I Hiked the Pacific Crest Trail!

In 2019, I hiked the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). I didn’t end up hiking every mile because I’m not a trail purist, but I spent 5 amazing months on the trail. It ended heartbreakingly and bone-breakingly when, 30 miles from the Mexican border, the pain I was in reached new heights, and I found out I had been hiking on a broken hip for about 100 miles and was rushed into surgery. However devastating it was to be so close to completing my hike and not being able to, I was able to surpass my fundraising goal, which was the more important end. With the help of friends, family, and strangers, I raised over $16,000 for the art gallery being built in memory of my father.

Below is the original page I wrote before starting my hike:

After probably not enough deliberation, I have decided to thru-hike all 2,653 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). The PCT is a continuous hiking path from Mexico to Canada, through the mountains of California, Oregon, and Washington. It takes around 5 months of hiking. Most people hike northward, from Mexico to Canada, but ever year, a small contingent of hikers decide to do things the hard way, and hike southbound, starting at the Canadian border and heading to Mexico. Naturally, this is what I have elected. After my JMT hike last year, I feel ready for this next big adventure.

Why would you do this to yourself?

It would be sensible not to go.

But to be sensible is to be commonplace.

To be commonplace is unpardonable.

-Margaret Gehrke, early 1900s female explorer of our national parks

Hiking for a cause

I’m using my hike to raise money for a cause dear to my heart: a student art gallery and education fund created in memory of my dad, Glenn Hild. He died last year after a short battle with pancreatic cancer, and the university where he worked for 30 years decided to honor his legacy by creating a student art gallery in his name. It’s still under construction and needs a lot of work to make it into a functional gallery. Please join me in supporting the arts and remembering the legacy of my father!