Kristi’s PCT Highlights

This latest section began in Etna, CA with our neighbors Pat & Carl. Etna is a 50min drive from the California-Oregon border. It took us 6 days on the trail These final miles of California were stunning. We walked through more burn areas but we also walked interesting ridges, beautiful forests, and fields of wildflowers.

It’s been two weeks after ending our 2023 Pacific Crest Trail journey and I am still processing what I learned and how I’m feeling. The five months of walking were absolutely wonderful, but were layered with a lot of happiness, pain, realizations, and moments of joy. I was surprised by the complex feelings I had…

beavertail prickly pear by Jeremysea on Sketchfab For the past week Kristi and I have seen over a hundred of these beautiful cacti in full bloom. The Beavertail prickly pear cactus, scientifically known as Opuntia basilaris, is a species of cactus native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. It is a member of…

After leaving the trail at Walker Pass (trail mile 650), we rejoined 285 miles NW at Donner Pass near Truckee, CA (500 trail miles north). We spent a couple of days on the snow, found more familiar trees and lots of mosquitoes Here is a short video from the trail https://youtu.be/2lWzL_s7Uvw

When researching the PCT there wasn’t much said online about the section in Oregon. Once we started getting within a couple hundred miles of the state, most of the talk was that Oregon is “flat & fast” – almost like a brief buffer between the spectacular scenery of Northern California and Washington. There’s even an…