Expectations of the PCT

Written by Cricket at age 11

Why I want to do this:

It may sound insane to some that a thirteen-year-old girl would ever want to backpack the PCT, much less be the reason her whole family is doing it altogether, but no matter how often people say “Her family made her”, or “Poor girl, she was dragged along by her family,” I wanted to do this. The first time I wanted to do the PCT was when my mom read me a blog about a ten-year-old girl, Sunshine, who finished the PCT and all about how she did it with her dad. I thought it was so cool and wanted to backpack the PCT like her. At the time I was listening to my mom talk about her I was nine and had never been backpacking, but I didn’t care, it was amazing to me how incredible it would be to walk for six months straight just trying to reach the end of a trail. The thought of it made me feel victorious. I knew that it wasn’t going to be as easy as the blog made it sound. Despite all of the people’s concerns, I want to try to do the whole PCT.

My experience with backpacking:

Though most people on the PCT have lots of experience with backpacking I have a more limited amount of experience. I have backpacked in the Seven Lakes in the Sierras, San Jacinto, and the San Gabriel Mountains. I have hiked to Eagle Rock, but that was a day hike for me. I have camped in the rainy mountains, dry deserts, and in the cool forests. I have never slept in the snow, but I love the cold (when I can stay comfortable and warm) and think it would be “cool” and would gladly sleep in that weather condition (for as long as I think I like it).

What I think it will be like:

My idea of the PCT plays a lot off of all the videos of other people backpacking it, like Dixie, Darwin, and the Crawfords. From what I have seen (granted, I missed a few videos) the PCT will give my family a better relationship with each other since we have nothing better to do than talk. We will look at views at the top of mountains that will kick our butts on the way up, beautiful rivers and waterfalls that we will see before we head up another butt kicking mountain, and so many unique plants and animals that will be great for my photography. Nonetheless, this awesome trip will be hard and painful, but if we all make it through to the very end we could say we backpacked the entire PCT. This might sound awful to some people, but to my family, this sounds like another challenge ready to be taken on and conquered by the Collinsworth family.