This question is for people who have thru-hiked both the PCT & the CDT:
How would you compare the two trails?
What did you like/dislike about each trail?
If you were given the option of thru-hiking either trail again, which would you pick and why?
Thanks in advance for the info!
Happy trails!
freebird
PCT is a trail, CDT is a route with multiple choices.
PCT has a given tread, CDT has trail, road walks, cross-country, flagged trail.
PCT is for hikers, pack animals and equistrians, CDT is multi-use including ATVs and dirt bikes in some areas.
I liked the remoteness of the CDT with few (in most areas) other trail users. I liked that it didn’t have much trail structure; the hiker has to depend on his/her skills and organization. I liked the navigation challenge.
We rehiked half of the PCT last summer. For us, rehiking is like trying to go home again and the second experience is not the exciting adventure that it was the first time.
We expanded our skills more on the CDT but thought the PCT had more exciting and varied vistas.
Things have probably changed since our 2002 CDT though.
Happy hiking!
Marcia
If you want to be around hiker culture and enjoy views on par with the CDT with some of the best hiking tread in the world do the PCT. I feel that on the PCT you can just think about hiking and daydream about the views, while on the CDT you need to focus more on your route which is interesting but its easier to get off course as soon as you stop thinking your navigation. The CDT is generally not difficult to navigate you just need to always be aware of it. As Marcia pointed out the CDT is more what you make of it, you don’t feel obligated to stay on any one route on the CDT. We saw much more wild life on the CDT and the feeling of remoteness and solitude was greater. (only saw one other hiker in all of the 500+ miles of New Mexico). On the CDT you will feel much more self reliant, there are very few water caches (if any), however the people you meet in towns and such often dont know about the CDT which is cool.
To answer you last question Im going to rehike the PCT in a few years.
mat
The CDT is mentally exhausting - if you daydream for a few miles you’ll look around and suddenly realise that you have no idea where you are. Sit down and pull out the GPS and maps. Sometimes even if you ARE paying attention you’ll have no idea where you are. Sit down and pull out the GPS and maps. In some places you’ll be glad to have five people with you, because you can’t find the blazes, and you all spread out and look, then someone calls out when you find the next blaze and you all congregate, and repeat for a few miles. You’ll see a section of trail that looks good on the map and try it out, and spend the next few hours bushwhacking or sliding down a 30 degree scree slope or glissading down the craziest scary snow cornice you’ve ever seen.
The CDT is awesome, and scary, and incredible, and exhausting.
The PCT is like CDT-lite. It has almost all of these things, without the danger of getting lost (of course you’ll need maps and a compass and the trail guides, but it’s not even close to the amount of attention you need to pay). It has a gasp trail! The whole way! But some people will start to sneer and turn up their noses at you if you try to deviate from that trail to do something cool instead. I think I hit every ecosystem except arctic and tropical rain forest on the PCT.
The PCT is my favourite of the big three trails. I’d definitely hike it again. I have a love-hate relationship with the CDT, and the PCT is really just a love-love relationship with a few rocky patches of annoyance. 
Haiku
I really can’t add too much more than what said above.
But there is a reason why the unofficial motto of the CDT is “EMBRACE THE BRUTALITY”.
The CDT is difficult, demanding…and oh-so-rewarding.
I loved all three trails equally, but for very different reasons.
If you want a pure hikers trail (well marked tread, good vistas, gentle grades, a community but not overly so like the AT) do the PCT.
If you want an intense and solo wilderness experience for much of the “trail”, do the CDT.
I was drained physically when I finished the AT.
I was drained mentally when I finished the CDT.
Much like Goldilocks, I felt “just right” on the PCT.
:cheers
Paul Mags
My friend and triple crown hiking partner, Pickle, said it well. The AT is a Bachelor’s degree, the PCT a Masters, and the CDT a Doctorate.
We hiked the AT last summer and in PA we crossed a cow pasture full of manure with multiple paths. Pickle said it was like pre-doctorate work for AT hikers.
I second all the above, too.
Garlic