The Beginning and the End of my 2020 PCT Attempt

Well, this wasn't the second post that I had planned on writing, but here we are.  Three weeks ago, I handed in my resignation to work and accelerated preparations for my hike to begin at the end of April.  One week later, all hell began to break loose: travel from Europe was suspended, March Madness was cancelled, and the outbreak was officially declared a pandemic.  I began to get concerned.  I felt for the European hikers who were being cut off from the trail and I began to make contingencies to try to avoid air travel (reserving a rental car and planning my route across the country) and make sure that I wouldn't get cut off either.  Meanwhile, there was a heated debate occurring in the online hiking community on whether or not a thru hike should be attempted this year.  After several stressful days, I started to come to the realization that a hike this year would be untenable.

There are several reasons for this.  While it would seem that hiking is a good way to practice social distancing, the trail is actually a fairly social place.  Hikers camp together in groups, gather near water sources, and relax together in shady areas.  In many areas, hikers rely on hitchhiking to get to town.  While it's possible to complete a thru hike without hitchhiking, it would involve several hundred extra miles of hiking to and from these towns.  But the real issue with thru hiking during a pandemic such as this has to do with the nature of the virus.  Because one may not show symptoms for up to 14 days from the time the virus is contracted, it's possible to be an asymptomatic carrier.  In a two-week time period on the trail, one could potentially pass through three different towns, spreading the virus to scores of people: post office workers, hostel owners, grocery store patrons and cashiers, etc.  Many of these smaller mountain towns don't have the healthcare services to handle a lot of these cases.  Many also have higher proportions of older people, who are more susceptible to the disease.  There are definitely ethical considerations to be made, which each individual has to make for themselves.  I also considered how stressed or worried I'd be that I was sick or was going to get sick - that's not an additional thing that I want to worry about on a long-distance hike.  In the end, the final nail in the coffin was the Pacific Crest Trail Association's request that thru-hikers postpone or cancel their hikes due to the above listed issues.

I canceled my permit for 2020 and will thus be practicing my social distancing in my apartment (and hopefully the occasional hike in a remote area).  Luckily, I spoke to my supervisor and was able to rescind my resignation from our personnel committee.  My landlord has also allowed me to continue renting my apartment.  While I'm disappointed that I won't be hiking the PCT this year, I'm thankful that I have a job, a roof, and understanding people all around me.

Would I like to try to thru hike the trail again next year? Absolutely, but like a thru hike, let's take this one step at a time.  Let's all try to make it through this pandemic first and then we can figure out what lies beyond that.  Happy trails!