Move & Explore
Extraordinary effort
13-17
Growing Up on the PCT
Photo and reporting by
Backpacker
Caroline was 14 the summer she and her dad started section-hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, one state at a time, and by the time they finished seven summers later she was the one leading him down a mountain. Along the way she set a personal record of 49 mosquito bites on her forehead alone and once followed what turned out to be bear tracks because her dad said they looked like the trail.
Two sets of hands
Nick didn't hand her the trail and step back, he laced up every summer for seven years, even after she started outpacing him, correcting his gear rules, and guiding him down a mountain when snow blindness took his eyes.
Why we picked this one
The interesting part isn't the 1,600 miles, it's the math underneath them: a kid who could barely finish a mile with an empty pack at 7 was carrying half her body weight at 17 and telling her dad his campsite picks were wrong. Nobody decided that in one conversation. It happened one summer at a time, because the trip kept happening.
Pitch it, zip the bags, and mean it about no coming inside, no matter what the yard sounds like at 2 a.m. Caroline found a campsite in the dark at 14 with boulders for a windbreak and her toes doctored before her dad even caught up. Yours just has to make it to breakfast.
Read the full story at
Backpacker
Where it happened:
Pacific Crest Trail, USA
Somewhere in your kid's future there's a moment where they stop waiting for you to catch up. You don't get to pick when. You can pick whether you're still showing up for the hike when it happens.