Pacific Crest Trail 2025

Pacific Crest Trail - PCT- 2025

It's been a dream of mine to hike the PCT since we first visited Yosemite and Lake Tahoe when I was 8 years old.

When Outside magazine ran a competition for someone to win the chance to hike the PCT and tell their story along the way, I knew I had to apply...

...and now, a year later, here we are and I couldn't be more excited to start!

At 4,265 km long, the PCT runs from Mexico to Canada through California, Oregon, and Washington. Always up for a challenge, my aim is to complete it in 100 days - and yes, that is a marathon a day for 100 days!

This adventure, like life, is all about the journey - and journeys are about the people you meet and the person you become along the way. It's the friends and memories you make in the process that make it so special.

I can't wait to see what's in store and take you with me, every step of the way!

Click here to read about my clothing

I've written two guides on what I'm lucky enough to be taking with me on the PCT:

Click here to read about my gear and equipment

🇺🇸 Day 3 - 46 km - 24.05.25 🥾 I knew I’d already pitched my tent on worst and most lopsided slope, but then it was also the windiest night in the world and my tent blew down like twice, and I had to go rock hunting at 3am to weigh down the corners. I’d made good ground the last few days so decided to treat myself to a trip into Julian which is a trail town famous for pies. It was my first hitch-hike of the trip and I was super lucky and the kindest man Casey picked me up. Such a legend and we went for breakfast before I got my free slice of PCT apple pie and also had my first ice cream of the trip - big day. Resupplied at the grocery store, which in reality meant spending $50 on cereal bars (ever since seeing the price of cable cars I’ve realised monopoly’s really are the way to go), and then hitched back to the trail. It was a very long, very hot, very uphill, very exposed, very windy desert section which was actually quite intense. It was barren all day with only cactus’s around, but then the last 8km the trail crossed over to the other side of the mountain, and it was so peaceful and green again with another amazing golden hour. Tonight I’m camping at a campsite with the loudest frogs in the world 🐸

🇺🇸 Day 2 - 55 km - 23.05.25 🥾 Today I felt very small because the scenery was all so big, and the route basically meant walking along the side of a gigantic cliff all day. It was super hot, and I sort of needed more water but the only resupply tank was bright lime green and very mouldy, and so I filled up but prayed I wouldn’t need it. It was the most amazing golden hour as I skirted around a massive cliff with an incredible view of valley below. I’d already gone 50km, but had to run the last 5 km to get to camp by dark because it was quite a sketchy and rocky track on the side of a really steep slope which I didn’t really want to be on at dark, but the best bit about setting up camp at night is eating dinner under the stars which are so so bright incredible here - apparently it’s the Milky Way - I tried to take a photo, but failed miserably.

🇺🇸 Day 1 - 51km - 22.05.25 🥾 I only had half a litre of water at the start of the day, so a very tenuous stream an hour in really had to do. With no internet or instructions I had to figure out alone how my water purifying filter worked, but so far so good - I haven’t had the shits yet. I stopped for breakfast at Lake Morena, and got a great view from above with the drone but the best attraction for sure was my fry-up omelette. I walked through a campsite so stopped for a shower, which is generous term for standing under a cold tap, and largely arbitrary given how hot it is and dirty I am, but I did technically use soap. Then I came across my first snake which turned out to be a rattlesnake, but luckily I got past without it biting me. Today was my first full day, and it does got really hot here. I’d heard numbers of how hot it is in Fahrenheit, and it is obviously the desert, but I’d always ignored doing the conversion to Celsius because it felt largely academic given I had to do it anyways - but i can confirm it’s as hot if not hotter than you’d expect being next to Death Valley to be. Then I hiked through a campsite where there was a woman with a pet raven, quickly left, and pushed on to a campsite where there were coin operated showers. Whilst I did have cash this time, crucially I didn’t have coins, so went to bed gross but we move. Stay smelly kids.

🇺🇸 Day 0 - 21.05.25 🥾 And so it begins. I got dropped off at the border at 4pm, and as with New Zealand I vastly overestimated the amount of infrastructure there’d be. Annoyingly there was one border security guy though, who strongly insinuated it wasn’t a good idea to fly my drone, and getting arrested felt like an annoying hassle, so I didn’t. But it’s wild that literally any one can go to essentially a random wooden post in the middle of the desert - sort of very anti climactic, and then just start walking to Canada. So even though my permit wasn’t till tomorrow, there was no reason not to start walking, so Im calling this day 0 because that’s how ground floors work in the UK, and smashed out 18km. I quickly learnt that what I thought would be obvious or signposted water sources et al. really weren’t, especially with a sun umbrella hampering your full field of view, and I managed to go right past the first 2. I was semi-low on water, and came across a lady who weirdly had just cooked dinner but didn’t like it so gave it to me, which did help with the water problem but was also very deja vu of my first few days in NZ. There were very few flat/clear places to camp, so it got dark before I reached where I was aiming for. But luckily this time I had put up my tent before, and then went to straight to sleep.

@thenorthface gear has been a big part of all my outdoors adventures for the last few years, and I’ve loved wearing their kit since UTMB back in 2022.

This is all the clothes I’ll be starting the PCT with (plus a Rambo!). I’m excited to see how it fares on the trails over the next few months 🏔️

🏔️ I’m hiking the Pacific Crest Trail 4,500km from Mexico to Canada, through California, Washington and Oregon ❤️ follow along, it might be a laugh 🥳

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Follow my journey on Instagram @cks.ventures

@seackays

Dr Charlotte Kirk

Inspiring your adventures

Pacific Crest Trail - PCT- 2025

Click here to read about my clothing

Click here to read about my gear and equipment

Follow my journey on Instagram @cks.ventures

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Pacific Crest Trail - PCT- 2025

Click here to read about my clothing

Click here to read about my gear and equipment

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Follow my journey on Instagram @cks.ventures

Explore more:

Subscribe to hear about my adventures!