[pct-l] Pack base weight

[CHUCK CHELIN]

Good afternoon,

Piper points out one of the many logistic decisions that a long-distance
hiker must make:  Do I carry more food and/or water now allowing less
frequent stops, or do I hike fewer – but lighter -- miles between resupply
stops and accept some loss of time to hitch off-trail.

Some situations are at the extremes of the question to the point of being
no-brainers: For example, with the PCT being routed directly through towns
like Agua Dulce and Cascade Locks, no hiker I know would pass without
stopping while carrying food to the next resupply point up the trail.
Similarly,
it hardly makes sense to hitch 20-30 miles to some little town for food
just because the PCT happens to cross a highway, particularly when the next
easy resupply point may only be another day’s hike further up the trail.

Conversely, resupply at Mojave or Tehachapi – they are functionally
equivalent, so take your pick – is a good example of having reasonable
choices; some of which can be made well in advance, and others that could
wait until the last minute.

>From the PCT, Mojave is a hitch of about 10 miles eastward, while Tehachapi
is about the same distance westward.  Each has two viable roads to use to
hitch:  The first road crossing is at a well-used but secondary highway
called Tehachapi/Willow Springs Road going west and Oak Creek Road going
east to Mojave.  If one hikes past that opportunity, about 8 miles further
north the trail crosses Hwy-58, the Tehachapi Pass Freeway which goes
through/near both little towns.

One time I hiked to the freeway, camped, and then bright and early the next
morning I got a ride to Mojave within 10 minutes of lifting my thumb.  It
worked great:  By mid-day I had my resupply box, and I found a ride on the
freeway back to the pass.  A down-side of that was by not staying in town
for the night I started up the trail in the mid-day heat and I had to camp
before reaching water, but all that was planned.

Another time through the same area, I stopped at the first road to take a
break, and encountered a Trail Angel who offered to take me to Mojave via
Oak Springs Road.  I gladly accepted that offer rather than having to
gamble on a finding a hitch on the freeway where I’ve heard the Highway
Patrol frowns on such things.  After staying the night at Mojave I found a
ride back up Oak Springs Road to the trail.

Note:  Some hikers exit at the first road, resupply, then commence their
hike at the freeway thereby missing – and conveniently forgetting about –
the hot, dusty windy 8 miles of trail between.

The down-side of exiting at the first road is one must then carry 8 miles
of extra water towards the rather remote Golden Oak Spring.  Sometimes
there is a water cache at the freeway crossing where one can top-up the
canteen, and other times there is not.  I don’t rely upon it.

Resupply at Mojave or Tehachapi offers more choices.  One can load food for
about 150 miles to Kennedy Meadows, or carry less food and hitch into Onyx
from Walker Pass as Piper mentioned.  So far, I’ve preferred to just hike
straight through, but it is possible to save some weight by adding
off-trail time to Onyx.

We all get to choose.

Steel-Eye

-Hiking the Pct since before it was the PCT – 1965

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