[pct-l] One or two months hiking the PCT

[robert]

Ben,
I must respectively add a major caveat to Ned Tibbets' second suggestion (and my friend Tartan's endorsement), Oregon and Washington or Washington alone.  This is because your stated intent is to start around mid-June.  In a normal snow year this is way too early, especially in Washington.  You will have a great deal of difficulty managing 20 miles/day coming onto the trail cold (no pun intended).  
As Barry Teschlog pointed out on Monday, northern Washington does currently have normal snowpack but snowpack is far below normal further south.  However, "it's not over until its over."   There are a good 2 months left in the North Cascades snow season and things could turn around within a matter of weeks.  Late season snowfall cannot be predicted based on early and mid-season as far as I know (and my business before retirement was to know these things).
Although I love the Washington PCT most of the 1400 miles I've done, I recommend that you have a firm Plan "B" given your proposed starting date.
You can monitor snowpack at http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/cgibin/westsnow.pl  The last chart will be posted around May 1; make your decision about Washington then.
Bob "Bilbo" Livezey