c) Andrew Carter, 2023
You’ll find at the bottom the final daily itinerary for my multi-year thru hike (MYTH) of the PCT. When I look at it, even I get confused. So many stops and starts. So many times I switched directions.
What’s more the 2021 portion of my hike, even the 2022 portion, seem like ancient history. This hike took too long.
I can tell you there is a significant difference between a MYTH and a single-year thru hike. The single year hike is more rewarding. It impacts you more and has the potential to change you more, even if it’s just during the time you’re hiking. When I thru hiked the Appalachian Trail in 1977 and stopped halfway to visit friends at the college I was attending, many of them exclaimed, “Who the hell are you!” The calm Andrew of the woods was not the crazed Andrew they were used to at school.
There’s also something intrinsically rewarding to starting at one place, hiking in one direction, and months later, ending at another place — with few gaps along the way.
On a MYTH, particularly one with so many flip flops, so many stops and starts, so many gaps, you never truly get into the hike. You’re always torn between two worlds — the natural world of the woods vs. the “civilized” world of home, family, and friends. You’re torn between two different types of living — the slow pace of hiking, the get-up-with-the-sun go-to-bed-with-the-sun rhythm of hiking, and the silence of the woods vs. everything that assaults your senses in the go-go-go modern world.
In this first week back at home after the completion of my hike, I found shopping for groceries to be over-stimulating. I can only imagine how worse it would have been if I lived in a big city and had to face crowds of people, freeway speeds, and commuter traffic. There’s a big difference between the 2 to 3 mile-per-hour pace of hiking and the 60 to 80 mile-per-hour speed of driving plus seeing just a few people a day vs. thousands.
Even dealing with my wife was a challenge at first. She’s a wonderful person, I love her deeply, but I’d been completely alone. Having someone in “my personal space,” even someone I love, was a challenge.
My full itinerary appears at the bottom. I’ll summarize it here, so it makes more sense.
Here’s a summary of my average miles-per-day pace across the three years.
At last, my final 2021-23 daily itinerary.
Carter Hikes 