PCT border crossing issue

imported
#1

Hello!

I am planning an extended trip on the PCT through Washington this summer, starting at Manning Park and heading south. I just talked with the US Border office in Oroville, and was told that if I start in Canada and enter the US that way, I will be illegal. Crossing at an unmanned point, or something like that. Even tho I am a US citizen! My first thought was, who would know? But I plan on having my wife drop me off there, then her return back through that port. I don’t want her to get in trouble coming back. I guess I may have to skip that part, starting at Harts Pass or something.

Anyone else have similar experiences? I mean, how do southbound PCT hikers get around this policy?

Seracer

#2

The border crossing is unmanned. How will they know if you cross? You’ll drive in with your wife, then she’ll dirve out by herself. I would be amazed if the border guards put 2 and 2 together and figured out that you weren’t with her when she came back into the US. When you enter Canada, don’t offer that information!!!

I suggest two things:

(1) Call the PCTA 916-349-2109 and ask what sobo hikers do.

(2) Drive up to Manning with your wife and then hike south.

It may be irresponsible for me to advise you to disregard what the Oroville Border Office told you, but SERIOUSLY, nobody will know you crossed the border on foot. I’ve heard of hikers getting stopped by Canadian Border Guards, but I’ve never heard of anyone seeing US border guards out in the woods of the PCT. If the Canadian guards find you, you’re good to go because you entered Canada legally via a border crossing on a road.

Kudos to you for trying to do the right thing, but sometimes bureaucracy is more trouble than it’s worth.

Good luck!

yogi

www.pcthandbook.com

yogi

#3

You could get busted. For example, they regularly bust people at the Goat Haunt crossing in Waterton/Glacier. Usually the people arrested are smuggling Asian prostitutes into the US from Canada (one bust happened a few days after I set out north on the GDT). I haven’t heard too many stories about border agents sitting around trying to write tickets at the Manning Crossing, but be aware that you could have some bad luck and get nailed.

If it was me, I would just go and carry my passport.

Suge

#4

Strange days indeed…

Not sure yet what I will do, but thanks for the info. I wonder, in this year of low snow in the Cascades and high snow in the Sierras, what southbounders like me will do. I am guessing that there will be more of us than usual. Perhaps safety in numbers?

It’s a crazy world we live in when legitimate hikers have this kind of BS to deal with. It seems that Canada does have a formal application for northbound PCT crossing, but the US has no such reciprical process.

Seracer

#5

When we hiked the PCT in 2000, when we tried to cross the border we didn’t have our passports or birth certificates, just a drivers license. The border guard gave us a hard time about it, saying, “I don’t have to let you through.” We said, “Okay that’s fine, we’ll just walk back across the border at Manning Park.” He had a fit. “You can’t do that, it’s illegal!” We said, “Hikers do it all the time. There’s no border station for 100 miles.” He was very upset - but did let us through eventually.

Ginny