Adelaide surgeon Matthew Hutchinson will walk the Pacific Crest Trail in America

An Adelaide surgeon and father of four will swap his scalpel for hiking boots and spend the next five months hiking 4200km along the west coast of America. Find out why.

The journey from Mexico to Canada along America’s west coast is a long one.

At more than 4000km, it’s a significant undertaking no matter what mode of transport - but making the trek on foot... well, that’s an adventure few humans even contemplate.

It’s an expedition that takes careful planning and between four to six months to complete, traverses deserts, mountain ranges, glaciers and chewing through multiple pairs of shoes.

The hike is called the Pacific Crest Trail and it’s a route Adelaide father of four and surgeon Matthew Hutchinson, 46, will start next week.

Dr Hutchinson will fly out on Saturday and be at the Mexico-California border by Tuesday, where he’ll start his epic solo slog north - during which he expects to wear through six pairs of shoes and take about 5.5 million steps.

He’ll brave the scorching heat of Mojave Desert in Southern California, cross glaciers and treacherous mountain passes in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and ford snow-melted rivers in Oregon and Washington.

Orthopaedic surgeon Matthew Hutchinson with his family wife Annie and sons Oliver, 13, Jack, 11, Tommy, 9, and Teddy, 7, in Burchell Reserve, St Peters. Picture: Emma Brasier

There’ll be bears and mountain lions to be wary of along the way as he races to reach the Canadian border before the snow and ice of the northern hemisphere winter sets in and makes the north end of the track impassible.

“My biggest concerns are handling loneliness and missing my family, blisters, stress fractures and mosquitoes,” he said.

“The most common reasons for people not getting through this trail are blisters and stress fractures because they just kind of break down.

“The things that people do worry about are mountain lions and bears, but statistically they’re much less of a concern, so I’m not really worried about them to be honest.”

He’ll be carrying his food, water and shelter in his trusty backpack, sleep in a 450-gram tent and resupply in towns he passes through along the way.

It’s a journey that’s been on his bucket list since he and wife Annie discovered the track while living in Portland, Oregon for a few months about 15 years ago.

The couple are now the proud parents of four sons - Teddy, 7, Tommy, 9, Jack, 11, and Oliver, 13 - who will follow his journey from back in Adelaide but hope to fly across and visit midway through.

Orthopaedic surgeon Matthew Hutchinson prepares to leave for America. Picture: Emma Brasier

“It’s lucky that I’m packing a bit of a dad bod, because I’ll need all the calories I can get while I’m on the trail,” he said. “It’s good to have a bit in reserve.”

Along the way, the former Young South Australian of the Year has set himself a goal of raising more than $250,000 to create educational scholarships for disadvantaged children - a cause close to his heart.

Born in Papua New Guinea to Baptist missionaries and homeschooled at Victor Harbor, the youngest of four siblings received a scholarship aged 16 to ensure a tertiary education allowed him to fulfil his dream of becoming a doctor.

“I was given the greatest gift any kid could ask for, two very intelligent parents who worked tirelessly and did everything they could for us,” he said.

“But a regular education was simply out of my reach. Receiving that scholarship fundamentally changed the trajectory of my life. I don’t know where I would be now without it.”

“If I can raise enough money to help even one child access a quality education, and realise their own dreams, then that would be a great thing.”

People can follow Dr Hutchinson’s progress on the webpage bighike.org.

Originally published as Adelaide surgeon Matthew Hutchinson will walk the Pacific Crest Trail in America