PCT | A Day On Trail
The more time we spent on the trail, the simpler our life became.
Our only daily goals: survive, and keep following that dirt path north.
There was no email to answer, no notification to set, no crazy meeting to attend, no deadline to stress for… well, exept reaching Canada before snowfall. Without this “noise” in our heads, we walked and started longing for the simplest things in life, only available in town, such as a roof, clean bedsheets, a flushing toilet, a shower, a pepsi.
By deciding to go on a thru-hike, we all chose to be nomads, homeless for a while. However, we soon realized that the trail itself was our home, and learned to embrace the feeling of freedom that came from moving our tent to the next unknown spot every single day.
“Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the dirtiest of them all?”
Without mirrors to look into, we slowly started to worry less about our appearance.
The sweat staining our sun hoodies, the dirt on our hands and below the fingernails, the hair growing on our legs, the tangled and greasy hair below the cap, the stickiness of our bodies in contact with the sleeping mat, the mayo in the beard… this became our “new normal”.
And god, it felt so good to be wild, to be ourselves without feeling judged.
Lilo’s legs and feet at the end of every day.
“Why do you thru-hike?”
“Because out there I can fart, burp and scratch my butt around other people… I can behave naturally without feeling ashamed.”
(from the book “Journeys North”)
I am aware that going around like this in the streets of Zürich, the city I live in, isn’t going to help me. Now that I am home, I am trying to adjust again to the sometimes uncomfortable conventions of society… but I am proud to say I am still wearing merino underwear and using plastic zip-lock bags as containers for practically everything. I guess it will take longer for me to get rid of some habits.
Zip-lock bag containing my treasure: trail mix.
Anyway, this article was supposed to be about our daily life on the trail, and I am already going off-topic… so here is how a typical day on the PCT looked like.
1. The drama of waking up
We usually woke up around 05:30.
I then always spent at least 30 minutes inside my warm sleeping bag, listening to Chef’s and Pacman’s stoves warming up their breakfasts, while questioning my life choices and asking my self “why again do I want to be here?”.
But then, eventually, I would peek between the tent flaps. The beauty of the sunrise would give me strength… and suddenly, I knew why I was there.
One of many magical sunrises that got me out of my sleeping bag.
2. Leaving camp at agreed political time
With an unexpected burst of energy, I somehow always managed to overcome that dark state of self-doubt. I slipped out of the sleeping bag, dressed with the same cold, humid and dirty clothes, and packed my stuff in 20 minutes.
We then always folded the tent together and tried to start hiking at around 06:30. This was our “political time”, since we always left camp a bit later than that.
Just before leaving, I always sent a pre-set message to our families using my Garmin GPS:
“Buongiorno, iniziamo a camminare!”
Lilo packing her stuff and getting ready to leave camp.
3. Having breakfast and digging a hole
While taking our first steps into the day and warming up our stiff muscles and joints, I swallowed my breakfast. It usually consisted in a protein bar, or a “complete cookie, chocolate-chip flavor” if I had been lucky with the last resupply.
Shortly after… it was always time to hide and dig a hole. In other words, to poop.
Now that I am home and I can sit on a comfortable flushing toilet instead of squatting in the dirt, I actually miss it… I mean, look at the view:
Best pooping view on the PCT.
4. Snickers break
At around 10:00, we usually took a 30 minutes break, ideally at a water source, so that we could also filter water and fill our bottles while resting. This break was my favorite, because I always saved a snickers bar for it!
And after eating the snickers? It was time for the trail mix!
And after the trail mix? We kept walking and dreaming about lunch time:
“What do you put in your tortilla today?”
“Probably tuna, same as yesterday, and the day before. But maybe I am lucky and I still have the “garlic & herbs” flavor.”
“Oooor we could go wild and share the salami!”
“Wait… I still have some nutella left!”
The tortilla of my dreams.
5. Lunch break with gourmet tortillas
Suddenly, it was 12:30. We kept hiking, hoping to soon find Pacman waiting for us behind a corner.
He was wise, and always made sure to carefully choose the best lunch spot for our family… one that included a nice view and, most importantly, comfortable stones to sit onto.
We then had lunch together, shared the siracha sauce for our “gourmet tortillas”, and enjoyed in silence a “post-lunch depression mood” for a while.
Pacman waiting for us on a stone.
Lilo devouring her “gourmet” tortilla at lunch (with nice clean hands).
6. Me-time and cotolette
After 1 hour lunch break, we slowly packed our food bags and started walking again. We didn’t talk so much with each other in the afternoon and I usually isolated myself by listening to an audiobook or a podcast.
These were my go-tos:
Audiobook: “Journeys North” by Barney “Scout” Mann
Podcasts: “Bush & Banter” and “Les Baladeurs”
But then, after listening to a podcast episode or a book chapter, it was time to “throw cotolette”, hence telling each other everything we just listened to.
The audiobook “Journeys North” by Barney “Scout” Mann.
7. Water carry for the water lords
Sometimes, we were going to spend the night “dry-camping”, without any water source nearby. In those cases, we had to stop and collect water beforehand.
We usually collected a total of at least 6L (3L each):
1L to cook dinner (shared)
1L to place in our tent for the night (shared)
2L to start hiking the next morning (1L each)
2L to drink in the evening (1L each)
Since we were lazy and wanted to arrive at the campsite as soon as possible in the evening, we often used our 2L bladders to carry the water, and filtered it into bottles only later at camp.
Chef collecting water from a source of suspicious quality.
Water was yellowish, but delicious.
Chef collecting water from another source of suspicious quality.
We were fine.
8. Five star tent pitch
On average, we would arrive at the agreed campsite at around 18:30 - 19:00.
Time to send our families another pre-set message:
“Siamo arrivati al campsite. Un bacione!”
After scouting the area in search for the flattest spot, we would perform an “awkward tiptap dance” to brush away the little stones and sticks covering the ground. I would then proceed with pitching our tent, while Chef was filtering water for both of us.
I don’t want to brag but…
I am so proud to say that this was my best skill on trail!
I got to know our ZPacks Duplex tent, its lines and simmetries so well that, by the end of our adventure, no difficult terrain, ground inclination or lack of space would challenge my perfect pitching technique anymore.
Once the tent was up, we both adopted different techniques: Chef was emptying his backpack and chaotically throwing every item into the tent. I was entering my typical maniacal phase of “everything has to be placed inside the tent in exactly the same order as usual, and in its precisely defined location”.
Lilo presenting her “5 star” tent pitch.
9. Bear hang prep nightmare
It was time for me to struggle.
As stubborn as I am, I wanted to throw the rope for my bear hang myself. I had to do this before dinner, since the whole process would have turned into a “mission impossible” for me in the dark.
So, I usually found myself hopelessly wondering around the campsite in search for a good branch, one that was tall enough, strong enough, and that wouldn’t require me to do extreme acrobatics in order to throw the rope on top of it.
I was then tightening one end of the 50 feet long rope to a rock, aiming at the branch, and…
… throw…
… pull back the rope, remove the thousand tiny branches stuck into it, aiming, throw again…
… pull back, remove branches, throw…
… pull back, unknot, throw…
… pull back, find other rock, throw…
… a NIGHTMARE.
But I always managed, one way or another!
Meanwhile, Chef and Pacman were already chit-chatting and starting to cook dinner.
Chef and Pacman chit-chatting at the campsite.
10. Dinner is ready!
Finally… our favorite time of the day.
On the trail, “hiker hunger” is real. Once it struck, we couldn’t stop thinking about food and were hungry all the damn time!
Our favorite dishes included mac&cheese, different varieties of instant ramen, mashed potatoes and couscous.
We all sat down on our foldable mats, surrounded by the sound of the gas stoves, looking at the smoke of the boiling water rising in the air, while the amazing smell of dinner was filling the campsite. Chef always cooked for both of us using his giant pot, and of course I never complained.
Annie’s Mac & Cheese (Shells & White Cheddar).
11. Hot toddy and bear hang
After dinner, we often warmed up water again and shared hot toddy with the family.
It was time to relax, let go and be a bit silly together. We were all sitting in a circle, wearing our head lamps set on red light, laughing out loud into the night. The sky above us was always spectacular and we just needed to gaze at the milky way for a minute to see shooting stars.
At around 21:00, we would gather our stuff, brush our teeth and head out in the dark towards the chosen tree for our bear hang. This activity was always so unpredictable: sometimes, everything went smoothly and we managed to hang our food bags in a minute, while other times it turned into a catastrophe… but always a funny catastrophe.
Chef on the way to hang his food.
12. Bed time and FarOut
“Please, please, please… let me sleep without any need to pee in the night.”
After this quick prayer, we snuggled into our fluffy quilts.
I first quickly checked if any of my electronics needed charging during the night, and then proceeded with my bed time routine: choosing pictures from the camera, transferring them to the phone, and writing a diary on my phone to remember the special moments we experienced.
I have to admit that, in the beginning, I struggled a lot with this routine.
I was always so tired that writing for my blog was the last thing I wanted to do when going to bed. But I got used to it and, in the end, I am so glad I did… those are memories that will stay with me forever!
Just before closing my eyes, as I am sure many other hikers on the PCT did, I was opening the FarOut app on my phone, looking at the points of interest along the section of the trail planned for the next day, and going through the comments.
FarOut was vital for PCT hikers.
This app could also be used offline and showed our position on the map of the trail, along with all the points of interest, such as “water sources”, “junctions” and “tentsites”. The comments feature for each point of interest was particularly useful. For example, other hikers could inform us about the state of a water source they passed just a week before us: “flowing well”, “just a trickle” or “dry as a bone” were very common comments.
Here is the BEST comment I found. It was underneath the icon of Frog Lake in the Sierra (mile 1076.6), and it made me giggle for a while in the dark:
Saw few goblins here, a friendly bunch.
Sometimes they leave raw fish near the lake as a trail magic for PCTers (should be safe to eat… when you think about it, fish comes already cold-soaked).
They were really interested in my trekking poles and offered me a wooden club in return. I refused since I have a Durston tent… but if I had a free-standing tent I would definitely consider.
After dancing around a fire with them, they gave me some swamp herbs to smoke. Almost knocked me down and all of them started loughing, but gave me some more fish and made sure I was ok.
10/10 would strongly recommend.
PS: under no circumstances say yes if they ask to gobble your goblin.
All of a sudden, it was 22:00… time to close our eyes and listen to the rhythmic sounds of nature outside our tent. When we got lucky, the white noise of a river, the chirping of crickets, or the strange mating calls of elks would lull us to sleep.
Full moon night and lullabies.