Meet the Crest Runners: Part 2

Reflecting on the Crest Running Season

Working for the Pacific Crest Trail has been a great season, from greeting hikers in Campo to seeing them thrive in the Sierra Nevada mountains. My name is Abbie, ”Kidska”. I am one of the Crest Runners for 2024, and if you haven’t already read Eric’s article about the 2024 Crest Runners, I’d recommend starting there.

At the beginning of the season, my co-crest runner Eric and I moved to Campo, California, a community east of San Diego well known in hiking circles. Every day, we enjoyed being one of the first faces hikers saw as they set out to walk the trail. A car would pull up, and a hiker, or several, would pop out. Often, with nervous family members there to drop them off, we would reassure and educate them about the trail as best as we could. Many excited starters were armed with the knowledge of Leave No Trace, but a handful was embarking on their first-ever backpacking trip. Eric and I handed out black ziplock bags for packing out dirty TP or wipes and backpack hang tags for those with a PCTA Inter-Agency Permit. We also discussed the California Fire Permit and good trail etiquette for other hikers and equestrians.

Over the three months we were there, Eric and I probably took over 1,000 terminus photos for hikers and their families and advised on the best poses. The self-high five paired with a similar photo at the Northern Terminus was a favorite, and the “peek-a-boo” was one of the more unique poses. At the end of the season, Eric even managed to take an epic Terminus photo on his skis.

I particularly enjoyed meeting international hikers and attempting to practice speaking new languages with them. Eric and I met hikers from Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Brazil, Taiwan, etc. Several Czech hikers helped me learn some hard-to-pronounce phrases that mean “good luck” or “Zlom Vaz,” the Czech equivalent of “break a leg.” Having gone to a French immersion school growing up, I could also give our Leave No Trace talk in French to some French and Canadian hikers with limited English. Some of the hikers who amazed me most were those who came to the trail speaking little English. The least I could do was offer a few faltering words of encouragement if I knew any in their native language. 

Our next destination was Kennedy Meadows South. If Campo was small, I hadn’t seen anything yet! Kennedy Meadows South is a hub for hikers entering the Sierra. Despite a debated population of merely 200, the stop has nearly everything a hiker could need to head into the high mountains.

During tours in the South Sierra Wilderness, hikers were buzzing with excitement to have completed the desert section. I observed the confidence gained in their first 700+ miles. In late May and early June, the hiker bubble was moving through the area, and I would sometimes bump into around 100 hikers a day on a southbound tour. Luckily, everyone was mostly headed in the same direction and unaware there were so many other hikers around them. Seeing familiar faces and learning of new trail names and their amusing origin stories was so fun. Many of the non-native English speakers had also improved their language skills in their first few months.

In the Sierra, the leave-not-trace focus shifted a bit. Proper food storage becomes crucial, with the Sierra seeing scores upon scores of visitors. As the saying goes, “a fed bear is a dead bear”. Hikers pick up their bear-resistant canisters in Kennedy Meadows to protect the bears from becoming habituated to human food. I could empathize with their displeasure at the weight and bulk of a can, but respected their commitment to the wilderness and bears by following regulations and being good trail stewards. A surprise to some was what all needed to go into the bear can at night, including chapstick, sunscreen, used toilet paper and wipes, toothpaste, and that forgotten protein bar wrapper stuffed in your hip belt pocket. It can become a game of Tetris getting everything to fit but for a very worthy cause.

As Eric and I continued moving North through the Sierra, the flow of PCT thru-hikers began to slow down and be replaced by John Muir Trail hikers. The John Muir Trail overlaps the PCT for about 170 miles. In addition to JMT hikers, I was also happy to see some class of 2023 hikers returning to the Sierra to complete sections bypassed due to record-breaking snow. 

Eric and I were fortunate enough to do a Whitney tour, a popular side trip for PCT hikers, and the typical start or end of a JMT hike. While around Mount Whitney and Forester Pass, many hikers began struggling with mild altitude sickness. I never encountered anyone with severe symptoms of acute mountain sickness (AMS), high-altitude cerebral edema (HACE), or high-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE). Being from low-altitude Ohio, I was concerned about AMS myself and did my best to eat, hydrate, and stop ascending if I started feeling bad. Eric and I were able to summit the highest peak in the lower 48 states without issue and pack out a lot of trash on the way down.

Although, as Crest Runners, we do not perform trail work, Eric and I log the location and description of blowdowns and overgrowth we find on our backcountry tours. If you would like to report trail conditions on a section you’ve hiked recently, head to the trail conditions report page. Both help PCTA staff, partner agencies, and trail crews gather the necessary information on areas that need trail work and what tools and resources might be required to tackle them. Packers on horseback leading mule trains sometimes support more involved trail projects, especially in the Sierra. You might even see them on top of a high rocky pass. Eric and I were happy to meet some of these hard workers with cute oscillating ears.

As I close out my first season as a Crest Runner, I am so grateful for all the wonderful hikers I met, my fantastic PCTA supervisors and coworkers, the Forest Service I worked with, and the business owners who made trail towns feel like home. I’ve been able to work in breathtaking places and meet many inspiring people from all over the world. I hope together, we can all positively impact the trail and the environments we are so fortunate to live and recreate in.

Thank you for a great season!