Becky Cohen and Luke Neumann

Burlington, VT

Luke and I met through mutual friends close to a year ago, and our first adventure  together as a hike up Mount Abe in the middle of February. I hadn’t done many winter hikes before, but Luke had the knowledge and experience to lead a fantastic hike, he also knew to bring hot tea and chocolate for the top. Ever since that first hike, we have pursued adventures together and made that the spirit of our partnership. We are always looking to find the next adventure, and after many weekend hikes, camping trips, cross country ski trips, bike rides, and runs, we decided that together we wanted to pursue a real Adventure with a capital A: thru hiking the Pacific Crest Trail.

The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) runs 2,600 miles from the border of Mexico to the border of Canada and goes through California, Oregon and Washington. Each year many people hike sections of the trail, but just a few complete the entire hike, in 2011 just 142 lucky people completed a thru hike of the PCT. The trail winds through a variety of ecosystems: the
first 500 miles are in the Mojave desert, then up into the High Sierras, further north in to the Redwoods, gradually becoming the wet pacific northwest. We will contend with sun and heat, snow and ice, rain and mud, and then likely more snow as we near the end of our hike.

We anticipate that we will begin around April 21st, a few days prior to the Annual Day Zero PCT Kick Off, and we will finish in late September. Luke and I each bring unique skills and experience to our adventures and we believe that this will create a great balance and large knowledge base for the hike.

Check out Becky and Lukes Blog:  https://beckyandlukehikethepct.wordpress.com/

Luke, trail name Hermes, has run two marathons this year, graduated from college,  joined the workforce for a few solid months and is now setting out to complete his second thru-hike. He successfully hiked the AT in 2011 and is ready to get back to the trail life of eating as much as he possibly can and walking all day every day.

Becky decided she wanted to thru hike the Pacific Crest Trail shortly after hearing of it and is so excited to have completed this goal! She ran her first half marathon this year, completed a 200 hour yoga teacher training, and can’t wait to try and eat more pancakes than Luke.

The Flyin’ Ryan Hawks Foundation has generously awarded us a scholarship to help us fund our Pacific Crest Trail Adventure.

My Core Values

  1. Find Joy in all we do
  2. Be real
  3. Always be willing to do your share and then some
  4. Stay Physically and mentally fit
  5. Never lose your smile
  6. Be Humble
  7. Be Even-handed with everyone

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The Foundation has awarded more than 150 Adventure Scholarships to people who have a dream, believe in the Core Values Matter philosophy and were able to demonstrate financial need. Our Adventure Scholars are a distinctive group of students, athletes, and others. We believe you'll find someone here you can identify with, or perhaps you will help us make this outstanding team of individuals even more diverse and inclusive.

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TJ Tucker

Jackson Hole