On The Great American Trail That I Will Never Hike

Editorial Assistant Leah Genc dreamily hikes the Pacific Crest Trail before returning to LinkedIn  

I think I like knowing it’s there. 

I think I like knowing that snow settles on the High Sierras in Northern California, a snake glides across the Mojave Desert in search of something seemingly nebulous. 

Vast scenes that are bound to its own interests. 

Places that are completely indifferent to your presence, who you pretend to be, who you are, or how many movies you racked up on Letterboxd in 2025. The places don’t care that I’ve been on my learner's license for over five years now, or that the only fun f

act I have about myself is that I can solve a Rubik’s Cube. If Milly Bobby Brown and I both came face-to-face with a bear, deep within the Washington wilderness, her PR team wouldn’t be able to save her—no one here has the upper hand. 

The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) is 4255km long, stretching from the U.S.-Mexico border to the U.S.-Canada border. It covers the states of California, Oregon, and Washington, taking you through sites like the Mojave Desert in Mexico, volcanic plateaus, and dense forests [1]. The PCT was developed when Clinton C. Clarke had the idea of linking already existing trails into one, taking inspiration from the Appalachian Trail [2]—a notoriously haunted trail infamous for its folklore about witches, shadow figures akin to Creepy Pastas’ Slenderman, and reports of inhumane sounds (I much prefer the former, I don’t know why anyone would be into that). 

In 2020, I came across a YouTube thumbnail that stuck out to me—likely cushioned between Lana Del Rey’s ‘Video Game’ music video and Minecraft Letsplays. A woman alone in the desert, with a text overlay that read “Chapter 1.” Before I knew it, I had reached chapter eight, then the post-trail reflection video, and then the “Q&A” follow up, then the epilogue, her hiking gear video and how she cooked her favourite hiking meal (Japanese curry with rice, it looked like shit).  

Before discovering the PCT, I considered myself a sedentary being. I had electric blue-coloured hair, and the most walking I ever did was to the river, in search of a secluded spot to smoke skunk weed out of an apple-bong. However, it wasn’t long until I found myself carrying around my “pack’’, which consisted of my Puma school bag filled with 10 filled water bottles meant to emulate hiking gear. I would haul-ass up busy main roads and wander through impenetrable trail-less thickets after the school day had ended, trying to capture even the vaguest sense of the PCT’s grandeur. Lake Parramatta? To me, I had reached the summit of Oregon's Crater Lake. My stamina was dangerously low, and I severely regretted smoking out of the apples as opposed to eating them.

To hike the PCT, a high level of physical endurance is required, necessary to withstand varied terrain. One would have to average 20-25km a day, starting from sunrise to sunset [1]. 

My knees still buckle at the very thought of that. Over the next few years, my great American dream began to fade. Mental images of mountain passes are the only thing that remains.

I’ve decided to dedicate myself to LinkedIn now. I stay up at night meticulously curating my profile to appeal to recruiters. Spending varied

amounts of time reading AI-generated posts titled ‘How to Ace your Interviews’, or interns writing love letters to their mentors. 

I am comfortable in my domestic duties. Rent is due every Wednesday, my cats’ litter needs to be cleaned twice a day, and forty dollars a fortnight is set aside towards a blueberry-flavoured vape. I wouldn't trade my bathroom with a lock for a back-country dirt hole anymore. But, if my cat decides to shit more than three times a day, or if they put up the vape prices again, I like knowing the option is there. 

by Leah Genc

References:

[1] Scarff, G. (2024). The Pacific Crest Trail: The US West Coast’s ‘greatest footpath’.

BBC.https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20240603-the-pacific-crest-trail-the-us-west-coasts-greatest-footpath.

[2] The history of the Pacific Crest trail, Pacific Crest Trail Association https://www.pcta.org/about-us/history/