[pct-l] Thru Hike Timing

[neil p.]

 Hello Everybody, after a lot of thought on trail and off about the timing
of my thru hike this past 2011 season I will try to share the little wisdom
I gained. So I started my thru hike on April 22, 2011 with the rough idea
of finishing by the third week or so in Sept. Well as time went by time
seemed to be getting eaten up in trail towns, I loved my trail stops. I
loved the beer drinking, the binge eating and maybe most of all was getting
to hang with the other hikers. And seeing that this past year had a heavy
snowfall it didn't seem to be an issue entering the Sierras a little late.
So I didn't feel to rushed to enter the Sierras by my original plan of June
10. I ended up entering the Sierras on June 17th. Quickly the pace had to
change, twenty mile days just seemed otherworldly now. Also the Sierras
were something I had been wanting to hike for many years so why rush
through them, plus the snow slowed us so much anyway. We reached Tahoe by
July 25, now about two weeks behind my rough plan. The snow finally eased
up north of Tahoe and became non-existent by Sierra City-Thank God!  By the
time we left Sierra City on Aug 3rd we were still roughly only two weeks
behind. But be careful because Northern Cal is so big it will suck time up
so fast. Between the fun trail towns and slacking on miles we didn't leave
Ashland, Oregon until Sept 3rd. This is where I later realized after much
frustration and head pounding we had gotten way behind schedule and the
majority of other hikers on trail. While most people were pounding out
25-30 mile days we were still just barely getting 22-25 miles a day.

We picked up the pace through OR and averaged about 28miles a day but many
folks were attempting the OR challenge-all of OR in 14days. So we didn't
gain any time on any one here.

We left Cascade Locks and entered WA on Oct 3 after when many had already
finished or were really close.So then in the end we hiked through some
really nasty stuff including some snow comparable to the snow we had seen
in the Sierras. But the challenge was that is was no longer warm like it
was back in California. We finally finished on Oct 26 way later than we had
planned and way later than most. I obviously think it is possible to finish
after Oct 1 but your chances will go way down. It seems that everyone gets
bad weather in WA that's just part of it but if you get there early then it
is rain, get there late and you have the much more challenging snow.

Just thought I would throw in my two cents, either way have a great hike
and you can make it-just keep hiking!

Adios!
-Queso