Miya
Because I am able.
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2017
- Messages
- 1,404
OOOOOKAY, so it has almost been 1 year since I touched the Northern Terminus (09.20.2021). I finally have internet aaaand my Sawtooth backpacking trip/job hunting has been delayed due to someone backing into my car. I have officially been carless for 12 days and have not left home for 8 days. My cup runneth over with time.
I could babble a novel for each section, but I am going to do my best to just keep it to pictures and captions. I have just under 5,000 photos that I would LOVE to share, but I am going to do my best to keep each TR to ~50 or less. I could talk about the PCT for the rest of my life, so feel free to comment or message me any questions.
Using my Instagram files because even though my cup runneth, I still don't have the patience to upload full files. Apologies for less sharpness and less loveliness.
I think I am assuming that everyone here knows what the PCT is, but I shouldn’t. From PCTA website: “The Pacific Crest Trail spans 2,650 miles (4,265 kilometers) from Mexico to Canada through California, Oregon, and Washington.”
I would hike at least 2,740.8 miles to make it to the end.
This trip report:
Days: 1-20
Miles: 1 - 208.5
Zero Days (hiked 0 miles): 1
First thru hike, required a gear photo with Miya flare! Ghibli style!
March 20, 2021 - Mom and I headed down to the Southern Terminus. I was a little excited.
Holy crap…finally here. I had been obsessing about ONE moment for the last 5 years. I daydreamed about it while driving, at work, when hiking or camping. I fell asleep and woke up thinking about it. I even had fantastical dreams about it! TOUCH THE NORTHERN TERMINUS (after having walked from the Southern one). I chose 03/21 as my start date in honor of my grandpa's birthday, he was like a father to me. Turns out his birthday was 03/20, so that bummed me out when I visited his grave a couple days before my start date, I am sure he would have had a good laugh over it though, as it is typical of me to do something like that.
Mom and I forgot to take a selfie at the terminus and that still makes me sad.
It was 28 degrees when I started, so I quickly put on some socks!
First trail magic was only 20 miles in. I didn't feel like I needed it yet, so I took only 1 sour strip. I would continue to avoid most trail magic throughout the entirety of the trail. Although, I really didn't run into much of it like a lot of other hikers did.
Yucca Plant.
Day 1 and the desert is so dang pretty!
I think they used a cutesy font so you don't focus on the fact that you still have 2,640 miles left (not including miles to get water or get to town).
Day 3 was 13 miles of beautiful rain into Mt. Laguna (I had hoped for a rainy and snowy PCT year). There were no vacancies, but I managed to charm a gruff elderly man into letting me rent a 4 person cabin that they were not supposed to rent out because of new COVID rules. The cabin was pretty shabby and the power went out for most of the night, so I might have been better off just tent camping, but I managed to get in a hot shower and charge my items before they turned off the power. It ended up snowing all that night, so the cold of the cabin woke me up early and got me on my way.
Wet sandals would make some bloody feet. They would toughen up though.
Ahhhh clean.
Leaving Mt. Laguna. Only day 4 and the descent from Mt Laguna would wreck my left knee. I cried as I walked and struggled to figure out what I would do. There was NO WAY I was quitting or leaving.
I managed to hobble to a viewpoint where other hikers were also breaking. The famous/infamous (depending on who you talk to) trail angel, Legend, showed up and was offering rides into Julian. I hesitated. I didn't want to ask for help so early! I didn't want to get off trail! I also didn't want to go to Julian since I knew there would be a lot of thru hikers there. I begrudgingly accepted his help and made it 2 Foot Adventures. The knee brace she recommended saved my entire thru hike. I have since purchased the same brace 3 times and it is something I now always carry with me on any hike. Before I left the store and made my way back to trail, I met an Instagram friend who was also hiking the PCT (for the 2nd time) and who I would end up hiking 95% of the trail with and who is currently my boyfriend.
When I made it back to trail that night, around mile 50, I only hiked a couple miles and figured I would just wait out the wind storm and let my knee rest. I was worried and disappointed, but happy I had at least made it back to the trail same day.
Yes, I started with some Ghibli toys. I would eventually send them home because they were getting destroyed, even in their bubble wrap! The "Finish what you started, Human" would stay with me the entirety of the trail.
The next couple days would provide wind storms of 50-70mph which LITERALLY knocked me down. There was light snow, light rain and I couldn't have been happier. I found out early on that most hikers were fair weather hikers and any inclement weather would leave the trail empty and allow me to enjoy the solitude.
This would be my Tramily, Tom Sawyer and NightRyder from mile 83.0 - 1,317.
Some lovely foot photos for you to enjoy.
100 miles down!
Eagle Rock actually looks like a bird! My first cowboy camping experience would be right in the crook of it's right wing.
There was only 3-5 pretty sunsets during my thru hike, that I can recall or witnessed. This was one of them.
Turns out that NightRyder hates snow. I love it and annoyed other thru hikers every time I saw it.
It was pretty interesting to me how much other thru hikers craved burgers and beer. All I ever craved was asian food. I think you just crave what you love in your normal life and in my normal life I love sushi and pho. Any time I was in a town with Japanese or Vietnamese, I was alllll over it. My tramily would go and find diners for burgers/BLTs and fries.
Burn areas were so pretty, but you sure would get dirty. The day before this picture was an entire day of knee to hip deep snow. I was wet and cold and slept with Hot Hands to try and get warm. The next day was high temps and a long water carry. The drastic change had me in awe!
I left my camera at this mile marker, and did not realize it until 2 miles of steep descent. The climb back was infuriating, especially since the camera was DIRECTLY above me. Just so many switchbacks away. We had been rationing water since the night before. The temperature was low 90s, I had a quarter of a liter left and the next water source was 5 miles away, so the additional 4 miles were not wanted. I didn't have many water scares during this thru hike, but this was one of them.
We were really happy to be done with this section and headed into town.
The end of Part 1.
I could babble a novel for each section, but I am going to do my best to just keep it to pictures and captions. I have just under 5,000 photos that I would LOVE to share, but I am going to do my best to keep each TR to ~50 or less. I could talk about the PCT for the rest of my life, so feel free to comment or message me any questions.
Using my Instagram files because even though my cup runneth, I still don't have the patience to upload full files. Apologies for less sharpness and less loveliness.
I think I am assuming that everyone here knows what the PCT is, but I shouldn’t. From PCTA website: “The Pacific Crest Trail spans 2,650 miles (4,265 kilometers) from Mexico to Canada through California, Oregon, and Washington.”
I would hike at least 2,740.8 miles to make it to the end.
This trip report:
Days: 1-20
Miles: 1 - 208.5
Zero Days (hiked 0 miles): 1
First thru hike, required a gear photo with Miya flare! Ghibli style!
March 20, 2021 - Mom and I headed down to the Southern Terminus. I was a little excited.
Holy crap…finally here. I had been obsessing about ONE moment for the last 5 years. I daydreamed about it while driving, at work, when hiking or camping. I fell asleep and woke up thinking about it. I even had fantastical dreams about it! TOUCH THE NORTHERN TERMINUS (after having walked from the Southern one). I chose 03/21 as my start date in honor of my grandpa's birthday, he was like a father to me. Turns out his birthday was 03/20, so that bummed me out when I visited his grave a couple days before my start date, I am sure he would have had a good laugh over it though, as it is typical of me to do something like that.
Mom and I forgot to take a selfie at the terminus and that still makes me sad.
It was 28 degrees when I started, so I quickly put on some socks!
First trail magic was only 20 miles in. I didn't feel like I needed it yet, so I took only 1 sour strip. I would continue to avoid most trail magic throughout the entirety of the trail. Although, I really didn't run into much of it like a lot of other hikers did.
Yucca Plant.
Day 1 and the desert is so dang pretty!
I think they used a cutesy font so you don't focus on the fact that you still have 2,640 miles left (not including miles to get water or get to town).
Day 3 was 13 miles of beautiful rain into Mt. Laguna (I had hoped for a rainy and snowy PCT year). There were no vacancies, but I managed to charm a gruff elderly man into letting me rent a 4 person cabin that they were not supposed to rent out because of new COVID rules. The cabin was pretty shabby and the power went out for most of the night, so I might have been better off just tent camping, but I managed to get in a hot shower and charge my items before they turned off the power. It ended up snowing all that night, so the cold of the cabin woke me up early and got me on my way.
Wet sandals would make some bloody feet. They would toughen up though.
Ahhhh clean.
Leaving Mt. Laguna. Only day 4 and the descent from Mt Laguna would wreck my left knee. I cried as I walked and struggled to figure out what I would do. There was NO WAY I was quitting or leaving.
I managed to hobble to a viewpoint where other hikers were also breaking. The famous/infamous (depending on who you talk to) trail angel, Legend, showed up and was offering rides into Julian. I hesitated. I didn't want to ask for help so early! I didn't want to get off trail! I also didn't want to go to Julian since I knew there would be a lot of thru hikers there. I begrudgingly accepted his help and made it 2 Foot Adventures. The knee brace she recommended saved my entire thru hike. I have since purchased the same brace 3 times and it is something I now always carry with me on any hike. Before I left the store and made my way back to trail, I met an Instagram friend who was also hiking the PCT (for the 2nd time) and who I would end up hiking 95% of the trail with and who is currently my boyfriend.
When I made it back to trail that night, around mile 50, I only hiked a couple miles and figured I would just wait out the wind storm and let my knee rest. I was worried and disappointed, but happy I had at least made it back to the trail same day.
Yes, I started with some Ghibli toys. I would eventually send them home because they were getting destroyed, even in their bubble wrap! The "Finish what you started, Human" would stay with me the entirety of the trail.
The next couple days would provide wind storms of 50-70mph which LITERALLY knocked me down. There was light snow, light rain and I couldn't have been happier. I found out early on that most hikers were fair weather hikers and any inclement weather would leave the trail empty and allow me to enjoy the solitude.
This would be my Tramily, Tom Sawyer and NightRyder from mile 83.0 - 1,317.
Some lovely foot photos for you to enjoy.
100 miles down!
Eagle Rock actually looks like a bird! My first cowboy camping experience would be right in the crook of it's right wing.
There was only 3-5 pretty sunsets during my thru hike, that I can recall or witnessed. This was one of them.
Turns out that NightRyder hates snow. I love it and annoyed other thru hikers every time I saw it.
It was pretty interesting to me how much other thru hikers craved burgers and beer. All I ever craved was asian food. I think you just crave what you love in your normal life and in my normal life I love sushi and pho. Any time I was in a town with Japanese or Vietnamese, I was alllll over it. My tramily would go and find diners for burgers/BLTs and fries.
Burn areas were so pretty, but you sure would get dirty. The day before this picture was an entire day of knee to hip deep snow. I was wet and cold and slept with Hot Hands to try and get warm. The next day was high temps and a long water carry. The drastic change had me in awe!
I left my camera at this mile marker, and did not realize it until 2 miles of steep descent. The climb back was infuriating, especially since the camera was DIRECTLY above me. Just so many switchbacks away. We had been rationing water since the night before. The temperature was low 90s, I had a quarter of a liter left and the next water source was 5 miles away, so the additional 4 miles were not wanted. I didn't have many water scares during this thru hike, but this was one of them.
We were really happy to be done with this section and headed into town.
The end of Part 1.
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