In 2021, I completed my first thru hike on the Pacific Crest Trail. At the time, I believed that was the adventure, accomplishing this once in a lifetime dream where I quit my job and lived in the woods for five months. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, or honestly that it was possible this path could go any farther.

Returning home from the PCT was tough. I thought I would feel complete, exalted that I had checked this huge adventure off my Bucket list. But I felt hollow, like I had opened myself up to something lovely, just to close the door on it. It should have been easy to go back into the world I had left only five months previously. Squeeze myself back into the box I was told I had to fill. But I no longer felt like I fit. I think I realized I had never fit. Hiking had given me a sense of purpose and fulfillment and joy that I had never found when I was trying to conform to the box.

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I realized I could stay out of that box for a little while longer and attempt the Triple Crown. A triple crown in hiking is completing a thru hike of the three big trails: the Pacific Crest Trail, the Appalachian Trail, and the Continental Divide Trail. With the PCT completed, I chose to do the AT next. When I returned home from the AT, I felt energized and motivated to prepare myself for the Continental Divide Trail.