Local Voices: Scenes from the Pacific Crest Trail

4 min.

A report from Emily Quinn

Last month Lansing resident Emily Quinn and her brother Michael Carrick began a months-long adventure of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, “a long-distance hiking and equestrian trail closely aligned with the highest portion of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada mountain ranges.” (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Crest_Trail, cited April 22, 2023)

Wikipedia continues: “The Pacific Crest Trail is 2,653 mi long and ranges in elevation from roughly 110 feet above sea level near the Bridge of the Gods on the Oregon–Washington border to 13,153 feet at Forester Pass in the Sierra Nevada. The route passes through 25 national forests and 7 national parks. Its midpoint is near Chester, California (near Mt. Lassen), where the Sierra and Cascade mountain ranges meet.”

Emily has been posting on Facebook about the journey, and she agreed to share these posts with The Lansing Journal to allow the broader community to follow along with them. These Local Voices submissions will include quotes and photos from Emily’s Facebook posts.

Why we’re doing the Pacific Crest Trail

March 18th was the first day we started. I decided to do the trail because I enjoy being outdoors and wanted to challenge myself and commit to something that can be very difficult/scary at times. I wanted to learn about myself and push some of my limits. Also, it seemed like a fun way to spend 5-6 months! Michael says he always thought it seemed like a real adventure and it would be a nice way to begin a new chapter in his life after getting out of the army.

March 18

First day on the Pacific Crest Trail complete!

March 26

Made it to 100 miles on the PCT! Only 2550 more to go! So far we’ve hiked through sun, snow, sleet, wind, and rain. I got sick w a fever one night. We’ve slept on the floor of a restaurant during the storms and have stayed one night in a hotel. We did our first hitchhike to Julian, CA, and back to the trail. Excited for what’s next!

April 6

We’ve made it 200 miles on the PCT! We ended up taking 2 zero days in idyllwild (~mile 151) and decided to flip up to tehachapi (~mile 566.5) and hike south bound to avoid some of the snow. So we hitchhiked to Banning, CA, took a greyhound bus to LA, then got on a train to Lancaster CA, and finally took another bus to the trail head. The 3rd day hiking south, we got stuck in high winds (35mph+) so we sat in our tents the whole day to wait them out. We hiked the LA aqueduct section of the trail which was a flat 24 mile day and made it to Hikertown!