So, it’s finally happening! I’ve been thinking about embarking on this journey for years now, and although I am not in a place in my life to complete the entire length of the Pacific Crest Trail, I have the next best solution to my ever-longing need for adventure — through hike 455 miles across my beautiful home state of Oregon. From the northern California border to the fast moving waters of the Columbia River entering Washington, the Pacific Crest Trail though Oregon spans across flowering plains, volcanic crests, and wooded timbers. Since returning home early, and unexpectedly, from Spain due to complications from the Coronavirus, this was finally the time to make my dream a reality. Having lived so close to the trail and having heard so many epic stories about long-distance backpacking, the mountains I have watched and walked though for so many years of my life were calling. While I caught some flack for not grabbing up a “real job” since arriving back home, everyone I know was most proud of me for undertaking this incredible journey. So, for the next 38 days the trail will be my home. While I do have some legs of the trail I will travel on my own, friends and family plan to meet me along the way and join in on many of the beautiful miles ahead. I am so excited for the memories I am about to make, the people I will meet, and how this will change me as a person. Although I am beyond nervous to begin, the need and excitement to start this journey of a lifetime overwhelms me beyond comparison. I have a lot of planning and preparation ahead of me, but even the minutiae of the seemingly most boring and trivial preparations get me that much closer to getting on the trail and doing something I have dreamed about for so long.
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