Mile 904: My first trail blog

I entered the PCT thinking that I would blog regularly, that it would be like writing a diary, and that I would share it with the public. Turns out the trail had other plans for me. I’m already 900 miles in and I’m mentally and physically sitting down to write my first Trek blog.

I’ve been journaling every day and share updates on my Instagram stories when I’m on duty… but the practice of surrendering to the trail is at the forefront and asked for more silence.

I have learned that through hiking you create a different relationship with time…. and it takes up more space than I expected. Not only physically, but mentally and spiritually. The first few hundred miles seemed like a period of adjustment: learning to walk all day, getting comfortable in the uncomfortable, and letting go of the world I previously lived in.

In the world I come from, there was always an invisible pressure to create something from every experience: document it, share it, give it meaning (especially as someone who used to work in the marketing field and is a photographer). Out here, in the wilds of the trail…. that pressure slowly dissolved and I found peace in not having to constantly turn my experience into something. Letting it simply be. Letting myself simply be.

Instead of thinking about what I should do or create in a “performative” sense, I surrendered to the path. I get up, walk, eat, filter water, walk some more, find a place to sleep and do it all again the next day and the next day. (Plus, most days you’re too exhausted to do literally anything else.) In that «simplicity», the pressure has softened and I can breathe deeply. I find myself sitting by a lake for an hour, mesmerized by the textures of the water ripples, watching the light move across the mountains, listening to the wind, calming my breathing, and admiring the wildlife. Simply being… and being with my inner self.

As someone who has practiced yoga for 12 years, this is not a new concept but a reminder…embodiment is deeper: presence, detachment. Yoga teaches us that much of suffering comes from attachment: to outcomes, identities, and expectations. The trail has become a living practice of that lesson. Every day invites me to return to the present moment, to be where my feet are (as Ram Dass says “Be Here Now”).

So my first article on the trail is a reminder that sometimes life doesn’t ask us to do anything at all… and that just being here is enough. It’s fun to document and it’s fun to just live it. Strike a balance.

Here’s to hiking 1/3 of the Pacific Crest Trail and having the time of my life. This is the most challenging and amazing experience, I LOVE hiking. I have many stories to share about the beta trail, hiking alone or with family, the beautiful Sierras and all the inner reflections of this trail… when the time is right 🙂

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