Reaching Tahoe is a major benchmark along the trail, as the pair have now successfully come through the Sierra Nevada mountain range — a 390-mile section with snowy crossings and more than 60,000 feet of elevation gain.

Celia Peterson and Jensen Douillard are close to mile 300 on the Pacific Crest Trail as they fight the biting sand and heavy winds. Hopeful for the hot springs ahead, they are warding off the prick of the Southern California Desert.

“I feel like I needed this to be pushing myself,” Peterson said on Thursday, April 24 from the town of Idyllwild, Calif, an unincorporated town of 3,000 with a labrador for a mayor near the San Jacinto Wilderness. “We’re hiking everyday, camping and packing, but it is cool how everything is so different everyday.”

CCCNews Podcast Finding Your Sole: TD Grad starts 2,650-mile Journey today, April 8

All things must come to an end. And such is the state of the journey for TD’s Emily Peterson who will hit Canada shortly. Fires ended her hiking journey on Monday as the last 30 miles of the trail remained closed. But she was not to be deterred. She and hiker friend Sandals rented a canoe and are paddling the last 22 miles via Ross Lake.

PCT Hiker and TDHS Grad Emily Peterson said she and her hiking buddies took Thursday, Aug. 4, to contemplate whether to move forward on the trail with the 57,000-acre McKinney Fire burning on the Oregon/California border. A strong network of friends helped her devise a plan.

Emily Peterson now stands at mile 788 on the Pacific Crest Trail and has run a gauntlet of sickness and exhaustion during the past 13 days. And equally so, the TDHS grad has gone from moments of wanting to throw in the towel to sublime peace while gazing at deep blue mountain lakes and the Sierra Mountains in California. Sometimes, you have to sit down and accept your existence.

Heat, wildfires, night hiking and finding a treasure of Natural Light beer buried in the desert. What more could our intrepid hiker want? Well, a slack line for starters, and how about some cool mountain lakes. It’s all on deck, as Emily Peterson surpasses mile 600 on the Pacific Crest Trail.

While she got to the lake early, it was still another 4 miles to the campground after hiking 18 miles. “It was awesome and terrible at the same time. Those last four miles take twice as long because you are just beat. I wanted to jump in so bad,” she said. “But you don’t want to hike wet. You don’t want soggy feet.”

“He told us he used to be the mascot for the Dodgers and he met celebrities Zach Efron, Larry David and Matthew McConaughey. He was this really tall dude in this Prius. And he had BadAss Billy’s Beef Jerky, and he would sell it to hikers while Ubering. He sold some to my hiking buddy.”

“There is no way you can do this without coming out completely changed,” she said, repeating a mantra she has heard on trail. “They’re right,” she said.

TDHS grad Emily Peterson, Class of 2017, is off and hiking on the Pacific Crest Trail. The 23-year-old went alone but has already fallen in with a fast group of friends and encountered trail angels with spaghetti and Gatorade at the end of a hot 10-mile day that turned her water the temperature of hot tea.

Thousands flocked to Cascade Locks this weekend, Aug. 20-22, as the annual PCT Days kicked into high gear after a hiatus during COVID. Above - “Wild” - that’s his trail name- ran the obstacle course at the Merrell booth. He knocked it off in 20 seconds while the camera person was also blown over. See black shoes.