#1662 Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail

Listening to America

History, Politics, Unitedstates, Society & Culture, American

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 28 July 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Clay’s conversation with Claire Martin, who hiked the entire Pacific Crest Trail in 2020, more than 2,400 miles through some of the most rugged landscapes in America. Claire was a 2018 graduate of Thomas Jefferson’s University of Virginia. Without quite knowing why, she set out for the Mexican border with a 35-pound pack and began the long journey to Canada. It’s an amazing story of a young woman who doesn’t seem to be afraid of much, who undertook one of the planet’s great adventures and lived to tell the tale. In the high Sierra, just for the fun of it, she and her companions climbed to the top of Mount Whitney, at 14,505 feet, the highest point in the lower 48 states. Claire spent about half of her great journey alone and half with others. She learned things about life and her own life that could only be discovered in this way. Claire now works at Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Recorded May 29, 2025.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everyone. This is the introduction to this week's podcast. I'm Clay Jenkinson. I'm actually
0:06.4	going to move outside, so I just finished a long, fascinating conversation. But I was talking
0:13.6	with Claire Martin, and Claire is now a staff member at the bottom of the Phantom Ranch,
0:20.7	which is in the Grand Canyon.
0:23.0	One of my unfulfilled dreams is to float the Grand Canyon.
0:27.1	I have friends who've hiked down to the Phantom Ranch and come back the next day or the same day.
0:33.0	It's not for the faint of heart, of course.
0:35.2	And here's this young, extraordinary woman, Claire Martin,
0:38.9	who couldn't be more exuberant and delightful and thoughtful and interesting
0:46.2	telling her story of hiking 2,400 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail.
0:54.2	You know, there are things you wish you could do.
0:56.0	I'd love to have run a marathon.
0:59.6	I don't know that I will.
1:01.7	I'd rather hike the Pacific Crest Trail.
1:05.3	I mean, to be able to say, yeah, last year, I hiked the Pacific Crest Trail.
1:12.2	I know that just sounds like you're doing it for bragging rights, but to test yourself,
1:17.6	to test your capacity for solitude, to test your capacity to work through body pain, to see the beauty.
1:26.7	I would like to be the kind of person who hikes the Pacific
1:31.1	Crest Trail. If I did it now, it would be sort of like, I'm sure there are many, much older
1:38.2	people who do it than I, but it would be something of a big deal.
1:45.0	I'm not 50, I'm not 40.
1:47.7	But no, because now she's got all this incredible confidence,
	...

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