Dear PCT Community,
Each day on trail brings new views, memories, and feelings: joy, exhaustion, friendship, peace, uncertainty, kindness, solitude. But as the miles add up, it seems like the moments blur and the reflections blend together.
I wanted to find a way to remember and share these experiences that make the trail meaningful, so I created Trail Traces: a postcard project collecting notes from the Pacific Crest Trail.
These postcards invite hikers, trail angels, and anyone inspired by the journey to fill them out and mail them in. I've been leaving them as I walk north, and I'm amazed every time one returns in the mail. There are detailed sketches of memorable mountain views, fun doodles of town food and trail families, deep thoughts written after long miles, and lots of poetry.
I started this page to create a place for sharing the notes as they arrive. Follow along to smile, laugh, wonder, and maybe even cry.
Thank you to those who have participated so far. If you find a card, please fill it out, send it in, and check back to see it appear on TrailTraces.org.
Cheers,
Eden (Bhikkhu)
Class of 2025
P.S. Also consider snapping a trail photo with your card-would love to share it here!
Mailed from the very beginning of the journey. Do you recognize these five ranges of views along the Pacific Crest Trail?
✍️ Anonymous
📍 CLEEF - 1.7 miles from Southern Border
🗓️ March 19, 2026
Hiking season is back! “Adventure Awaits” — and Trail Traces postcards, which can now be found along the trail and in trail towns thanks to the amazing PCT community. Keep an eye out for the cards to come.
✍️ Unknown
📍 Hood River
🗓️ October 2025
Check out this amazing cartoon series by Dawn that she drew while walking through the desert! Featuring Mayor Max from Idyllwild.
✍️ Dawn “Water Cache”
📍 California
🗓️ April-May, 2025
Congratulations to those who’ve arrived at the terminus this year so far (and a huge thanks to Stumbles and Reaper from the Class of 2025 I’m sure for all the FarOut comments along the way 🌶️)!
We met only a few dozen miles from the California border back in March, and five months later this postcard arrives in the mail. Carried more than 2,500 miles!
✍️ Stumbles & Reaper (@reaperhikes ) 🌶️
📍 Seattle, WA
🗓️ September 1, 2025
Who knew a postcard could function as a coaster, phone protector, and poetic device? If you read it at the right angle—between dirt, folds and scuffs—Rippen Richie explains how everything we carry can have a multipurpose.
✍️ Rippen Richie
📍 Golds Beach, Oregon
🗓️ August 4th, 2025
Alena, a PCT hiker, found a Trail Traces card and carried it to Yosemite (where she climbed Half Dome!). She sketched a view from the John Muir Trail while hiking. What a view!
See the back of Alena’s postcard — and the more than 100 other cards — on TrailTraces.org.
Little guy said he’s working on a submission but keeps getting distracted by granola crumbs! Happens to the best of us.
Trail name: Crumbfinder.
Specialty: unsolicited gear shakedowns and motivational squeaks.
“Dear Miss PCT…” Rock N Roll writes to the trail! Thankful for sunrises, sunsets, and a sense of peace.
✍️ Rick Osborne Jr. (Rock N Roll)
📍 Kennedy Meadows South, California
🗓️ May 19, 2025
Check out this PCT BINGO! A collaborative creation after more than 700 miles of trail in Bishop, California. What other PCT memories would you add?
✍️ Collaborative!
📍 Bishop, California
🗓️ May 23, 2025
From tortilla wraps to ramen packs, this illustrated resupply haul by Not Today Satan (aka Stefani Kuo) captures an important side of trail life and notes the feeling of presence and gratitude while thru-hiking.
✍️ Stefani Kuo (Not Today Satan)
📍 Wrightwood, California
🗓️ May 10, 2025
Yesand, a hiker from Devon, UK, sends this vibrant postcard of the trail in all its colors. “What colours are you experiencing?” he asks. ✍️ Yesand
📍 Kennedy Meadows South, California
🗓️ May 14, 2025
