Kaylee Lettau’s waste-less Pacific Crest Trail hike
Even when you’re a nature lover on a months-long thru-hike, you still create trash. Trail-friendly food is often packaged in plastic. Other things are carried in baggies. Shoes wear out.
Pacific Crest Trail hiker Kaylee Lettau set a goal for her summer 2023 journey: for all 2,650 miles of the trail, every piece of waste other than toilet paper should be recycled or backyard composted.
“I’ve always been a nerd about recycling and sustainability, so I have decided to apply those principles to my thru-hike,” Kaylee told us. “For me this looks like reusing and thrifting gear and, if I need to use single-use products, ensuring that those products are compostable or recyclable.”
Kaylee’s goal isn’t the norm.
One PCT hiker, who wrote about his journey for Outside magazine, wondered at overflowing trashcans at every trailhead and convenience store he visited. He noted empty pouches of dehydrated food, crumpled instant coffee containers, and more, saying “the sheer quantity was impressive in a Mad Max prequel kind of way.”
Wanting to know how much he was wasting, he tracked all of his waste for a month on the trail. He counted 686 pieces of trash—including nine hummus containers, 30 ziptop bags, two pairs of shoes, 34 cans of stove fuel, 17 ketchup packets, and lots more.
Instead of trashing plastic packaging along the trail, Kaylee is mailing it to a friend who’s a Ridwell member.
Before setting out on her journey, she shared these plans to make her trek sustainable:
Choosing new gear that does the least amount of harm (her choices include performance underwear from Paradis Sport and camp clogs from ALESGREY)
Reusing gear and thrifting used gear to keep it from the landfill
Carbon offsetting flights and car rides into trailheads and towns
Buying local food in bulk to cut down on emissions and plastic packaging
Partnering with local farmers for fruit and veg to dehydrate
Carrying reusable toiletries instead of single use paper products
Carrying reusable or compostable plastic items
Practicing and educating others on Leave No Trace principles
Kaylee mailed herself supply boxes to pick up along the trail, as many thru-hikers do. Because of her food allergies and sensitivities, she took this preparation very seriously, knowing that refueling in towns along the way wouldn’t be easy. The prep also allowed her to be careful about packaging.
On her off-trail town days, she picks up supplies, does laundry, and mails her multi-layer plastic to her Ridwell friend.
As we write, Kaylee has about 500 miles left on the trail.
She’s been documenting her thru-hike, and the preparation, on Instagram, including lots of sustainability tips and information about planning a thru-hike. She’s shared a few trials and many more successes, all to a stunning backdrop of west coast nature.
See it all @backcountry_baddie.
Want to be like Kaylee and do the right thing with your multi-layer plastic?
