{"id":78787,"date":"2019-08-30T13:55:24","date_gmt":"2019-08-30T20:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/?p=78787"},"modified":"2020-04-28T17:54:50","modified_gmt":"2020-04-29T00:54:50","slug":"gillian-larson-has-completed-the-pacific-crest-trail-twice-on-horseback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/hike\/gillian-larson-has-completed-the-pacific-crest-trail-twice-on-horseback","title":{"rendered":"Gillian Larson Has Completed the Pacific Crest Trail Twice, on Horseback"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steep switchbacks flanked by tall evergreens slowed the progress of Gillian Larson, age 22, and her mother, Jodi Johnson, age 53, hiking the High Sierra Trail in the summer of 2013. As they plodded along, Larson’s mom distracted her with the story of Heather “Anish” Anderson, who had just completed a thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) in 60 days, 17 hours, and 12 minutes<\/a>, breaking the previous record by nearly four days. Both were in awe of how many miles Anderson had covered daily, especially as they were struggling with just 10.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre horses allowed?\u201d Larson asked, almost immediately. When she returned to her home in Topanga, California, she began researching thru-riding, a term for horseback riding long-distance trails. She learned that others had thru-ridden the PCT, and knew she wanted her horses to come along for the adventure.<\/p>\n

Today, Larson, now 27, is one of very few horsepackers to tackle the entire trail\u2014and the only one she knows of to do it twice, in 2014 and 2016. She went on to complete the Arizona Trail<\/a> and the Colorado Trail<\/a> in 2017 and is also, as far as she knows, the only person to thru-ride the complete 3,100-mile Continental Divide Trail (CDT)<\/a>. She\u2019s learned a lot along the way\u2014most importantly, that these long-distance trips require a lot of planning.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Larson has had a special relationship with horses since before she was born. Her mom was a dressage horse trainer and an accomplished rider who stuck with the sport until she was seven months pregnant with Larson. Then, after Larson’s birth, Johnson picked riding right back up again. It was only natural that Larson would follow in her mom\u2019s footsteps. But she steered clear of dressage, with its tidy rules, gravitating instead toward trail rides, where she could see the world around her.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a very young age I would take Sparky [her first horse] out for a ride everyday after school,\u201d she remembers of the trail rides she took beginning at age 7 in Topanga. \u201cI loved being out there, just the two of us, where it felt so peaceful and free, and I never got tired of looking for animals \u2026 and the views as we rode.\u201d<\/p>\n

At 13, her mom bought her Shyla, a dark buckskin registered American Quarter Horse, with near-endless energy. Larson cared for Shyla, exercising her and feeding her morning and night. They\u2019d go for big rides together on the weekend\u2014a solo tradition they maintained for nine years before Larson began thru-riding, as Shyla didn\u2019t like waiting for slower horses on group rides. When Larson was 15, Shyla gave birth to Takoda, a spitting image of his mom, and after that, the trio was inseparable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve been the center of my life,\u201d Larson said. \u201cSo when I heard about a long-distance trail that \u2018Anish\u2019 had done … it was automatic in my head that if I was going to do anything like that, my horses would have to come with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Shyla<\/p>\n

But how do you go from riding horses on trails around your house in Los Angeles to completing three cross-country trips, each thousands of miles long? For Larson, it was an incredible feat of planning.<\/p>\n

When she started coordinating her first thru-ride of the PCT, she had only been backpacking for a few nights at a time, and had never horsepacked. Her research revealed only a handful of thru-riders who had come before her and almost zero details of how to complete a long-distance trail ride. She wasn\u2019t going to let that stop her.<\/p>\n

Instead she relied on thru-hikers\u2019 blogs to plan. She pored over hundreds of pages of paper maps, spending two weeks laying out how she\u2019d tackle the first two hundred miles of the trail alone. Although horses are permitted on the PCT, they\u2019re prohibited from many campgrounds and trailheads. So Larson spent hours determining where she could sleep each night from hikers\u2019 trip reports and, more importantly, where she\u2019d spend rest days\u2014which she took twice a week\u2014to allow her horses to recover from the 20-plus miles they walked each day.<\/p>\n

Gearing up for the trip posed another challenge. Traditional horsepacking gear was too heavy for the distances she planned to cover, so she turned instead to modern backpacking with its fast and light equipment. Her first packing list<\/a> looked almost the same as a thru-hiker’s: She traded cowboy boots for hiking boots and a Dutch oven for a Jetboil<\/a>. She also packed hoof boots, booties that go over a horse\u2019s feet in the event that they lose a shoe; a huge collapsible bucket, for the gallons of water her horses drank each day; and a saw and axe, for cutting through downed trees that her horses wouldn\u2019t be able to jump over or walk around.<\/p>\n

\"Venn<\/p>\n

Larson and Shyla completed their first thru-ride in 2014. After that, they continued, ticking off the Continental Divide Trail, Arizona Trail and Colorado Trail, as well as the PCT one more time, totaling more than 7,000 miles together between 2015 and 2019. Each time, Takoda served as their packhorse, carrying the gear both horses needed, along with all their food, which could weigh up to 120 pounds.<\/p>\n

On the trail, it isn\u2019t just the logistics that are challenging. In the course of her rides, Larson says she\u2019s traveled over hundreds of downed trees (which can take hours to saw through), and through landslides, mudslides and washouts. She\u2019s crossed too many snowfields to count (which can be dangerous for horses, as they can\u2019t wear crampons) and even a glacier.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnxiety is a shadow that follows along the entire time when on a thru-ride,\u201d Larson said. \u201cYou worry about finding good grazing, enough water, trail conditions, resupplying, resupply vehicle breakdowns or vandalism. \u2026 [Your horses] are completely dependent on you so the pressure to not let them down can be enormous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, she wouldn\u2019t have it any other way.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels like a teammate situation,\u201d she said. \u201cYou have to work together, and [the horses] do so much for you.\u201d And, she added, \u201cwhen you get to Canada \u2026 you feel like a parent at college graduation, \u2018my babies did it!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why Larson hopes to raise awareness of the sport and make thru-riding more accessible to more people. During her travels, she never ran into another rider. But in 2017, Larson got connected to a handful of thru-riders through her blog <\/a>and helped them plan their own expeditions on the PCT. In 2021, she\u2019ll support a pair of international thru-riders on the 2,650-mile trail; the couple dreams of completing the route split in half over the course of two years, and Larson will not only pick their horses but also serve as their support team. She has no plans to stop thru-riding herself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m always just a little bit in awe when riding in the saddle,\u201d Larson said. \u201cAnd all those feelings of strength, connection and awe become magnified when traveling by horseback on a long-distance trail. Accomplishing a goal with an animal you share a long history with makes the whole journey feel so much bigger than yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thinking of thru-riding yourself? Check out Larson\u2019s blog, A Pacific Crest Quest<\/a>, and follow her on Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steep switchbacks flanked by tall evergreens slowed the progress of Gillian Larson, age 22, and her mother, Jodi Johnson, age 53, hiking the High Sierra Trail in the summer of 2013. As they plodded along, Larson’s mom distracted her with the story of Heather “Anish” Anderson, who had just completed a thru-hike of the Pacific […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":78795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[387],"tags":[707,727,470],"internal-tag":[],"class_list":["post-78787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hike","tag-hiking","tag-latest-posts","tag-pacific-crest-trail"],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/rei.com\/blog\/hike\/gillian-larson-has-completed-the-pacific-crest-trail-twice-on-horseback","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Gillian Larson Has Completed the Pacific Crest Trail Twice, on Horseback","url":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/hike\/gillian-larson-has-completed-the-pacific-crest-trail-twice-on-horseback","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/hike\/gillian-larson-has-completed-the-pacific-crest-trail-twice-on-horseback"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/08\/20180914_163744-01.jpeg?resize=150%2C150","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/08\/20180914_163744-01.jpeg?fit=3663%2C1961"},"articleSection":"Hike","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Aer Parris-Hoshour"}],"creator":["Aer Parris-Hoshour"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Uncommon Path \u2013 An REI Co-op Publication","logo":""},"keywords":["hiking","latest posts","pacific crest trail"],"dateCreated":"2019-08-30T20:55:24Z","datePublished":"2019-08-30T20:55:24Z","dateModified":"2020-04-29T00:54:50Z"},"rendered":"