Ok - it was only a section hike - but keep the faith UKHopefuls! It's there and waiting for you.....

For me the prospect of the huge upheaval of waving goodbye to my life for 6 months (hopefully) was daunting - so I thought I had better 'test the water' with a section of the PCT at Lake Tahoe.

The scenery was outstanding, the trail was mostly well maintained and equipment / kit worked just as intended.

My key takeaways were that my foam sleeping pad was a bit thin and you need to be really vigilant on battery use - even with a 20,000 ma battery pack. Other than that my pack weight with food etc was about 10kg - so not ultralight by any stretch. Bear cans are heavy!

Satellite comms using an iPhone 16 worked really well. Farout is excellent.

For water a Sawyer Squeeze with a CNOC is a great solution. Just worked perfectly. I got mine from REI for $50 / $35 (I think).

I used Brooks Cascadia trail runners - really worked well. Only one blister and thats because I got a wet foot on a couple of water crossings and didnt address it so it was wet for ages.

Bears were around but I didnt see any.

The PCT hikers I met had astonishing pace but often were 'head down, crushing miles'. I felt very much a noob by comparison - which I guess I was.

At the end I felt UNBELIEVEABLY skanky. It was a really useful trip though. I got to try logistics, tech, American supermarkets (HOW MUCH!), kit, hiking at height, hiking on snow - it goes on. As a thing to do its an investment of time and money - but compared to time / money of a PCT hike I thought it was worth it. At least now I know first hand what to expect!

Keep holding onto your dreams...