PCT & Thru-Hiking
Our most daring, life-changing adventure, attempting to thru-hike and chase endless horizons through the Pacific Crest Trail
This is the Pacific Crest Trail & thru-hiking
The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) spans from the US Mexican Border and all the 4,265 km/2,650 miles up to the US Canadian Border. As mentioned earlier, we will be crossing through 3 entire states (California, Oregon and Washington), 7 National Parks and 22 National Forests. To put it into perspective. That is almost 400 km/250 miles longer than walking all the way from Trondheim in northern Norway to Gibraltar in the southernmost part of mainland Spain (that is almost from one end of Europe to the other). Not weird, it is called a long-distance hike and typically takes 4-5 months to complete then, eh? When you hike a long-distance trail like the PCT, from one end to the other in one continuous trip over several months, it is called a thru-hike. Note: should you come across some words you don’t know, we have made this Glossary explaining and elaborating terms that might not be known by all. Thru-hiking is known as a more extreme form of hiking due to the immersive challenge and experience it usually is for the hikers embarking on such an adventure. Not to forget, it demands A LOT of research and preparation both mentally, physically and practically to endure such a project. Luckily for us, we absolutely love every part of it.
Not pretending that being at the starting point at the US Mexican Border in Spring 2026 won’t beat everything leading up to it – by far! Still completely surreal to think about!
No BIG why – just the perfect combination of things
Going on a thru-hike attempt like the PCT can have many reasons and outcomes. Like pretty much anything else, it is an entirely individual experience, where people can have clear subjective reasons to give it a try or no reasons at all. We are probably somewhere in between. As we sat there on the couch with a glass of red wine in our living room, on a cold October evening in 2022 in Denmark, randomly stumbling across our first Pacific Crest Trail documentary, multiple things lit the fire and desire within us to chase that experience ourselves.
The great outdoors
Quite obviously the aesthetically pleasing nature along the trail is completely mesmerizing. The long and big harsh desert, lush forests and wilderness, massive stunning mountains and rivers all to us seems like a dream. Not one bit of the trail looks dull (and yes, we are well aware that we might end up “hating” everything looking desert alike, burned sections from wildfires or moist forest areas filled with mosquitoes – that’s a part of the experience too). It shouldn’t come as a surprise, but we without any doubt can be our best, most authentic and chilled selves when in the outdoors. Being in nature is a place of peace and comfort no matter what it entails. Going on this specific thru-hike will give us the chance to immerse ourselves in diverse and spectacular nature like never before. Living the simple way of life in the great outdoors for almost half a year. One big fat yes to that!
Personal challenge
Nature leads to the next big thing getting us keen on the idea of thru-hiking across America: challenging ourselves. If you have read the About Us page, you know that getting out of our comfort zone, trying new things and continuously challenging ourselves, is a huge part of who we both are. For example Benjamin has always had a tough time with being under water and especially the ocean, Ditte on the other hand has always had trouble with heights – our way of handling that you wonder? Prior to meeting each other, and funny enough we both did it solo without the support of others, Benjamin took a PADI Open Water Diving Course and Ditte signed up for a Skydiving Solo Course. We both succeeded and have had multiple dives and solo jumps since then. When we say that we don’t shy away from chances to grow, challenge and develop personally – we more accurately could say that we run towards opportunities to do so. The PCT and everything it entails will absolutely push us both in ways we haven’t tried before; both physically and mentally. Well, no pain, no gain or something corny like that.
The people
Last but not least important. This is maybe even our biggest drive to go through with this big, sometimes overwhelming project and experience. Meeting new and awesome people along the way. Watching countless hours of other’s documentaries and videos from PCT, we can’t help ourselves sitting there talking about how we wish we could meet someone like these and these people, when it is our turn to go on this awesome, bold adventure.
We keep dreaming of the people we’ll meet and walk the journey alongside with. The fun stories and experiences we will share with them – all from cold lake swims, swearing at the dessert, laughing at insider jokes or how much we smell to sitting in awe, silently watching the sun set or being overly ecstatic over a big greasy burger in town. Thinking about getting our very first Trail Names and hopefully life-long friendships with whomever our Trail Family is to be made of, honestly feels really nice.
Trail angels and way of PCT
And then of course the chance to meet some amazing Trail Angels. These are totally normal people of all ages and genders, going out of their way to help hikers on the Pacific Crest Trail. With everything from snacks, pop-up BBQ, cold drinks or just much needed water to giving hikers a place to stay for the night or hitches to the nearest town. They do so much for hikers on the trail – and the most inspiring thing about it is; they do it all in their own free time and expect nothing in return. Just pure generosity, love and awesomeness from regular people who help out strangers.
That somehow explains how we see the way of PCT. It is a community where everybody has each other’s backs, treating people and nature with kindness, humility and respect. It is a place where material and egotistical tendencies are left behind at the starting point, and everybody gives in to a simpler, more joyful way of life, the way of PCT.
To sum it up we don’t really have a big why or reason to attempt hiking the PCT. For us it is a lot of reasons and mainly the experiences along the way. We are eager to live that way of life – as this thru-hike seemingly entails what we appreciate the most in our way of life. The Pacific Crest Trail is the perfect combination of things, thus it is a golden opportunity to do the things we love, all the while meeting like-minded people while doing so. What’s not to like?
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The first part of any thru-hike: information gathering and planning
The practical part is important
Other than watching a lot of different videos and documentaries about the trail, others experiences, gear choices etc. We have been researching so many sites that it would not make sense to try and name them all. Therefore, we will point out the two we have used the most: PCTA and HalfwayAnywhere. One is the official site of the Pacific Crest Trail Association where you can find official information about the PCT, trail maintenance, maps, permits and so much more handy and necessary information to look into. The other is a comprehensive and well-worked out site, where you can find big scale surveys from former hikers and guides to gear based on gathered information. This site has helped us tremendously with finding just the right gear – although we still searched for others’ inputs, reviews and so on. Interested in knowing more about our gear experiences, you can read more by going to All Gear Posts.
To our knowledge at least, there is not really any one place to find information about what to bring and not to bring on trail in regard to electronics and more content related gear. We have had to gather our knowledge and make our decisions based on many hours researching different sites, reviews and videos. Therefore, we have tried to make our version of a collection and information-base on Content, with for example useful blog posts about related topics, such as Electronics & Stuff to bring on the PCT, when hiking, traveling or diving in general. On Gear List & Review we’ve even made several PDF-files to download with activity specific content related gear lists, rather handy right?
We have decided to try out our gear in different surroundings and conditions beforehand. Honestly, we just know that we would rather know that we f’ed up with some of our gear choices on a two-week trip to southern Europe than on the actual trail. To the sharp reader, you noticed right, all pictures on this post are from our three-week trip hiking and driving through Switzerland, France, Liechtenstein and Austria.
Not fun but necessary
In a fairytale world it wouldn’t be necessary but in this real world you also have to save up some money and plan to pause or cut some ties in your everyday life. For the average hiker it costs about 8,500 EUR/10,000 USD with everything included to do the PCT. As we say in Denmark, if you are not born with a golden spoon in your butt, then you’ll have to take your time to save up. We have taken our fair bit of time to save up, as we haven’t been on standby with other travels and experiences these past years. The cause of that is also due to having to finish both our studies (which we did in first half of 2024), getting everything figured out and planned to leave our lives in Denmark behind and start our new way of life: Chasing Endless Horizons. Therefore, it hasn’t been possible or made sense to us to go before Spring 2026 – although it has been extremely tough to wait and we have often looked at each other questioning whether to just go and say f*** it all!
If you want to know more about where we’ve been or activities we’ve done, you can look around on these pages.
It varies a lot, for some (like us) it takes years to plan and be able to do it, while others do it more spontaneously. Just to say that there is no “right way” or “wrong way”, you’ll find our own and that is exactly what the spirit of PCT seems to be about. Finding your own way of doing it.
But what now?
Obviously we haven’t truly begun the journey of attempting to thru-hike the PCT yet. So this is all done and written before having had the actual experience. As soon as we have embarked on this epic adventure, we will update this site and maybe use some of this text for some blog posts instead. Or we might keep all of it. We don’t know yet. All we know is that we are more excited than words can describe, and can’t wait to share this project and adventure with you guys! No matter how it turns out to be.
Until then you can follow along all the other amazing and cool things we are up to. Maybe take a look at our different SoMe channels or the projects we’ve already done or are currently doing?
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