Exactly eight years ago, John and I reached the southern terminus of the Pacific Crest Trail. During this nearly 2,600-mile journey, John carried a custom GPS device to record, step by step, the location of the trail for a project called the “half-mile project.” Today I went to my Forest Measurements class at Duke University where I am working hard to get my Masters in Forestry and learned how to collect GPS data in the field to create maps. Who knew I would learn this stuff formally in grad school?
In the eight years since we completed the trail, the GPS track that John and others collected along the Pacific Crest Trail in 2014 has now been used to create the official National Geographic maps of the Pacific Crest Trail. Canada to Mexico. In the meantime, some of my writing from our hike is now in a book called Crossing Paths: A Pacific Crest Trailside Reader, published to raise money for the PCTA.
After completing the PCT, we became hiking guides and gear testers. My blog and social media accounts received enough of a following that we were sponsored on subsequent hikes and had companies asking to try their gear. Most recently, Kuhl contacted us to try out some of their hiking pants, which we thought was worth putting a link on our blog to receive free gear. I never bought pants online because they never fit me, but I was shocked when the pair that arrived actually fit me and seemed pretty durable. So if you are interested, here is the link. John was also impressed with the ones he ordered, so here is the link to those as well.
So here I am, in my new hiking pants, I wish I had these sooner because they would have been useful for the field work I did with the USFS over the summer. Graduate school is no joke and I finally feel like I see the light at the end of the tunnel. I am ready to find a job in the Asheville area when I graduate in a little over six months. Meanwhile, John works as an environmental consultant in Durham and hopes to bring his work back to Asheville when we return. He also works with local trail maintainers to assist with the Mountains to Sea Trail which runs the length of North Carolina and through the Durham area. He adopted a section of trail and volunteered on other sections of trail with local crews. Next weekend we will both become certified chainsaws (provided it doesn’t rain during the class).
I certainly wouldn’t have imagined that we would end up eight years after hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. Guess what we’ll be doing in the eight years after college? I can’t wait to find out!
