CCCNews Podcast Finding Your Sole: TD Grad starts 2,650-mile Journey today, April 8

Apr 8

A recent photo of Celia Peterson and Jensen Douillard with all their equipment for the hike. They left Campo, Calif. today, April 8 on the Pacific Crest Trail. If all goes well, including a successful body break-in and cooperative weather and fire season, the couple expects to reach the northern terminus in Canada in October - six months from now.

The Dalles, Ore., April 8, 2025 — Celia Peterson, a 2019 graduate of The Dalles High School, took her first steps with boyfriend Jensen Douillard of Boulder today as they have set their eyes on the Pacific Crest Trail - a 2,650-mile journey of the mind and soles from Mexico to Canada.

The couple have been preparing for months collecting their gear, emptying their apartments.

“We’ve been going through all our belongings to make it easier to move out of our apartments,” Celia said several weeks ago in a CCCNews Podcast. “We’re moving into our backpacks,” Jensen added.

They were not without their butterflies in the start of this hike as they leave much of what is familiar to them for the adventure of the unknown.

Celia said she was inspired to make the trip after her sister, Emily made the journey in 2022.

If you ask 100 hikers on the PCT why they do it, you’re likely to get 100 different answers.

But there is no doubt that the trail provides lessons, immediate consequences, physical pain, growing strength, visual beauty and belly laughs.

Celia and Jensen left for San Diego from PDX on Monday, April 7.

And it is the chance to love yourself despite what happens - to understand that goals are like sand in your hand and it is finding the love to embrace those changes even at the worst of times.

Think serenity prayer.

Below is the interview we captured with the couple back in March as they prepared for the trip and began contemplating 6 months hiking through California, Oregon and Washington.