Approval

All four of us are approved and ready to book travel arrangements! Scout and Frodo (the trail angels who host up to 40 hikers a night near the southern terminus) require a permit and travel arrangements prior to signing up. Our next step is to decide between a trail and a plane. I have always wanted to take a train across the states and it more environmentally friendly, but of course it would be longer in a cramped seat. More concrete plans to follow!

Permit

My permit was approved!! PCT 2020 here I come!

Now waiting on 3 more...

Permit Day!

A big day for the PCT hiking community! For those who do not know how the system works, this year hikers logged on to the PCTA website before 10:30 am PST to receive a randomized spot in the queue. Those who entered after 10:30 were added to the back of the line. Krista set up a conference call for her, Brad, and me to pick a day once we saw what was available. Unfortunately Raechel started a new job so she could not get out of work to apply. Luckily my mom was home and willing to step in and fill in her information.
We set up 4 computers to double our chances of getting a good spot in line. My turn came up first with over 600 hikers in front of me. I chose March 24th (our first choice) which had five people already signed up. 30 minutes later Brad and Raechel (my second computer) were able to sign up next with spots near 1500. The 24th was still open so they were able to choose the same day. Krista's best number was in the 6000s so we used our third computer, which had a spot in line around 1700, to get her.....March 24th!!
I went into the day relaxed because we were choosing a start date earlier than the popular ones. Boy did I realize how lucky we were once I started checking the Facebook page a little later on in the day. People around 6000 were forced to choose dates in early March or mid May. Some partners were split by weeks! Krista would have been going out to buy another tent.
Now on to waiting for our permits to be accepted so we can make travel arrangements and see if we can stay with Scout and Frodo!

Gear

The most frustrating part of the prepping process is getting gear and then realizing you hate it. I only learned I wanted a fanny pack with zippers inside when I used my LiteAF fanny pack and didn't know where to put my spare memory cards. Every time I went to take my phone out of my shoulder strap on the West Rim Trail, my wallet came right out with it and onto the ground. No way I need to worry about that or anything else getting left behind.
I will be documenting my experience on a camera and, as per usual, I can't decide which camera I will be taking. My Nikon 3400 is too heavy, my Yi4K action camera does not have the right look, and my Sony a6400 has a crop sensor with no image stabilization. I may upgrade to the Sony a7ii for the trip, (maybe even buy a drone) but I'm sure I'll change my mind 10 more times.
Last big change is my pack. I keep going back and forth on whether I want a frameless back or not. Right now I have the Zpacks Arc Blast and one of the straps on the back digs into my shoulder blade. It doesn't touch my back if the frame is arced, but I will look into something else if I am still having problems.

Shenandoah

To take advantage of a three day holiday weekend, I drove south to meet up with Brad, Raechel, and Krista for some hiking in Shenandoah. Although in 180 days, all four of us will set out onto our NOBO PCT attempt, this trip was not intended for training. In any case, Brad was so excited about his new 65L Deuter that he used it on three of the four day hikes, insisting that we fill it with all of our things. Raechel and Krista plan on sharing a three person MSR tent on the PCT and Brad tried out his new 1+ REI Half-Dome (which will be returned after two nights of rain leakage). I wore my new Altra Lone Peak 4 trail-runners all weekend, which worked fantastic compared to the first time I tried. Friendly reminder never to start out wearing zero drop shoes on an 18 mile hike....yeah. It was great to have the lodge to camp out in and play meme games when the weather turned south. We also took advantage of the breakfast buffet, like true thru-hikers! Last I'll mention that I finally stepped foot on the AT for the first time! And of course I took us on connecting AT trails at every opportunity.

Happy Hiking,
Rebecca

Intro

Good morning!

Let me introduce myself with who I am and why I decided to hike the Pacific Crest Trail or PCT. I am 25 years old with a bachelors degree in biochemistry working as a ceramics technician for Alcoa in Western Pennsylvania. I spend most of my free time white water kayaking, playing soccer, and snowboarding when I can. And when the weather is poor, I like to read books from the library or watch Big Brother and Say Yes to the Dress with my mom.
The first time I heard about the PCT was from a free REI class in which I only went so I could learn about packing lighter (the first tru hike I attempted was a complete nightmare). Ever since then it's been in the back of my mind as a "someday" trail, but wasn't brought up again until my friend from college convinced me that 2020 was the year! We gave ourselves enough time to pay off our student loans (which has been paid off as of two months ago) and save up wayyyy more money than we probably will need, because the last thing we want is to have to quit because of money.

As of now, we have about 215 days until we set out on the trail. My intention with this blog is to document my preparations and mistakes so others can find entertainment or maybe learn a few things with me. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy!


Rebecca (trail name TBD)