Intro: The Pacific Crest Trail winds for 2,650 miles thru the states of California, Oregon and Washington. The trails lowest point is 140 Ft. above sea level at Columbia River Gorge between Oregon and Washington. The highest is 13,200 feet at Forester Pass in California’s Sierra Nevada. The trail crosses national monuments, national parks, national forests, BLM, federally designated wilderness state and county parks and tribal land. Some folks called thru hikers start on either the South or northern border of the US and hike the entire trail. Others are known as section hikers and either divide the trail up by states or even shorter sections.
Hiking the PCT was never a high priority for us until we had the freedom of time. In our travels we had either crossed the trail or had done small day hikes on it. Finally using the NIKE motto we decided let’s just do it. We also wanted to include some kayaking activities during the summer months. That left us deciding to become section hikers. Oregon, with a reputation of being somewhat flat??, seemed to be a good starting point.
Going light was a priority for us. We looked at each piece of gear to determine its weigh and necessity. We experimented using an alcohol stove and drying our meals. A 'check it out' hike in Alaska convinced us that we were on the right path.
So in Sept. of 2014, we took the first step into the journey of being section hikers on the PCT. Our friend Wendy Anderson joined us for most of our travels through Oregon.
