Hello everyone I was curious to know what kind of navigation skills are needed on the pct. How well established are the trail and are there even trails through the whole length or will some of it be just wilderness? Are there trail markers often? How are they marked compared to the AT? Im a bit worried as I plan on doing the thruhike solo. Thanks in advance!!
steve teran
I remember doing just fine with the set of four official guidebooks. They have (or had, in '04) two-color maps that some hikers didn’t like, but I thought they were fine, especially for the price, less than $100 for all four books at the time.
The trail is not constantly blazed like the AT, but most major junctions are marked and minor junctions are easy to figure out with the maps. The biggest navigation problem comes in the snow in the Sierra, where the trail might be completely covered. There, good navigation skills, alertness, and common sense are pretty important.
Some hikers do OK with just a data book, no maps, others have gotten badly lost without the maps. I hiked the AT without maps, but I wouldn’t consider the PCT without them, just my opinion.
There is a really good trail all the way, much better tread than the AT. Most of the time navigation will not be a concern. Water, resupply, and wildland fires will occupy more of your time. Have a great hike.
Garlic
Take the data book and the guidebook. The maps in the guidebook are sufficient. The most difficult navigation is in the snow in the Sierra and finding the right pass to go over. Another problem is navigating your way close to towns in SoCal and in a few logged areas in WA. There are a lot of use trails from ATVs and ORVs, plus new logging roads, so sometimes you need to navigate by feel. Frequently there will be cairns or arrows.
Don’t worry about going solo. There will be a lot of other people around and you can link up with others, which is especially encouraged for the Kennedy Meadows to South Lake Tahoe stretch where you’ll have to deal with snow.
Suge
The only real navigation challenges you’ll face will be on the snow in the Sierra. The guide book maps are more than adequate at 50,000:1 scale (they’re scaled USGS maps). The full color Ley maps, while pretty, are less useful as navigation tools as they’re at the lower detail 63,500:1 scale. They do however show significant fractions of potential bail out routes.
You’ll want good map and compass navigation skills for the high Sierra, especially if you do it in a higher snow year like 2006 was, or you’ll want a GPS loaded with the trail track / maps (and plenty of spare batteries). Check out your local Orienteering organization to get some practical experience with map and compass navigation. It’s well worth the effort.
Ditto what Suge says on So Cal ATV tracks, especially on either side of Mojave. There’s a lot of them and it can be confusing at times. This was the only area I got “temporarilly mislocated” for about 15 minutes - I followed a dirt bike track that looked like the trail (the S.O.B. dirt bikers ride over everything in those areas).
Oh yeah - don’t sweat the solo thing. “By myself, but not alone” is the situation out there - there will be enough folks around if you head out of KM any time from ~ June 5th to the 25th.
Token Civilian
Some other places that hikers got lost in 2008:
-Section D around the infamous frog closure (getting back onto the PCT)
-Forrester Pass, Section H near the beginning of the High Sierra (several went too far to the west/left, picking the wrong pass)
-Crater Lake, Oregon (not lost lost, but the trails are very different now from when the guidebook map was made)
-Pamelia Lake, Oregon (not sure how this happened, but it sounds like literally half the hikers took the wrong trail here)
-Ramona Falls area of Mt. Hood (again, the trails don’t match the map since routings have changed in the past 10 years or so)
-coming out of Goat Rocks, WA (one of the few places where the PCT is NOT the most-travelled trail, so hikers used to just going by feel ended up on a couple different wrong trails)
When a new edition of OR/WA comes out, hopefully the maps will be updated. In the meantime, i would just take note of these places and ask a ranger or trail angel in the town previous to each spot. A local tip or 2 should keep you on track. A current NPS map will make Crater Lake clear. A current Hood NF map will make that one clear. A compass will help make Forrester Pass clear.
The vast majority of the time, the PCT is obvious though.
markv
As long as you are sober and awake you can hardly get lost. It seemed the people out in front were kind enough to leave markers at confusing places and the guide book was always there to help. The guide book mostly sucks except in those rare times when you are totally confused and then you’re very glad you have it.
Mostly the trail is a wide, very well engineered path with a million footprints and two rows of hiker pole marks along the edges. So even if there are other paths crossing it, you have the footprints and pole marks to help.
And yes, the snow sucks. Fortunately you can usually see where you want to go. Getting yourself there through the snow can pose a bit of a challenge for some of us klutzes.
Piper
I am a map geek. I look at a lot of maps.
The PCT guidebooks contain hands down the most precise and accurate routing of any trail I have ever seen on any map. Any map, anywhere. This may be less true as time passes and minor re-routes occur, but these maps will only be getting less accurate because the original masters that created them are no longer responsible for their maintenance.
I often wondered while hiking along who these geniuses were that took untold (thousands?) of hours to craft such a work of art in an era before GPS and probably even computers.
They are truly magnificent and if you can appreciate them, you will have yet another thing to marvel at along our most beautiful piece of American infrastructure, the PCT.
You also will have no chance of getting even remotely confused or lost.
There is beauty and wisdom in a good map. Learn to use it and you will enjoy the experience that much more.
Hans Berg