“How did you carry all the food from Mexico to Canada?”
“How often did you go to town?”
“Did you also rest some days?”

These are some of the questions we often get asked when talking about our thru-hike on the Pacific Crest Trail. In this article, I’ll try to answer as many of such questions as possible by describing our experience in the towns along the trail.

Hikers to town
Hikers to trail
Town routine

There are several little towns and resorts along the Pacific Crest Trail, most of which need a car ride to get to and only a few that lie directly on the trail. The trail crosses paved roads every 3 to 4 days on average, where hikers could catch a ride and go to town to resuppy and spend some time in contact with civilization.

We visited 42 towns/resorts in total during the 140 days of our thru-hike on the PCT.
In 8 of them, we took a zero day, hence spent two nights in a row before getting back to the trail.
In 26 of them, we spent one night and kept walking the next day.
In 8 of them, we heroically went “in & out” in the same day.

*Chef, Fabienne and Kyle walking around in Idyllwild, CA.*

🍄 Wild hikers go to town to resupply:
I am sorry to disappoint you if you were imagining the PCT to be entirely “wild”.
Hikers do not carry their 5 months food supplies in their backpacks, nor forage and hunt in the forests to survive. They do not brew healing potions with herbs found on the trail to cure muscle pain, inflammation and infected blisters. They do not shower and wash their clothes in rivers only. They do not repair their gear with sticks and leaves found in the woods.

*Chef at the cabin we shared with Pacman at Burney Mountain Guest Ranch, CA.*

Hikers to town

After a few days spent walking in nature, covered in dirt and eating trail food, we all started dreaming about the luxuries of towns… hot showers, toilets, clean bed sheets and, of course, town food, coffee, milkshakes, beers and sodas! Those luxuries were often what motivated us to go forward and hike a few more miles at the end of a long day on trail, aiming at getting closer to the road that would lead us to town.

*Pacman and Chef posing outside Manley’s Tavern, OR.*

Once in town, we were suddenly surrounded by all the things we dreamed of. Everything was within reach, but the bitter truth was that we first had many other trail-related chores to do in little time. Additionally, as if all the miles we walked on trail weren’t enough, we were also struggling to get around a town without a car.

🚕 No car? Then walk a few more miles!
Towns in the USA are not built like the ones in Europe, around a city center. No… they are built along a road and meant for people with cars, so that the grocery shop is at 45 minutes walking distance from the laundromat, another 30 minutes from the bar, 15 minutes from the post office and 25 minutes from the motel.
And walking so many miles outside the trail hurts…

So, we rarely found the time to sit back, relax and enjoy our town days. We always ended up being in a rush, running left and right from chore to chore, trying not to miss the opening times of all the above mentioned town’s businesses.

However, not all the town experiences we had were negative. Thru-hiking gives you the chance to visit unique places that otherwise you’ll never see!

*Pacman, Chef and Popeye surrounded by hordes of tourists in Leavenworth, WA.*

🏡 Our favorite town on the PCT?
Lilo:
For me, it definitely was Mount Shasta, NorCal. Additionally to being crowned by the majestic Mount Shasta, there were some special vibes going on there. It hosted an interesting mix of people, all going through different journeys: thru-hikers crossing the USA by foot, outdoor lovers climbing Mount Shasta, and people on a more spiritual journey, joining retreats about yoga, meditation, sound baths and crystal therapies.

*Mount Shasta, CA with Mount Shasta in the background.*

Chef:
Although I generally did not enjoy the towns along the PCT for many different reasons, I really liked Bend, Oregon! It was the first town where our trail family shared an Airbnb, giving me the chance to cook some proper Italian food for everyone.
Bend is also known for its breweries and therefore I was super excited to try as much beer as I could. Crux fermentation project even offers a “free beer of your choice” to PCT hikers. The town has everything a hiker could ask for: breweries, restaurants, large grocery stores, and even an REI, where we spent a few hours gearing up for the rainy days ahead.
Beyond its breweries and shops, Bend has a welcoming vibe that made it easy to relax and recharge. Being close to the mountains also made me feel very much at home.

*The delicious spaghetti cooked by Chef for the Trail Family in Bend, OR.*

Hikers to trail

We often felt very stressed in town and this stress carried over, causing frustration and tension when we returned to the trail. It hit us as soon as we realized all the things we had missed: we hadn’t had the coffee we really wanted, we didn’t watch a movie at the hotel, and we didn’t get to enjoy the Thai food we craved because the kitchen was already closed by the time we had a chance to sit down for a meal.

*Chef walking out of Sierra City, CA to get back to the trail.*

However, after a few steps on the trail we somehow felt relief. Suddenly, none of those town-related problems were concerning us anymore. All that mattered was that we were together, walking towards Canada and carrying everything we needed to survive in our backpacks.

We realized how happy we were when living our simple life on the trail and ended up avoiding towns and walking longer stretches. When possible, we preferred stopping for a night at a resort or camping directly on the PCT, where all the facilities were in one place and easy to access.

🌈 The “town lesson”
To me, it seemed that towns were actually trying to teach us a lesson:
“Look! This is everything you can have in your normal life! It’s almost too much, isn’t it?! Once you get home, remember to enjoy all these apparently simple things that you always took for granted. Always remember how lucky and privileged you are to sleep in a warm bed at night and have a house with running water.”

*Chef and Pacman outside the only building in Belden, CA: a motel, restaurant, post office, laundromat and general store.*

Town routine

By writing this article, I wanted to give you an idea about our hectic routine during a “town day” along the PCT. Here below, I listed the typical tasks that thru-hikers need to do when staying 24 hours in town, arriving in the morning, spending one night and getting back out on the trail the next day.

1: Hitch a ride

First things first.
Usually, in the morning of a “town day”, we planned to hike only a few miles (10 - 12 miles max) and tried to get to town early enough, so that we could have time to do most of our tasks that same day.

🦅 The race to town
Eager to drink a pepsi and eat a burger, hungry PCT hikers fly down the mountains on town days, setting speed records like never before!

Once we reached the paved road, we stuck out our dirty thumbs and waved cheerfully at the passing cars, hoping to catch a ride soon. Sometimes we were lucky enough to find ourselves sitting in the back of a car in no time, while other times we ended up waiting for over an hour.

🚗 Hikers in a car
I don’t blame the people who didn’t stop and looked at us with disgusted faces… we were so filthy that we always had to lower all the windows of the car to avoid killing the driver with our smell.

*Lilo trying to hitch to Big Bear Lake, CA.*

2: Eat & plan the next stretch

Since we couldn’t think straight when we were hungry, the first thing we did upon arriving in town was to find a café and order the fattest “second breakfast” we could find on the menu.

We then proceeded to study and plan the next stretch of the trail using the FarOut app, by defining how many miles and days we were going to hike until the next town. This step was crucial for figuring out how much food we needed to buy later at the supermarket.

🤡 Miscalculations
No matter how focused and careful we were while planning the next stretch, we ALWAYS did some mistakes in our calculations and ALWAYS ended up buying too much food… clowns!

*Chef and Lilo eating second breakfast at the Paradise Valley Cafe outside Idyllwild, CA.*

3: Laundry & blogging

Time to go to the laundromat, where the hiker-trash fashion show was taking place! At the laundromat we all threw our hiking clothes and underwear in the washing machine and proudly wore what we had left: our rain gear. After feeding what felt like thousands of quarters into the machine, we started it and prayed that our clothes would come out smelling fresh. Then, we sat down and waited patiently.

This was usually the time I used to update my blog and post pictures on Instagram.

👀 Grandpa patrol
If I was not managing to update my blog in time, I would soon hear the voice of my grandpa on the phone, always so careful about all the details:
“Giudi, you forgot to move the red dot on your website to update your position on the trail map!”

*Clean clothes hanging to dry in Wrightwood, CA.*

4: Food resupply

This was the most important chore during a town day: carefully scanning every aisle of the supermarket and buying all the food we needed for the next few days on the trail.

🛸 Our grocery shopping strategy
Normal people might have wondered why we were slowly walking through every aisle like aliens who had just landed in this town.
But the reason for this was that the supermarkets in the USA are huge and the overwhelming variety of products left us feeling confused. So, instead of following our list and looking for products one at a time, running left and right in the supermarket, we preferred proceeding in a slow, organized (and dumb) way.
Therefore, we always found ourselves walking endlessly between the “mac & cheese aisle” and the “instant noodles aisle”, still dressed in rain gear, desperately trying to find our favorite snacks.

The worst times were when we decided to buy food for multiple stretches and send resupply boxes to different towns along the trail. The amount of time spent in the grocery store and the quantity of food we bought was unimaginable. I was feeling ashamed when placing 44 snicker bars on the roll at the cashier… it was madness!

*Lilo’s resupply baskets in Trout Lake, WA.*

5: Check-in & shower

Finally, one of the best moments of a “town day”: getting the keys to our motel room and spending an hour under a very hot shower, trying to scrub the dirt away from our skin.

🚿 The shower heaven
Honestly, I have never been a huge fan of showers, but the PCT made me realize how lucky we are to even have one at home. Now, I try to enjoy every shower like it would be the first one after 5 days spent hiking in the dirt.

*The stinky feet that always needed 1 hour under a hot shower to get cleaned.*

6: Clean, repair and/or shop gear

Once in the motel room, we usually emptied our backpacks, spread a mess around and took some time to check our gear. We often cleaned our cooking pots, water bladders and sleeping pads, as they looked disgusting.

At times, we also needed to repair some gear or directly go to a sports shop to replace broken equipment. Broken gear was always a frustrating topic, but I have to admit that we also had fun and learned so much while repairing it!

*Popeye, Lilo, Pacman and Chef resting after a gear shopping session at REI in Bend, OR.*

7: Food unboxing

While listening to loud music, it was time to get crazy. To make sure we didn’t forget anything, we always displayed all the food and unpacked it. After that, we needed to transfer everything into our zip-lock bags and discard the bulky, unnecessary packaging to save weight and space in our backpacks.

🧠 Chaos in the motel room
At this point of the day, chaos was characterizing our motel rooms… there were clothes, gear, zip-lock bags, food, empty boxes and trash EVERYWHERE!

*Our craziest food resupply in Bend, OR. With this amount of food we then prepared 4 boxes to send to the towns in Washington.*

8: Go to the post office

In most of the towns, we had to go to the post office to pick-up or ship resupply boxes and gear.

📦 The resupply box strategy
Sending resupply boxes from the trail to the trail was a time consuming process that also required a lot of planning, in order to know how much food we needed to ship to a specific town ahead of us.
However, by sending such boxes, we were going to avoid the arduous task of planning and grocery shopping during the next town stop. “Suffer now, enjoy later” was our kind of strategy!

*Chef with the long awaited box containing his new shoes at White Pass, WA. He was smiling, as he knew he would soon be walking on clouds!*

9: Figure out how to get back on trail

If we couldn’t organize a ride back to the trail with the same person or trail angel that brought us to town, we had to start worrying about how to get back out there the next morning.

We usually looked for information on the FarOut app, where we sometimes found phone numbers of local trail angels providing rides. If unlucky, we checked on Facebook “trail angels groups”. However, often the fastest and most practical solution was to get to the road, stick our thumbs out, be patient and wait for our hitch back to the trail.

*Ride back to the trail from the town of Trout Lake, WA.*

10: Eat as much town food as possible

Town food was very important for us, not only because we craved it, but also because of the amount of calories it allowed us to take in. A big, fat, juicy burger topped up the calories we hadn’t managed to consume on the trail and gave us the energy we needed to keep going!

🍔 Food food food
Although we were eating like pigs, Chef lost 20 kg and I lost 8 kg while hiking the PCT. A proper nutrition and intake of calories is extremely important on a thru-hike for the body not to fail. Chef is writing an interesting article about this topic, so stay tuned!

PCT | A Day In Town

Hikers to town

Hikers to trail