[pct-l] CURRENT trail conditioins Mammoth to S.City

[Edward Anderson]

With Ned's recent post on the subject of "trail report words" in mind, I can say that I have had confusion in interpreting trail information coming from hikers. Of course, they are describing what they recall and from the perspective as hikers with various levels of capability.  Since I will be riding a horse, simple descriptive words like "doable" or "piece of cake", etc. don't tell me much. I have been monitoring the snow melt and stream crossing descriptions for the past two months. I have talked to hikers at Carson Pass, Pooh Corner and Sierra City, asking what they remember about what they saw and experienced between Mammoth and Sierra City. I did get one very detailed description from one hiker named "leave it Be".  He described deep snow on some steep north-facing slopes and under the canopy of trees that he thought would be very difficult or impossible for an equestrian. Describing one spot, he wondered if the snow would melt enough THIS YEAR.
 If there is no safe way around, some of these places could be trail-stoppers for me. That is why I have postponed my start date to ride south from Sierra City until August 23.

What I am hoping for is that some of the hikers who have RECENTLY passed through parts of the PCT between Mammoth and Sierra City will post reports with an equestrian in mind.

I would like to thank my hiker-friends in advance for posting this information

MendoRider