This article originally appeared on The Trek, which you can read HERE.
I told myself and my girlfriend that I was never doing another long distance hike. Or so I thought after finishing my Appalachian Trail thru-hike in 2024. Little did I realize just how addictive long-distance hiking was and how much post-trail depression would impact me.
What is post-trail depression? In general, “a common, often intense, period of sadness, anxiety, and loss of purpose experienced by hikers after finishing a long-distance, life-changing journey.” I heard about post-trail depression prior to my AT thru-hike, but I never gave it much thought. Sure enough, I started to feel its impacts the day I summited Katahdin. Those feelings got more intense in the months after. I knew the only way to fix this was to get back on the trail. I summited Katahdin on October 6, and I think I decided to do another thru-hike by early December of the same year.
Why another thru-hike?
I am fortunate to have retired early, and my body is in fairly decent condition. The reason I retired early sucks (I miss you, Andrea), but life must go on. Read my bio for more. The fact that my body can handle long-distance hiking is a bit surprising given how much abuse my body received in my 20s, 30s, and early 40s. I have become a bit of an exercise addict in retirement. I realized that the best way to stay healthy, feel good, and have a long life is to stay highly active. What better way to stay active and exercise than to lug around a 27-pound backpack for hundreds or thousands of miles at a time? A body at rest tends to stay at rest, and a body in motion tends to stay in motion.
I have an amazing support system at home in the form of my girlfriend Dana, a.k.a. Pit Crew. Pit Crew is not retired and will be working full time for several more years. She understands why I hike and encourages me to do so. She not only encourages me, but she supports me on trail whenever possible. This includes taking care of the house and the dogs when I am away, sending me resupply as needed on trail, texting with me to keep my spirits up, and making visits to me on trail. Even if those visits are half a day away from home or, in the case of the PCT, over 3000 miles away. She is always there to support me. Hence her trail name Pit Crew.
I look at hiking as my retirement gig. Be it day hikes, 5-day section hikes, 2-4 week LASHes, or thru-hikes. Pit Crew calls it my post-retirement job. When I grab my day pack and head out for a 12-mile hike, she tells me “have a good day at work”.
All that said, Pit Crew and I have an understanding. I will alternate big thru-hikes (i.e. AT, PCT, CDT) every other year and do smaller thru-hikes (i.e. CT, AZT, Long Trail) and LASHes in the off years. The plan is to get the 4-6 month monster hikes done before she retires.
Planning for the AT vs. Planning for the PCT
There are a lot of differences between the AT and the PCT. Weather, terrain, altitude, water, remoteness, and more. More on how those impact planning and logistics in another post. What I found to be the most interesting difference about planning for my first thru-hike on the AT versus my second thru-hike on the PCT was the lack of urgency and the general “it will be what it will be” attitude that I had.
For the AT, I planned things out in excruciating detail. Where I planned to stop every night, exact mileage, 20+ resupply boxes, etc. There was also the constant feeling of anxiousness leading up to the start of the hike for many months.
For the PCT, things have been just a bit different. I have had to plan out my mileage in general mainly because I have to ship gear for the High Sierras to and from trail and, being an old fart, I have to ship meds to trail every 20-30 days. But I don’t feel the sense of urgency or anxiety that I did for the AT. Even though I have never hiked in the desert before nor traversed snow-covered mountain passes at 12,000 to 14,000 feet of elevation before. I am doing minimal resupply boxes on the PCT and I have found myself letting all my resupply box preparations linger until literally the last 1-2 weeks before leaving for California. I am not worried about if I will find a place to stay in town or how I will get to/from trail and towns. It will be what it will be.
I was discussing this with a hiking friend who has kids, and it is reminiscent of the first kid versus the third kid. For the first kid, you overplan everything, obsess about healthy meals, arrange playdates, and generally hover over the child. For the third child, you are feeding them Cheetos to keep them quiet, telling them to “get out of the house and find something to do”, and thinking “no blood, no foul” or “for gods sake, just walk it off”.
Happy Trails
That’s all for now. Before I get on trail in the very near future, I plan to do a post about PCT planning and logistics and one that deals with Frequently Asked Questions. I will be posting trail-log summaries on The Trek and posting daily detailed trail logs on my blog at https://retiredhiker.com/pacific-crest-trail/ . Until then, keep on keeping on!
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