How to start?! - Pacific Crest Trail

imported
#1

Hi,

Me and my partner are planning to do the PCT, starting Apr 2012.

Our previous hiking experience is in treks of 2 weeks max, and on comfort weather.
I read some blogs with personal stories of people which have compleated the PCT, and read some general information from www.pcta.org

Can anyone write in general steps how to start preparing to the PCT trek… (reference points, equipment, food, ext.)

Thanks,
Daniela

Daniela

#2

Daniela, I strongly recommending toughening up your feet before you start your hike. Nothing worse than limping along on bruised and/or blistered feet the first week or two. Use " trail forums quick search" and type tough feet. Lots of good tips.

Equipment is important but probably more important are:

  1. Mental stamina - Are you able to do the same thing every day for 125+ days without dying of boredom?
  2. Physical stamina - Can you go 20 miles a day plus up and down a couple of thousand feet every day for 100+ days?
  3. Flexability - Eg. It’s Friday evening. You’re in town to pick up a resupply box. The P.O. is closed until Monday AM. Watcha gonna do? Or, the next 50 miles of trail is closed because of a fire. Are you going to road walk, hitch, wait, or?

bowlegs

#3

Start researching lightweight gear. A reasonable load makes every other aspect of a thru-hike easier to manage!!

Matt

#4

I started off by reading journals from trailjournals.com, while keeping a wordpad document open. I’d take notes, mark down supply points, etc. It answered a lot of questions and got me thinking about what i needed to find out before i started hiking.

Funny thing is once i got on the trail, i had all this info that turned out to be much like “Yogi’s book”. Personal recommendations from journals on where to eat, resupply, etc. But i liked mine better because i was able to get a sense for which journals to trust…which people were more like me and my own tastes.

Some good other sites are pct postholer (sorry but it’s easy to find these on Google…no links from me tonight), Craig’s PCT Planner, Halfmile’s PCT maps, and bearcant’s pct elevation profile.

It’s a lot of information-gathering, but it’s fun if you like that sort of thing. If you don’t like it, you can be like many of the younger set and just show up in Campo with a lot of energy and faith. Most did just fine that way too.

markv

#5

I’ll already started to work out in order to get there in better shape.

I hope to survive both physically and mentally - but i’ll know for sure only when i’ll get there. It is part of the challenge.

I checked the Halfmile’s PCT maps and bearcant’s pct elevation profile - it looks very informative. I’ll have to start getting used to using miles and feet.

Even though Craig’s PCT Planner seems easy for use, I don’t have any idea in what rhythm we will walk. I belive it will relatively slow… anyone can give me an estimation?!

I’ll take the advise of looking for info from journals.

Regarding the equipment, I have some equipment and I’m not sure if it fits the trail or I should replace it.
If anyone is familiar with the equipment and care to comment:

  • TNF Crestone 60 Women’s Backpack (I think it’s to heavy)
  • Tarptent Sqall2
  • TNF Aleutian sleeping bag (Is it warm enough?)
  • Leki poles
  • Petzl Tikka xp head flashlight
  • Asolo Voyager Gore-Tex shoes
  • Bridgedale + Thorlo socks
  • Columbia long light pants
  • Marmot shirts (long sleeve + short sleeve)
  • Barmah hat
  • pepsi stove (home made by me)

Daniela

#6

You’ve already got several nice selections in your gear list. But the pack is much heavier than you need at 5 1/2 pounds! Check out ULA Adventure, Go Lite, Gossamer Gear, etc. and shave several pounds off your load before you even take the first step.

Same for the sleeping bag. I suspect 20 degrees is warm enough, but at 3 1/2 pounds, the bsg is much heavier than you need. Shop around and shoot for something closer to 2 pounds. Western Mountaineering is a good place to start.

Matt

#7

Figure worse case at 15 miles per day. With 15/day, you’ll barely finish in time to beat the weather in Washington. My personal planning number is to average 20 a day and throw in a zero day about once a week. I’m 56 and find the zero days really important for letting the body recover, especially the feet.

bowlegs

#8

I filled in 4 km/h for 9 hours a day and extra 75 min per 1000 feet climbed. The result is 32.4 km per day (~20 miles per day), and 4.4 mounts before adding zero days. adding zero days about once a week (19 days in total) I will finish in 5 months.

is it logic?!

Daniela

#9

As for the calculation above, i get sections without resupply points for 5 days.

Do you walk with food for so many days on you?!

Daniela

#10

Many times its the amount of water you will need to carry. Many people are carrying 6 liters on dry sections. In the Sierra water is no problem. It’s almost everywhere. Food and getting it all into the bear canister is the problem as there are few ways to resupply without hiking out over high passes to the few trail heads between Kennedy Meadows and Muir Trail Ranch. And the ranch might not be open that early in the season.

Ghost Ranger

#11

if I understood correctly, not only you need to carry food for various days - it must all feet inside the bear canister?!

Daniela