Life of a PCT hiker – Special Post

I’d like to designate this post to describing a PCT hiker and our everyday life on the trail.

An average PCT hiker is a white male in his early 30’s. He could easily remind you a Jesus- looking homeless person. To be more accurate a healthy and happy homeless person, and actually that’s what we are.

Homeless guy or PCT hiker?

A PCT hiker is always the fastest hiker on the trail. We stood out from the day hikers or any other backpackers in many ways. We are not here to spend a fun weekend or go fishing by a lake or hike a leisurely 10 miles, we are hiking to Canada, therefore a PCT hiker (when they hike) always looks determined, in a rush and hungry. We always recognize a PCT hiker, we just all look alike.

The average PCT hiker is skinny, dirty and most definitely stinky. No exceptions!

They wear a baseball cap or a small sombrero for sun protection. All thru-hikers have a full grown beard, unless they are female or too young to grow it or their ethnicity is Asian. The clothes that they are wearing are faded by the sun, has dirt on it from mud, bugs, food etc.., salt lines from sweating and it’s always the same shirt and shorts. Day and night.

A PCT hiker is normally a stress free individual, unless crossing a strong stream or mosquitos are attacking.

Mosquito invasion. We all wear head nets and made fire to have a break from the blood suckers. Bears are no problem, the mosquitos are.

Most PCT hikers have the same gear, backpack, tent, sleeping pads ….. All gear are light or ultralight. For water we use SMART water bottles with a Sawyer filter. Our most important gear is our shoes. They are always trail running shoes, never heavy hiking boots. For camping and easy river crossings we we wear Crocs or barefoot.

We don’t have information about the news or anything in the real world, since most of the time we don’t have cell service. We all go to bed as the sun goes down or before, around 7:45 pm (currently) and sleep 10 hours and wake up at 6 am. We cook oatmeal and make coffee in the morning, pack our gear and start hiking. We’ll take 2-3 breaks until lunch, then during lunch time we kick off our hiking shoes and rest an hour or more in the shade. Then we start hiking again and around 5:30pm we are putting up our tent. Cook dinner, eat, make fire and go to sleep. The next day, repeat.

A PCT hiker always has peanut butter, ramen noodles, tortillas, oatmeal, dehydrated potato powder, nuts and tuna. We are constantly trying to get different ideas from different hikers to mix up the repertoire, but the options are limited.

The fresh air and the pine tree scented forests always bring comfort even on hard days.

A PCT hiker in towns and civilization feels a bit lost, at least for the first few hours. Might feel like an outsider or a wild animal. A bit scared and annoyed by big vehicles and noises. I tell Mike when we get close to civilization that I smell humans, I really do.

We have been only living in the nature for 2 and a half months and we changed, we had to.

Where do we belong now? Do we want to be in the noisy civilization where we can easily access food and water, or do we want to survive in the wilderness where there is peace and freedom?

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