Wanderlust
I’ve always wanted to go on a long thru-hike like the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) or the Appalachian Trail (AT).
This summer my 11 year old son and I did a 4-day section of the AT. It was hard, but I really loved it.
It surfaced a childlike love for hiking, camping, and nature that I had long suppressed.
And now I’ve got the itch!
Unpractical
I’d love to start planning a full-on thru-hike of the PCT, but it’s just not feasible at my stage of life. I’m married with 4 kids (ages 15, 11, 8, and 4). I can maybe sneak away for 1-2 weeks each year, but that’s about it.
The thing is, I’m not even super bummed that I can’t go off on a 6 month hike right now. That’s just life.
Heck, I suspect there’s a decent chance I’ve romanticized all of this and I may not even enjoy it! 🙃
I guess one thing that does bum me out though is that I don’t even foresee a future where a thru-hike would be possible for me. I’m 42 now. We’ll have kids at home until I’m at least 58. By then I may not even be able to do a thru-hike.
But this got the wheels turning…
If I can’t do a thru-hike continuously, what if I broke it up and did it as a section hike?
So, I Google’d “how long does it take to walk the PCT?” and the blurb at the top said:
The trail is 2,650 miles and it generally takes the entire snow-free season to walk. That’s about 5 months. Elite athletes who are experienced on the PCT have finished the trail in as little as two months. The few who achieve sub-100 day hikes average well over 30 miles per day.
I started doing some quick calculations. If I could reasonably get away from home for 2 weeks a year, how many years would it take for me to hike the PCT?
5 months / weeks = ~22 weeks
22 weeks / 2 = 11 years
Considering my kiddos will be 25, 21, 18, and 14 in 10 years time, I suspect it may be feasible for me to do one final 4 week segment. So 9 years of doing 2 weeks per year, then a final 4 week segment on the 10th year. 10 years it is!
Bonus
What would be even cooler (and what would make this whole plan even more feasible for a father of 4) is if each year I took one of my kids with me to do a 2 week segment of the PCT. What a great experience that would be! And I could swap which kid comes with me each year based on readiness, willingness, and availability. We’d then just do a different segment each year.
I spoke with my wife and kids and they’re all on board. 🥰
Bonus2
And what if instead of just going by ourselves, we found a core group of friends (perhaps with similar familial constraints) who wanted to embark on this harebrained crazy adventure with us?
Logistics
The only reasonable month that consistently works for my family is the month of August, which is the month we’ll likely start doing this.
If you know anything about me, you know that I love spreadsheets. So, of course I’ve already started mapping out what we’ll need:
And if I’m going to do this, I’m going to do it right. Ultralight seems like the way to go. But the costs are already stacking up. I haven’t even started thinking about clothing yet! If you have any experience or recommendations with planning something like this, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Inspiration
Be forewarned… If you watch this documentary, you may very well feel inspired to do a thru-hike yourself. 😛
That said, I highly recommend watching it!
Right now everything is still very back of the napkin with all of this, but I’m probably 70% sure we’ll start next year with 2 weeks in August, 2024. Who knows if we’ll consistently hit each year and who knows if we’ll actually pull this off, but for now it sounds audacious and exciting.
What do you think?
Am I crazy? Would you ever consider doing something like this? Do you have any experience or tips that you can pass along? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
Dave Martin 
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