-hikes in the US include:
Appalachian Trail (AT) - 2,190 mi, part of the triple crown
Continental Divide Trail (CDT) - 3,100 mi (official trail), part of the triple crown
Colorado Trail (CT) - 486 mi
Arizona Trail (AZT) - 800 mi
*The PCT is also part of the triple crown
The PCT is 2,655 miles long and runs vertically through Washington, Oregon, and California, from the Canadian border to the Mexican border of the US.
The trail passes through 7 national parks - they are, in the order we reached them:
North Cascades (Washington) - new to me
Mount Rainier (Washington)
Crater Lake (Oregon) - new to me
Lassen Volcanic (California) - new to me
Yosemite (California)
Kings Canyon (California) - new to me
Sequoia (California) - new to me
The national parks make up a small percentage of the trail however, as it mainly passes through national forests and wilderness areas, BLM land and other public lands, and occasionally privately owned lands. The trail is hiked by thru-hikers and also by section hikers and day hikers in popular recreation areas.
The trail is divided into 29 sections that are largely irrelevant, but 5 major sections are typically referred to. These include:
Washington
Oregon
NorCal
The Sierra
SoCal/The Desert
Trail Length
Here is a map of the trail. You can see that it is far from a straight line, even at a large scale.
Here is a zoomed in section of 20 miles of trail. This level of zig-zagging and backtracking up, down, and around mountains is typical for the trail, hence why it is over double the distance between the borders as the crow flies.
The length of the trail is the same as the straight line distance between New York and San Francisco. People have asked me about the PCT and when I explain that it goes across the US vertically, people have said “oh, well that’s the short way so that shouldn’t take too long right? Maybe a couple of weeks?” Outwardly, I just say “several months.” Internally, my response is “well, even 1000 miles as the crow flies is still a long way, much less 2,650 miles.” Tyler and I talked a lot about how hiking long distances is hard for the human mind to wrap around, even for hikers who are actively doing it. To me, it still doesn’t feel like I’ve hiked over 2,655 miles. It’s easy to conceptualize miles in the context of car travel, which is understandable why people might forget that it takes a very long time to hike that number of miles, even when hiking 25-30+ miles/day.
SOBO vs. NOBO
You will notice that we went southbound (SOBO), which differs from the usual northbound (NOBO) direction of most PCT thru-hikers. Only around 10% or less of hikers go southbound, while around 90% or more go northbound. The main reasons for this are that it’s what has been traditionally done, because people want to experience more of the trail culture by hiking with lots of people, and there is a longer weather window in which to hike the trail.
The main difference between a SOBO and NOBO hike is the time in which you have to successfully complete the entire trail. NOBOs typically start anywhere from mid-March to early May, and have until around October 1st to complete their hike. On the other hand, SOBOs typically start mid-June through mid-July and have until October 1st to reach the end of the High Sierra. From there, the start of the snow season in the high mountains of the desert is uncertain, but typically arrives anywhere from mid-October to mid-November.
We started our hike on July 4th from Harts Pass (30 miles south of Canadian border) and on July 6th from the northern terminus at the border. Due to border crossing restrictions, hikers cannot cross between Canada and the US on the PCT and there are no roads at the northern terminus, so SOBOs have to start at the closest trailhead to the border, which is 30 miles south at Harts Pass. We did not start earlier due to the probability of snow presence, which significantly tanks your daily mileage and requires extra gear and technical skills/mountaineering knowledge. We were able to start earlier than we had intended which helped a TON with easing into the trail and being able to take a few rest days along the way.
We successfully made it out of the High Sierra on September 29th, two days before the October 1st deadline, and reached the Mexican border on October 29th. We barely made the snow window in the Sierra, as it hailed miserably on us the night before we ascended the last major pass and we heard from other hikers that a few hours after we went over Forester Pass, it was snowing at the top. The October 1st deadline is not a hard deadline, as the snow season is unpredictable, but it is a good guideline. The uncertainty of this caused a lot of stress for us during that section, but I’ll write more on this later. We did however, run into snow in Angeles National Forest in the SoCal section of trail in mid-October. We slept in a pit toilet and got caught in an unexpected blizzard. I don’t think I’ll share more about this because it was pretty traumatic.
We decided to go SOBO because we are introverted and don’t like being around lots of people in the backcountry (it also worked much better with our school schedule since we graduated in May). In my opinion, the trail culture for NOBOs has gotten a bit out of hand and has become obnoxious and destructive at times. When we passed the bubble of NOBOs in Oregon, it became evident that while there were still plenty of kind and respectful NOBOs, we had made the right decision for us to go SOBO. Also, a lot of NOBOs loved to give condescending, unsolicited advice to us as if we had no idea what we were doing after 500+ miles (and years of backpacking experience).
While there are far less hikers going SOBO, the trail is still busy, especially in popular recreation areas and you can still find other SOBOs to hike with if you like. We happened to be between bubbles of other SOBOs for the vast majority of our hike, which was great for us, but we still got to meet some very cool SOBOs and make some friends!
We met some really cool people on the trail that we think of often! Most hikers are given trail names, bestowed upon them by other hikers, usually in relation to a story involving them or a unique aspect of their persona. Because we were largely isolated for the duration of our hike, we didn’t have trail names and didn’t feel the need to bestow them upon each other or ourselves.
Completion Rates
The hike is extremely difficult to do in its entirety in one season and it is nearly impossible to hike every single step due to closures. These closures are often due to wildfires, which have become increasingly worse in the last decade. There are also lots of alternate routes on the trail. We elected to take a few of these for various reasons, but only took a few of them when they made more sense than the actual trail. We elected not to do many road walks, which tend to be easier in terms of elevation gain and shave off miles. Our goal was to stay relatively true to the trail, and to hike the total number of miles of trail, which we accomplished!
Each hiker will have a different definition of what it means to successfully complete a thru-hike of the PCT, and that’s okay! There are aspects such as a continuous footpath, following the true trail in its entirety, or completing a certain percentage of the trail that some people may consider thresholds for completing or not completing the trail. Because there is no way to verify exactly how someone hiked the trail and whether they are reporting truthfully, it is very difficult to estimate a completion rate, but it is estimated that only around 10-25% of hikers will complete the PCT, and that around half will stop their hike by the halfway point.
Each hiker will also have a different goal in mind and a different reason for deciding to hike the PCT. Some hikers are aiming to have fun and make friends, which is amazing, but their approach generally differs from a hiker aiming to hike every mile of the trail or attempt the triple crown, for example.
There are many reasons why a thru-hiker may stop their hike, and they typically tend to be involuntary. The most common reason is injury, but running out of money is another big one. Wildfire and snow conditions often force hikers to skip significant sections depending on the season. It is rare that people choose to quit their hike completely just because they aren’t enjoying it, but it does happen. More often, people skip sections that they aren’t enjoying or that they’ve heard bad things about.
Skipping significant sections of trail has become more common recently, which I have mixed feelings about personally. While everyone should hike their own hike according to their personal and goals and circumstances, Tyler and I found that the presence of so many hikers skipping sections added a weird, almost cheapened feeling to the trail. We met a big group of hikers in the middle of the Sierra who introduced themselves as SOBO thru-hikers and we were confused because we hadn’t seen them before (typically you have at least an idea of who’s around you), only to find out they had skipped down from mid-Oregon (thus completing about half of the miles we had hiked so far). There’s no shame in skipping around, but our personal opinion was that people should be a bit more honest about it, so as not to do a disservice to those who trained and focused hard, indulged in few luxuries, and hauled through some miserable conditions. Not promoting misery here - just promoting accuracy, as a big part of preserving the uniqueness and integrity of the thru-hiking experience is persevering through the highs and lows.
Later, these same people claimed they were hiking the whole trail when a shuttle driver asked about how much trail everyone in the shuttle was hiking. The thing is, a term for long distance section hiking does exist! These people are referred to as LASHERs (long-a** section hikers), which is very impressive in its own right.
While I’m still on this little rant., I also want to say that NorCal does not get enough love in my opinion. We met so many NOBOs and SOBOs who skipped all of NorCal due to things they had heard about it, but NorCal was one of my favorite sections! Aside from generally just feeling really well physically in NorCal, I found its beauty and desolation to be very enjoyable. There are, however, several burn areas which dissuade people from hiking the section. The smaller burn areas at the beginning were rarely bothersome as they have experienced new growth and were relatively short. There was one four ish day burn area near the end of NorCal from the Dixie Fire that was a bit brutal, but it still had its own beauty. There were a ton of amazing campsites and sunrise/sunset views in NorCal, along with friendly locals. I think that rather than just adjusting their expectations, hikers get so worked up about NorCal and avoiding burn areas, that they end up missing out on a unique section of trail.
Reasons for Stopping a Thru-Hike
Along the lines of hike-ending events, we each experienced injuries which were very stressful. Obviously, we would have done what we needed to do, but we really wanted to hike the trail and knew we wouldn’t have such a perfect opportunity ever again, so every ache and pain was stressful. We constantly played the “will this go away in a few hours or is this the start of an overuse injury?” game.
I started the trail with achilles tendonitis from Scotland, which made me very uncertain as to whether I would be able to complete the trail. I saw Blaze Physio, who is an amazing PT who specializes in thru-hiking. Most PTs do not understand the unique demands that thru-hiking has on the body, and thus are unable to appropriately manage injuries in a manner that attempts to keep hikers on trail. I was ecstatic to learn that I could likely heal my injury on trail (tendonitis requires loading to heal, rather than rest) and worked on my exercises while I was in Wisconsin. We had to halve our mileage for the first few days on trail and I had to do isometric exercises every two hours, but this allowed me to stay on trail and heal at the same time. Luckily, this didn’t put us behind schedule since we started six days early.
Tyler experienced several overuse injuries that started in NorcCal and persisted through the end of the trail, so he definitely got the short end of the injury stick. Blaze Physio was immensely helpful in keeping him on trail. He unfortunately pushed through a lot of pain but is doing much better now. I ended the trail with more tendonitis in my foot, but it seems to be healing.
Before the trail, several people expressed their certainty that we would finish the trail if we just tried hard enough, which was a well-intentioned sentiment, but it felt difficult to explain that non-completion rates are so high due to factors that are largely out of the control of hikers. We went in with the expectation that we probably wouldn’t be able to complete the hike and we were okay with that (I’m still shocked that we hiked 2,655 miles!), but it felt difficult to manage the expectations of others who saw completing the trail as success and not completing it as failure. Overall, I tried to avoid and currently try to avoid talking about the trail with people, as some comments come across as a bit dismissive or minimizing, despite the best of intentions.
One thing I will say however, is that doing trail-specific PT exercises pre-trail and training lots is something that hikers can do to improve their chances of completion. There is a misconception that you can’t really train for a thru-hike, as it feels so different than regular hiking and backpacking. While it certainly doesn’t feel anything like regular weekend backpacking, you can certainly train up to thru-hike. We started training about a year in advance because we knew we would have to shoot out of a cannon at the start of the trail for lack of a better phrase, in order to make it through the Sierra on time. Not being able to ease into the trail is risky for injury but often necessary for SOBOs. By day 4 we had hiked a 26 mile day, and we started doing consistently high-mileage days soon after.
Due to the huge amount of help we received from our loved ones and some decisions we made about how we wanted to hike the trail, money was not a hike-ending issue for us. We didn’t track every dollar, but we estimate to have spent around $2-3k each on everything (gear, food, town amenities, etc.), which is far less than the $10k average. Thru-hiking is expensive but can be done for less, depending on the approach and level of support. We spent about $1000 each on shoes, as we had to replace our trail runners every 500 miles, which was about every 2.5 weeks.
Physical Experience (+ Food)
The physical aspect of the trail was very interesting, as it felt incomparable to anything I had ever felt. It’s difficult to put into words, but you feel everything so viscerally. I felt very in tune with my physical being, for better or worse. I felt every ache and pain, but I also felt so much strength and purity. The first 3 ish weeks were the most difficult in terms of getting over the initial hump of pain (which is typical) and then everything got so much easier, with ups and downs depending on the day and section. I found it fascinating how quickly my body adjusted to hiking long days. Pre-trail I could comfortably hike around 18-20 mile days with a pack, so hiking 25-30 miles felt insurmountable at one point. It quickly became so normal that we felt like we had a rest day when we hiked less than 25 miles. By the end of trail, I felt lazy when I hiked less than 30 miles.
I would say that hunger was the biggest physical challenge for me, even over general pain and physical strife. Your metabolism quickly skyrockets when you consistently hike high miles, which is known as “hiker-hunger.” Strenuous exercise usually suppresses my appetite so I struggled to get enough calories down during the first several weeks, as I felt nauseous every time I had to eat. Then, one random afternoon in mid-Washington a switch flipped and I was suddenly ravenous (this didn’t go away until after the hike had ended). There were various waves of hiker hunger, but I generally felt like a bottomless pit. This was unlike any hunger I had experienced before and I quickly learned that the calories I ate had a delay effect, which was tricky to get right. If I ate enough calories when we were off trail, I would feel better for the next week or so on trail. Similarly, if I didn’t overload myself with calories when I could, I would feel okay for the first few days following, and then feel absolutely miserable for the next week or so. This became difficult when we were going up to a week between resupply stops and I was trying to save money by not buying as much extra food in town. I was so hungry during one week at the beginning of the Sierra that I was crying constantly and couldn’t sleep at night. During this time, I was still eating over 3,000 calories a day, but burning around 6,000. I was pretty scarred from this, so I was careful to never get back to that point for the rest of the hike.
Tyler bought a $10 watch at the start of the hike that served as an alarm clock and had an hourly chime, which we used to control the rate at which we ate each day. At the beginning of the hike it forced me to eat, and soon it stopped me from eating all my daily snacks too quickly. I will show a picture of our trail food on an upcoming slide, but we would eat cold cereal for breakfast and a hot dinner, plus a myriad of packaged snacks throughout the day. Because of this, we got used to eating very small amounts of food constantly, and our bodies had an increasingly difficult time eating large amounts of food in a short period. This made stops in towns very difficult, as I knew I needed to eat as much as possible, but was not able to get enough down volume-wise. I would feel so sick for days after resupply stops where I attempted to overload myself with calories, and this got worse as the hike went on. By the desert, I could no longer eat a regular-sized meal comfortably because I was so used to eating small amounts consistently. Thus, food and hunger was a huge struggle.
Here's an example of what we ate in a day. We shared a double portion of breakfast and dinner, and my daily snacks (in order by hour) are on the right, while Tyler's are on the left.
We chose to prep all our food pre-trail and do resupply boxes for several reasons, including money, nutrients, and Tyler's gluten allergy. Tyler spent an insane amount of hours prepping cooking, dehydrating, and packaging our dinners and breakfasts! Here's a couple images of the packing, sorting, and buying process (a very hectic time in April while we were moving and finishing grad school). Our resupply boxes also contained other items like toothpaste, first aid, new socks, etc.
One other physical aspect of the hike that was difficult for me was constantly feeling so sweaty and gross and hating the feeling of my clothes and pack rubbing and irritating my skin.
Psychological Experience
Mentally, the hike was not as challenging as I thought it would be. There was definitely some tough sections to get through and there were certainly days where I woke up and felt like laying in bed rather than hiking 30 miles. Additionally, there were significant amounts of boredom on trail, especially in the more mundane sections. Having each other’s company certainly helped a lot with this, and we listened to music when we could (usually for the last couple of days before we knew we could charge our phones at a resupply stop).
The aspect of the trail that was the most difficult for me was really unexpected, which I think then made it more difficult. I really struggled with the mental aspect of rapid weight loss, and disordered eating, which definitely indicated that I have more work to do in that area. Hiking had always been a place where I was kinder to myself because how’re you going to be mean to yourself as you’re literally summiting mountains? I think I assumed this would carry into thru-hiking, but because thru-hiking is so different than regular hiking and backpacking in my opinion, it felt difficult to manage the psychological aspects of this. I simultaneously worried about rapid weight loss and lack of calories, while thinking I wasn’t losing weight fast enough and trying to lose weight faster by not fueling myself adequately because weight loss was “normal,” “healthy,” and also easier in this setting. I also had access to and “permission” to eat junk foods that I had restricted for years, so it was difficult to manage this new, temporary freedom with my usual reality. Foods that I typically avoid or regulate due to high calorie content suddenly became what I *should* be eating in order to have enough fuel to carry me for the next week of hiking. Managing proper fueling and balancing nutrient/calorie intake on top of this was a lot. Overall, I had a lot of daily stress and sadness in this corner of my mind.
Favorite Sections
Section J in Washington: Stevens Pass to Snoqualmie Pass - stunning views and tons of blue lakes to swim in!
The Southeastern Sierra: Tuolumne Meadows to Forester Pass - stunning passes and alpine lakes with fall colors!
Least Favorite Sections
Section K in Washington: Rainy Pass to Stevens Pass - absolute hell on earth, the most blowdowns and overgrowth I have ever experienced on a hiking trail (ppl were breaking limbs and getting helicoptered out)
Southern Oregon - boring, civilized, not as easy as I would have liked
Great Questions to Ask Thru-Hikers
What have been your favorite and least favorite parts of the trail?
How many miles a day do you average?
What do you typically eat in a day?
What has surprised you?
What have been the hardest and easiest parts?
Have you experienced trail closures?
What has been your favorite trail town?
How often do you resupply?
What is your favorite piece of gear/what gear do you recommend?
What made you want to thru-hike and what life circumstances allowed you to do so?
How much of the trail have you hiked/are you planning to hike?
Not so Great Questions to Ask Thru-Hikers
How was it? (I have no idea how to answer this question so I just say good)
Where are you camping? (First of all, creepy. Second of all, I don't know?? 2 tent site on FarOut? 25 miles down the trail from here? What are you looking for?)
Where did you come from? (Canada? Not sure how else to answer this question.)
My personal least favorite: Are you scared of bears? (No, I’m scared of weird people in towns and bad weather/trail conditions. I’m alert for mountain lions. Store your food properly and be aware of your surroundings. Also, there’s no Grizzlies on the PCT.)
I have also had people ask how we carried four months worth of food on our backs. That one always leaves me a bit speechless. A better question: where/how do you resupply your food and how often do you do it?
Resupply + Trail Magic
My dad very kindly and generously drove us out to the start of the trail in his van and stayed out west with us for the first month and a half of our time on trail. This was incredibly helpful and a huge luxury that most hikers do not have access to. It was amazing to spend time with him after not seeing him much the last couple of years, and to have immediate rides from trail to amenities, instead of having to hitch from remote highways. This was especially helpful when we experienced some medical and injury issues at the beginning of trail. My dad being there allowed us to get off trail quickly when we needed to and have access to all of the things we needed in towns. We were also able to do much shorter food carries because he was able to meet us at lots of roads. We also spent some nights in his van, which was a nice break from camping and allowed us to take a military shower and cook lots of food. This was huge in allowing us to start strong, deal with issues, carry less weight, and resupply much faster. We resupplied probably at least a dozen times in the first month and a half and also got to do a few slack packing days where we met him at the start and end of our hiking day so we didn’t have to carry any of our stuff. We truly can’t express how grateful we are for his help! Thank you dad :)
My dad returned to Wisconsin when we reached the end of Oregon and we then switched our resupply strategy drastically to try to limit how often we resupplied. This was slightly due to cost of shipping resupply packages, but mostly due to not wanting to waste time doing long hitches or spur trails into distant trail towns. Whenever possible, we tried to pick up boxes as close to trail as we could. This was difficult at times in terms of weight and length of times between extra calories, but we made it work and it allowed us to make our snow deadline. Tyler’s family was also incredibly kind, helpful, and generous in coming out to meet us on trail several times and dropping off boxes for us! We also received a very generous gift from Tyler’s mom’s work office, who covered our shipping expenses! We also received cards from our friend Ava and Tyler’s family, baked goods from my mom and Tyler’s sisters, among many other acts of kindness. We were also treated to many meals by family and even a woman we met in a trail town. We feel so grateful to everyone who helped us physically, financially, and emotionally during our journey :)
Our resupply schedule after my dad left looked like this:
- My dad dropped off our first box in Seiad Valley and we picked it up 3 days after he left.
- Hiked 6 days to Castella and picked up mailed box at Ammirati’s Market.
- Hiked 3 days to Burney Mountain Ranch - stayed the night to shower/do laundry after 12 days and took a nearo here. Picked up our mailed package.
- Hiked 5 days to Belden/Caribou Crossroads and picked up mailed package 1.5 mi off trail.
- Hiked 4 days to Sierra City and picked up package 1.5 mi off trail. Tyler’s aunt and uncle dropped off this hefty package for us and left us some cards and goodies :) This package contained all of our warm clothes for the Sierra. Took a cold shower and did laundry.
- Hiked 8 days to Kennedy Meadows North Resort - took shuttle to pick up mailed package and shower/do laundry, took two hitches to get back to trail for free.
- Hiked 3 days to Tuolumne Meadows where Tyler’s mom met us. Stayed at a hotel for a night in Lee Vining and dropped off our next batch of resupply in a bear box at a trailhead near Red’s Meadow.
- Hiked 9 days (8 day carry due to 1 day slack pack from Tuolumne to Red’s) to Kennedy Meadows South. Tyler’s mom and sister met us and we stayed in a hotel in Ridgecrest and took a rest day.
- Hiked 8 days to Hikertown - picked up mailed package.
- Hiked 2 days to Agua Dulce where Tyler’s dad met us and we stayed a hotel in Lancaster for a night.
- Hiked 5 days to Cajon Pass, except we got caught in an unexpected blizzard and spent a night at a trail angel’s house in Wrightwood (they were incredibly kind and selfless folks who came to get us from trail during the blizzard). Treated ourself to a hotel in Cajon Pass and took a rest day.
- Hiked 6 days to Idyllwild - picked up mailed package, showered and did laundry, spent the night in town at a campground.
- Hiked 6 days to Mount Laguna - picked up mailed package.
- Hiked 1 day to Southern terminus (Campo) where Tyler’s family picked us up and hosted us at their house in San Diego!
Most of our stops were brief, 2-3 hour stops where we crammed in our chores and extra calories so we could get back on trail and make the rest of our miles for the day. Stopping in tiny trail towns (sometimes around 3 buildings) was definitely an experience and a peek into small-town America. Locals were generally friendly, but we did have some unpleasant interactions and ran into some sketchy/weird vibes. As a result, resupply days stressed me out and I was always anxious to be back on trail. We tried to charge phones, kindles, the headlamp, and portable charger whenever we could at these points, but we had to be very conservative with our batteries. Luckily my kindle lasts for a month+ without charge and Tyler and I both got the iPhone 16 before the hike. This allowed us to have satellite texting (ended up being very useful) without having to buy a Garmin InReach and our battery lives were top notch. Tyler ended up doing all of the navigation and picture taking so he had his phone on much more than I did and we reserved the portable charger usage for him. My phone would then often go 2+ weeks without a charge because it was off most of the time.
The current issues on the PCT between hikers and locals in trail towns, and trail angels are a whole can of worms that I will not open, but if you want to read more about some of it, here are two articles:
*Note: trail magic is acts of kindness (typically rides, food, and water) given to hikers, while trail angels are those who carry out these acts of kindness
https://www.halfwayanywhere.com/trails/unpopular-opinion-trail-angels-stop-asking-hikers-for-money/
We experienced most trail magic in the form of water caches in the desert due to hiking outside of NOBO season but we did experience some trail magic in the form of food in Oregon when we passed the NOBO bubble. The trail angels rescuing us from the blizzard was a huge act of trail magic.
A trail angel named "Carbs" in Oregon gave me this giant pancake!
The End
I think this concludes the very long and convoluted mess of thoughts about our journey, but honestly it doesn’t even touch the surface of what we experienced and what I could talk about. I haven’t even touched gear, so let me know if you want to hear about this!
If you have any questions, I am happy to answer!
Edits: Questions submitted from Instagram
Q: Did you send yourself resupply boxes ahead of time?
A: Tyler’s mom was kind enough to spend lots of time sending out all of our resupply boxes and making sure we got all of the items we needed in them. We prepared all of the boxes in April but left the tops open to allow items to be added and removed as needed. We actually ended up having a lot of requests (mostly needing more food, socks, and less soap, toothpaste). I printed address labels ahead of time to both of us in case one of us got off trail and wrote “Please hold for SOBO PCT hikers” on the boxes. Tyler’s mom sent these 2 weeks in advance to allow ample time for the package to arrive to small town locales, but late enough to allow changes to be made, to not have too many wasted boxes if we got off trail, and to not risk the package being thrown out by the business holding it. We were lucky to receive all of our packages, as many hikers did not, and we would have been screwed in some locations that didn’t have much food available for purchase. Packages not arriving usually happens when they are sent last minute, the wrong address is used, or the wrong carrier is used, as each store/lodge requires a specific mail carrier.
Q: When and where did you get engaged and was there a specific milestone at which you knew you wanted to get engaged?
A: We’ve known when we want to get married for awhile but hadn’t decided when we wanted to get engaged within that timeline until we threw out potential options at the beginning of this year. Tyler surprised me by having the ring made while we were on trail and he proposed at the southern terminus when we finished the trail! He carried it the last 500 miles in his jacket pocket bc I unpacked his stuff every night to make his bed while he made us dinner so I would have found it if it was anywhere else. His sister had hidden the ring in the middle of a box of gluten free Oreos that his dad brought to us!
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