hey folks, I’m planning a PCT thru-hike for 2010. Did the AT last year (SOBO) and was wondering if someone who has done both could clue me in on any big differences planning-wise.
On the AT I had drop-boxes every 3-7 days. Is this practical for the PCT?
Any insight into lessons learned would be much appreciated!
Six-Toe
I thru’d the AT in 4 1/2 months with 18 zeros, should I expect it to take much longer for the PCT if I cut down on the zeros? I started the AT in poor shape and took 24 days to get through Maine, plan on being much better this time around!
Six-Toe
I have not hiked the AT so I can’t compare. You will have longer stretches between resupplies most of the time, from what I have heard.
I recommend you get the guide books and the Data book. They will tell you where you can resupply. Also helpful is Yogi’s town guide. There is a new PCT Atlas that is supposed to be amazing and that will replace the need for the guide books, Data books and extra maps.
Good luck and remember the PCT isn’t the AT.
Piper
On the PCT, towns are either much farther apart or farther off the trail if you want to resupply more often. While many do resupply as they go, it is harder on the PCT because many of the stores are either gas station minimarts or campground stores. The PCT is a much hotter trail than the AT - temps are in the 90’s and 100’s for much of the distance and water sources are frequently 20 or more miles apart into Oregon. Fire has burned a lot of the PCT and so there is no shade in those sections - making a hot day feel much hotter. You share the trail with illegal motorbikes and ATVs and (legal) horses - making for a different kind of experience. You also go through clear cuts and windfarms and under several freeways - the PCT does not work as hard for a ‘wilderness experience’ as the AT does. There are, however, some real wilderness areas where it is a long long way between road crossings. The trail is better graded and less rocky, for the most part, so it is easy to do big miles. If you did the AT in 4 1/2 months, you could probably do the PCT in 4 to 4 1/2 months as well.
Ginny
i appreciate the info. i actually went ahead and ordered yogi’s guide today since that looks like a great tool. ginny, from your description of the resupplies as being tougher, does that mean you would rely on mail drops more on the PCT than AT? i’m actually more excited for this trip than the AT (not to take away from that great experience). the AT was something I “had to do”, while this is more a hike a truly “want to do”, if that makes any sense. My wife and i have been living out here in Utah for 3 years and going back to the East Coast was a little tough scenery wise. i definitely missed the wide open views! hopefully our southern utah hikes are good prep for the desert hikes of socal. thanks again.
Six-Toe
If you are not a picky eater, you can easily buy as you hike on the PCT. Most of the grocery stores are decent to excellent. There are a few gas station mini marts where you will have fun getting creative with re-supply 
On two PCT thru-hikes, I did not send myself any food maildrops.
Happy Trails!
freebird
When we hiked, we did a mixture of buy as you go and maildrop. In California we sent food to Kennedy Meadows (south), Vermillion, and Belden. The rest of the time in California, we bought as we went. We were ahead of the pack so there was generally food in the stores - except Reds Meadow. Later hikers sometimes arrived at the same places where we resupplied easily to find empty shelves. I think the stores are getting more used to the thruhiking pack so this is less of a problem now than it was in 2000. In Oregon we bought food in Ashland to send to all the little resorts in that state and in Washington we bought food to send to the small resorts in Washington. I didn’t want to hitch out to the bigger towns (i.e. Sisters, Bend or Leavenworth) and we don’t hike so fast that we wanted to carry food for more than 150 or so miles. If we go back, we probably will be more willing to hitch out to get resupplies if the gas stations don’t have much. One thing too, the campground stores are quite expensive. So you get the ease of buying as you go, but it isn’t cheaper than buying and mailing ahead.
Ginny
My PCT thru-hiking experience was so different from Ginny’s that it’s hard to believe it was the same trail. Very seldom, as in i believe twice, did i have to go more than 4 days between resupply points. All but a couple of the hitches to town were easy. The temperatures were never, really NEVER over 100, and they were over 90 a total of perhaps 5 days, for maybe a few hours on those days. I could count on my two hands the number of times that water sources were as much as 20 miles apart. The vast majority of the trail can be hiked with 2 or 3 liters in your pack. There were about 4 or 5 burned out sections, ranging from 2-15 miles in length. I never saw a single ATV or motor bike. (I heard a couple.) Again, i could count the clearcuts on my two hands. There are 3 or 4 wind farms. If i’m counting correctly, 8 freeways you go under all the way from Mexico to Canada, and LOTS of wilderness.
Not to be a pain, but i couldn’t believe what i was reading above, so i feel i have to also explain the PCT that i saw. :cheers
markv
i hiked the pct in 05(wa. and ore.) and ca. in 06. also did some of ore. and all of wa. in 07. i did the at. from w. virginia to katadin in 08. i agree with all of mark5 comments. i enjoyed both trails but found the pct to be much more of a “true wilderness” experience.
floater
Even two hikers a few weeks apart have very different experiences on a long hike. We hiked the PCT after hiking the CDT - so it seemed very hot, dry, overdeveloped and overpopulated to us compared to the cooler and more remote trek we had had the year before. A friend who hiked the PCT a mere week behind us had a cold front go through during the worst of the desert stretches, so he didn’t experience some of the heat that we did in the south, and he hiked after snowmelt in the Sierras - while we hiked during the worst of that meltoff – so our experiences there were totally different. He passed us and got through Washington before the snows started. Again, a very different experience. OTOH, he had a lot more thunderstorms than we did. Hikers who hiked in 2008 had fire after fire to deal with. A friend who hiked during a really high snow year carried his ice axe from Campo to Manning Park - and needed it. He said he got snowed on almost every week of his hike. Each year is different.
As to resupply - it really depends on how fast you’re hiking. We averaged 19 mpd - so our resupplies were generally 5-6 days apart, with our longest stretch being Lone Pine to Vermillion, which was about 10 days (with a side trip to Whitney). Faster hikers can do those stretches in less time, or skip some of the stops that we used. When we do the trail again, we’ll probably skip some of the way off trail stops like Onyx and Etna and have longer carries but less trouble with long hitches.
Ginny
Every year is very different. Southern CA was HOT in 2004. Our first week out from the kickoff we were seeing many many 100+ degree days. It was 104 the day before we hit Warner Springs. Water was indeed in the >20 miles between sources range, and significantly longer in some stretches. We never depended on water caches after learning that lesson the hard way. Quite a few hikers had real issues with heat stress.
Some years may be cool and wet, but certainly not all of them.
CHipper & Jeff
Oh, and it also felt crowded to us in Southern CA. Because the water sources were so far apart, people ended up hiking very similar daily schedules, hence hikers piled up at water sources, camp sites, in town, etc. This was exacerbated by the kick-off party effect, of course.
Chipper & Jeff
I’d be interested in someone with a Data Book going through and figuring out just what percentage of the trail has water carries of 20 miles or more in a dry year, and how many days on the trail in a hot year were over 100 degrees. I don’t disagree that there is some hot weather, some long carries, a few highway underpasses, etc, as you can see from my post.
But i do start shaking my head when descriptions read that this is the NORM on the PCT. Truly, in any year with any conditions on the PCT, your typical day will be like this:
High in the upper 70s, low in the 40s. 4 or 5 water sources along the way. 1-2 days out from town, 1-2 days to get to town. Lots of trees. 1 road crossing. 3-4 semi-abandoned jeep track crossings. No vehicles or horses. Several thru-hikers. No other hikers. Quiet outdoors. Animals if you are hiking by dawn. No mountain lions. No dragons. No weather threats.
For years other than my own i’m basing this on reading trail journals faithfully. There are lots of the exceptional days, but they are few and far between. Even if EVERY day in SoCal in a given year is 105 with no water (which it isn’t), that’s still only 1/5 of the trail.
It’s more important that PCT prospectives give thought to mental fatigue, and repetitive stress to their feet and knees. These are the things that kill hikes and/or make them no fun.
Anyway, to answer the ORIGINAL question, yes drop boxes every 3-7 days is very practical. You may prefer to do more buying as you go, especially for southern and northern California, since it requires less planning. In the High Sierra, you’ll have one carry that will be more than 7 days. You’ll read about it. The other big differences in planning is that you don’t need to worry about being geared up for sustained rains until Oregon, and that you do need to have some good maps and perhaps an ice axe for the High Sierra. The AT veterans i hiked with pretty much did great on the PCT and adored it. A few found they could do much bigger miles, and a couple of those actually got hurt from doing too many big mile days. A few had to get used to occasionally looking at a map at junctions, since there are no blazes. A few times maybe even a compass…maybe. Other than that, no problem. Go hike it.
markv
In Southern California, there are 16 water alerts (13 -35 miles without water) for a total distance of 354 miles (in the first 665) dry. There are many sources off trail and water caches - but in a dry year there are still a lot of miles where you need to carry significant water.
North of the Sierras, there are 9 water alerts listed in the data book (12 -26 miles dry) for a total of 151.6 more miles where you need to be careful about water. So out of the total PCT mileage of 2663.5, 505 are considered worthy of a water alert - almost 1/5 of the trail.
G
Yes, water is a much bigger issue on the PCT. There are caches in many of the dry areas butt is not wise to count on them considering how far away from the next source you may find yourself.
On the PCT, I tend to do much higher miles but I’ve also struggled with blisters while on the AT I never had a single blister.
My genral impression is that the PCT is more of a wilderness experience but it is also less social. Fewer trail angels and towns to pass through.
And it DOES get very hot. you might get lucky but temps in So Cal genrally were above 90 when I was hiking through and in many sections there is very little shade.
Jalan
It tells you a lot that the water report is a very hot ticket item. Most hikers carry it, especially in So cal.
Stryker
What?! No dragons? I’d still hike it…do these “waterless stretches” include any caches?
fishngame
I believe the original claim was that frequently one has to carry water for more than 20 miles. That’s not going to be 1/5 of the trail. Off the top of my head, that’s going to be 1/10 or 1/15 of the trail. Throw in a handful of caches that one can deem reliable if there is word that very day that they were just restocked, and the number goes down to something like 1/25 of the trail. It’s not like i’m saying it’s not worth attention. I’m just saying that painting the PCT as a vast non-wildnerness scorching desert is highly misleading. A 12 mile “water alert” is like deciding to hike a dayhike with 2 or 3 liters in your pack. This isn’t stuff to keep someone from enjoying the trail. This is just normal hiking.
I don’t bring this up to be cheery or because i enjoy these internet debates. I bring it up because i saw tons of hikers carrying way too much water because they had this irrational fear placed in them from these forums and listservs. Other irrational fears existed too. Unfortunately, irrational fears can cause real problems. Always carrying an extra 5 lbs. of water can cause a real problem. Read the water report, get to know your own body’s needs, relax, hike the PCT.
I promise you you won’t end up saying, “I really miss the AT, because it had more water. And more wilderness. (?!?) And cooler weather (!!!)” You might like the vibe better on the AT…i heard this once or twice, but not often.
markv
On my PCT hikes, water was never an issue.
1997 was a relatively “average” year in respect to the weather & we had only one scorching hot day above 100. I never carried more than 2 litres of water, except for the 35 mile section @ Kelso Valley Road - PCT mile 616 -(which now has a fairly dependable cache stocked by local woman named Mary).
2005 was exceptionally wet - in fact the wettest ever in SoCal in the short-lived PCT thru-hiking era. Billy Goat counted 14 water sources between Campo & Lake Morena! I never carried more than 1 quart of water on the entire trail in '05. There were a few hot days but nothing oppressive.
On both these hikes, the hottest weather I encountered was in NoCal - specifically at Castle Crags State Park & Seiad Valley. On both hikes I hit high temps there with much higher humidity than SoCal. (The Hat Creek Rim can be toasty too)
I think that not just the year, but the timing of the start of the hike is a huge factor in the water & heat issues. Almost invariably, hikers starting in early April have many more natural (ie. non cache or faucet) water sources and significantly lower daily temps than those who start at the kickoff or in early May. I enjoy starting “early” on PCT hikes so that I can really relax for the first 700 miles to Kennedy Meadows (with lots of zeros). Comparing notes with hikers who started in late April or May, I’ve noticed that they had a much different experience - specifically less water & more heat.
There’s a reason why some of the most experienced long-distance hikers (like Billy Goat & Scott W. & Erik D. & many others) chose to hike the PCT repeatedly - it’s AWESOME!
Happy Trails!
freebird
A certain man in this thread seems determined to force his experience and perception of the trail on others.
Mr. Knowitall