Help! Did the AT in 2000 and my wife and I have done a little of the PCT. We are hoping to do the desert part of the PCT next spring from Campo to Walker Pass where we will hitch into Ridgecrest and rent a car. What is the earliest date that we can start the PCT to escpae some of the heat but not run into too much snow. Appreciate any advice you can give me. X-Man
Paul Xavier
You could probly do the portion from Campo to Mt. Sanjac in February… but even in June there will be snow on Mt. S. & Mt. Baden Powell… I was lucky to join a group on Mt. SJ becuz the route was barely marked… then a bunch of scouts were on Mt. BP (not named for an oil co) who were having fun glissading down… though if I member right, you just had to crunch up to the summit & ridge run on dry ground. This was in ‘93 so unowho would say "u don’t no nothin’ about the trail no mo".
gingerbreadman
Hey, Gingerbreadman, do you think there would be snow in the San Felipe Hills in the latter days of March? Thanks for the previous info. X-Man
X-Man
You probably won’t find snow covering the trail. However, I got about 4" of fresh stuff one night in early April. The trail was still easy to follow. Expect significant snow on Mt. San Jacinto and Mt. Baden Powell.
bowlegs
Paul - I started my thru-hike on March 17th this year & LOVED the cool temps & tons of water in the SoCal desert sections.
This year had great weather after the first weekend in March until April Fool’s Day. I picked the 17th because it was just after Daylight Savings had kicked in & it happened to be St. Patrick’s Day.
I’m not sure when you’re planning to start, but you can always fairly easily use alternate trails & roads to get around tough snow sections. If there’s heavy snow on the Desert Divide & San Jacinto, you can take the Spitler Peak Trail to Bonita Vista RD to May Valley RD to Saunders Meadow RD to Idyllwild to HWY #243 to Black Mountain RD & back to the PCT just past Black MTN Campground.
Baden Powell & the Big Bear vicinity are not nearly as difficult to traverse as the San Jacninto region & there are alternate route options there as well.
Happy Trails,
freebird
freebird
This is sort of what’s been said, but you can hike from Campo to just before San Jacinto anytime. I did it in January and March. If you want to do the actual trail north of there though, and it’s nice not to have to do a lower alternate, the conditions vary greatly year to year. This year saw a lot of SoCal snow, so Jacinto wasn’t easily navigable until June. Other years, it may be fairly clear by the end of April. Probably on average, it’s going to be fairly clear mid-May.
Of course, for some “fairly clear” means very different things. A few would make it through there ok in full winter conditions. A few others wouldn’t try unless there was zero snow. I’m sort of estimating for those hikers who are halfway between.
markv