Festive Sign off + credits

A few reasons why people may choose to walk 2650 miles…

So there we have it. Another thru hike “Romeo done”.

There are many reasons why people choose to embark on an epic thru hike like the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT).

For us a big part of it was simply a sense of adventure, personal challenge, fitness and “The Call of the Wild”.

Whereas for others they may be dealing with a tricky break up, relationship issues, bereavement and grief, burn out, depression, personal trauma or a disconnection with our natural environment.

Our connection to the natural world has been there for thousands of years. Although over the last couple of hundred years many of us have stepped away from this connection. A connection that helped shape us into what we are today.

Sarah puts it well “You can’t take the chase out of a dog”. The same applies to all of our instincts and intuitions, which were evolved with a closer relationship with our earth.

These days technology has helped move us forward and there are definitely advantages to this. Unfortunately there are also obvious downsides, leading to global warming and the destruction of our planet.

We are fast becoming a population that is increasingly plagued with poor physical and mental health. A society that is less connected to our world and one another and more reliant on modern tech, smartphones, social media and ‘likes’.

Sarah and I have always loved the “Great Outdoors” spending a lot of our vacation time biting off mini chunks of adventure. However, sometimes 2 weeks just isn’t enough!

Last year we spent our vacation doing a 120 mile section of the PCT. Here we realised the impact of global warming first hand. Witnessing how huge uncontrollable wildfires are changing the landscape along the west coast of the US.
Many predict that in our lifetime most of the great forests of the Pacific Northwest will either be burning, burnt or in a state of recovery.

It’s all too easy to postpone our dreams. Putting them off for another year or waiting until retirement. Although sadly sometimes due to illness and tragedy, dreams don’t always come to fruition!
Many people we met along the trail commended us for taking the leap, whilst we were still young enough to make the most of it. You only get 1 life after all!

Following Covid and Sarah’s sisters’ diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis, it helped us both re-evaluate our lives. Amy’s diagnosis brought home the importance of making the most of our health. After all, our health is our wealth!

Both Sarah and I climbed the managerial ladder and enjoyed the view. Dedicating almost two decades of our lives working hard in our careers.
Although after much thought and discussion we decided to leave behind the jobs we love and embark on this adventure of a lifetime, while our bodies were fit and able.
Now it was time for a new challenge and a fresh set of mountains to climb. The Pacific Crest Trail seemed like a good enough place to start!

We also figured the trail would give us the “time out” to reconnect with one another as well as our natural surroundings.

We felt that the Thru hike would be a great platform to help raise awareness and funds for the 3 fantastic causes highlighted:

1) To raise money to go towards medical costs for her sister Amy to have the newest available MS treatment privately in the UK (60%)

2) Give 20% of the total raised to Bartholomew Young Carers (young children who care for parents or siblings)

The hike has given Sarah the time needed to process and come to terms with her sister’s diagnosis. Turning it from a feeling of helplessness into something positive by doing this fundraising campaign.

3) Give 20% of the total raised to The MS Society.

Personal Achievement:

It’s great to be challenged and humbled! There is such a positive physical, mental and emotional benefit associated in completing all these miles. Surviving, thriving and overcoming your fears and injuries. Completing the big-miles, whilst maintaining the big smiles over tricky terrain and /or in adverse weather conditions.

It was a great test of grit, endurance and determination. Skills that can be transferred to anything we put our minds to.

Sleeping out in the wild brings you so much closer to the natural world and has helped restore our natural body clocks (Circadian rhythm). Making our bodies and movements more synchronised with the rise and fall of the sun.

Whilst one trail we had numerous interesting wildlife encounters.
Seeing our first ever Mountain Lion in the wild was right up there. As was following the fresh paw prints of a black bear in NorCal.
Sharing the trail with rattle snakes and tarantulas was also a new experience!
There many highlights etched into our memories.

Never sleeping in the same place also gives a great sense of adventure and things certainly never get boring on trail. We pitched our tent in all sorts of interesting places, including some of the following:

From lush pine forests to exposed mountain ridges and ledges.
On a stage above a basketball court in a church.
Taking shelter from bad weather in a dusty old mouse infested outbuilding.
Camping on a dirt road underneath a pylon. Terrified that we were going to get run over in our sleep.
Sleeping outside a Mexican restaurant on the concrete floor gave us a better understanding of what it must feel like to be homeless.

Random Acts of Kindness:

For many of us the modern world now means living extremely busy lives. Lives that are becoming increasingly disconnected and self-absorbed, with less time for one another.
Although there are still lots of good people in the world. In testament to this we met some truly amazing people on our travels.
It was mind blowing and refreshing to witness so many great interactions and random acts of kindness from complete strangers.

People who help hikers are often known as “Trail angels” in the hiking community.
All of this would not have been possible without the kindness and generosity of these little angels (including the ones at home).

There are so many people that have helped us along the way to simply put into a list. You all know who you are! We are eternity grateful and thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Here are some examples of the acts of kindness we received during our adventure. I hope this brings back memories for the trail angels and people involved who have been following the blog.

We hope this puts a festive smile on your faces!

A special thanks to those who:

1. Family and friends:

Keeping the home fires burning, making sure our little Rooi was well looked after whilst we were away
Helping store and send our equipment to us at different stages of the trail
Making special trips to meet us to drop off supplies and winter gear
Providing remote IT support helping the blog to become what it is today

2. Fellow hikers + trail families:

Sharing and preparing / donating food and drink
Giving advice, knowledge and equipment as and when required
Raising spirits and moral with trail banter when times were tough
Inspiring us to push our limits, miles and smiles
Writing messages of encouragement in various forms
Providing us with entertainment – fun games / crossswords / quizzes
Helping us find and share tent spots when there was limited space available
Sharing intel to help with downstream trail planning and logistics

3. Trail angels and random strangers:

Helping us with planning, logistics and transportation before we even stepped a foot on trail
Leaving trail magic in the middle of nowhere for us to find
Cooking delicious meals and / or providing cold soda / beer on trail
Scooping us up when we were tired and broken. Often taking us into their homes as complete strangers and sometimes allowing us to stay for multiple days
Providing a hot meal, warmth, laundry and a much needed shower.
Teaching us how to make Mexican food
Giving rides to and from the trail and / or around town
Taking us out for pizza and refusing for us to pay a single penny
Treating us to a delicious breakfast and hot drinks before getting back on trail
Providing expert fishing advice and intel on local fishing hot spots
Personally hand tying flies for me to use while fly fishing
Educating us about the local area, history and providing recommendations
Donating a mobile phone to help us overcome communication issues
Willing to carry out our trash + providing invaluable trail intel
Providing us with water caches in areas where water was scarce
Bringing us a cooked pasta meal on trail including salad and garlic bread
Offering us their second home as free accommodation
Sharing Wifi hotspots so we could communicate and use the internet
Going above and beyond, taking us from the trail back to the real world

4. Companies and Services:

Officials who made special concessions. Allowing us to start together, camp or pass through prohibited areas of the trail. “Mums the word!”
Rangers leaving notes for hikers offering extra food
Outfitters helping provide gear / advice and setting us up for success
Bartenders coming to our rescue getting us safely back on trail
Motels / Inns allowing us to check in early to get out of the cold weather
Stores offering free ice creams, beer and warm slices of sweet apple pie
Shop owners opening their doors after hours to allow us to resupply
Trail physio providing support and exercises in overcoming injuries

Interesting Statistics:

Number of days and distance covered:

166 days
2650 miles (minus the unavoidable 200 mile fire closure in Oregon)
The PCT is the equivalent to hiking 100 marathons
Approx 6 million footsteps
PCT thru-hikers will climb almost a half-million feet; with a total elevation gain of about 489,418 feet hiking the Pacific Crest Trail equals climbing Mount Everest more than 16 times!

How much did our backpacks weigh:

Each of our backpacks had a base weight of approx 20lb / 9kg (minus food, water and consumables).
Based on 5 days food carry and 2L of water this would increase to between 32-34 lb’s each (14.5 – 15.4 kg)
However, through the High Sierra’s weights increased due to winter gear, the addition of bear canisters and longer food carries to just over 40 lbs each (18.1kg).

Headline weight loss:

Rich lost a total of 2 stone / 28lbs / 13 kg
Sarah lost a total of 1.6 stone / 22 lbs / 10kg

Headline temporary height loss due to carrying heavy packs:

Rich lost a total of 2cm
Sarah lost a total 0.5cm

Number of trail runners shoes used on the trail:

Rich 4.5 pairs
Sarah 5.5 pairs

Headline wildlife encounters:

6.5 bears – The 0.5 was a little cub with its mother in NorCal
1 mountain Lion
1 coyote but many heard howling at night
2 herds of mountain goats
Countless mule deer
Lots of snakes – Including 1 rattle snake that coiled up at Rich
3 tarantulas
Numerous wild trout were caught, although all returned to their watery homes
Wild turkeys & Jack Rabbits
Numerous birds of prey

Hazards on the trail include…

Severe weather
River crossings
Hypothermia & exposure
Sun damage & heat exhaustion
Dehydration & risk of illness from poor water sources
Difficult terrain and risk of falling
Forests fires
Landslides
Dangerous animals: Black bears, mountain lions, venomous snakes & spiders
Poisonous plants; the infamous poodle-dog bush and poison oak
Insect bites & risk of Lymes disease through tick bites

Customer Service and Support:

In total we finished the trail with 2 new tents.

REI offers a no quibble policy on all of the equipment they sell and switched out our faulty MSR tent without question
Durston also sent us a replacement tent due to the faulty zippers.

We also had similar success stories with Sarah’s broken Osprey backpack.
As well as Nemo switching out faulty air pads.

Both Osprey and Nemo offering a lifetime guarantee if any of their products proved faulty.

Unbelievable customer service and support from all and a huge thank you!

Signing out for now:

So that’s all for now folks. We hope you have enjoyed the ride!

Early in the New Year we will look at posting our photo reels. So please stay tuned.

Sign up for photo reels…

If you would like to get a notification to let you know when we have posted the photos reels please sign up below.

We will also be appearing on BBC Radio Oxford on 28th December 2023 around 12:15 noon. So please listen out…

Click the logo below to go to find BBC show

Happy Christmas and a New Year Y’all.

Fletch and Sarah (Yellow tail)