2018 - Canada or Bust!!!!

Okay, here we go again.  I’m now 5 days away from flying back out west to hopefully (fingers crossed) finish hiking the Pacific Crest Trail.  To catch those of you up who might be new to all of this long distance hiking stuff, this will be my 3rd long distance hike on the Pacific Crest Trail.  After thruhiking the Appalachian Trail in 2005, I made a run at trying to hike the entire PCT in 2008.  That hike was cut short due to injury after just short of 700 miles.  It took me 8 very long years to get back out west and in 2016 I was fortunate enough to hike over 1000 more miles and accomplish my goal of finishing the state of California bringing my distance on this trail to just over 1700 miles hiked.  Even as I was finishing that hike I already had an end game in mind for this year: 2018.  

Somehow life has not gotten in the way this time (though it has tried), and I am about to embark on hopefully my final LASH (Long Ass Section Hike).  I will be flying into California on July 1st and cleaning up a couple cheat spots from the last hike, and then will be making my way to Ashland, Oregon where I will head north by means of my own feet around July 7th in an attempt to walk into Canada.  

Finishing this trail is the primary goal that matters above all no matter how long it takes, however there is one very cool aspect of finishing this year which I guess would be my secondary goal.  I have set a tentative itinerary that would hopefully put me at the US/Canadian border on September 4th.  This would mean I would be finishing the Pacific Crest Trail on my 40th birthday.  I thought about keeping this secondary goal to myself, but figured that if it was something I legitimately wanted to accomplish, I would like to share it with my friends and family so you know what I am aiming for.  

Hiking itineraries though are basically worthless.  Injury, weather, forest fires, finances, and family all take their toll on what you PLAN to do.  I will be stepping on trail outside of Ashland hoping for the best, but at that time I will just need to take each day one at a time and see how everything goes.  If I am within range of hitting my birthday come the 3rd week of August, I will try to plan the last couple weeks accordingly, but one way or another, one day or another, the main goal is to finish this year and I will do everything in my power to get there. 

I want to thank you in advance for following along if you choose to do so.  This has been a long time coming and something I have thought about every single day since 2008.  This IS my full bucket list right now.  I appreciate all the support I have already been offered.  All of you rock!!!!

Thanks again!!!

- Patch (Todd)

PS  - For those of you asking about possible maildrop locations, those will be up in the next 24-48 hours as a separate post on this blog