The Walking Dom

Mile 2660 / KM 4265
Stehekin to CANADA!

I'm writing this in my cocoon of a sleeping bag, zipped up with the drawstring tightened completely so I can barely breathe, but I prefer suffocating to breathing the ice cold air outside. It's our last morning on trail. The night was clear and below freezing and I'm wearing every layer of clothing that I have with me. Couldn't hear a thing all night because I had so many things wrapped around my head. Katie just told me over from her tent that she had to get up in the middle of the night to go to the washroom which sounds like suicide! I might not make it to the border after all, might freeze on the way there.

When I started this adventure 5 months ago I honestly had no idea what I was getting myself into. All I knew about the trail was what I had read on a hand full of blogs and Yogi's Guidebook and "Wild". That's it. I was a rookie and too ignorant to admit it. "Ey I'm Swiss, I know mountains and I used to be a scout, I obviously know what I'm doing" Yeah... well, no you don't. Long distance hiking is very different from "normal people day hiking" and requires a different skill set and different equipment. I ignored that for the most part.

I didn't go on a single practice hike before stepping on the trail, because I was lazy and I figured that the weather wasn't nice enough at the time, which I find hilarious in retrospect. I didn't test any of my gear outside of my house except my tent which I set up once on a beautiful sunny day in a park in the center of Zurich while I had a glass of wine in hand. I had no idea what my resupply strategy was supposed to look like up until a week before stepping on the trail and I didn't fully pack my backpack until a day before nervously standing at the Southern Terminus of the PCT. Way to go Dom!

Apparently blind optimism and some stubborness can go a long way. 2660 Miles through a desert, the Sierras, North California, Oregon and all the way up to Washington. What an adventure it has been.

I wish I could re-hike the first 25 miles of the trail just to see what it would be like. I remember almost dying at the end of my first 15 mile day, completely exhausted and overwhelmed by everything. My pack must have been twice as heavy as it is now and full of things I wouldn't need. My white mozarella legs were far from ready to handle what was about to come and so was the rest of my body.

Everything has changed. I've never felt as good about myself as I do now. I didn't come out here to find myself but inevitably, you think about things when you've got so much time on your hands.

A lot of times I didn't feel like hiking at all and I had to force myself to get out of my warm sleeping bag. And though there were a lot of those moments, there were more when I stood on a mountain top not knowing where to look first because of the the sheer beauty surrounding me. I've had the privilege to see spectacular places on a daily basis for the past five months and I am thankful for that. The views made this adventure unforgettable and so did the people that I got to meet along the way. I didn't really know there was such a thing as a hiker community and now, 5 months later, I'm part of it and I won't let go.

This trip was awesome and the next adventure is already around the corner. Stay tuned...