SEATTLE — “I think it really came down to a couple more pounds of cheese,” said ultra-endurance athlete Becky Rogers, of what would have made a difference in her recent attempt to set the fastest known time (FKT) for a 500-plus-mile stretch of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) that spans Washington state, all without resupplying. Though Jason “Ras” Vaughn holds the speed record for men traveling the Washington section of the PCT unsupported, no such record had ever been set by a woman.
On Aug. 20, at the point where the Washington section of the PCT begins near the trail’s northern terminus, Rogers set out to change that, with a pack weighing roughly 40 pounds and no plans to leave the trail between her starting point and the Bridge of the Gods, the connecting point between the PCT’s Washington and Oregon sections.
Rogers, 41, who described her journey from her home in Seabeck, Kitsap County, is a trail runner and ultramarathoner. She coaches endurance athletes through her business, Morph Conditioning, and chronicles her own endurance challenges on a Facebook page, The Phoenix Running, where she offers “training tips, nutrition and general shenanigans from the limits of human endurance,” and posted regular updates and photos from her time on the PCT. She has four children, and planned to check in regularly with her husband using a satellite phone. And she carried 19 pounds of food, including cheddar cheese that she’d found kept well and provided necessary fat and protein stores for grueling journeys.
But 380 miles in, on Aug. 31, there was a problem that had compounded during her journey, and had ultimately become unworkable: She didn’t have enough food. Rogers and her team had made intricate fueling calculations before she left, comparing calories in to calories out, but they had to work within the limits of her backpack’s capacity, and ultimately underestimated how much food would be needed.