At 5:45 am Friday morning, I hit snooze on my alarm, cursing my past self for my excessive ambition. Twenty minutes later, I actually got up and started getting ready. Today, was the day I planned to do my first (of hopefully several) pre-Pacific Crest Trail practice hike!

The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) is a 2,650-mile backpacking route in the western United States. Starting in May, I plan to thru-hike this trail – meaning walk the whole trail from end to end in one big backpacking trip! You can read more about the PCT and thru-hiking in this blog post.

For my practice hike, I selected a route in a state park near my house, here in Northern Colorado. Yesterday, I reserved a backcountry campsite and packed up all the backpacking gear I plan to take on the Pacific Crest Trail. Today, I hike!

After a 20-minute drive to the state park, I hit the trail. The route I chose follows the course of a trail race that takes place later in the spring. This is a gorgeous but challenging route through pine forest in the foothills with several thousand feet of elevation gain and loss.

I was definitely nervous about tackling a rocky and steep hike, especially since I’m 13 weeks out from a knee injury that had me starting 2025 on crutches. Depending on how things went, I knew this practice hike would either be a confidence boost or a big reality check, with my thru-hike start date fast approaching.

Though this was far from my first backpacking trip, I’ve made several changes to my gear to better suit the PCT. In addition to testing my knee, my goal was to practice hiking and making camp with my new PCT gear.

Most importantly, I needed to find out if I could comfortably hike with a BV500 bear canister wedged into my frameless backpack. A bear canister is a bulky, hard-sided container designed to prevent bears from stealing food. Backpackers are required to have a canister for part of the PCT, so I must figure out how to carry one in my pack comfortably. I also wanted to test out my new shelter in the rain and experiment with the cold-soak cooking method (rehydrating dehydrated foods with cold water, instead of cooking with a stove).

Key Practice Hike Takeaways:

• The bear canister fits inside my frameless backpack!… If I pack it in one very specific, slightly awkward way. As I played Tetris to fit my other gear in the backpack around the gigantic canister, it occurred to me that it’d be much easier to just put the backpack inside the canister… But in all seriousness, I’m relieved I won’t have to swap into a larger backpack. I even had a little room to spare if I needed to add some extra layers or other gear.
• Equally importantly, the bear canister is comfortable in the frameless backpack! Though awkward to pack, I didn’t find it uncomfortable at all to hike with the canister in my backpack. My foam pad did a good job protecting my spine from the hard-sided canister. But I wonder if it will still be comfortable when loaded with 6+ days of food…

• My new shelter held up in the rain and wind! I splurged and bought a fancy new tarp for the PCT. It’s definitely the most minimalist shelter I’ve ever used. Though I don’t love camping in the rain, I was glad for the chance to test my new tarp in some inclement weather before heading out on a 2000+ mile hike.
• Time for some new rain gear. My well-loved, 5-year-old Frog Toggs are now more hole than jacket. It might be time for some new rain gear, and possibly something a bit more durable.
• Don’t skimp on snacks! Since this was just an overnight trip, I wasn’t expecting much hiker hunger. However, I ate every last morsel of food that I brought, right down to licking out my empty peanut butter jar.

• Long water carries in the desert will be heavy. It was by no means a hot day. Yet I still drank almost 6 liters of water/sports drink. Being hydrated is great, but I’m concerned about the insane amount of water I’ll need to carry for long dry stretches on the PCT to quench my nonstop thirst.
• Cold-soaking has its perks. Though I’ve backpacked without a stove before, this was my first time trying a cold soak dinner: beans and veggies with hot sauce, Daiya “cheese”, and tortilla chips. For years, I’ve been skeptical of cold soaking, assuming it was gross. But after hiking all day, almost anything tastes pretty good.  The biggest advantage was that since I started rehydrating my food in the afternoon, my dinner was instantly ready to eat when I got to camp! I’ve decided to at least start the PCT stoveless but ship myself my stove if I get sick of cold meals.

• A pillow might be worth its weight in candy. I used my rain gear as a pillow when I thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail after high school. Eleven years later, I might be ready to add a lightweight pillow to my pack.
• Easing into thru-hiking with some low mileage days at the beginning will be key for me. This overnight trip left me feeling more confident about my ability to hike, post-injury. Even so, I don’t want to push myself too hard in the beginning and make my knee worse.

Overall it was a fun and successful practice hike! I especially enjoyed seeing the city lights from my backcountry campsite so close to home. I love where I live, and as excited as I am to explore the western United States on the PCT, I know I’ll miss this wonderful place I call home while I’m away.