Entries RSSMy name is Kristin Gates. I am a junior at Colby College in Maine and this is the first installment of my adventure on the Pacific Crest Trail. In mid-May I will be heading down to Mexico to begin a walk north on the PCT. The Pacific Crest Trail is a 2,655 mile footpath that stretches from Mexico to Canada through California, Oregon, and Washington. It starts in the scorching deserts of the south and after crossing the Mojave, climbs up into California’s high Sierras and then north through Oregon’s Cascades and Washington’s rugged wilderness.
When I was thirteen years old I made a promise to my Great Aunt that I would live life to its fullest. Unfortunately, she passed away when I was fifteen and, by the time I turned nineteen, I had never done anything particularly exciting with my life. By the fall of my sophomore year in college I had followed all the rules and done everything that was expected of me. But then, a fear that had been sitting in the back of my head began to creep up on me. A fear that one day, when I am old and gray, I will look back on my life and realize that my dreams had never been accomplished. That next semester I traded in my school bag for a backpack and my books for maps and a compass to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail.
In March of 2007 I flew down to Georgia by myself, got a ride to the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail from a hostel owner, and spent the next four and a half months walking north. Over two thousand miles later I was standing at the summit of Mt. Katahdin in Maine finishing my first thru-hike.
I went back to school in the fall, but the trail stayed with me. Lecture halls and labs left me longing for the freedom of the mountains. The world seemed so big and I could not bear to be trapped in such a small corner of it. That was when plans for a new adventure began to develop and, like so many travelers before me, my dreams turned to the west. I decided to try for the second jewel of the Triple Crown, the Pacific Crest Trail. The Triple Crown includes our country’s three main long distance trails: the Appalachian Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail, and the Continental Divide Trail. I had first learned about the PCT while I was preparing to hike the AT. I remember smiling as I read its description and wondering if the trail would be in my future. By January of 2008 I decided that it was. Over the coming four months of my summer break, from May until September, I hope to make my way from Mexico to Canada.
The puzzle pieces are starting to fit together now. My gear is organized, my thru-hikers permit has come in the mail, and my plane ticket to California has been purchased. Now, all that stands between me and this adventure are the last 12 days of spring semester. Only 12 more days and I will be free. It is time to wipe the dust off my old boots. It is time to take a walk.
I will be updating this blog when I pass through towns to re-supply about once a week. I hope that you will join me on what promises to be an amazing adventure.
