Who Am I and Why Am I Doing This?

My first blog post

Hi, I am Tammo, and I want to hike the PCT this year. If I want to be able to do that and actually finish the whole trail, I need to find my „why“. This is what I am trying to do in this post and since it is my first one, I can also tell you something about who I am.

About me

I am 19 years old and from a small village in Germany near the city of Tübingen. When not doing something outdoors my other big hobby is to play the trombone. This would have been one of the biggest reasons not to do the PCT since it was going very well in the like few years, but I don’t play it professionally, but for fun so I can come back to it afterwards.

Being outdoors was always part of my life in one way or another. Since I have been one year old, we went on a camping trip with befriended families every year. We did day hikes on the weekends at least once a month. At the age of five I went on my first multi-day hike in the Austrian alps with my dad. This awakened my love for the mountains, and we have been doing it every year since. Then three years ago, I experienced backpacking for the first time on a trip with a local scouts group. It felt as if that was what I wanted to do all the time and I grew a love for backpacking really fast. In the last two years I did four more backpacking tours each between 10 and 20 days all across Europe until I decided to do that for half a year.

The time is perfect

Last year I finished school, and while everyone was asking what I wanted to do afterwards, I did not really know. All I knew was that I wanted to study something at a university in the long term, but also not right away. But after reading the book „Laufen. Essen. Schlafen.“ (Walking Eating Sleeping) by Christine Thürmer the winter before, there was this idea of doing the PCT as a gap year that slowly came into my mind. Knowing I was going to do two more trips with the scouts the summer after graduating, I tried if I could find a job for the time after. Then I found the perfect job: full-time, not a mini-job or internships for five months from October to February. This kind of made the decision in the end because it lined up so well with the PCT NOBO season and is perfect for going to university afterwards. Also, the time after graduation is one of big changes, and most of my friends are in different cities now to study there or are also doing a gap year somewhere far away, so I am not missing out on anything. So you could say the time is perfect now and I would regret it if I didn’t do it now.

Why?

Before going into the structured life of studying and working again, I wanted to travel and see some of the world. I was always imagining doing something like work-and-travel, but since I am not the most spontaneous and open person, I think that is just not for me. But I really love hiking and backpacking, so I’m doing my own kind of work-and-travel by working half a year to afford travelling the other half.

It is said that people do things like this either to get away from something (like mental problems) or to get to something (like searching for spirituality). I didn’t have any mental problems back at home or could say that I was struggling at life very much. Neither am I searching for a spiritual enlightenment or something. I just want to be outside in nature and my motivation is just to do what I love for five months before sitting inside studying for at least a few years again.

What after

Another luxury I have compared to others is that I don’t have to worry about many things like insurance or what to do with my house or flat while I’m away. I have been living at home with my family so far and that’s what I’m going to do afterwards too, so I’m not practically homeless while on trail like many others. Also, I don’t have to financially cover that. So although I am sure there will be some kind of post-trail-depression, I hope it won’t be too hard on me since I have a plan for what to do after and where my life is going.

I hope this post could give you an idea of what this journey is for me and why I am doing this. Follow my blog and also my Instagram to follow my journey.

I am excited to finally start and see where this goes.

See you on trail or in the next blog post!