Leaving the trail for 2-3 weeks?

imported
#1

I am thru-hiking the PCT in 2010, but my brother’s wedding the last week of July. I figure I’d be to Tahoe/Donner Pass around the 1st or 2nd week of July and would fly home from Reno…then fly back to Reno July 31st and continue the trail where I left off.

My question is leaving from Tahoe/Donner Pass July 31st too late? How many people are finishing in the middle or end of October? From what I see, the majority seem to finish in the middle of September leaving me way behind. This is my first thru-hike and I will be going solo.

Jason

Haalawood

#2

Middle to end of October is probably too late, most years. I tried a hike around Mt Hood this year on the PCT on the first of October and it was already a foot of crusty snow, very slow and difficult.

I really tried to leave the PCT for a friend’s wedding a few years ago, and I found it financially impossible to make it. It’s nearly impossible to plan your pace, especially on your first hike, so you need to be very flexible as to where you leave the trail. I was at Sonora Pass when I needed to head to Reno. It was a very long, half-day hitch to Bridgeport, and I missed the only bus to Reno that day by hours and missed my chance to fly home. The only option was renting a car for so much per mile and driving for days, and it would have cost well over $1,000 which I just didn’t have. I’d rather give the money to my friend as a present than to show up at the wedding where they probably wouldn’t even notice I was there. Brother’s different, though.

I think making it to the wedding and finishing the PCT the same year will take more money, involving an expensive last-minute flight from a small airport or car shuttle from a small town farther north. Good luck with this.

Garlic

#3

My problem is that I will have too much time to get to Reno, since I should be at Donner Pass 1-2 weeks before I need to fly back to San Diego. The money part doesn’t bother me since I only need to get back to Southern CA.

The only thing that I am worried about is being 2-3 weeks behind everyone, getting stranded in snow by myself and losing the trail. If there are still others hiking at that time I’ll have no worries.

Haalawood

#4

I’ve heard of people finishing in late October, but it’s pretty rare to comfortably do that. The latest anyone finishes regularly is probably mid October. Any later than that and you run serious risks of being snowed off the trail and unable to finish or dying of hypothermia. And to be honest, I would plan to finish before the end of September if at all possible. I and some other thru-hikers rain trail magic at Hart’s Pass (northernmost road in the US on the PCT) this year on September 26th and at night the temperatures were well below freezing at night and not comfortable during the day. Thankfully it was sunny.

At any rate, there’s no need for you to go to the wedding from Donner Pass if you don’t need to go back until the end of July. You should consider other locations. By the last week in July in both 2008 and 2009 I was in Ashland, OR which has great public transit options (train, bus, even a small airport, although I don’t know what you could fly out of there. But transport to Medford, which has a bigger airport). If you’re not confident you could make it to Ashland, you could always hitch out from other towns. Etna has a bus called “the stage” that will connect to other towns that have longer-distance busses that’ll get you somewhere with an airport or train station. Hell, Dunsmuir (A 5 mile hitch or so from Castella) has an Amtrak station that lots of section hikers use to get on the trail.

So weigh your options. I’d say by July 20th you could easily be in Dunsmuir or Etna. Then when you come back July 31st, your positioning will be much better for a late September finish instead of a risky mid/late October finish.

Joker

#5

Thanks Joker! I never thought about the train. I can take the Amtrak from Dunsmuir to San Diego and back, and then get right on the trail without losing those weeks. I figured Reno would have been my only option of getting back to San Diego.

Haalawood