5 BIG Regrets From My PCT Thru-Hike

You don’t want to regret it after doing your hike. You spend so much time, money, and energy hiking that you don’t want to regret it after the fact.

I don’t have many regrets about doing my PCT hike, but I do have a few.

Regret #1: Not camping the cowboys sooner.

Regret number one: not having cowboy camped sooner. I had never camped like a cowboy in the thousands of miles I had hiked… to the end of the PCT in Washington.

I was with my friends Jolly and Jabba. The cowboys had camped before and convinced me to do it, and it was a lot of fun. I loved it and I regret not having done it sooner. There were a lot of cowboy people camping in the desert at the beginning of the trail, and I never did it.

I don’t know. I thought I liked my space, like my little tent setup, but sometimes it’s fun to mix it up and make camping a little more exciting and social.

Regret #2: The Sierra (three parts)

Regret number two: the Sierra. This is kind of a three-parter. I regret some things in the Sierra section.

Part 1: Arriving too soon

Number one, we’re very early. We started on May 7, which is more than a month before the recommended time to enter, and that ended up being very difficult because of the snow conditions and the traverses and poles.

We were only the second group to reach the top of Mount Whitney. We arrived really early and it was really scary most of the time, so I don’t really regret it. I wouldn’t change it, but if I were to do the PCT again, I wouldn’t go in so early.

Part 2: Wear boots

The second thing in the Sierra was to wear boots. I know everyone knows that hikers wear trail runners, not boots, but I was, I don’t know, I was on the fence and decided to wear boots.

I’m comfortable doing winter hikes in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, where I’m from, in boots, and I thought I felt safer with microspikes on the boots and all that, and that turned out to be a mistake.

Snow comes in through the top when you’re putting up posts and they were just wet on the inside. They don’t dry out. They would freeze overnight.

It was miserable. My feet were frozen all the time.

Part 3: Not planning Half Dome

And my third regret in the Sierra is that we went down to Yosemite Valley just for a quick night, but I didn’t research the logistics in advance of being able to get a permit to climb Half Dome.

So I regret not doing it. I’ll have to come back someday and do it.

Myth #3: Not having learned Gaia before the path

Number three: don’t learn how to use Gaia before the tour.

I downloaded Gaia on my phone, but I feel like it’s something you need to play with beforehand. I ended up using FarOut, which is nice. FarOut is great.

But by walking with other people who used Gaia, I learned that there is so much more you can do with it. You can add layers of smoke and create routes. I feel like it would have been useful when I was doing a detour on a road around a fire, things like that.

So that’s my goal before my next big hike: master Gaia.

Regret #4: Not snowboarding on Mount Hood

Number four: Don’t snowboard on Mount Hood.

I arrived at Mount Hood in Oregon at Timberline Lodge on August 10, got a zero on August 11 because it was my birthday and it didn’t occur to me that they would still be snowboarding there in the middle of summer.

So I had to deal with resupply stuff and video editing, and I didn’t take that into account or take the time to rent gear and snowboard.

But that would have been the first time I got to snowboard on my birthday, so I regret not doing it.

Regret #5: Being stressed all the time

And number five: honestly, being a little stressed all the time.

I’m sure some of you can relate. During a hike, there is a lot to think about. There are a lot of logistics: calculating miles, doing miles, having enough food to get from city to city, finding a hitchhike to get to the city.

I don’t know. I am on top of all the video editing; There’s so much going on and I feel like I’ve always been like, «I’m so stressed. I’m so behind all the time.» And I can’t help it; That’s just my personality.

But I wish, and I feel like in the end I did this, I would have relaxed a little bit. And what happens if you are late? Enjoy the moment and accept the place you are in and you will make it.

Like I said at the beginning: you spend all this time, energy, and money on a hike and you don’t want to look back and feel like you were stressed the whole time. What’s the point of that?

Alright, we’re leaving and I’m going in the wrong direction.

I hope this has given you some things to think about so you don’t regret your hike.

I have 11 miles to go today to finish the Eagle Rock Loop in Arkansas, so that’s it for now.

See you next time!