just a quick question, is a go date of march 1st going nothbound doable-i have started on april 1st in 08 and that date went well for my 1st thur-hike attempt, but i would like to start a month sooner due to the cooler temps. I know there will be a good chance of snow (did hit it in april). I plan on going slower (10-15mi a day/a few zeros-and hiting KM sometime in May)due the early start. starting in april would be wiser-but startin in march would work out better.
boviine
boviine
In the end, you can make anything work on the PCT if you’re flexible enough.
However, a date of March 1st is ridiculously early and I wouldn’t advise it. You would have to go INCREDIBLY slow to make it to kennedy meadows after mid-may and not before. While it’s easy to say, sitting in a chair, “I’ll do 10 mile days, no problem!” it’s a lot harder when you’re sitting at the beginning of a 20-25 mile dry stretch at lunch on a 10-12 mile day and looking at spending two FULL days inside the dry stretch. Often on the PCT it’s actually easier to just do 20s, as backwards as that seems.
Sure, you could take more zeros to slow down, but that’s still a whole lot of zeros to time your arrival at kennedy meadows at a reasonable time (and third week in May, while doable, is still quite early, and even that’s ELEVEN WEEKS after your start. Most people do the desert in a month and not going fast. Going slow with lots of zeros is usually 5 weeks or so, not seven. And that makes for a june 1st arrival at kennedy meadows from a late april start! Even if you did the desert in eight weeks, which would be very slow indeed, you’d be rolling up on May 1st!
but again, anything is possible if you’re flexible and truly committed to a plan. I mean, you could pull it off, but it’d be more of a hassle than I’d say it’s worth. Just start in mid/early april, it’s really not that much hotter.
Joker
To early. You will run into a lot of snow on San Jacinto and the San Bernardino Mountains. As mentioned, you will also get to Kennedy Meadows way to early, unless you are into Winter Mountaineering conditions for the Sierras.
I live in So Cal desert near the border and in most years it doesn’t really warm up till the end of April and May. It won’t be to hot if you start with the crowd at the kickoff in late April. We had snow in April last year!
Robocop
Robocop
Actually 7 weeks from the start to KM isn’t all that unusual. April 25 to June 13th (in 2009) would have been exactly 7 weeks. 100 miles per week (on average, including nero’s and zeros) at the start is about right anyways (at least for the older than early 20’s hikers), to let the body gently adjust to the rigors of the trail. Call it 6 on, 1 off and that averages to a bit under 17 miles per hiking day. Throw in some nero’s into or out of town and your ‘full’ hiking days will average in the low 20’s.
That said, I’d concur with the general opinion of a March 1 date as a bit on the early side.
Check with weatherunderground or another web site that has historical climate data to find when the temps, on average, really start to spike. That said, I suspect it’s a lottery on what temps you’ll actaually get. Some folks with the late April start get snowed on in the Lagunas or around Idyllwild, others (like me in 06) get fried in 100 degree heat while marching across the flat lands to get to the shade under the I-10 bridge. It’ll be what it is - all you can do is adapt.
FYI: San Jacinto and around Baden Powell were quite passable in early to Mid May of the very high snow year of 2006. Plus, there’s the ‘low’ route around San Jacinto if you want to avoid the snow there.
Token Civilian
If we have an exceptionally dry year in the southern half of California like we did in 2007, March 1st wouldn’t sound so early; though that year was definitely the exception and not the rule. I couldn’t believe how little snow there was when I went backpacking in the 3rd week of May in the High Sierra that year.
Miner