Mike's PCT: May 2011

The Pacific Crest Trail

The pacific Crest Trail is a long-distance mountain hiking trail that runs in Washington, Oregon, and California between Mexico and Canada. The trail follows the highest portion of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Range, which parallels the Pacific Ocean by 100 to 150 miles. The trail is 2,650 miles long and ranges in elevation from just above sea level at the Oregon/Washington border to 13,153 feet at Forester Pass in the Sierra Nevada. The route passes through 25 national forests and 7 national parks. The Pacific Crest Trail is a place where space and time have become an illusion. With civilization we can take a train, drive an automobile, and fly a plane. With nauseating speed we fly by monuments, wilderness, man made obstructions, natural fields, rows of trees, buildings, and people. We are never really aware of the actual space in which we exist because we are annihilating time and space by traveling beyond our means. It is not until we attempt to move about on our own two feet that we realize the immense size of the world that we live in. Nobody is forced to walk anywhere; I will walk 2700 miles across the United States. For the first time in my life, the less that I have the better off I will be. I will have escaped clocks and calendars, where the only time is defined by the rising and setting of the sun.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Food #1

How much food does it take to walk 1000 miles? 5,000 calories every day, for 38 days, comes out to roughly 200,000 calories. This is what 200,000 calories of hiking food looks like. There are 4 bags of oats, three bags of trail mix, craisins, raisins, blueberries, cashews, almonds, walnuts, quinoa, honey, dried plums, and granola. It's 12 bags of spaghetti, three boxes of crackers and mashed potatoes, 20 pounds of rice, 5 pounds of jerky, 24 bags of ramen, 10 boxes of macaroni and cheese, and 5 pounds of chocolate chips. This is it, what will take me from the Canadian border to the Californian border on foot, 1/3 of the way to Mexico. Organizing this into daily rations is the next task, which fortunately can wait another week. My first shipment needs to be mailed out to Stehekin, Washington on June 8th.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

People have recently been asking me what I'll be doing after graduation. I'd like to dedicate this post to them. After the looks of confusion, I explain what the PCT is, and then the questions come flying in. So you're going to hike 2600 miles? By yourself? Aren't you scared? Then the realization hits, they understand that after graduation they'll be moving back in with their parents, and pursue a menial job for minimum wage. I really enjoy watching their faces change from "holy shit you're crazy!" to "Oh my God, I'm so jealous! I wish I had the audacity to do something like this." To all those people, Yes I'm actually going to do this, by myself, and no I am not scared.