[pct-l] How late can one start the PCT
McKay, Spencer
sdmckay at uncc.edu
Sun Oct 19 21:43:41 CDT 2008
Uberdude,
My name is Warpzilla and i thru-hiked the AT in 07,
I am also graduating this spring and then am planning to
hit the PCT. I'm just letting you know that you aren't the only
one who is going to be starting later than the others. I also know of one,
maybe two others who will be beginning their thru-hikes after graduation in mid-May.
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1854)
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Sent: Sun 10/19/2008 9:14 PM
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Subject: Pct-l Digest, Vol 10, Issue 33
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Today's Topics:
1. How late can one start the PCT (Laura Fox)
2. Re: no hitchhiking (Brian Lewis)
3. Re: no hitchhiking (Andrea Dinsmore)
4. Scissors Crossing through Black Mountain Road (montypct)
5. Yogi-ing............ (Andrea Dinsmore)
6. Re: Hitch Hiking (Kent Spring)
7. Re: How late can one start the PCT (Kent Spring)
8. Re: no hitchhiking (Brian Lewis)
9. Re: no hitchhiking (Ralph Alcorn)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2008 09:56:23 -0800
From: "Laura Fox" <laura_fox at alum.swarthmore.edu>
Subject: [pct-l] How late can one start the PCT
To: Pct-l at backcountry.net
Message-ID:
<5648689f0810191056i28d5687bv4bc657e34cd12f85 at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Or you could skip graduation, assuming you (mostly) finish with everything
else before May 23rd. I thru-hiked this year starting on April 25 and
graduated from law school (in absentia) on May 23rd or so. I just skipped a
couple weeks of classes and made sure I only had one exam to take, which I
took online from Hiker Heaven in May (thanks L-Rod!!). Your grad school
arrangement might be different though ... but just an idea. Graduation
ceremonies themselves are overrated. :) I finished in 4 months (to the day)
-- and it had taken me 5 1/2 months to hike the AT.
Laura/Truant
> On Oct 18, 2008, at 10:00 AM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:
>>
>> Greetings, this is Todd
>>
>> I was known as Uberdude for people who did the AT in
>> 06.
>>
>> I'm graduating from grad school on May 23rd and really
>> want to do the PCT. I'm afraid that starting the 24th
>> or 25th of May might be too late to do the PCT as a
>> thru-hiker. Any thoughts?
>>
>> I did the AT in 5.75 months which is an average pace I
>> guess. I imagine I'll drink a lot less this time and
>> the trail is graded a lot easier so I imagine I can
>> get more miles in a day with the same effort.
>>
>> But I want to find out from the people that might
>> know. Can a "normal" PCT thru-hiker make the PCT
>> starting May 25th?
>>
>> thanks,
>>
>> uberdude
>>
>> aka
>> todd
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------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2008 11:10:56 -0700
From: "Brian Lewis" <brianle8 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [pct-l] no hitchhiking
To: pct-l at backcountry.net
Message-ID:
<bd5c16ca0810191110t258fe5bsf94735dd752fd231 at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
MarkV listed four places that it's difficult to deal with apart from
hitch-hiking.
I thru-hiked this year, and like you I set out ahead of time trying to avoid
or at least greatly minimize the requirement to hitch-hike.
My comments on those four places and others:
(1) Hikertown to Kennedy Meadows, about 200 miles:
My plan for this year was to call from the highway to the Mojave motel that
advertised free pickup and drop-off on the trail. I did exactly that, I
called, and was told that one of the guys that works there was off work for
a few days and that there was no one to come out and get myself and my
current hiking companion (J.B.). So I ended up hitching anyway; lots of
cars passed us by until Gordon came by in his PCT support van (he suppported
a couple of thru-hikers this year and gave rides to a lot of people this
year).
No ride available back to the trail via the motel either, but fortunately
J.B. yogi'ed a ride from someone having breakfast at the motel at the same
time we were.
While I can't comment on accuracy, I heard rumors that other cases of
lodgings offering free rides can be hit or miss, I didn't try any others.
There might, however, be a taxi that you could call from the road to Mojave
or Tehachapi (?). If your cell phone works from there (note: see Halfmile's
collected data on where cell phones work,
http://www.pctmap.net/cell/index.html). And if your information about taxi
service is up-to-date, and if --- perhaps --- the one taxi in the whole area
is running that day and isn't engaged driving someone else to somewhere else
when you need it.
Trying to carry enough food to skip resupply there --- well, note that you
could in places be carrying a lot of water through that area there too. I
really appreciated some time off as well as getting resupplied in Mojave.
(1a) The Sierras.
I ended up hitching in to Independence after hiking over Kearsarge Pass, in
order to not try to carry a ton of food. That road is not something you
would want to walk if you went out that way (!). A long way if I recall
correctly, and more elevation loss down to town. It could be possible to
yogi a ride from folks camping at the trailhead campground.
Also, going in to Mammoth Lakes there's a series of buses that one can take,
but both on arrival and departure I was outside of the window when the bike
shuttle busses run up to the ski resort, so ultimately ended up yogi-ing and
hitching that fairly short stretch both ways. I could have walked it, but
by then I had lost some of my hesitancy about hitch-hiking and in both
directions sort of fell into a situation where I could get a ride. Note
however, that I never really lost my "hitch hiking hesitancy", I still don't
like to do it, but it was no longer a sort of "avoid at all costs" thing in
my mind.
(2) Tuolumne Meadows to Echo Lake.
You still have a bear can out of Tuolumne Meadows, and depending on the year
maybe or maybe not some additional "sierras gear" (maybe extra clothing).
I had originally planned to have a resupply box sent to northern Kenney
Meadows, as it's physically closer to the (same) trailhead than Bridgeport
--- my theory being that if I just couldn't get a ride, I could walk it.
After I had done a few hundred miles on the trail I had enough of my
"completely avoid hitch-hiking" philosophy beaten out of me that I
re-evaluated that and asked my wife to instead send the box to Bridgeport,
because the latter is more like a full-service trail town, and I realized
that I wasn't going to walk either to or back from northern KM anyway, and I
speculated that it might actually be easier to get a ride to Bridgeport than
to northern KM.
I ended up splitting up with my current hiking partner there (Milky) and
hitching by myself. There were a ton of day hikers milling around the same
place, some even wandering on to the road. A car with two very nice women
pulled over to ask me what was going on; I seized the opportunity to ask for
a ride (I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have taken me otherwise) and so
quickly got in to town.
I met back up with J.B. in town and we asked at the bar where we were
staying and arranged to get a ride back to the trailhead for an agreed
fee. That sort of approach can work sometimes getting back to the
trailhead.
(3) Castella to Seiad Valley.
In my case there wasn't an option as the Etna Summit road north was closed
due to fire. I had originally planned to skip the town of Etna for exactly
this reason, i.e., to not have to hitch hike, but instead I *had* to hitch
in to Etna, and then separately to Seiad Valley from there.
And then to really complete the trail, months later I had to get a ride way
back to Etna summit road and get picked up at Seiad Valley to finish those
56 miles in September that I couldn't hike in July.
Moral of the story: even if you plan carefully to avoid all hitch hiking,
you might well end up doing some anyway. Having part of itself on fire
seems like a state hobby or passtime in California, it's very possible that
fire (or perhaps some other biblical plague) could force you to skip around
some trail section(s). There were two big chunks that had to be hitched
around for many (most?) of us this year. The 180 mile chunk from Truckee to
highway 36 took Lucky and myself something like 7 separate hitches, taking
all day to do it. Actually, there were three sections counting Idylwild.
I did hitch that and then hitched *back* to Paradise Cafe when I found that
there was in fact a reasonable roadwalk option.
(4) Snoqualmie Pass to Stehekin. Mark called these two sections "A very
tough 175 miles" and I would agree. Beautiful, but your daily mileage drops
down closer to what's typical in the Sierras, lots of up-and-down. I live
near Seattle, so my wife did direct support at Steven's Pass. DiGiorno
zeroed at my house with me and wanted to maintain his independence going
forward, so while I walked out of Snoqualmie Pass with something like 3+
days of food on my back, he walked out carrying maybe 9 days worth.
DiGiorno is young and strong and I'm middle aged (52), but he was having a
hard time keeping up with me in section J. I have to agree that in the
normal case, hitching to the Dinsmore's makes a ton of sense.
I would add Big Bear City as another place that it's common to hitch in to
and out of. You don't strictly have to, but I, with my "really try to avoid
hitchhiking") mentality did get an easy hitch going in to town (a woman was
dropping some hikers off at the trailhead when I got to it) and got a ride
arranged back to the trailhead by asking at the place I stayed in town.
Ditto Wrightwood.
Bottom line is that while you can do some upfront work to minimize it, I
don't think it's realistic to consider a standard PCT thru-hike without
hitch-hiking. As someone else said I believe, if you start out with that
intent, the trail will change your mind for you along the way. That's
exactly what happened to me this year.
Gadget '08
http://postholer.com/brianle
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2008 11:24:46 -0700
From: "Andrea Dinsmore" <zaqueltooocool at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [pct-l] no hitchhiking
To: "Brian Lewis" <brianle8 at gmail.com>
Cc: pct-l at backcountry.net
Message-ID:
<f2a521470810191124xb7c142hfddb7f1c195b4403 at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Isn't "hitching" the same as getting a ride in any form ?? Yogi-ing a ride,
taxi, motel pick up ?? A ride's a ride.
PCT MOM
------------------------------
Message: 4
Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2008 11:25:23 -0700
From: "montypct" <montypct at gmail.com>
Subject: [pct-l] Scissors Crossing through Black Mountain Road
To: <pct-l at backcountry.net>
Message-ID: <001801c93218$27e7b3f0$cd7f5142 at Monty>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
reply-type=original
Hiking mile 190 south to mile 77 after we are done visiting with Robocop and
Dick Fernandez, two local trail angels of "Chihuahua Valley" Road area (mile
128).
I will post conditions to the list and to the water report in 7 days.
Warner Springs Monty
Pacific Crest Trail 7500 Miles
CDT 2009
AT 2010
Sign my Guestbook
www.trailjournals.com/monty
----- Original Message -----
From: "mark v" <allemande6 at yahoo.com>
To: <pct-l at backcountry.net>
Sent: Sunday, October 19, 2008 9:23 AM
Subject: Re: [pct-l] no hitchhiking
>
>
>
> Kathi, i don't know of anyone who's done it. Going back over all the
> resupply stops, i think it would be easy (some added side trail miles, but
> nothing over the top) to do EXCEPT for 4 places. Would you be willing to
> only hitch 4 times?
>
> Hikertown to Kennedy Meadows. That's about 200 miles. That's a pretty
> long stretch without resupply, especially since it would mean carrying at
> LEAST 8 days of food on your back through the Mojave Desert part. The
> standard would be to hitch into Mojave, Tehachapi, or Onyx.
>
> Tuolumne Meadows to Echo Lake. 150 miles. Not so bad, except that's a
> tough, slow section that gets a lot of people down. More people this year
> dropped out there than anywhere else. Tough to do big miles through
> there. The standard would be to hitch into Bridgeport or (the other)
> Kennedy Meadows, but an alternate plan might be to hitch into
> Markleeville. I'm not sure if that's close enough to walk to. Anyone?
>
> Castella to Seiad Valley is a no big deal 150 miles, but you'd miss
> hitching into Etna, which is a town it seems everyone really likes.
>
> Snoqualmie Pass to Stehekin (you're ok with busses, right?). A very tough
> 175 miles. One of the hardest and slowest sections of the trail. The
> standard is to hitch into Skykomish. They do so much that i couldn't
> possibly suggest that the Dinsmores would come pick you up at the
> trailhead, but i know this year there were a couple of other past
> thru-hikers with cars hanging out who were picking people up. That
> doesn't really count as hitching.
>
> So, it seems you could do it, but it also seems you could do it better if
> you just made a couple of exceptions to hitch selectively.
>
> markv
>
>
>
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------------------------------
Message: 5
Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2008 11:26:34 -0700
From: "Andrea Dinsmore" <zaqueltooocool at gmail.com>
Subject: [pct-l] Yogi-ing............
To: "pct back country" <pct-l at backcountry.net>
Message-ID:
<f2a521470810191126l383a4ccen6e10fd099bf0ecd8 at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Should Yogi-ing be added to next year's dictionary ?? Seems like a viable
new term.
PCT MOM
------------------------------
Message: 6
Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2008 11:52:30 -0700 (PDT)
From: Kent Spring <kjssail at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [pct-l] Hitch Hiking
To: pct-l at backcountry.net
Message-ID: <160507.75808.qm at web55906.mail.re3.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Hi Kathi -
I guess I wonder why you don't want to hitchike? There are a number of strategies that make it safer, and it cuts out a lot of roadwalking - which is very dangerous.
Kent
>
> Hello All,
> I am planning on not hitch hiking during my 2010 thru. Has
> anyone on
> this list successfully done the trail without hitching? How
> difficult
> was it? What was your strategy?
>
> Thank you for any advice!
> Kathi
>
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------------------------------
Message: 7
Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2008 12:09:08 -0700 (PDT)
From: Kent Spring <kjssail at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [pct-l] How late can one start the PCT
To: pct-l at backcountry.net
Message-ID: <611316.16314.qm at web55907.mail.re3.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Hi Todd -
There has been some great comments on how you might do this. My suggestion is to just start at Aqua Dulce, or maybe Wrightwood. Aqua Dulce is very easy to get to from LA. Then hike north. When you get to Canada, you flip back to Aqua Dulce and hike SOBO to Campos.
Kent
> Greetings, this is Todd
>
> I was known as Uberdude for people who did the AT in
> 06.
>
> I'm graduating from grad school on May 23rd and really
> want to do the PCT. I'm afraid that starting the 24th
> or 25th of May might be too late to do the PCT as a
> thru-hiker. Any thoughts?
>
> I did the AT in 5.75 months which is an average pace I
> guess. I imagine I'll drink a lot less this time and
> the trail is graded a lot easier so I imagine I can
> get more miles in a day with the same effort.
>
> But I want to find out from the people that might
> know. Can a "normal" PCT thru-hiker make the PCT
> starting May 25th?
>
> thanks,
>
> uberdude
>
> aka
> todd
>
__________________________________________________
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Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
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------------------------------
Message: 8
Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2008 16:25:09 -0700
From: "Brian Lewis" <brianle8 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [pct-l] no hitchhiking
To: zaqueltooocool at gmail.com
Cc: pct-l at backcountry.net
Message-ID:
<bd5c16ca0810191625x5c4d72c7t57e637e0489dd0e6 at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
PCT MOM wrote:
"Isn't "hitching" the same as getting a ride in any form ?? Yogi-ing a
ride, taxi, motel pick up ?? A ride's a ride."
It depends on context, I guess, and what the concern is.
A taxi or a motel pickup or an arranged ride is different from asking rides
of random strangers in terms of potential safety, comfort, for some people
there's a sense of being independent, not having to beg for things and be
beholden ... it really depends on the person.
Yogi'ing a ride from people who are relatively stationary at the place that
you're at (local store, bar, at a campground or whatever) is in turn
different from sticking your thumb out and dealing with whoever does (or
doesn't ...) opt to pull over. In the latter case you have no a priori
control, all you can do is make a snap assessment in terms of safety and
comfort level, whereas in the former case you can do some sizing up before
making your request.
So --- very much depending on what the concerns of the particular hiker is
--- a ride isn't necessarily just "a ride" !
YMMV of course! :-)
BTW, I was very sorry to not stop by your place en route this year.
DiGiorno and I were inclined at the time, but since my wife came up to help
out (I live not too far east of Seattle), the dynamic just didn't make
sense. I definitely would have (gratefully) been there otherwise!
Gadget '08
http://postholer.com/brianle
------------------------------
Message: 9
Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2008 18:25:45 -0700
From: "Ralph Alcorn" <rbalcorn at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [pct-l] no hitchhiking
To: pct-l at backcountry.net
Message-ID:
<aeff7eb40810191825j2de4821bre64d01c50a0dfc1f at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
I think with enough preplanning, a satellite phone, and enough money, you
can do it.
We've section hiked from Campo to about half way thru Oregon, and have
hitchhiked about 5 times. We didn't have to in the Hikertown to Kennedy
Meadows section. In Mojave, the Day's in manager will come out and pick you
up, if you phone him. That requires calling where you have cell reception.
North of that, Bob Ennis from Mt. Whitney shuttle shuttled us a couple of
times. We got one ride in that section from other section hikers we met. A
lot of areas lack cell phone reception, so if you can afford it, rent or buy
a satellite phone Irridium, not Globalstar.
You can get names of taxi companies along the way. In one spot, the trail
hit the road less than 15 miles from an Enterprise RentaCar agency. They
will come get you if you are within about 10-15 miles of the agency. Airport
shuttles will pick you up and drop you off, etc.
Ralph Alcorn
http://www.backpack45.com/pct.html
------------------------------
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