7 Million Steps Across North America - Conquering The Pacific Crest Trail
The sound of a rattle pierced the early morning quiet and brought me back to the present. I had been hiking for a couple of hours in the cool morning air to get in as many miles as possible before the sun came up and began to scorch the ground I walked on. For the past two weeks, my mind would wander wildly during these early morning sections.
Today though, that was all a distant memory as my hiking partners and I searched for the rattle snake that was throwing its urgent warning our way. It was imperative that we find it quickly or the bite from a rattlesnake would send one of us home where we could only dream about completing our adventure along the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT).
Dave, a seasoned thru-hiker attempting the first ever yo-yo thru-hike on the PCT, was the first to spot this beautiful snake. It was coiled up a couple of feet in front of us just off the trail. This is not the place you want to see a rattlesnake, especially when there is very little room to get around it.
We tried several tactics to get the snake to move, but we were met with firm resistance from this defensive creature. Finally, Dave took off his backpack, covered his lower legs, and stepped as far off the trail as he could. In the blink of an eye, the rattlesnake struck at Dave, hitting his backpack with incredible force before falling to the ground. I stood there in utter shock and amazement to see first-hand a rattlesnake attack.
The Birth of a Life-Changing Adventure
My quest to hike the Pacific Crest Trail had started a couple of years earlier when my wife, Alisa, and I started hiking in the local Southern California mountains to get away from city life. We began with fun 5-mile day hikes before progressing to 20-mile day hikes from Joshua Tree to Cleveland National Forest in Orange County.
Once we had hiked a number of 20-milers, we decided to begin backpacking. Again, we hit our local mountains for these early overnight trips, learning the ins and outs of backpacking and living overnight under the stars.
Our love continued to take us on backpacking trips all over Southern California. One trip in particular changed me forever and got me thinking about the Pacific Crest Trail.
We had decided to hike the Rae Lakes Loop in Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Park. It was amazing! We had never hiked anywhere like this with snow-capped peaks all around us and the emerald waters glimmering in the afternoon sunlight. The highlight of the trip was when we reached the high point, Glenn Pass (11,798 ft).
As we stood there atop the peak, it hit me that I was standing on the Pacific Crest Trail. The PCT traveled some 900 miles to the south to the Mexico border and another 1,800 miles north to Canada.
I was instantly hooked on the idea of doing a thru-hike. While I knew that accepting the challenge to complete 2,650 miles of hiking over the course of four-plus months would be life-altering, I could have never imagined the extreme levels of fear, awe and astonishment that my body and mind would experience along the trail.
Bears Abound
If there’s one thing that you are warned about when planning a trip in the wilderness of the western United States, it’s bears. And it wasn’t long before I had a close encounter to verify these fears.
Even though I began my adventure as a solo endeavor, I met up with many guys and gals within my first week on the trail. Monte, a 1977 thru-hiker who was out for a section hike, had spent many hours traversing this part of California, and he had many stories to share when it came to bear experiences.
I didn’t realize that my chat with him would foreshadow many of my own stories as I moved on. Over the course of the trail, I saw 13 black bears, but one experience has left an imprint on my mind for years.
Arkansas Dave, Pennsylvania Jeff, and I had been out all day in the hot Northern California sun. Our water supply was getting very low, and we needed to find some water to complete the last leg of our day.
The Northern California section of the PCT is known for its large elevation gains and losses. We would hike for hours climbing long switchbacks up to a ridge before dropping back to lower levels. Well today was one of those days, and we were basking in the glory of making it to the top of a particularly brutal ridge.
I was checking my map to locate our next water source when Dave piped up.
“Look down there,” he said as he pointed to the valley we were going to be heading into.
Jeff and I scanned the area below and there we saw not one bear, but three. These weren’t three full grown bears. It was a more precarious combination: a mama bear and her two cubs.
As I looked at my map again for our water source, Dave and Jeff kept an eye on the bears. Even though we were up on the ridge, the mama bear got up on her hind legs and showed us how tall she was, at least six feet. I could feel my heart pounding at this moment and wondered if she could hear it. The fear of going down there and inadvertently getting in between the mama and her cubs wasn’t something that I wanted to experience.
We headed off, keeping our eyes on the bears to try and determine where they were going, before realizing they were possibly going to the same water source as us. Our conversation got louder, and we stomped our feet a little bit more to make it known that we were in the area.
Every foot step was leading us closer to the valley and our much-needed water. We found the trail that led to the water source, and my eyes scanned the area. My heart was pounding, and I was on edge not knowing if I would soon come face-to-face with a black bear.
A few steps next to the trail was a bear print. Fresh and big!
We talked louder, made more noise, and prayed that the bears had gotten their water and were on their way. A few minutes later, we came to a fresh water spring that was gushing cold water out from the earth. There were all kinds of animal prints on the ground around the spring, but luckily for us none were from the bears we had seen earlier.
The water was refreshing as I drank from my hands. Its coolness settled me, and I was able to relax a bit. We were still alert, but happy that our trip into the valley of three bears didn’t end with us encountering them up-close and personal.
Glacier Travel
Early morning wake-up times were the norm while hiking the trail. This day was no different.
I lay half awake in my sleeping bag enjoying the cool early morning air before I searched for breakfast. While I ate that first meal of the day, I enjoyed the sun shining on me and the birds chirping all around our camp. Fortunately, the weather was nice because today we would be traversing the Packwood Glacier in the rugged Goat Rocks Wilderness.