Lily Tagariello said the outdoors speaks to her soul.

“It just feels natural. It’s peaceful,” Tagariello told Kinute. “It feels like home.”

Tagariello is a full-time thru-hiker/outdoor adventurer and free spirit. She completed the Pacific Crest Trail in 2021, a 2,600-mile-long hiking trail that goes through California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. She’s explored several states, but primarily spends time in the Pacific Northwest.

The decision to devote her life to being outside and experiencing the wonders and majesty — as well as the unexpected twists and turns — of nature came after she realized she was not fulfilled with her life and work.

“In 2018 I was working a sales job that I basically hated. I’d be outside of an account I was supposed to go visit, hiding in my car in the parking lot, crying or having a panic attack almost every day and basically procrastinating as much as possible, scrolling through Instagram (the way most of us procrastinate these days),” Tagariello recalled. “I was already really into day hiking, nature photography and RVing, so I followed a lot of accounts that posted that type of content. I managed to stumble upon Tommy Corey’s account (@TwerkInTheDirt, or the creator of ‘Hiker Trash Vogue’) one day and immediately fell in love with the world of thru-hiking, specifically on the PCT, and convinced myself I needed to quit my job and go hike the PCT in order to be happy.

Lily Tagariello feels at home outdoors, especially when she is hiking across a trail in a remote, magnificent area. Photo courtesy Lily Tagariello

“I became obsessed. I followed everybody that Tommy (“Twerk”) posted about, I watched all of Jennifer Mabus’ YouTube videos of her own PCT thru-hike and I researched gear like crazy,” she said. “Thru-hiking became the only thing I cared about, even before I ever stepped foot on the PCT.”

Tagariello decided to make a career change to allow her to explore her passion for outdoor experiences and adventures.

“I’m a seasonal bartender, so I’m able to work all winter, save a bunch of money and then travel all summer if I chose to,” she said.

Tagariello has had a taste for adventure most of her life.

“Before thru-hiking I’d visited many of our country’s national parks, state parks and national forests,” she said. “I lived outside of Glacier National Park (my hands-down favorite place to go hiking) for a couple months. I worked in Utah for a year, so I’ve been all over Utah (Zion is my favorite spot there) and I've done three cross-country (and Canadian) road trips, stopping in many recreational areas. Among my favorite stops were Mount Rainier National Park near Seattle, Jasper National Park in Alberta, Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California, Monument Valley in northern Arizona and many wilderness areas in Colorado.

“I completed the John Muir Trail, solo and northbound (from Mount Whitney to Yosemite National Park) in 2019. I wanted to hike the JMT to make sure I even liked thru-hiking,” Tagariello said. “Actually, I really wanted to hike the PCT that year, with zero backpacking experience, but I let a lot of people talk me out of that and decided to take on a smaller adventure instead. The JMT shares about 170 miles with the PCT and is considered by many the most spectacular backpacking trip in America, so it sounded like a great alternative. After that hike I convinced my friend Johnny to do the Tour Du Mont Blanc (in France, Switzerland and Italy) with me, only three days after flying home from Yosemite.”

In 2020, she spent three nights solo backpacking in Glacier National Park, while briefly living in Montana, and then, with her mother, hiked part of the Kesugi Ridge Trail — “which offers amazing views of Denali Peak in Alaska.”

Last year, Tagariello set out to complete the Pacific Crest Trail.

“It took me five months and I skipped a lot of Northern California because of fire closures,” she said. “I’d absolutely do it again. I really think I will one day. But in the more near future I’d like to go back and hike all the sections I had to skip.”

A group of hikers, including Tagariello, pose for a photo after they were driven around a large fire closure in Northern Californa during the height of wildfire season in a UHaul that their friend “Heaves” rented. Photo courtesy Lily Tagariello

It was almost entirely a positive experience.

“For me, there really weren’t many downs. I was exactly where I’d been wanting to be for the past three years,” Tagariello said. “The pandemic actually delayed my original plans of thru-hiking in 2020. That was a big ‘down’ … I had spent the entire winter before the pandemic telling customers at the bar why I was saving money and that I’d be walking from Mexico to Canada. I’d dreamt so many nights of the PCT. On my list of priorities I put the trail before my family, before romantic relationships, before my friends. Having my hike postponed in 2020 felt like losing my only child — dramatic, but that’s how I felt at the time.”

Her advice for someone who was about to hike the entire PCT for the first time? Prepare to be surprised, repeatedly.

“Don’t expect anything to go according to plan! And remember, no matter how grim it seems, things are always going to work themselves out,” she said. “It may take a while, or it may take a lot quicker than you expect, but things will always get better. And you always have the option to quit. No one’s forcing you to be out there. Be out there because you want to be. ‘It will be OK’ was something I had to remind myself a lot on trail, to get through the worser times,” she said. “And it always was.”

Sharing time with family

Tagariello said before hopping on the Pacific Crest Trail, she hiked the first 301 miles of the Arizona Trail, from Mexico to Superior, Arizona. That is just one of the amazing journeys she has taken in recent years, and she has shared some with family members.

“I’ve also backpacked to Havasu Falls in the Grand Canyon with my little sister, Chloe. That was a really special trip,” Tagariello recalled. “We actually missed our flight to Phoenix on the way there and had to spend a night in Vegas. It was our first time in Vegas and we only had hiking shoes, Tevas and hiking clothes. I love to travel alone and meet new friends, but I’m always trying to convince loved ones to join me, too.

Tagariello and “OP,” aka Leo, a member of her trail family, stop for a photo in front of a mountain in northern Oregon. Photo courtesy Lily Tagariello

“It’s just hard for most people to take off work, and then even harder for them to get out of their comfort zone and be dirty or be without comforts like TV, showers, a bed, a roof,” she said. “A lot of my friends from ‘real life’ and my family members think what I do is crazy. They don’t really understand it or have a desire to do it themselves.

“My mom loves joining me, though. We try to take a week and visit a different national park together every year,” Tagariello said. “We’ve been to Acadia in Maine, Grand Teton and Yellowstone in Wyoming, and Denali, Kenai Fjords and Wrangell St. Elias in Alaska. Iceland and the Canadian Rockies are on our bucket list but the pandemic has made it difficult to travel internationally.”

She has met “all sorts of people from all different places” during her travels.

“My favorite were on thru-hiking trails, like the Arizona Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail,” Tagariello said. “There's ‘Lil' Ralffy,’ the one-eyed mandolin player from Maryland; Sydney, my trail sister, who carried a soccer ball the entire way from Mexico to Canada, ‘Cinderella,’ who's a vegan and a scientist and can eat more (vegan) hot dogs in one sitting than anyone I've ever met, ‘Treebeard,’ who is in the Peace Corps and is the most inclusive and caring person I've been lucky to know, ‘Arizona,’ who is the coolest college student I’ve ever met (the dude hiked the entire state of California on his summer vacation!) ‘Karaoke,’ the Navy medic-turned-viral meme-er, ‘Baby-steps,’ who's a lot bigger than his name makes him seem, a body piercer in Michigan, and ‘Radio’ who sells Magic The Gathering cards for a living in Seattle — to name just a few of my friends from the PCT.”

Tagariello with five trail buddies at Burney Falls in Northern California. From left: “Space Case,” “Cinderlla,” “Hitch God,” “OP,” Pele,” who carried a soccer ball the entire trail, and Tagariello, who was called “Cyclone” on the trail. Photo courtesy Lily Tagariello

She just enjoys people.

“I’ve met a lot of interesting folk in my RV travels as well,” Tagariello said. “I’ve also had some really cool co-workers (and even some cool and not-so-cool customers) from all over the world in my time as a bartender.” 

She has at times used her thumb to keep moving. Once, she ended up falling in love with a man she met along the road.

“Funny story: I met my boyfriend hitch-hiking. He pulled over and told me he couldn’t give me a ride, ’cause he was picking up other hikers who’d texted him earlier, but he gave me a tin of Pringles and a few beers,” Tagariello said. “I got a ride into town from someone else, and then ended up bumping into my boyfriend, Tyler (also known as ‘Ponyboy’) again in the parking lot of the hotel my friends and I were staying at.

“Tyler was a ‘trail angel,’ which is basically someone who makes our lives as thru-hikers a lot easier by providing rides into town or around fire closures, or surprising us at trailheads with burgers, Gatorade, beers, etc.,” she said. “Some trail angels will even let hikers crash at their house for a night or two. There’s a great man named Kenny in Big Bear, California, who let a bunch of hikers use his home basically as a hostel. I met a lot of my great trail friends at Kenny’s house: ‘Radio,’ ‘Caveman,’ ‘Twister,’ ‘Haiku,’ ‘Uni-B,’ ‘Sorte.’”

Tagariello’s boyfriend Tyler, aka “Ponyboy,” enjoys a cup of coffee. He has joined her on a few hikes. Photo courtesy Lily Tagariello

Cakes, parties and mental health 

Tagariello turned 29 at Trail Days in Cascade Locks, Oregon, celebrating with a whole cake she devoured.

“Hiking has not put me in better shape because in every town we would eat whole cakes like that,” she said. “And drink quite a bit. It has made a huge improvement in my mental health though. It’s done a lot for my depression and anxiety — especially social anxiety.”

Tagariello said she does not feel unsafe on the trails.

“Not particularly. I know people who certainly have. But as a cis, straight, white person, I am privileged to not have to deal with a lot of the obstacles some of the friends I’ve made on trail have,” she said. “There are unfortunately people in the thru-hiking community (on trail, but especially in certain small towns along the trail) who want to make trans, queer or POC feel unsafe and unwelcome. Feeling unwelcome in a town can be scarier than seeing a black bear or hiking across ice and snow.”

Being around wildlife is another part of the experience she relishes. Tagariello has seen numerous animals over the years.

“Moose — I’ve actually seen two moose mating on trail, and I’ve also stepped in a moose carcass right on trail. Marmots, black bears, brown bears, bison — my favorite! They’re so stinkin' cute! — so many teeny frogs and tadpoles!” she said, bubbling over with enthusiasm at the memories. “Lots of birds but I couldn’t identify them. Apparently on the Arizona Trail I saw a really extremely rare gray bird. I’ve had mice try to chew through my tent a couple times (I sleep with my food). Surprisingly, in all my miles of desert hiking, I’ve only seen two or three rattlesnakes. One got blown right into my leg on a really windy section of the PCT. I’ve never seen a mountain lion, but I’ve seen tracks.”

A long day of hiking, followed by a night under a blanket of stars with close friends who bond on the trail, has done wonders for her mental health and has reduced her social anxiety, Tagariello said. Photo courtesy Lily Tagariello

She has a bucket list of trails: The Patagonian Torres Del Paine in Chile. The Great Divide Trail in Canada. The Pacific Northwest Trail, from Glacier National Park to the coast of Washington — “which I’m hoping to complete with my friend ‘Produce’ this summer!” — the Continental Divide Trail, which is longer than the PCT, and New Zealand — “all of it,” she said

If she could, she would head south for the winter. Far, far south.

“Chile, Argentina, Peru. It’s their summer right now,” Tagariello said. “I love South American culture, the music, the dancing, the food and the wine, plus the backpacking trails there look insane.”

While that experience awaits her, she said she plans to hit the trail — or several trails — soon.

“I’m living in an 18-foot mobile home in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, with my boyfriend Tyler,” Tagariello said. “Working as a bartender and hoping to save enough money to do the CDT (the Continental Divide Trail, from Mexico to Canada through New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana) in 2023 or 2024,” she said. “We hope to do some trail magic — and maybe even an overnight trip or two — along the Florida Trail this winter!”

What have all these adventures taught her?

“Our bodies are so much more capable than we have been conditioned to think they are,” Tagariello said. “I am stronger than I ever knew.”