Your journey begins in the small town of Campo, Calif., near the Mexican border. The air is hot, and the landscape is crowded with desert scrub and chaparral; thoughts of water are routine. But you've packed light, and stretching out before you are all 2,650 miles of the greatest wilderness route in the western U.S.-the Pacific Crest Trail.
From here you will traverse the shaded forests of the San Bernardino and San Gabriel ranges, cross the brushy folds of the Sierra Pelona, and then dip into the western arm of the Mojave Desert before entering the Sierra Nevada and the central and northern California sections of the PCT.
Before you're done with California, you will have ventured through expansive meadows and conifer forests of the High Sierra, sauntered through Sequoia National Park, and briefly joined the John Muir Trail through Yosemite National Park. The southern Cascades yield lush forests through which the trail winds on its way to Lassen Volcanic National Park, onward to Mount Shasta, then north to the Marble Mountain Wilderness and the Klamath River.
The Oregon section offers the shortest and easiest portion of the PCT. Here you will encounter a comparatively docile traverse through a volcanic landscape demanding little elevation change except for a 3,160-foot descent into the Columbia River Gorge. Lakes abound throughout the Oregon section, inviting you onward. You'll pass through Crater Lake National Park and a host of lake-filled wilderness areas like Diamond Peak and Three Sisters Wildernesses. The Oregon section's crown jewel is Mount Hood and its shady fir forests.
After crossing the Bridge of the Gods and climbing your way out of the Columbia River Gorge, you'll encounter the lakes and huckleberries of the Indian Heaven Wilderness and enter the PCT's home stretch-the Washington section. The Cascades offer up colossal peaks like Mount Adams and the awe-inspiring mammoth Mount Rainier. But venturing into the North Cascades will prove to be a challenging endeavor north to Canada. The topography here is riddled with deep canyons, several high mountain passes, perennial snowfields, and the memorably rugged route skirting Glacier Peak, not to mention that Washington is the PCT's wettest section with year-round storm potential.
By the time you cross the Canadian border and conclude the PCT, you will have traversed 19 major canyons, passed more than 1,000 lakes, crossed 57 major mountain passes on your way through five state parks, four national monuments, six national parks, 25 different national forest units and 48 federal wilderness areas. In fact, more than half of the PCT is in federal wilderness-that's more tread in wilderness than any other trail. In short, when you finally complete the PCT, you will have conquered the country's most remote and untamed wilderness trail-a trail that purposely avoids roads and towns as often as possible.
Not interested in disappearing into the backcountry for a multi-month mega hike? That's fine. The PCT is broken up into 29 sections of manageable distances offering hikers the opportunity to tackle this trail piece by piece over a lifetime of wilderness outings. On second thought, who really cares if you hike all 2,650 miles from Mexico to Canada? If the PCT consists of mostly wilderness, then the purpose of the trail must be simply to provide a way for you to leave the city behind, detach from the increasing demands of everyday life, and feed your soul with a healthy dose of unadulterated, undomesticated wilderness. So whether you set out for a whole summer-long undertaking of the trail or little more than a long summer afternoon stroll, just step foot on the Pacific Crest Trail and see where it takes you. You might just find a reason to not turn back.
