Garfinkel Blazes New Chapter on Pacific Crest Trail
9/10/2015 12:00:00 AM | Softball, Features
Becca Garfinkel in Sonora Pass of the Lower Sierras, about 50 miles from Yosemite's northernmost border
Soon after returning from the 2015 Women's College World Series, the Wolverines scattered. Some headed home for relaxation or to kick off summer jobs; others used the sudden wealth of free time to embark on new adventures. No adventure was grander than that of recent graduate Becca Garfinkel, who, just days after closing the book on her competitive softball career, set off on a two-month, 1,200-mile hike on the Pacific Crest Trail, originating in central California's Yosemite Valley and headed north to the Canadian border.
Back in Michigan after 68 days on the trail -- and just weeks before traveling to Israel for another nine-month adventure -- Becca reflected on her PCT journey in this special first-person narrative for MGoBlue.com.
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I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN into hiking and backpacking. I did some type of backpacking every summer in college, and while I was in Glacier National Park last summer with my mom, I met a guy who was hiking the Continental Divide Trail and talked to him for a couple hours about long-distance hiking and what it takes. He's the one who recommended the Pacific Crest Trail. I decided to do it when I got the chance.
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SOFTBALL SEASON ENDED on a Wednesday, I got home Thursday night and left for the trail Tuesday morning. There's really no way to build up to a three-month hike. It's a crash course; you fail until you learn. When you start, your pack is way too heavy, and you drop weight as you go. You learn what kind of food you want to eat. I was probably burning 3,000-4,000 calories a day, so you eat that much. It's important to figure out your nutrition and pick the right food.
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HIKING SHAPE is much different. With softball, we do a lot of sprints, but with hiking, it's all about how strong your legs are and how light your pack is. I built up my miles significantly. At the beginning, I was doing about 10-15 a day and got up to high 20s to 30. I also learned how to schedule my time better and improve my hiking pace so I wasn't hiking 15 hours a day to do 30 miles; by the end, I could do it in 11-12 hours.
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BURNEY FALLS was one of northern California's most amazing sights. These falls appeared out of nowhere after a 40-plus mile stretch of trail notorious for having no natural on-trail water. I had walked along a dry creekbed the entire day, only to come upon these rushing waters and the beautiful state park that surrounds them. Needless to say, it was a very welcome swimming opportunity in the midst of a very hot, dry section of the PCT.
Burney Falls
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I HIKED BY MYSELF for the most part. I started with Caitlin [Blanchard] for the first week. I had originally planned to hike with a good friend from summer camp and his friend from school, but when I got bronchitis, they kept going. I met various people along the way and hiked with them. But I really wanted to do the trail by myself. I liked being alone and the freedom that it gave me.
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I HAD JUST FINISHED COLLEGE, so I really spent a lot of time reflecting. I thought about softball and what I'm going to do with my life. I listened to a lot of podcasts and music. Sometimes I would be caught up in all the amazing things I was seeing, and other times I was just totally lost in my own head.
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I FOUND THAT PEOPLE were so willing to help. If they saw your backpack, they'd give you a meal or a place to stay or a shower. The generosity was amazing.
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I GOT BRONCHITIS and was off trail for four days. I had a bad cold when I started, and I started Yosemite at really high altitude, doing really tough miles. It just wore me down. I got off trail in Truckee, just north of Tahoe, and hitched a ride eight miles into town. The woman who picked me up was a nurse. She took me to urgent care but told me that if I did have bronchitis to give her a call, because I would need rest. I ended up staying with her and her husband for four days in their cabin in the woods. They were incredibly sweet people. I've stayed in touch with them.
Trinity Alps
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I WAS ALSO OFF TRAIL for a week in Ashland in southern Oregon with giardia, which is a water-borne parasite. I was filtering my water the whole time; you just never know how these things happen. I was really sick for about three days. That was awful, definitely a low point.
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MY FAVORITE PLACE was Crater Lake National Park in southern Oregon. I walked four days through the Oregon desert with long, dry stretches, so I had to carry a ton of water and I was so tired. There are two trails around Crater Lake, and the people I was hiking with and I were hiking the rim trail with the plan to see sunset on Crater Lake, but we took the wrong trail and hiked four miles the wrong direction. We got to our campsite at midnight and there was a blue moon that night, so we got to see this incredibly bright, full moon shining down on Crater Lake. It was so eerie and silent. The next morning we got to watch the sun rise over Crater Lake. It was the coolest thing I've ever seen.
Crater Lake National Park
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I ALSO SAW MOUNT HOOD at sunrise. Timberline Lodge, located at the base of Mount Hood, is notorious as the location for Stephen King's thriller The Shining, but did you know it also has a killer breakfast buffet? Well it does, and put it on your bucket list, because after a 32-mile day of freezing rain, howling winds and a mountain lion encounter, that buffet was pretty much heaven. The view of Mount Hood from the Lodge was pretty cool too.
Mount Hood
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I HIKED MOUNT SHASTA by myself. I decided I wanted to hike it solo. This was right after I came back from bronchitis, and I was feeling good and strong. I hiked 27 miles up to a ridge. I was going to cowboy camp that night -- no tent, just lay my sleeping bag down the ridge. I was sitting there, staring at Shasta, thinking life is so good. It was a great moment. I lay down to go to sleep, and just as I closed my eyes, I see a flash of lightning. Weather moves so quickly out there. I hadn't seen any clouds in the sky. It ended up being a huge thunderstorm. I had to set up my tent in seconds and then sit on my pack all night to insulate myself from the lightning while up on that ridge.
Mount Shasta
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A LOT OF PEOPLE summit Shasta. They take a day off the trail to summit. I don't know why I didn't. It's omnipresent throughout California and half of Oregon. You can literally see Shasta for 400 miles. As I hiked out of Mount Shasta city, it was just teasing me, like "You didn't climb me."
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I MADE THE DECISION to leave the trail when I got to the Oregon/Washington border. I had hiked 1,200 miles and was just a few weeks -- 500 miles -- short of Canada. I was battling shin splints and tendinitis and, along with other hikers, was concerned about the forest fires that were then raging in Washington and threatening to close significant portions of the trail. I hated saying goodbye to the trail and my friends, but what should have been a hard decision became easy once I realized that leaving would be the best thing for me. I was buoyed by my ability to make that decision. If I learned nothing else from the trail, it was to trust myself, so that a decision in my best interests wouldn't make me feel like I was weak, or worse, a quitter.
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I GRADUATED FROM COLLEGE and from the softball program with a lot of confidence. Hutch cultivates that in people. She makes you think that you can do anything. I went to school close to home. I had my teammates and my coaches around me all the time. I wanted to do something totally independent. I wanted to test my own confidence and strength. It was extreme way to do it, but I proved to myself that I could.
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I WANT TO HIKE for the rest of my life. But I don't think I'd do a long distance hike again. Probably more like 100-200 miles. There's just so much to see.
