What is the PCT?
The PCT is the Pacific Crest Trail. It goes through California, Oregon, and Washington. The trail follows the crest of several mountain ranges, through 27 parks and wilderneses. The Northern terminus is 6 miles past the USA Canadian boarder in Manning park. The Total Length of the trail at last report was: 2,658 miles.
Also called a drift box. A bounce box is a box of supplies that you bounce to yourself again and again. This is different from a Resupply package. A Resupply package may have some similar items in it, but will have a lot of food, depending on the hiker"s preferences. In my case, A Resupply package will have about 95% food and 5% misc items, such as maybe a fresh pair of socks, lighter etc. A Bounce box may have things in it like; a big bottle of sun screen, razor, town clothes, ice axe, permanent marker, post cards, and stamps. The basic Idea for a bounce box is that things you want to have with you, but don't want to carry. A Resupply package is used mostly for food. In my case, I am planning on bouncing the bounce box 9 times. You may ask, Why so few times? Well, I would probably bounce it more often, but I need to allow the Postal Service to get it from one place to another. I was told that it may take 6 days or more, especially because these are remote places. So I generally allow 8 - 12 days. Since the average Resupply point is 4 days apart, this means I can send it about every other Resupply point. In one case I send it back home because if I sent it to the next location, it would be there past the 12 day holding time for the postal service and would go home anyway. Another good reason is that it costs money to send packages.
Every few days you are on the trail, you will need to get food and other supplies. On the PCT this is typically around 4 days. There are two schools of thought. One is buying as you go. This gives you the freedom to go your own pace, vary your pace and buy whatever food you want when in a town, resort, store, ect. The disadvantage is that with 300 hundred hikers coming though in about a 30 day window, they can empty out some stores! So you may have little or no choices! The other school of thought is to send yourself packages via the Post office, UPS, ect. The disadvantage is your dependant on getting your packages on time, your set to a specific schedule and need to have someone sending you packages. The advantage is you get to pick your food ahead of time. This is an advantage and disadvantage if you get tired of what you bought 6 months ago. On the other hand, at least you're not stuck with Potatoe chips and Frozen burritos. Because I am trying to eat healthy, I decide on a 2/3 compromise. 2/3 mailed 1/3 bought on the spot. If I miss a package, I just buy what is available. If I get tired of some of my food, I can buy something else for part of my meals but am still stuck with what I thought I would like. Since most of my meals are varied, for me this should not be to much of a problem. If you have read other trail journals, you will note that they think preparing 5 months of meals ahead of time is masoquistic, then they are talking about me.
How did you pick the Resupply points?
Almost the first thing I had to do, when planning the trip was to pick how to Resupply. First off, I noticed that there were about 48 (or more) places to resupply. Then I noticed that some places were off the trail quite a bit, as in 10,13,17, or even 20 miles. You could be waiting for awhile until someone willing to take you to a town decided to stop, or for that matter it may be awhile till anyone in a car even drives by. Since hitch hiking sounded like you could be waiting there for awhile and because I reasoned that it might take you awhile to get back, and before you know it, a 1 day Resupply becomes 2 or 3 days. This could also add up if you are staying in Hotels while in town. So most of my Resupply points are close to the trail. This is not to say that I won't hitch hike, but that it is optional.
What is a "Zero Day"?
This is something in the PCT'ers dictionary (AT'ers, CDT'ers to). To the Backpackers I am around, it is known as a Layover Day. It basically means that you do Zero trail miles. Many of my Zero Days are in towns, where you can wash your clothes and rest up at a Hotel and basically vegetate. In the case of hiking all the time, I consider it a Sabbath (Day of Rest).
What is the AT and the CDT?
AT - Appalachian Trail. (East Coast trail that is similar to the PCT).
CDT - Central Divide Trail.
Why are you going from South to North on the PCT?
It turns out that it is harder to go North to South because of the Seasons. Going North you must wait for enough snow to melt before entering the Sierras. Generally you can start the trail around the end of April. If you started the Northern End of the trail, you would have to start later in the Spring/Summer and end up going through the highest part of the Sierras in about October. It would not be pleasant to be caught in deep snow in the Sierras at that time of year. Some people do go North to South; however most go South to North.
Are you hiking alone?
Yes and no. As far as equipment, food, and Resupply points, yes. As far as being entirely alone on the trail, no.
There is about a 1 month window that gives you the best weather to hike the entire trail. For South to North Hikers, that is about April to May depending on how deep the snow pack is. If you are leaving right after the PCT Kick Off, then it will be about the 3rd week of April. Since the vast majority of people hike during that window, I should be around 300 other hikers. Spread out of course over 300 miles. Or about 1 person for every mile. Just kidding, hikers are not evenly spaced. But you get the idea; I will be around a number of other people. Granted, we will spread out over time as we head North.
Why don't you hike in a group or with a partner?
First of all, there is the pack mentality on the trail. You tend to make friends on the trail and camp together for periods of time anyway. But since we all have different hiking paces and different Resupply points and zero days, there tend to be a lot of leap frogging. Staying together and sharing gear can be difficult. If you are married or "are more committed to each other than doing the trail" *1, then, yes, by all means. But now to answer the question: At times I will be with people, and groups and also at times I will be alone. I think we will be around each other a lot at the begining, and as we go North and thin out (some say that 40% actualy make it to the end) and spread out (A statistical inevitibuility) that there will be days that you see nobody. Then when you get to a common resupply point, you meet up with people again. Snickers told me when we parted company at Reds meadow, his last few days on the trail going to Sonora Pass, he saw very few people or no one ( I can't remmeber which he said).
*1 - This is a quote from Cupcake's Faq. He did the PCT several years ago. See www.cupcakewalk.com
What Are trail names?
It is common and customary to have or get a trail name that depicts you in some way. Snickers is a friend who hiked 110 miles with me in 2003. He got his name, because he eats lots of snickers bars. Mine is Mountain Goat. I enjoy cross country hiking, Backpacking and the like. Hence the name and the email address.
How long does it take to do the PCT?
On average, I am told, about 5 months. If the Trail is 2658 miles, and you take 5 months (153 days), then you would average 17.4 miles a day. That does not include zero days though, so in fairness, I am planning on 4 and 1/2 months or 140 day trip with 20 zero days, or 120 hiking days. That would average 22.2 miles a day. This may seem like a lot, but 2 things have changed in my life that allow me to do this at 38 years old.
1. I lightened my pack from 32LB (base weight- no water, fuel, or food) to 20LB ( and will probably get lighter).
2. I eat more healthy. I eat a lot more raw vegtables and fruit. This allowed me to easly lose 12 LB. I went from 157 LB to 145 LB, and increased my endurance. I don't hike faster, I hike longer.
Why did you start eating more Healthy?
Well someone at the Christian Businesmans Fellowship told me about the Hallaliua Diet.. I don't fully do this diet, because it is a vegitarian diet. But when you cut out fried foods, processes sugar and other things from your diet and do some amount of exsersize then you loose weight and your endurance increases. Nice little benifit for us doing the PCT. I went from being able to do about 20 miles a day, at my best, to doing 26 mile day hikes just for the fun of it. Then I got the idea, that I could do the PCT! It appears to me that God was lining me up for this the whole time. At any rate, I look forwad to doing this trip, I have thought about doing the PCTsince I was a teenager.
That depends how you spend your money. I heard someone trying to do it for $3,000. Others said about $4,000. When I figured it out In December 2003, I came up with a littleover $4,000. See below:
Equipment Guess $ 974. Pack$109,bag $155, tent $220, Clothes $300, Stove $80, pots$80.
Food ��������������������������$ � 900� (120 days X$4)= $500. Not included means (20X2X10)=$400.
Restaurants��������������$ � 630� 42 good meals, at R. $15X21X2 = $630.
Hotels stays������������� $1,000� Estimates on 14 hotel stays = $1000.
Mail�����������������������������$� 300�� 28 Resupply points X$8 = 224. 9 Bounces X$9 = $81 ~=$300.
Flight to LA����������������$� 180� prepay. $132/ Greyhound Chico-San Diego is $132/ (14 hrs drive).
Bus/Manning park����$ 180��� without reservation. $125 with reservations. +tax.
����������������������������������� $ 4,164�