[pct-l] Pct-l Digest, Vol 26, Issue 28

[CHUCK CHELIN]

Good afternoon, Kris,

In my opinion the greatest opportunity for solitude on the PCT is NoBo.  A
slightly early start and/or a somewhat faster daily pace will soon put one
near the front.  The NoBo “pack” really isn’t a traveling group; after the
first day or so it becomes well strung-out to be a traveling file, many days
long.  As long as one maintains a reasonable pace it’s not too difficult to
see only a few people who just happen to have the same pace and
number/duration of stops.  Slow down for a day and the followers begin to
overtake; speed up for a day or so and the traffic becomes increasingly
thin.  In that way among the “pack”, I’ve spent a number of days having seen
one – or possibly no – other person and I didn’t hike with anyone.

SoBo one will experience considerable solitude in Washington, but by July
and August in Oregon and N. California the approaching NoBo traffic will
become significant. The SoBo’er will meet most of the 200-300 NoBo hikers,
and each will want to stop and hear the whole story about trail conditions,
bugs, water sources, inventory in trail towns, fires and fire closures, and
“have you seen my good buddy (trail name)”.

That’s all great fun, but repeating the story 10 times a day for a month is
a bit tiresome and time-consuming.

Enjoy your planning,

Steel-Eye

Hiking the Pct since before it was the PCT – 1965

http://www.trailjournals.com/steel-eye
http://www.trailjournals.com/SteelEye09


On Tue, Feb 9, 2010 at 2:11 PM, Len Glassner <len5742 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Andrea, any idea how many SOBOs passed through last year?
>
> On Tue, Feb 9, 2010 at 1:59 PM, Andrea Dinsmore
> <zaqueltooocool at gmail.com> wrote:
> > South bounders usually start showing up in Skykomish mid July and finish
> > Nov-early Dec.
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