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PCT

Crossing Paths: A Pacific Crest Trailside Reader

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Edited by Rees Hughes and Howard Shapiro. Illustrations by Amy Uyeki

All proceeds go to the PCT Association

This is the 3rd book in the PCT Trailside Readers. All three are collections of stories from people who have hiked the PCT with a few stories from history along the trail in the earlier editions.

Rees and Howard are my two backpacking buddies who I have hiked with for over 40 years…we know each other. We recently hiked in Vermont on a section of the Long Trail. Here is a glimpse into that trip if you are interested.

my backpacking community

We hiked the PCT as section hikers starting in 1981. I have about 1800+ miles completed and Rees and Howard have both finished all 2650 miles.

I loved the first two trailside readers but I have to say there is something about the stories in this one that really stuck with me.

There is a story about a father and daughter who hike the trail and how their love of the trail developed over time. A wonderful story about a guy who would hold cello concerts along the way by having people deliver his cello to his next food pick up spot. His favorite was the night he played at Timberline Lodge at Mt. Hood…it must have been magical.

Plus a story from Rees who talks about our time on the trail over 40 years and how we had met a trio of “old men in their 60’s” in 1981 and we all said to each other after they left, “we want to be those guys.” And we are.

If you love hiking, you’ll love this book for sure as it is filled with short 2-5 pages stories of people’s experiences along this beautiful, sometimes scary, always memory filled trail

 

Journey on the Crest: Walking 2600 Miles from Mexico to Canada

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By Cindy Ross

I hiked the Washington section of the PCT in 1981 for 400 miles and was “hooked” on long-distance hiking. Since then I have completed about 1800 miles of the trail by doing sections of 110-200 miles at a time. Cindy hiked the trail from Mexico to Oregon in 1982 and then finished it in 1984.

She did a great job at describing the feelings and emotions, and the physical parts of hiking long distance. I loved it. I also enjoyed that I had hiked much of the trail over the years and could clearly picture where she was most of the time. In particular I enjoyed the Oregon and Washington sections for some reason. Maybe because I did those early on and the reminiscing was great. Maybe because we were hiking both around the same time period as well.

If you are a long-distance hiker, you will enjoy this book with the various characters who walk the PCT with Cindy.

On Trails: An Exploration. By Robert Moor

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My good friend and backpacking buddy, Howard, sent me this book right before he clicked off another couple hundred miles of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). I finished it shortly after he got off the trail and we were able to talk about “trails”.

I truly enjoyed this book, written by a person who has obviously done some long-distance backpacking. Having around 1500+ miles of the PCT completed, mostly in 110-125 mile segments, but also one 200 mile stretch, and the original 400-mile backpack. He talks about the ‘meditation of the trail’ which truly resonates with me. I find it so cleansing to walk 100+ miles. I never feel more like myself than on the trail. All the clutter of the world is reduced to walking 15 miles/day, sleeping, eating, repeat.

But this book is more about the trail than the hike. He talks about the trail as following something. That trail was made to go somewhere and if you are on it, you are going where that trail maker wants you to go. His thoughts are developed by hiking the Appalachian Trail (AT) and he talks about the community that builds with other long distance hikers. He expected loneliness but found community. Then struggles with the feeling of “freedom” you’d expect with the fact there is no freedom, if you are following a trail that does not give you choices 🙂  Gotta love this guy. A bit of Motorcycle Maintenance in here.

I was fascinated thinking about the fact that many roads we drive on were originally Native American trails that became a horse and buggy trail, then a road for a car. So even when I am driving now, I think of the past and what this “trail” was used for 300 years ago.

Much of this book explores why the AT still ends at Baxter State Park’s Mt. Katahdin, and why the International Appalachian Trail (IAT) heads from there up to Canada AND across to Morocco! Yes, Morocco! Very interesting indeed.

This is a wonderful book for backpackers to read and other to possibly understand us. Have a dictionary nearby, Robert’s vocabulary is inspiring.

PCT - Mt Whitney
Howard, Rees, and I on top of Mt Whitney at the end of a 200 mile backpacking trip in 2012