Donner Pass to Sierra City, Aug 11-13, 2024 (38 PCT miles)

 

Bridge near Wild Plum Turnoff

In the 1970's the Wilderness Press guidebooks divided the PCT into 29 sections that were suggested as hike-able bites of the trail.  At 38 miles, Section L, from the Interstate 80 crossing at Donner Pass to California Highway 49 at Sierra City is the shortest of all 29 sections.  While short, climbing from the pass, which is already at 7,057 ft., this section is at a fairly high elevation, and late snow on the ground is part of the reason for the tragedies that befell the Donner Party, from which the pass gets it's name.  High snow levels also explains why I missed hiking this section in 2017.

I did hike this section southbound in 2018, and even on June 10th of that year I still had to find my own trail on the snow-covered hillside south of the Peter Grubb hut as well as deal with meadows flooded with snow melt.  In contrast though, in August of 2024 this section was an ideal combination of dry trail and plentiful drinking water from running streams.  

The last bit of PCT trail before Hwy. 49 was closed due to a bridge being damaged, and the Wild Plum trailhead at Sierra City was on the official alternate route. To get on trail, my wife Christine and sister-in-law Carol helped me drop off my car at the Wild Plum trailhead then once my car was parked, Christine and Carol gave me a ride to the I-80 Donner Pass Rest Area and dropped me off so I could start the hike back to my car.

Since my last backpacking trip was so exhausting for me, I was quite worried about how I would manage on this trail section.  As it turned out, my earlier hike had helped my conditioning, and this was easier trail as well, so it was tiring, but not too hard.

I did the hike over three days.  The first day I hiked in about 8 miles and then I did the rest split about evenly over the next two days.  I think the Wild Plum alternate cut over a mile off the scheduled hike, but I didn't try to calculate that exactly.

Northbound, the first major landmark on the hike is a ridge that divides the I-80 corridor from the backcountry.  Once you get over that ridge there is a descent to a meadow where the Sierra Club's Peter Grubb hut is located.  The hut is intended for winter use, and I stayed in the hut in 2018 when there was still snow on the ground.  This year the hut was locked up tight in August with just a sign explaining that it could be reserved in advance.

The trail is beautiful, although in a more subtle way than most of the Sierra range.  There are quite a few traverses where I was treated to panoramic views of forested hills.  The Forest Service and PCTA must have been working hard as the trail tread was almost perfect and I only had to step over a couple of downed trees.

I saw a "no mechanized vehicles" sign for the first time, which seemed like the most expansive way to express the idea of a trail meant for hikers and pack animals only.  Arc'teryx recently started talking about their powered exoskeleton pants and I pondered how that new technology will be incorporated into backcountry regulations.  It seems like they will inevitably be allowed for day hikers and probably not practical for backpacking due to the need to be recharged.  Eventually though when energy storage becomes lighter weight, who knows what the future holds.  I'm sure that there will be many people bemoaning the "good old days" of muscle-powered locomotion in the future.  

The only other hikers on the trail were weekend hikers or section hikers (like me).  The third day I was on trail for about 8 hours and didn't see a single other hiker, which I think might be a first for me on the PCT.

Here's the photo album:  Donner Pass to Sierra City, Aug 11-13, 2024

Timberline Lodge to Cascade Locks, July 28-31, 2024 (50 PCT miles)

 

Twister Falls

In 2022 I tried hiking this section but had to give up due to knee pain.  I'd started with friends Georgia and Laurie at Santiam Pass and by the time I got to Timberline Lodge it was clear that my knee was simply done.  Georgia had dropped out at Pamelia Lake, where we had to detour due to a fire closure.  Laurie and I got back on at Ollalie lake in a burned out forest.  After hiking up to Timberline Lodge, Laurie and I had their famed breakfast buffet, but then I took the bus back to Portland, while she continued on.  I had a "total knee replacement" (TKR) on my right knee in May of 2023.  This was my first backpacking trip on my new knee.

Christine and I drove up from the Bay Area and stayed one night in Portland with friends John and Mary before going up to the trailhead.  The drive to Timberline Lodge is fairly scenic and not a long drive from Portland.

The first day I hiked in just six miles and found a beautiful campsite.  My plan was to cross the Sandy (Wild and Scenic) River at about 10 am the next morning as a wet crossing when it would still only be moderately high.  My clever plan was to dry out on the other side while having a snack.  The flaw in this plan was that 24 hours of light rain started literally as I reached the Sandy River, and then that transitioned into another 24 hours of damp fog.  So while I did get wet crossing the river, I didn't really get dry until the last day of the hike.  Luckily the crossing wasn't too risky.  Even so, I asked a couple of other hikers to watch my crossing for safety.  True to the river's name, my shoes each had a sprinkling of small rocks in them after I waded across.

I put in around 14 miles each of days two and three, and then camped at the junction with the Indian Springs trail.  The only notable challenge after the Sandy River was crossing the Muddy River on day three.  The crossing is on a smooth log that simply fell over the river and is probably at least 8 feet above the water level.  If it had still been raining I'm not sure how I would have handled the crossing since the log would have been too slippery to simply walk across safely, and wading the river at the trail crossing did not look appealing or easy.  Even as it was, the crossing was a bit nerve wracking.

The Indian Springs trail will likely be renamed as part of an ongoing effort to remove names that simply use the word "Indian," but for now that's the name on our maps.  The Indian Springs trail is a PCT alternate that leads through an astonishingly beautiful gorge, with many trail sections blasted into the side of the gorge, some sections with steel cables for safety.  There are more waterfalls than I tried to count with "Twister Falls" and "Tunnel Falls" the most iconic and dramatic.  This is one of the most beautiful sections in Oregon and makes a perfect conclusion to a northbound hike of the state.

When I had hiked this section in 2018, I took the PCT main trail and the Indian Springs alternate was closed.  This time the PCT main trail was closed due to fire danger and I ended up on the alternate without needing to make a choice.

The drawback of the Indian Springs trail for my knees was that the trail was quite steep and rocky over large sections, stressing my knees and leg muscles.  By the time I made it to the trailhead at Cascade Locks, I was in moderate pain and ready to take an Uber instead of road-walking the last three miles on a paved path ... but it was not to be.  Uber (perhaps wisely due to hiker stink) "does not serve the area you wish to be picked up from."  So events conspired to keep my "connected steps" intact at Cascade Locks.  Once in Cascade Locks I only needed to wait 45 minutes for the next bus to Portland.

I spent the next few days in the home of friends John and Mary, whose two children were also home for the summer.  I needed the recovery days as that first backpacking trip after my knee surgery was exhausting.  It didn't exactly seem like I had injured myself, but I had hiked more than ideal, and it took several days to really recover and feel normal again.  I was pleased though to have completed this section and considered it a good example of "type two" fun as a result of the rain, pain, and exhaustion.  I flew back down to the Bay Area on Alaska Airlines.  They upgraded me to first class since they needed my coach seat to sell to someone else, and I admit to enjoying the excessively fawning service that accompanies the front of the airplane.  What a contrast from backpacking.  

 Here's the photo album:  Timberline Lodge to Cascade Locks, July 2024

Ziv II Speakers -- Kit from Madisound, aka Ziv Two Speakers

 

Ziv II Build Notes:

I wanted to build some speakers that would meet several criteria that are challenging to find together in a commercial speaker:

• Very clean, detailed sound -- characteristic of “audiophile” speakers
• Ability to reproduce frequencies at least down to 60 Hz, so a subwoofer isn’t essential for music
• Metal grill to survive or discourage cats, toddlers, and teenagers
• Small form factor to fit into a bedroom or even mount on a wall

I want to enjoy having kids around, and not worry too much that my speakers might get damaged by a nerf ball being thrown around, or a pet getting interested in the grills.  In other words, I love good music, but in the end I wanted “dad speakers” as much as I wanted to build audiophile speakers.

The Ziv II speakers, which Madisound carries as a “kit,” seemed like a good starting point.

After building them, the Ziv II speakers impressed me in three ways:

• Detailed resolution:  These speakers reproduce music in nearly all the detail present in the original recording.  Vocals are clear and natural, the attack of a drum or cymbal is well defined, the subtle sustain of softer notes is clear, and the instruments are well separated from each other.  Almost eerily, the quiet is quieter than I'm used to.  Notes begin and end crisply, so you get moments of silence that are very well defined, something that didn’t occur to me until listening to these speakers.
• Uncolored tone:  Everything sounds very natural.  I notice this most in classical,  jazz, and vocals where my ears might be best attuned to what the live sound would be.  These speakers aren't "warm," which is a common, yet vague, term to describe certain types of distortion that many sound systems produce.  
• Authoritative, crisp bass:  The F3 is probably somewhere near 55 Hz.  You get almost all the bass fundamentals in the music even without a sub.  I listen to music in my car and on earbuds a lot, and I’ve been reminded of how much of the low end is lost in those contexts.  There is a richness that surprised me in these little speakers.  Many smaller speakers have an F3 of around 80 Hz or even higher, so these are much richer than most small speakers, but don’t have the bass of good quality tower speakers.  More on this later.

People talk about speakers being “non-fatiguing,” and perhaps that’s the same idea as being forgiving of irritating recording anomalies.  These speakers don’t accentuate the static in older recordings, or the sonic artifacts of older microphones.  In that sense they aren’t as detailed and precise as some speakers, or maybe it’s some subtle engineering choice that Morel made.  In any case it’s very enjoyable to listen to older recordings as well as new material.  Yes, you can still hear microphone distortions on older recordings, and be irritated by the sound quality of garage recordings, but I find myself happy listening to almost anything professionally produced.

Some things worth noting:

• Limited volume:  These speakers play at a good listening volume, but not dance-party loud.  You can reproduce jazz and classical music beautifully, but not at the volume of a live performance.  I would pair them with a receiver capable of clean sound at 80W at 6 ohms.  They sound great, but they definitely have a top end on volume.  These are great for a modest living room or large bedroom.  Not really suitable for larger rooms.
• Limited low-end:   In terms of fundamentals, not much is happening between 30 and 60 hertz:  there is the bottom end of the kick drum, part of the kettle drum, a few cello notes, and the lowest piano and pipe organ notes that are hardly ever played.  So what are you missing?  It’s the resonances that reach down into the lower frequencies.  My current home theater speakers have an F3 around 40, and I have a sub for really low frequencies.  For some music you will notice this difference in a side-by-side comparison … but it’s not such an issue that you will necessarily care.  For home theater applications, you lose the low end of environmental noise:  ocean waves, the rumble of thunder, hoof beats, traffic noises, crashes and explosions.  So you might want a sub, but I prefer to leave it off personally.  

With rated power handling of 150W on the woofer you might think these could play really loud, but be realistic.  A normal 6.5 inch woofer can’t play below 60Hz at high volumes without distortion or exceeding it’s mechanical limits.  Physics gets in your way.  In a large room, a teenager might well “turn up the music” enough to wreck these speakers without a volume limiter on the receiver, so that’s something to consider when pairing these with a receiver.

Based on my previous experience I wanted to use a proven, engineered design.  I studied available “kits” and discovered the Ziv II at Madisound.  These speakers were designed by Russell Kauffman when he was Technical Director and Head of Acoustic Design at Morel, which is an Israeli company that makes high-end drivers.  Translated from the Hebrew, “Ziv” means "radiance, brilliance, or light of God," so I think that gives you an idea of the quality that he was going for with this design.  Mr. Kauffman designed the famous “Fat Lady” speaker, and the Ziv II uses the same 6.5” driver as that speaker.

Speaker “kits” are not like typical kits you might buy.  You get a box of components and a wiring diagram for the crossovers.  No instructions or further advice.  The drivers and crossovers with some miscellaneous parts cost me around $1,800, purchased from Madisound in 2024.  The components are definitely of a quality favored by audiophiles and the kit price is quite reasonable for what you get.

Madisound publishes the crossover design if you want to wire your own.  I had mine made by Madisound as part of the kit, opting for the upgrade of the tweeter capacitor to the Mundorf Supreme EVO Oil capacitor.  This capacitor is supposed to give the speakers even more detail in the high end than the standard capacitor.

The drivers are the Morel SCW-636 6.5” carbon fiber woofer and the Morel ST1048 supreme tweeters.  These drivers are characterized by very flat frequency response when crossed over at around 2,300 Hz.  The crossovers are relatively simple in design due to the linearity of these drivers.  Both drivers are very attractive and worth showcasing as examples of industrial design.

The recommended internal box size was 10.8 liters with a 6.5” long 2” diameter rear port to reach an F3 of around 55.  An F3 of 55 means that the decibel volume of the bass is at 50% of normal at 55 Hz.  This is remarkable bass extension for a speaker this small, and relatively close to the much larger JBL L100’s, which use a 12” woofer.  With a subwoofer crossed in at 60 Hz, the subwoofer contribution would be modest, so I consider a subwoofer optional for most purposes.  

Factoring in the displacement of the port, the drivers, and the crossovers, I needed about an enclosure with a total internal volume of 12 liters.  Using ¾” Baltic Birch as the material, the outside dimensions of the box are 15” tall, 9.25” wide, by 8.5” deep, not including the grill in front.  I used Baltic Birch over MDF primarily because I like working with Baltic Birch, and at the small box size I thought that there wouldn’t be much of an issue with resonance.  This turned out to be wrong however, and I ended up sinking twelve #12 x 4” screws into each box as a modification to cut the unexpected vibration.  

For this small of a speaker, no fancy joinery is necessary.  I used butt joints stiffened with WeldBond and connected with countersunk #6 and #8 screws.  Weldbond has a long open time, so I could assemble the boxes completely without rushing.  In retrospect, I should have used longer screws and more of them to cut the resonance further.

Space is at a premium on the front baffle, so given the size and length of the port I decided to offset the tweeter from the centerline, and on the back, the port is also offset to separate the end of the port from the tweeter.  

Two speakers can be cut out of ½ of a 4’ x 8’ sheet of Baltic Birch, so I made all my box pieces out of half the sheet of plywood with some left over.  Machining the wood was straightforward.  I used a circle jig and router to create the mortised openings for the tweeter and woofer.  I used 6-32 t-nuts for the woofer, tweeter, and terminal plate.  They don’t take much time to install, but I’m not sure that I would use them again.  The main advantages are that you can test fit everything, and later you can get the drivers really tight against the baffle.  However, it’s necessary to use thread locker at some point or there is a chance that the screws can loosen over time.

For the grill I used 16 gauge high-flow steel perforated sheet with a hexagonal hole pattern and 79% open area.  I got mine from McMaster Carr.  Metal grills are undoubtedly less acoustically “transparent” than thin, lightweight grill fabric, but they are much more pet and toddler proof, and it gives us a chance to see the beautiful Morel drivers.  Since the steel mesh doesn't stop UV light, speakers with this style of grill should not be placed in the direct sun.  Steel takes primer and spray paint quite well, and usually holds up in an interior location without rust if painted properly.  The grill material that I got was ductile and easy to work with.  I did not try aluminum, which is also available.  Stainless steel is available, but it does not take paint very well.  I’d like to try it another time though without paint.

After using a 3” abrasive cutoff wheel to cut the grill to size, I used a bench grinder and abrasive deburring wheel to cut off and lightly polish the nibs.  I found this less time consuming and easier than it sounds.  I also tried cutting the 16 gauge sheet with tin snips, which did not work well, and diagonal cutters, which did cut it quite easily one wire at a time.  I notched each corner and bent the edges with a bending brake so that the grill would be ¾” off the front baffle.  Careful work with a rawhide mallet would also work I think.  To affix the grill to the front baffle, I used ⅝” x ⅝” x 3/64” angle anodized aluminum, with the grill affixed to the angle aluminum using JB Weld “original” formula epoxy, applied with a static mixing syringe, which is probably the only way to get a good bead.  If I was doing this again, I would use ½” x ¾” x 1/16” angle anodized aluminum to give more room for the 8-32 screws that I used to affix the angle aluminum to the front baffle.  The ⅝” works, but the clearance is tight.  The 8-32 screws went into zinc-plated steel threaded inserts, threaded into the front baffle.  This is pretty easy to do, but the ¾” inch angle would provide more distance from the edge.

I wanted the main finish to be slightly off-white, but not in a beige direction.  Rustoleum has a Pearl White in their Universal Spray Paint line that I decided to try.  I primed the grill with with Rustoleum’s self-etching automotive primer.  The wood was prepped with a regular all-purpose wood primer applied with a foam roller and foam brush.  Then it’s just a matter of carefully applying the pearl white layer.  Just as a side note, Rustoleum makes an automotive lacquer in Pearl White as well, but the lacquer has aggressive solvents and can’t be applied directly over the self-etching primer, so I went with the regular spray paint.  The lacquer would be worth trying as well and it’s supposed to be more durable than the regular paint.

Things I might do differently next time:

• It would be good to provide explicitly for wall mounting, including installing threaded inserts to accommodate that easily, maybe in a Vesa 100 pattern.  The speakers weigh about 18 pounds, so wall mounting requires a heavy-duty bracket.
• I would add more long, heavy screws to cut the box resonance and vibration further.
• The binding posts take up a lot of room on the back.  I would try to use a less space-intensive set of posts so there is more room on the back for a wall mount.
• As mentioned before, I’d use ½” x ¾” x 1/16” anodized aluminum angle to hold the grill.

My brother Andrew was an audiophile and got me interested in high-end audio.  I also have a couple of friends who are audiophiles with the gear to prove it.  I love the way that their systems sound, but I’m not interested in that kind of investment and space commitment.

Earlier I built speakers using a HiVi F10 as the woofer and loved the sound, but they can’t handle a lot of volume.  Then I built some 3-way tower speakers and a 3-way center channel using Morel’s mid-level drivers and custom crossovers from Solen.  The tower speakers sound very good, but I had to use the equalizer built into my Onkyo receiver to fine-tune the sound.

These experiences convinced me to go with a design so that the speakers can just be plugged in and will sound great without a lot of adjustments.

Definition of a PCT Thru Hike -- Room for Opinion?

 

Hike the whole PCT in a single season and you have completed a thru hike.  That's simple, but on a 2,650 mile trail there are a lot of little variations that can cause heated debates about whether someone is TRULY a thru hiker.  In my experience this debate reaches a peak on trail in the first few hundred miles, and then gradually people get a bit less stringent in their thinking.  By Washington most people aren't obsessing about it much anymore.  Your friends at home don't care at all.

My purpose here is just to highlight some of the most common variations on a strict thru hike.    Language flexes to fit reality, so I won't try to force my opinion as to what is really a thru hike.  If you have an opinion, feel free to share it in the comments.  In my experience, as with many topics, people with strong opinions on this are often vocal without representing a majority view.

As a starting point, some people who identify as "purists" define an unsupported PCT thru-hike as follows:

Starting at either the southern or northern monument, hike in a single direction, on all of the available PCT track, with connected steps, with no break of more than one day at a time, and without support to the other monument.  

When there is a closure, hike to the closure sign and then backtrack to get off the trail.  Then get back on trail and hike to the opposite closure sign and then reverse direction and continue your hike.

Sometimes instead of "no breaks" it will be "in a single season."  Either way, obviously that's a thru hike.  However, I'll describe some of the 14 variations that I have seen that in practice, on the trail, many people still consider a thru hike:

Uncontroversial:

• Connected-steps resupply detours.  This would be, for example, departing from the PCT track on foot at Mt. Laguna to resupply and then returning to the PCT track on foot a little farther on, rather than backtracking to where you left the PCT and restarting from that point.  Typically these detours add a little distance rather than being shortcuts.
• Hiking Popular Alternates.  The Crater Lake alternate and the Tunnel Falls alternate, for example, are not official PCT routes, but many, many hikers take them, and they are more interesting than the PCT track.  Detouring to summit Mt. San Jacinto, Mt, Baden Powell, or Mt. Whitney also typically involves detouring around a bit of PCT track, and no one blinks at these choices.  Getting to and from campgrounds also can involve short missed sections of PCT track.
• Taking personal days off:  Taking a few days off in town to recover from an injury is necessary for many hikers and really not controversial.  I had to do this in both 2017 and 2018.  People also sometimes take time off for weddings or other family events.  I've seldom heard this questioned, even though it's technically a break in your hike.
• Tiny Gaps in Connected Steps:  This usually means something like getting picked up for a resupply stop on one side of a road and getting dropped off on the other side.  You miss something like 25 steps.  I did this at Big Bear, for example.  Very few people care about these micro breaks in your connected steps, but some people do.  When you are actually out on trail, crossing a busy road on foot in both direction just to connect your steps across that short distance might seem like lunacy ... or not.  It depends on the person.

Varying Opinions:

• Closure Alternates and skipping open PCT track.  A fire closure might typically be a few miles past the closest trail or road crossing that would allow detouring around the fire closure.  The PCTA will usually publish an official alternate route, which is then considered to temporarily be the official PCT track.  Some people think you should still do an out-and-back to the actual closure, AND hike the alternate.  Most people, like me, just hike the alternate.  
• Hiking Through Closures:  This means ignoring the closure signs and just hiking through a closed section.  This is illegal and disrespectful toward the people who built and maintain the trail.  It often adds additional work for people repairing that trail section.  Don't get me wound up.  I never do this, but it doesn't seem to bother some people.
• Getting off Trail to Avoid Bad Weather:  Some ultralight hikers really aren't carrying adequate gear for cold, wet weather.  In some cases hikers will get off trail and check into a hotel to wait out the weather.  I avoid this, but I was already checked into a hotel at Snoqualmie pass for a resupply stop and did stay an extra day to avoid a full-day of hiking in the rain.  This borders on supported hiking.
• Slack Packing:  This means hiking with an almost empty (aka slack) pack or just a day pack while someone else drops you off in the morning and meets you in the afternoon.  It's a form of supported hiking.  It's not a big deal to me, but opinions vary.
• Personal Trail Angels:  Enjoying a soda from a cooler left by a trail angel is uncontroversial, but if you have someone meet you at almost every road crossing that becomes a supported thru hike.  The same would be true of having someone routinely meet you with a resupply.  Still a great hike, but now a supported hike. 
• Temporary Skips and Flip Flops:  Fire closures can sometimes halt forward progress, and snow and dangerous stream crossings can make a straight-through hike more-than-usually risky some years.  In 2017, which was a high snow year, two hikers drowned on stream crossings and many others had close calls.  To reduce risks, some hikers will rearrange the order of their hike by skipping ahead and changing direction, or skipping a section and coming back to hike it later.  I've done both.

Intentional Skips and Gaps:

All of these are avoidable breaks in your connected steps.  Whether they are meaningful to your own goals for the hike varies by individual.

• Intentional Skips at Town Stops:  There are a few town stops, such as Idyllwild, Wrightwood, Big Bear, South Lake Tahoe, Sierra City, Seiad Valley, and Crater Lake where you can hike in or get a ride in at one point and hike out or get a ride out to a point further along the trail.  This usually results in skipping at least a few miles of trail.  Other than getting around the closure south of Idyllwild, I did not do any of these skips, but I met many people who did them.  When I hiked the steep five miles from Mazama Campground to the Crater Lake Rim, I would estimate that at least 80% of PCT thru hikers took the Crater Lake shuttle bus instead.
• Catch up to Tramily Skips:  Many hikers get into a trail family that is socially very close and improves their safety.  When an injury or equipment failure causes one hiker to need a few days in town, they sometimes skip ahead to the next town stop to rejoin their trail family.  Keep in mind that for women, persons of color, and LGBTQ hikers safety is often a bigger concern than for white cisgender men.  To me these skips seem like smart hiking and a reasonable tradeoff against a connected-steps goal.  
• Closure skips that don't get made up:  Sometimes a closure is so awkwardly placed that the official alternate is a 40 mile road walk.  Often hikers will just skip ahead when faced with this type of closure.  Sometimes the closure opens, and sometimes it stays closed the whole season.  In the end your hike might have a 40-mile gap in it.  How big a gap you can have and still consider it a thru hike is kind-of up to you.  On a 2,650 mile trail missing 40 miles would not stop most people from considering themselves to have finished the trail.  I did not have to deal with this personally, although I did bounce around a lot to get all my miles done.
• Rides at Road Walks:  There are some places where the PCT or an alternate is on a paved road.  Hiking on pavement is hard on your feet and knees, as well as contradictory to the whole point of the hike, but even so, usually I walk these.  Once at Castella I felt awkward when a Sherriff's Deputy offered me a ride so I got in and skipped a mile of pavement that way.  Another ride I took that resulted in a break in steps was in Washington when a fire-closure put me on a trail that ended at a busy road with no good shoulder to walk on safely.  I got a ride up to White Pass in a jeep, which was fun.

So, because of trail closures, town stops, alternates, trail dangers, and other factors, what someone means by the term "thru hike" will often vary a little from the simple idea that first pops into our heads when we hear the term.  Most people will say that they did a thru hike if they hiked at least 95% of the trail in one season, but at least got from one monument to the other.  Some people will consider that a failure.  Feel free to have your own opinion.  ^-^

Why I Love Hiking

 

This isn't my personal before and after x-ray, but mine looks very similar.  Four days ago I had a partial knee replacement on my right knee.  This is the knee that took me off-trail in 2017, 2019, and 2022.  Basically I had a pretty bad tear in the meniscus, but only in the medial compartment.  My initial recovery is going well, and ideally I should be able to day-hike as early as August, just three months after the surgery.  

Resting and recovering has given me plenty of time to just sit and think, and with the prospect of a working knee I've started thinking about backpacking again.  I've also watched some PCT thru-hiking videos and I've thought more about the experience of long-distance hiking.

As context, I hiked the PCT in 2017, but didn't quite finish, partly due to my knee and partly due to the heavy snows that year.  Then in 2018 I did a full-hike of the PCT in one season, aka a thru-hike.  I've chipping away a little at the miles that I missed in 2017 and have about 250 miles to go to finish a "section hike" of the PCT as well, which I hope to be able to conclude in 2024.

Completing the PCT is a significant accomplishment.  It requires persistence, effort, endurance of discomfort, toleration of risk, and skills, especially during stream crossings and crossing steep snow fields.  Overcoming injuries and pain is almost inevitable during a long hike.  Many hikers will fall at least once during a thru-hike, and many will have to overcome blisters, sunburn and other over-use injuries.  Snow-covered trails, fire closures, difficult weather, and finding water require problem solving.  Conditions sometimes require hiking at night or in very uncomfortable weather.  All together, when a hiker finishes the trail they have achieved something.  

At the same time, it's possible to develop a grandiose assessment of this attainment.  You can quickly confirm this tendency by watching a few "my PCT hike" videos on YouTube, where hikers conquer "heinous" mountain passes on their "epic" journey.  It is after-all just a lot of hiking on a rather well-maintained trail not too far from civilization.

Looking back from the age of 66, five months thru-hiking the PCT does not stand out for me as a singularly defining milestone in my life.  Married life, having a career, raising children, and renovating our property all took more time and effort.  Getting up everyday and hiking was easier in many ways than getting up every day and working a corporate job.  So, this is a very roundabout way of saying that the "achievement" aspect of hiking isn't too important or meaningful to me.

Despite vague expectations that hiking the PCT might be a deeply spiritual and life-altering experience, most hikers find that the changes to their perspective are subtle.  Attitudes toward cleanliness, creature comforts, and food shift, but after a period of readjustment most people get reintegrated into ordinary life within about a month, and this was true for me as well.

So, what is it about hiking the PCT that is so compelling, so enticing, so invigorating, and so addictive that people will quit their jobs and take six months out of their life to hike the trail?  Here's my own working list of what typically makes the experience worthwhile:

• The Beauty and Diversity of Nature:  To some degree just the number of hours of walking combined with the many different ecosystems that you will walk through give you opportunities to see nature in more of it's variety and beauty than if you just went to an arboretum or visited the many different viewpoints along the road.  To be sure, there is a lot of repetition, but the constantly changing landscape keeps it interesting.  I have a friend who only wants to see the most spectacular vistas.  If that's you, then you will be disappointed by the PCT.
• Immersion in Nature:  During a long hike you are immersed in nature far more than on a day or weekend hike.  You aren't even sleeping in campgrounds, just finding a flat spot to throw down your tent at the end of the day.  You are drinking water from streams.  When the sun goes down the air gets cold, and in the afternoon it can be baking hot.  When it rains you are wet, and in a storm sometimes you can't see 100 feet.  Where there is a ridge you hike up and over it, and where there is a valley you hike into it.  That intimacy with the landscape and the realities of nature is uniquely soul satisfying and it really kicks in after weeks rather than days.
• Constant Awareness and Attention:  Without overstating the risks, when on a long hike you can never forget about water, weather, where you can camp next, your own body, and your very-next step on the trail.  It's not a high level of attention, but it's constant, and this gives it an almost meditative quality.  Your mind can wander, but part of you needs to stay with the hike all the time.  If you snap off a hiking pole by not paying attention, you can't just pop down to the store and get a new one.  If you step on a loose rock and sprain your ankle, you could suffer a lot limping off the mountain.
• Operating Near your Limits:  The experience of hiking nearly to exhaustion day-after-day is strangely invigorating.  Rather than feeling oppressed, you feel completely vital and alive.  You come close to your limits, ideally without crossing over into over-use injuries.  Some people try to find their limits by doing the "24 Hour Challenge:" trying to cover as many miles as possible in 24 hours.
• Kinesthetic experience:  I ran into a woman on trail near Big Bear who was about to quit her hike for the reason that "hiking is boring."  If you don't enjoy the movement of your body as you swing down the trail, there can be many miles that will simply seem monotonous.  Hiking through a forest, there isn't a lot of variety visually, but (when I'm not in pain) every step has a kinesthetic pleasure within it.  This feeling often builds as your body gets stronger.
• Social Experience:  At a minimum, most of us enjoy the simple comradery of a shared experience.  When on trail you feel like you belong to an exclusive club.  Even if you aren't tightly connected to a hiking partner or a "trail family" you will inevitably run into other hikers, make friends, hike together, share life stories and meals together.  It's pleasant and affirming.  Trail angels also create a positive social experience along with snacks and rides into town.  Many people make long-term friends hiking the trail together.
• A Different World:  In the simplest terms, in long-distance hiking I've gotten used to hitch hiking, night-hiking, USPS general delivery, Amtrak, Greyhound, coin-operated showers, bumming TP from strangers, and the wonderful properties of Ibuprofen.  I've met nurses, pilots, financial wizards, wildlife biologists, baristas, and smoke jumpers.  I've eaten tortillas with peanut butter, ramen with fresh eggs, and way too many kinds of freeze dried dinners.  Variety and change is good for us.

I'd be interested in other people's experiences and thoughts on hiking or whatever you enjoy.