Why the Pacific Crest Trail?
I suppose that the answer to that question is different for each hiker, but for me it probably came about as a natural progression. My first long distance hike was in ’94 when I thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail which was on the east coast of the U.S. and in terrain that I was familiar and comfortable with since I have lived in Alabama and North Carolina for most of my life. I then went on to thru-hike the 475 mile Colorado Trail which introduced me to high altitude hiking since 90 percent of that trail is above 10,000 feet and it gave me a taste of hiking in the more arid and exposed western U.S. After that I felt completely confident to take on the 2,658 mile Pacific Crest Trail like it was my own backyard! During the last decade the PCT has truely come into it’s own as a tame, yet wild trail and I’d definitely reccomend it as a first-time thru-hike attempt to anyone, but that is how the PCT came about for me.
