Hiking Pacific Crest Trail

I’m back on trail, or am I? Days 83 – 97 (Miles 1505.2 – 1731.6)

I’ve been back on trail for almost a month now. For a while, I didn’t know how to write my blog anymore. All my routines were gone, including my journaling / blogging at the end of each day. It felt like starting the thru-hike (definition to follow shortly) all over again: all my routines were gone, hiking was hard as my trail legs were gone, and in addition there was a lot of uncertainty about things at home in Germany.

I met Iceman where he was, as he kept hiking while I was in Germany, so I got back on to the PCT at mile 1505.2 near Bobs Hat Trail Junction. I got off at mile 943.7 in Yosemite National Park / Tuolumne Meadows. This means I skipped 561.5 miles. What? This doesn’t fit with my goal to thru-hike the PCT let alone my purist mindset to hike every mile of it and not skip parts like most hikers do these days (no judgement, hike your own hike, just not my thing).

Deciding to thru-hike 2655 miles is a big decision and I knew that many things could potentially get in my way of reaching that goal and get me off trail. I mentally prepared by answering questions of why I am doing it, in which cases I would get off and what I wanted to learn. In my mind there were ever only two reasons to abandon the PCT: a) if I get injured and can’t physically hike anymore or if b) a family emergency demands it. I thought, if at all, case a) was more likely so I prepared for that: I got another life insurance, international health insurance, got a Garmin SOS PLB (Personal Location Beacon) and my Deutsche Alpenverein Membership also includes world wide mountain Search & Rescue.

Never in the world did I expect case b) to happen as it had never happened to my family before and so I wasn’t prepared for it at all. Reality slapped me in the face with a chair. I suppose most people who get off the trail for a month don’t return the same year. How do you return? What is a thru-hike if it isn’t “thru” anymore – meaning after skipping over 500 miles?

The definition of a thru-hike from google is:

“A thru-hike is the act of hiking a long-distance trail from end to end, typically within a single hiking season. It’s characterized by continuous travel on the trail, often involving weeks or months of hiking. While popular long trails like the Appalachian Trail and Pacific Crest Trail are common examples, any trail can be thru-hiked if completed from one terminus to the other in a continuous journey.”

I knew what to do to make sure I don’t injure myself for e.g. overuse injury by starting slowly, stretching several times a day etc and I was mentally prepared for the hard and bad days, I knew how to get over those days and made sure I could keep hiking. What I didn’t know was how to get back on trail after 27 days off trail.

To add insult to injury, I was sick from the flight back to Reno, so the first two weeks of hiking were horrible and my memory is blurry. it was a drag. But I knew it would be hard so I kept hiking and kept pushing. Iceman was there to lighten my load (literally).

Now, after almost a month, I have recovered physically and mentally and got back into a routine of hiking 25 miles a day and got to terms with “only” hiking 2100 miles this calendar year. I am actually in my prime physically now and think soon I can hike 30 miles daily.

Iceman will accompany me in making up the 561 miles I had to skip July 2026.

So now that that’s done, my mind is focused on the goal again. Making it to Canada before September 25th and the first snow in the cascades. Can we make it? It is a time crunch. But not impossible.

Here are some pictures from my first 2 weeks back:

Reunited at last: meeting Iceman in Quincy

Still stoked to hiked and almost having hiked all the way to Oregon

Ashland was our first trail town in Oregon and our favorite trail town on the entire PCT yet: the vibe is amazing and everything is in walking distance, the people are so nice and the town is just so cute.

Off to hike through the rest of Oregon!

Thanks for your patience and thanks for tagging along.

Happy trails,

Disco