[pct-l] Post Office resupply stops

[Diane at Santa Barbara Hikes dot com]

On Jun 12, 2010, at 6:09 PM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:
> Uh, sheesh, the reason it took 5.5 months is because you were not
> WALKING 13 hours a day. ?Walking time is time spent actually moving.
> It is simple math. No planner is going to be accurate to you if the
> numbers you feed it don't reflect reality.

Let me clarify why I think the planner isn't accurate. I'm not trying  
to say that the planner is bad. I used it at the beginning of my  
planning process and it was helpful. My parter who planned a hike  
this year also used it.

Like you said, you have to feed accurate numbers into it. Never in my  
life had I been able to hike more than 16 miles in a day without  
severe pain so I fed in numbers that came out to 15 miles a day.

Then I hit the trail and started out with something around 15 miles a  
day for a while. But the water sources being 20 miles apart and there  
being nothing much to do but walk all day, and being that I enjoyed  
walking all day, I started to hike 20+ miles every day. In the High  
Sierra I was back to 15. Eventually I was hiking 25+ every day  
because the days were long and I really just enjoyed the walking.  
Then, through the Biblical mosquitoes I encountered in Oregon I  
rarely got a chance to sit down. And then the rain in Washington also  
made it hard to sit down. So I kept walking. I hiked many 29+ mile  
days, sometimes over 30 and on two occasions I went over 35. So the  
planner did not take into account how my hiking changed.

It did not take into account how much I was in control over my  
hiking, either. Or maybe that was just something I had to learn. If I  
wanted or needed to hike 30 miles in a day in order to get somewhere,  
I could. Originally making my plans I had no idea I could do that.  
When I realized I had more control over my schedule, I could  
purposefully plan to under-pack food and just plan to have one really  
big long day in there somewhere. I can hear the traditional  
backpackers squirming at this lack of being prepared, but I really  
got to know my abilities and found that there was little I could not  
accomplish if I put my mind to it. And being gifted metabolically for  
hiking, a day without food wouldn't kill me anyway, should something  
happen to prevent me from going as fast as I expected.

The other thing the planner didn't seem to factor in, or it wasn't  
obvious to me how to factor it in, was days off. I spent a lot of  
time waiting for the post office to open, or packages to arrive.  
Also, with all that walking I would be tired and take days off to  
rest. If I tried to factor days of rest into my average miles/hours  
hiked per day, would that still show me when I arrived in a town  
location or only when I would be leaving one?

The other thing not clear was that on the first and last leg of my  
segments, I would not hike a full 13 hour day because of time spent  
getting to and from the trailhead, time spent waiting for the post  
office or stores to open, and lollygagging over breakfast. But those  
are full days as far as my schedule is concerned even if they are  
only partially hiked.

What I found helpful about the planner was getting a handle on all  
these town names that fly around this list and where they are in  
relation to each other. And getting a general sense of how long it  
takes to go between each one. Without the planner I don't know if I  
would have gotten started on my hike at all as it seemed so important  
in the beginning to plan it all out. It was a valuable tool, I've  
recommended it to people and keep it bookmarked.

Diane

Books I've written:
~ Piper's Flight
~ Adventure and Magic
~ Santa Barbara Hikes
http://stores.lulu.com/dianesoini

We're not here for a long time, but we are here for a good time