[pct-l] Southbound June 2013 Advice

[Eric Lee]

Jane wrote:
>
Having never hiked in the Cascades, I would love any input past Southbound
thru-hikers or early summer section hikers have about the area.
>

I forgot to mention that the other complication about a SOBO hike is that
you're generally not allowed to enter the U.S. from Canada via the PCT.
Some people try to do it sneakily but enforcement has been stepped up in
recent years and Border Patrol has a notorious lack of a sense of humor.  I
wouldn't advise it.

Your other options are to simply start at the first accessible trail point
in northern Washington (either Harts Pass if the snow is melted enough to
drive there, or Rainy Pass which is open by June) or to hike north to the
border then turn around and go south again.  This can be done either on the
PCT both ways or by going north along Ross Lake and then cutting over to the
terminus of the PCT.  I transported a guy up to Ross Lake last year who did
that, though he told me later that the traverse from Ross Lake to the PCT
was emphatically NOT FUN.

Eric