Would you do another thru-hike? If yes, which trail is next?

Absolutely! It depends on permits, but either the Wonderland Trail or Colorado Trail this summer. I also have my sights set on the rest of the Triple Crown at some point.

What do you wish you had done differently?

I wish I stressed less in the Sierra. There was so much beauty around me, but I found myself worrying about the next pass, or the next sketchy snow patch or river crossing a lot. And even though I loved my Guthook’s app, I wish I checked it a little less and let there be a little more mystery in the day.

What do you miss the most?

I miss the feeling of working towards a tangible goal every single day. There’s always the next water source to get to, the next campsite, the next town… and finally, Canada. I don’t really have that anymore in my “regular” life, and especially with the trail to look back on, I feel lost a lot of the time now because I don’t really have anything I’m working towards, except my next hike. I also miss waking up early and walking in the silence, and then hearing the birds start chirping and watching the sun rise. Those were some of my favorite moments of the day, and I just don’t get that in regular life.

And, bring a hobby along with you, something that makes your thru-hike personal and enjoyable. Like reading books? Bring a kindle or a paperback. Love photography? Take the weight penalty and bring your DSLR camera. Bring your ukulele if it makes you happy and inspires you. You won’t regret bringing a small piece of your hobby along with you on the trail, even if it means adding a pound to your pack. If you end up never using it, you can always send it home.

Thru-hiking also means community. There aren’t that many people who yearn to thru-hike, and there are even less who have completed thru-hikes. Even if I’ve never met the person before, knowing that they have completed a thru-hike, or are thru-hiking, makes me feel more connected to them. We could have had completely different hikes, in different years, and under different circumstances, but we probably suffered through some of the same stuff, cried out of happiness and frustration, and craved an ice cold drink on a blistering hot day. And it can be hard to convey these feelings and experiences to someone who hasn’t thru-hiked. But when you’re with a thru-hiker, you know that they get it. And in a way, that feels like home.

What was your favorite feature in our app?

I have a love/hate relationship with the elevation profile feature. I like to have an idea of how big a climb is going to be, but I hate when I check mid-way through the climb and I haven’t gone as far as I’d thought! The feature I unequivocally love though is the comments. Not only are they useful, but they can also be really funny, which makes me love my fellow thru-hikers even more!

Why did you decide to go on a thru-hike in the first place?

I really craved the adventure of it, and the personal accomplishment. I was definitely lost after college, even though I had “done everything right”, and I felt really unaccomplished and had no idea what I was going to do next. I thought doing this thru-hike would help clarify some things in my life, and also satisfy my craving for being outside. My hike didn’t really give me any answers about what I want to be when I grow up, and it left me wanting more backpacking and wilderness, so it didn’t exactly help with my initial “problems”. But, hiking the PCT definitely restored my confidence in myself, and I do feel a great sense of accomplishment in completing it.

Did you hike solo or with other people?

I hiked with people I met on the trail for the first half, then did the second half solo!

I had to think a little bit about my least favorite section, but I think it was NorCal. There was a lot of beauty in NorCal, so I kind of hate saying that, but with how hot the days were, all of the smoke I had to endure, getting Norovirus, and how lonely I felt after losing my trail family, it was definitely a rough patch for me.

How many pairs of shoes did you go through?

4

Was there a highlight of your hike?

I wouldn’t say there was one specific highlight. There were just these moments where everything felt right and I realized how lucky I was to be able to do this. That I was privileged enough that not working didn’t matter, that my family was 100% supportive of me, that I had my health and a functioning body to be able to hike 20 miles a day, that there are people like me who value wide-open spaces and had the foresight to protect them. Usually these moments happened when I was standing at the top of a climb, looking at a stunning view. The top of Mt. Whitney, walking past South Sister, at the Northern Terminus. I just felt so lucky.

What was the scariest part of your hike?

I fell coming down Mather Pass while off-trail scrambling around the lingering snow patches. That was probably the scariest part, because I got really close to the edge of a drop-off. I had to regain my breath and stop myself from shaking before walking again!

Want to keep up with all that’s going on at Atlas Guides? Sign up for our newsletter!

I pulled myself up to a sitting position and tried to collect myself.  The owner had fished out some rubber gloves and was applying gauze to my cut forehead.  I took inventory. My shoulder burned. I must have hit it against the wall when I fell. My right knee felt jammed and it was hard to move.  I must have collapsed on my knee, and then fell to my right side banging my shoulder against the wall, and then hit my head either on the wall or the floor.

After collecting my tacos, I tried to make my way back to my room.  I was in South Lake Tahoe, 1094 miles into the PCT taking a zero and doing a resupply.  I had been solo hiking for most of the trail so far, but luckily my girlfriend had come out for a couple of weeks to hike with me, and we were staying just across the street.

I took a couple steps and stopped.  “Crap,” I thought. “My leg is really jacked up.”  I could barely walk a few steps. For the last 1000 miles I had been nursing an old plantar fasciitis in my left foot.  After all that, my right leg (my good leg) was completely messed up as well. I still had over 1500 hundred miles to go. It took me a good 10 minutes to hobble back to my room.

To that end I worked with my girlfriend to create the Ultimate Hiking Challenge. This is an attempt to help people get outside and experience the healing effects of nature that we have had in our lives.  Challengers can commit to hike 100, 250, 500 or 1000 miles in a year and to see the change it makes in their lives. You can register for free on our site.

Want to keep up with all that’s going on at Atlas Guides? Sign up for our newsletter!

My book, Thirst: 2600 Miles to Home, isn’t a play by play of a Pacific Crest Trail thru-hike. It’s about how the 1% of time spent on the trail opened me up to myself. The stories I never thought were worth sharing have become a way for me to connect with others through shared experiences. We are on a journey together, even when we’re not on the same path.

Autographed copies of Thirst: 2600 Miles to Home can be purchased from https://squareup.com/store/Anishhikes . Unsigned copies are available from Mountaineers Books. More order info is available on Anish’s website: anishhikes.wordpress.com.

Want to keep up with all that’s going on at Atlas Guides? Sign up for our newsletter!

What was one thing you wish you knew before you started?

If bluntness is necessary, I wish I had even an inkling on how the trail was going to change me. Right out of college I landed a comfy 6-figure job running logistics on biohazard materials being shipped via UPS. Who could complain about a job that paid off one’s student debt within months, setting a 22 year old on a path to do whatever he pleased? Even after buying all the toys I could ask for, doing whatever I could to remain forever young, I felt dead inside. Friends used to joke around that I was the “grandpa of the group” (I guess the khakis and cardigans didn’t do justice in my defense.). One more job change, yet the same feeling, I moved out west with relatives for a change in scenery.

What was your favorite food on the trail?

One dish I hope never leaves my palate’s memory was this curry a hiker had made for the congregation at BudPharm, home to the trail angel “Reverend Dave” just outside of Wrightwood, CA. Recently from Alaska, a 6’ 11” gentleman by the name “Penguin Pants” was already wowing the crowd with his mere presence. Having spent the last few days helping Reverend Dave cater to the hiker trash alongside this gentle giant, we had made a decision to cook for everyone instead of the usual potluck as was routine at the house.

As if the remarkable artistry and pure awe in stature wasn’t enough, I bared witness to his cooking utensils: a 6 pound cast iron skillet and lid, with quite a canister of fuel and an impressive selection of spices. I’m honored to have met this walking soul and was stricken with sadness as we set off on our own in Kennedy Meadows as I set off to blitz through the Sierras and he was more than willing to fish every lake possible along the way.

What advice would you give to someone who has never done a thru-hike before?

Never quit on a bad day. After a foggy and drenched climb over Mt. Baden-Powell, I lost sight on why I was hiking the PCT again. Doing the desert all over seemed stupid and a waste of my time. Once I reached the beginning of the endangered frog detour, I threw a thumb up and headed straight back to Wrightwood. It was a bad, bad day. After talking to a hiker who was on the verge of quitting herself, we both came to realize it was “just a bad, bad day.” The bigger thought was “What difference was this bad day from any other bad day?”

It came down to the demand on the hike when there’s always things that we won’t have control over. There’s going to be crappy weather and views just may not be what you expected. With nearly 8 billion people in the world, there’s bound to be unwelcoming individuals, but that’s no excuse to give up on your hike. The Pursuit of Happiness; that is yours and for you to hold dearly. Never quit on a bad day.

What was your favorite feature in our app?

I loved the simplicity as well as the ability to comment on landmarks along the way. I even appreciate the several “alternatives” and even a few Mark’s on old sections of the trail. I think it’s pretty cool to see even the physical history of the trail, eyeing out the routes and getting a feel of what hikers experienced years ago. Guthooks is like a biography being written as it’s lived!

Photo by Alec Santiago

Want to keep up with all that’s going on at Atlas Guides? Sign up for our newsletter!

What was one thing you wish you knew before you started hiking?

I wish I knew I didn’t have to spend so much time trying to plan my hike. Granted, it’s important to plan things like applying for a long-distance hiking permit through the PCTA to get your official start date, putting together some sort of resupply strategy, knowing the gear you want to take and practice using it before getting on trail and making sure life logistics are figured out before starting your hike. When I planned my first thru-hike on the PCT for 2018, I tried to plan EVERYTHING. It’s impossible to plan every single step of a thru-hike. It’s impossible to know how your body will react to all the daily hiking. It’s impossible to know what kind of weather you’ll hike in. It’s impossible to know how hungry you’ll be, what you’ll want to eat and even what towns you’ll want to stop in. The thing with thru-hiking is plans are always changing. So don’t get hung up and waste a lot of time trying to plan your thru-hike. Have a “loose” plan, but be flexible and don’t be afraid to go with the flow. The best things that happen on trail are always the things you don’t plan.

3. Chicken Alfredo Penne Pasta at Mono Hot Springs, a short five mile hitch from VVR in the High Sierra, across Lake Edison.

4. The home cooked meal prepared for Grit and me by a couple members of our trail family at a campsite in Mammoth.

5. Filet mignon with garlic mashed potatoes and broccolini at the Bar of America Restaurant in Truckee.

If I had to pick my favorite hiker food on trail, it would either be pork flavored Top Ramen or the Mountain House Chili Mac dehydrated meals. I saved the Mountain House meals for days when I needed a morale boost on trail, which was pretty much all of Washington from White Pass to Canada.

What advice would you give to someone who has never done a thru-hike before?

I have three pieces of advice for anyone new to thru-hiking. First, take each day, one mile and one step at a time. Instead of looking at hiking the PCT as a big daunting task of hiking 2,650 miles in five months, look at the trip as multiple, mini-backpacking trips where you’ll go into town to resupply for the next section (or trip) every three to five days. Second, open yourself to believing something magical will happen every single day you’re on trail. When you believe the trail will provide, it will. And third, don’t ever quit on a bad day. Not every day is going to be sunshine and ridgeline views. There are going to be plenty of days that suck out there. Know those bad days will pass and they’ll only make you stronger.

What does thru-hiking mean to you?

What a lot of people don’t realize about thru-hiking the PCT is it’s less of a hike and more of a lifestyle. You either love thru-hiking or you don’t and you usually know within the first 100 miles. Hiking is only one part of the PCT. Thru-hiking the PCT is about adapting to a nomadic lifestyle where you rarely sleep in the same place twice. Weather and water sources dictate how you spend your days on trail. There’s no worry about running off to the next appointment or trying to get to work on time. You eat, hike, eat, sleep and repeat. Make the time to take pictures, build relationships with other hikers, take breaks when you’re tired, eat when you’re hungry and stop to smell the wildflowers. There’s always something new to see and no one day is ever the same.

Would you do another thru-hike? If yes, which trail is next?

Yes, in a heartbeat! In 2018, I left to hike the Pacific Crest Trail by myself, for myself. In 2019, I’m coming back to hike the Pacific Crest Trail AGAIN, not only to cover the 770+ miles I missed in 2018, but also for love – my love for the trail and with the love I met while hiking the first 700 miles of the trail last year. This is why on April 11, 2019, I’m coming back to hike the PCT all over again, Round Two, with my boyfriend, Bleeder, my love I met on trail last year.

Putting all of the hard parts aside, the easiest part of my thru-hike was knowing I was exactly where I needed to be and doing what exactly I needed to do – hiking my way towards Canada. There was nothing else I’d rather be doing, even on my hardest days out on trail.

What do you wish you had done differently?

This is a hard question to answer because had I done anything differently, I would’ve had different experiences along my hike. I’m happy with how my adventure turned out in 2018. I honestly wouldn’t change a thing.

There are a few things I’ll be doing differently for my thru-hike this year. First, I’m starting my hike two weeks earlier than I did last year. Secondly, I’m not solo hiking this year. I’ll be hiking with my boyfriend whom I met on trail in 2018. As for resupplying, I’m only sending myself four resupply boxes on the entire trail, with the first one being in Oregon. For the rest of the way, I’ll be resupplying in town as I go. I’ll be skipping the Bounce Box all together this year. As for gear, I made a couple swaps like using a different inflatable sleeping pad and opting for a lighter trowel. Other than that, I’ll be using all of my same gear I used in 2018 for my hike this year in 2019. I think my biggest change for 2019 will be setting my alarm earlier so I can get an earlier start hiking for the day and watching more sunrises on trail.

What was your favorite feature in our app?

Having the Guthook app on trail was a godsend. I used Guthook every single day. Guthook kept me from getting lost. It told me where my next water source would be. It gave me a heads up on tent sites. It even told me how big or small my climbs and descents were for each day. Guthook was instrumental in planning my town stops. My favorite feature on the Guthook app though were the comments left by other hikers on all the waypoints – water sources, camping, roads and towns. Through the comments, I was able to discover things I might have otherwise missed like the epic lunch I had at Packer Lake Lodge. The comments were vital in getting detailed information on upcoming trail closures and fire reroutes. The comments were also at times incredibly entertaining and helped keep spirits high in tough sections.

What was the one thing you had to have with you while you hiked?

A positive attitude. Gummy bears, blue powdered Gatorade and music were a close tie for second place.

Why did you decide to go on a thru-hike in the first place?

My original answer was always, “Why not?” Hiking the PCT had been a huge dream of mine for a few years. As soon as I discovered that there was a trail you could hike from Mexico to Canada, I became obsessed with the idea of doing it. Now that I’ve hiked the PCT and want to come back for a second time, people think I’m really crazy and want to know why. My “whys” for coming back for Round Two in 2019 are: (1) See the sections I missed the first time around, about 770+ miles, (2) To thru-hike the entire trail with my boyfriend, Bleeder, (3) Hike the High Sierra again since it was my favorite section of the entire PCT, and (4) because I’m addicted to the thru-hiking, Hiker Trash lifestyle. I’d much rather be dirty, tired and forced out of my comfort zone every day than stuck working inside behind a desk at a job I don’t like.

I would have to finally face one of my biggest fears on trail: sleeping outside by myself for the first time in my life. I’d also have to ford scary rivers by myself and deal with being eaten alive by bugs on a daily basis.

Fears aside, as soon as I hiked over Kearsarge Pass, I was overwhelmed with the incredible beauty of the High Sierra. The High Sierra had some of the most beautiful landscapes I’d ever seen in my life. Hiking the High Sierra by myself was the scariest thing I’ve ever done in my life. It was also the most rewarding. I learned a lot about myself over those 200+ miles. I came out of that section a much stronger person and knew I could do ANYTHING I put my mind to.

Did you ever reach a point where you wanted to quit? How did you stay motivated to finish?

Honestly never. Even on my hardest days, and I had three REALLY tough days, I never considered quitting. On my toughest days, I knew deep in my heart there was nowhere else I’d rather be or nothing else I’d rather be doing than thru-hiking the PCT. On a normal trail day, spending time with members of my trail family, watching the sunrise/sunset, eating gummy bears for breakfast/lunch/dinner, drinking powered blue Gatorade, being wowed by Mother Nature with incredible scenery, getting to the top of a tough climb or knowing I was mere days from a Town Stop with a warm shower, fresh load of laundry, a delicious meal and possibly a warm hotel bed would be enough to motivate me to keep hiking.

Here is what motivated me to get through my three hardest days on the PCT:

Mount Whitney/Going into Lone Pine via the Whitney Portal – The view from the top of Mount Whitney was amazing, but getting up there and getting off of the mountain was incredibly challenging for me. I had two melt downs that day – one when we got to the top of Whitney and one when we were only two miles down the Portal and realized we had another five miles to get to the trailhead. The ONLY thing that got me down the Whitney Portal was planning the dinner I’d have later that night at McDonalds in Lone Pine. I had a Big Mac, two cheeseburgers, large order of fries, a 6-piece chicken nugget and an apple pie. McD’s to the rescue!

Goat Rocks to White Pass Reroute – First, the highly anticipated Goat Rocks section was socked in with thick fog by the time I got there and had to hike through. I could barely see a few feet in front of me, let alone the sheer drop down on either side as I hiked across the snow field and alongside and down the mountain.

Then there was the reroute we had to take after Goat Rocks into White Pass because of the nearby wildfires. The thing about a reroute is no one knows exactly how many miles they are, what the elevation gain/loss is and where the water sources and tent sites are. You’re at the mercy of the maps posted on trail signs and word of mouth from hikers traveling southbound. At this point, you simply hope for the best and keep hiking.

This reroute was tough – the trail was thin and crumbly in places, there were a lot of steep climbs, it was long, there weren’t a whole lot of water sources, there weren’t a lot of other hikers and there was a big river I had to cross two miles from the highway and I fell in as I was doing it leaving me wet and cold. If that wasn’t bad enough, I ended up getting to the highway long after dark, making a hitch into White Pass near impossible. The only thing that motivated me to keep going through this tough section was getting to White Pass for a warm shower and a safe place to sleep. I had also run out of water a mile from the highway.

Just as the tears start flowing down my cheeks and I was thinking of giving up and preparing to set up my tent on the trail a few feet below the highway, a section hiker sitting in his van saw my headlamp. He asked if I was a thru-hiker and then offered me a ride up the highway to White Pass. From there, I was able to rent a warm room at The Village Inn for the night and got my warm shower and safe place to sleep.

Want to keep up with all that’s going on at Atlas Guides? Sign up for our newsletter!