Six Million Steps

By the numbers

Six-million steps, give or take a stumble.

Two-thousand, six-hundred and fifty miles.

It is a number so large that it is impossible to comprehend for the average person. There simply is no frame of reference.  Dare I say that walking one mile is hard to imagine for a great many people in the industrialized world.  The idea of walking the entire width of the United States?  Through three states? Through seven national parks? Through twenty-five national forests? Through fifty-one designated wilderness areas?

How many, reading this, walk a mile daily for exercise?  Now, for some perspective, how many, reading this, walk ten miles per day for exercise? Continue the perspective . . . now do ten miles per day for five solid months, 150 days straight . . . if you did that, you would still fall a thousand miles short of the Canadian border, hiking on the Pacific Crest Trail.

The Pacific Crest Trail has an elevation gain, spread out over 2,650 miles, of 489,000 feet.  That is the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest, the tallest peak in the world, sixteen times in five months.

Read that again and let it sink in.

More numbers

Fifty permits are issued, per day, from March through the end of May.  Fifty permits allowing for a thru-hike, from the Mexican border, in California, to the Canadian border, in Washington State.  Do the calculation, that totals about 4500 hikers who attempt the PCT each year.  Attempt is an important word, because the best estimates have the number which actually complete the thru hike at 50%, or about 2250 each year.  That is a very optimistic estimate; there truly is no way to actually keep track of that many hikers, and know with certainty that they did, in fact, finish the entire hike.

But let’s be optimistic. Let’s say that a full half of the starters actually finish the thru hike.  Multiply that number times thirty years, which is the number of years the Pacific Crest Trail has been open to foot traffic, and we finish with a grand total of 67,500 brave souls, in the history of the Pacific Crest Trail, who have completed it in one continuous hike.

67,500 out of 360,000,000, which is the population of the United States.

67,500 out of 8,000,000,000, as in eight-billion, which is the population of the world.

Perspective . . . we are talking about some very rarified air, my friends, something very few people in the history of the world have accomplished.

And still more numbers

The average age of the thru hikers attempting the Pacific Crest Trail is thirty-four, the prime of one’s life, you might say, although not necessarily the prime of one’s physical shape.  Still, reasonably young.  Thirty-four and still, not quite half those who attempt the Trail actually finish it.

Which brings us, finally, to my wife, Bev

When Bev sets out from Campo, California, on March 19, 2023, she will be sixty-two years of age.  She is not a career hiker.  In no way could she be described as a seasoned thru hiker. She is, in fact, the mother of four adult children. She has worked almost her entire adult life, scrimping and saving and doing everything in her power to provide for those children, almost always sacrificing her dreams for theirs.

When I met her, fourteen years ago, she was working three part-time jobs to support the two children still at home.  She was worn down. I am quite confident if I had asked her, at that time, what her dreams were, she would have said she was too damned tired to dream.  Still, in the deep recesses of her brain, she held onto the notion that the woods are her home, where she feels most whole, and there, in the deep recesses, she would find a long-forgotten dream, to take on a major hiking challenge, to push herself beyond what she believed to be possible.

Today is December 1, 2022, and in exactly three months we will pile our two dogs into a vehicle, and we will begin the long drive to Campo, California, and on the 19^th of March, 2023, Bev will finally realize that long-forgotten dream. She will finally concentrate completely on something she wants, something she has always wanted.

She will finally dare to dream.

Hers is a feel-good story I believe we can all rally around.  It is the story of an average human being taking on a challenge which seems to be too large to be real, and certainly too large to be completed.

You can join Bev’s travels on our YouTube channel, As We Wonder.  She will be filming daily, from the Trail, taking us all along with her, sharing her thoughts.  I hope you can find the time to go to that channel and hit the subscribe button. It won’t cost you anything to do so, but it will mean a great deal, to a woman you’ve never met, as she finally dares to dream.

And, if you are really looking to support her, and us, you can find us on Patreon. For as little as $3 per month, you can support us financially as we produce entertaining and meaningful content for you to enjoy.

Thank you in advance for your support. The Dream begins March 19, 2023.

Bill and Bev