Why Hike the Pacific Crest Trail?

Whenever I tell someone that I plan to hike from the Mexican boarder to the Canadian Boarder they usually give me one of those blank stares and then the usual ask...Why?!?

Back in 1998 I took a motorcycle ride along the Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway.  This parkway follows a good amount of the Appalachian Trail.  When I would stop for food or gas I would see many thru-hikers and thought that this was something I wanted to do one day. I knew that I would have to wait until I retired from the Air Force because of the amount of time a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail would take, so I made it my ultimate long-term goal.

Fast-forward ahead to 2005 when I attended an outdoor symposium in Dayton, Ohio.  This is where I attended a presentation given by a couple that decided to thru-hike the Pacific Crest Trail for their honeymoon.  After hearing their story I started to research the Pacific Crest Trail and decided to make this my goal instead of thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail.  Why?  I determined the Pacific Crest Trail was longer, more challenging, more variety of landscape, and less populated.  This seemed like exactly what I was looking for.

At this point I was single and planned on doing the thru-hike solo, but in 2009 Tim and I got married.  Now, my dream of thru-hiking the Pacific Crest Trail is now OUR dream of thru-hiking the Pacific Crest Trail.

Who knows...assuming a successful thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail, maybe the Appalachian Trail will be next!

"The mountains are calling and I must go." - John Muir