Love on the Trail

Happy Valentine’s Day, PCT family! Love is in the air—or, should we say, on the trail!

We wanted to do something a little different this year to help us celebrate how much we love the trail. Appreciating the trail is a year-round commitment; it simply cannot be reserved for one day. We asked the community to help us share its magic. Whether it’s a romantic partner, a lifelong friend, or even a newfound love for nature, the trail brings people together.

This Valentine’s Day, we’re sharing the love by highlighting stories from our incredible community—stories of connection, adventure, and the deep bond we all share with the Pacific Crest Trail. From chance encounters that led to lifelong partnerships to solo journeys that sparked a love affair with the great outdoors, the PCT has a way of weaving love into every mile. This is the first entry into our newest series, dedicated to all the lovebirds.

Whether you’re reminiscing about a special trail moment or dreaming of future adventures, we hope these stories remind you why the PCT holds a special place in all of our hearts.

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The HoneySpooners

“Let’s step back in time to 2015 when two strangers, a girl from Tennessee and a boy from New Jersey, both took one-way flights to California to hike the PCT. Little did either of us know that we were both about to start on a journey of a lifetime. Within a month of meeting each other on the trail we ended up getting married! Fast forward 10 years, we continue to backpack, hike, and camp, but now we do it with our four kids in the wilderness of Maine.

I went by Big Spoon, and my wife was Hands, but after getting married, we became known as the HoneySpooners on the trail. Our story rippled through the hikers and Trail Angels and everyone knew who we were.

The trail was such an amazing place to get to know someone in the raw as it stripped away the facade that some people cover themselves up with in ‘real life’. We spent every waking hour together getting to know one another down to our core. There were no fancy dates, makeup or nice clothes. We were just two hikers wearing the same smelly gear every day, eating out of hiker boxes, and pooping in the woods, but we couldn’t have been happier and were most definitely in love.

Hands, aka Claire Miller, kept a blog on the trail and turned it into a memoir titled Mile 445. This one-of-a-kind story chronicles the hike through her eyes before and after we got married. She can be found on Instagram at @clairehenleymiller.

Never in a million years did either of us think we would get married when we set out to hike the PCT, but here we are 10 years later with four kids and stronger than ever.

The PCT is truly a magical trail, and we are a testament to the power of connection and community it brings to the world.”

Big Spoon aka Caleb

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The Long Way to Love

“Laura – I knew her as Diva – and I only crossed paths on the PCT a couple times when we hiked it in 2022. The first time was in Sierra City, when she was sharing a room with a couple of other hikers I knew. We exchanged little more than a hello. The second time, our schedules aligned when we were coming out of Etna. We walked and chatted together for a few hours, talking about our respective life paths and how they brought each of us to the PCT. Shortly thereafter, she stopped to get water, I didn’t, and we never saw one another on the PCT again. Such is life on the trail – routinely crossing paths with other hikers and sometimes sharing deep, intimate conversations only to never see them again.

After we each finished the trail, I found her on Instagram through a mutual friend’s story and followed her. I didn’t expect to ever see her again; I merely remembered her as that cute girl I crossed paths with briefly in NorCal.

Months turned to years as our life paths diverged. I took advantage of my newfound freedom gained from having quit my job to hike the PCT and used it to travel the world; she settled down into her new career as a dietitian in northern Montana. We exchanged messages only a couple of times in the two years post PCT: once, when I complimented her on her Eras Tour outfit, and the other when I shared my excitement over her video of a Gila monster she came across while she was section hiking the Arizona Trail.

That second message sparked a longer conversation and we got to chatting about how I was going to embark on the CDT soon. She was conveniently living in Whitefish, MT, a gateway town to Glacier National Park, right along the trail’s route. She told me to reach out when I came through if I needed anything. I doubt she thought I’d take her up on it.

My CDT plan had me starting NoBo and flipping SoBo when I reached the Colorado-New Mexico border. Around that time I reached out to Laura and asked if I could send a box to her in Whitefish to pick up when I arrived. Hoping she might invite me to crash on her couch for a night, I waited a couple days to see if such an invitation would arrive. When it didn’t, I asked if I could stay with her before I got on trail. She obliged.

When we reunited this past June, it had been almost two years since we had seen one another in person. We were, for most intents and purposes, strangers. But we picked right back up where we left off that hot summer day near Etna. The conversation flowed endlessly and we both quickly realized that there was something more to this than a reunion between a couple old trail friends.

We kept in touch while I was on the CDT, and she flew to Colorado to meet me for a wedding as soon as I finished. I flew to Montana several times that fall and it was clear that the romance that had been sparked that summer was no fluke.

As I type this, we’re three weeks into a six-week trip to New Zealand and Australia together, and we’re looking forward to moving to Boise together starting next month.

The timing wasn’t quite right when we met on the PCT – she was hiking at a faster pace than I was, we were both caught up in separate trail romances, and I had my world travels to look forward to after the PCT while she had her career to focus on.

But two years later, the trail provided one last bit of magic – this time, it was love.”

Kevin “Captain” Ladny
PCT class of 2022

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Truffle and Shortcut

“Before we met, Shortcut and I both planned on hiking the PCT solo. In the months leading up to our start dates we had multiple friends and family members tell us “you’re going to meet your future husband/wife on this trip!”…and we both very quickly shut that idea down, absolutely determined to stay single and hike our own hikes.

Well, we didn’t even get to start the PCT before we met, and that mentality all began to change. Two days before our start date, we met at Scout and Frodo’s in San Diego, becoming FarOut friends but making no plans to see each other again. We next saw each other at the Lake Morena Malt Shop and, from there, hiked together to form our trail family of 8 in Idyllwild before finally realizing our true feelings for each other a month later in Tehachapi.

We went our separate ways in Kennedy Meadows, as Shortcut wanted to push through the Sierras, whereas I was going to flip up to Truckee to avoid the snow. Neither of us was ready for it to end, but we also wanted to stay true to the hike we were looking for as individuals. Luckily, after the first stretch of the Sierra, Shortcut realized the snowy slog wasn’t the experience he wanted and decided to flip up to Truckee and catch up! We reunited in Chester and have been inseparable ever since, experiencing the rest of the PCT together. At the end of our incredible adventure, Shortcut got to walk into his new home of Canada (where I lived). We’re now in the process of making his Canadian home permanent!

I have the PCT to thank for meeting the love of my life, who was also the kind of person who wanted to spend 5 months doing nothing but hiking and marveling at the incredible landscapes.”