An Average Day Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail

In the summer of 2017, I hiked the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada. It took me 136 days to walk the 2600 miles.

Here’s what an average day on trail looked like.

Starting the Day

LEFT: breakfast in bed — CENTER: my pre-lunch snacks —RIGHT: early morning hiking

5:00 — Alarm goes off. Press snooze at least twice. Or better yet, just turn off the alarm and keep sleeping. Wonder what possessed me to want to hike. Swear that I will never do a thru-hike again.

5:45 — Start moving when I hear other people in camp starting to get up. Eat breakfast in bed. Breakfast is always two oatmeals straight from the bag. Just pour a little cold water in, only a few tablespoons, and mix in some peanut butter if you have it. Yum! In the desert I would eat breakfast on the go, but I stopped in the Sierras because the snow is too slippery to eat and hike at the same time.

6:15 — Pull out all of my pre-lunch snacks and put them in the side pockets of my pack. Finish packing up and start hiking.

Hike

hiking, hiking, hiking

6:15 — 9:00 — Remember how much I love hiking. This is the coolest part of the day, so get as much hiking in as possible. Try not to take breaks here, there will be plenty of time for that later.

Water Resupply

LEFT: Quickdraw getting water from silverwood lake —CENTER: I drank from this non-potable source near the LA aqueduct — RIGHT: drank from this one too

I’ll refill my water 2–5 times per day depending on the number of sources. Some water sources are really pretty, but many aren’t. A lot of them have signs saying not to drink from them (no one listens to those signs).

Caffeine, Please!

caffeine is the best

9:00 — Time for a caffeine boost. I love the crystal light packets that have caffeine in them. I would usually drink 1–2 packets a day mixed with Emergen-C for electrolytes. Most thru hikers can’t stand the taste of cliff bars by the end of trail. The only ones I eat are “peanut toffee buzz” and “cool mint”, the two with caffeine.

Hike

LEFT: Bam Bam doing the first log crossing of the Sierras —RIGHT: There was so much snowmelt in the Sierras that when there was visible trail, it was often flooded. You have to be okay with getting your feet wet.

9:00–12:00 — More hiking! Well, what did you expect.

Lunch Break

LEFT: a lovely rehydrated ramen meal — RIGHT: eating lunch on top of Mather Pass with my trail family (note: three people are eating peanut butter straight out of the jar)

12:00–1:30 — Time to hang out with your friends! Talk about how much you love hiking and how you are definitely going to hike the CDT in the next few years. Make sure to spread all of the trail gossip.

I try to plan my lunches so that I break at a lake so I can take a quick bath. At lunch I plan how much further to hike for the day. If I am traveling with a group, this is where we decide on a campsite to meet at.

In the desert it was extremely hot, so I took siestas during the day. These would usually last until 4pm. Once, a section of trail was so hot and exposed (the section immediately after the LA aqueduct) that I took a siesta from 10:00am to 7:00pm.

See some animals

LEFT: horned lizard in SoCal — CENTER: adorable squeaking pika in Washington — RIGHT: chubby marmot in Washington

One of my favorite parts of the trail was seeing so many animals and getting to know their personalities. Bears are big scaredy cats who are way more scared of you than you are of them. Deers are not scared of people at all, no matter how much you yell at them to leave your tent alone during the middle of the night, and will chew your hiking pole handles if you leave them unguarded. Pikas will come out of their rocks as you walk by and squeak at you. Rattlesnakes seem pretty annoyed that you want them to move from their great sunning spot in the middle of trail.

Hike

LEFT: hiking along the LA aqueduct — RIGHT: Bam Bam trying to figure out which mountain is Whitney

1:30–6:30 — Yup, even more hiking. The last 3 miles always seem to take the longest. Swear never to thru hike again. Dream of car camping where you can bring fancy food, sit in a camp chair, and sleep on an air mattress with a real pillow.

Setup Camp

LEFT: my cowboy camping setup — RIGHT: my beautiful tent

6:30–8:00 — Setup camp, eat dinner, look at the maps for the next day, journal, and go to bed dreaming of town food. If there is a lake near by, take a bath. Make sure to spend at least 10 minutes picking out the spot with the best slope.

I prefer cowboy camping over setting up my tent, mostly due to laziness. However, once the mosquitos came out in the Sierras, I pretty much moved into my tent for good, unless I was in a really windy spot where bugs couldn’t bother me.

Lie down, look at the stars, and pretend that the journey will never end because you can’t imagine anything more perfect than this.

Now repeat 135 more times and you’ll be in Canada!

If you want to read more about my trip, read here.

If you want to read more about my gear, read here.