How late is too late to connect to PNT?

imported
#1

I’m considering a NOBO thru hike of the PCT in '08, and then taking the Pacific Northwest Trail west to the coast when i hit the junction. After doing a bit of reading, i know that snow and low temps can become a real problem up in Washington, so I’d like to know when would be too late to try this? Perhaps I would be leaving a lot of the high peaks when heading west so it wouldn’t be so much of a concern? Thanks a lot. I can’t find too much info on the PNT around, and you guys at least seem familiar with the area of WA around the PCT.

BBBBBeat

#2

Check out www.pnt.org for data on the PNT.

The PCT and PNT are one and the same from Holman Pass north to Castle Pass - In the middle of this is Hopkins Lake - the place I spent the last night out on my thru hike in 06, about 7 miles from the border or so. SO…if you’re going to do this, you may want to consider detouring up to the border, then back tracking.

Anyways, to directly answer the question - if you get to the junction, it looks like you’d need another week or 10 days at the most of no snow to get out of the high country. There isn’t too much snow below about 2500 feet in Washington, even in the dead of winter. Below about 4000 feet, there usually isn’t all that much in October.

Given that, I would say that the stock answer to when should you be done with the PCT applies to your question - usually you’ll be ok until early to mid October, BUT some years (like this year) the snow can come as early as mid September.

Token Civilian

#3

From the junction to the coast via the PNT is something on the order of 600 miles. While it is true that after you leave the Mount Baker area (about 10 days or so) you reach low elevations, it will really suck in October. It will be cold and rainy and you’ll be bushwhacking at times, which means that you’ll be soaked. And you won’t have any views. The island hopping stretch might be pleasant, but you’re going to be wet and cold and miserable. And then you get to cross the Olympics, where you’ll go back up to over 6000 feet. The Olympics are the first thing that storms hit when they come off the ocean. The weather is worse, the winds higher, the air colder. You don’t want to be up there without the right gear in bad weather, and just about every day after mid October will be nasty.

Of course, you could get lucky. Or, it could be like this year, where after about September 15, the weather was awful. So, if you get to Manning around mid August, you’ve got a shot. Otherwise, catch the bus to Vancouver and then hop the ferry to Victoria (its on Vancouver Island). Hang out, then catch the ferry to Port Angeles (in Washington, on the Olympic Peninsula). Hang out, then catch another ferry to Seattle.

Suge

#4

Sam’s website http://samh.net/backpacking/?do=showproduct&id=114 is a good read. He did the thru hike of the PNT this summer.

While it could be wet in early fall (we are talking the Olympics!) it is also easy hiking once you are near Bellingham and to the end.

sarbar

#5

I thought I had read somewhere in a trail journal that it was around 250 miles from the PCT junction to Cape Alva. If it’s more like 600, then that may totally change things. Thanks for the help guys.

BBBBBeat

#6

If you cheated a bit :wink: One way to make it shorter is to walk the rail to trails from Port Townsend to out near Lake Crescent and road walk elsewhere. Sure, it isn’t going to be a wilderness experience, but you’d get there :wink:

sarbar

#7

The road along Lake Crescent is really narrow without much of a shoulder to speak of. There are a lot of lumbering RVs. I’ve had to road walk a lot of miles in Yellowstone, and the Lake Crescent road would scare me to walk. You wouldn’t cut much distance doing this, but you would get there faster and at lower elevation.

Suge

#8

You can take the trail on the back side of Lake Crescent instead. A new part of the ODT opened this year as well, near Lake Crescent.
Would it save miles? No, but safer.

sarbar

#9

Didn’t know about the Lake Crescent trail. I came back along the road after finishing the Bailey this year and couldn’t imagine walking that.

Suge

#10

What is the ODT?

BBBBbeat

#11

Sorry! ODT=Olympic Discovery Trail :slight_smile:

sarbar