[pct-l] This will be more than you're bargaining for.

Wed Apr 20 16:06:51 CDT 2016

Hey Alexandra,

Welcome to a wonderful outdoor fellowship.  You'll meet more great folks on
trail than you'll find concentrated just about anywhere else on the
planet.  But I'm not biased or anything.  All that has been said so far is
right on the mark so I'll try to address other aspects.  If you've got a
month, and you're new to hiking, I'd say a great place to start would be
Ashland, or just outside of Ashland at Callaghan's Resort off Hwy5, just
below Siskiyou Pass, the southern entrance to Oregon for PCT hikers.
Ashland is a wonderful town with a world famous Shakespeare festival and
the home to Southern Oregon University, making it a very cosmopolitan small
town, with great gear shops and food stores to get ya started.  Then hike
north just as far as you comfortably can, always getting closer to Portland
as you go.  That's about 500 miles.  If you've got more time at the end,
shoot on up into WA for a bit.  You'll still be close to Portland.

For me, the most important thing I do before every long hike is to walk a
lot in the months preceding.  Gear, food, maps, plans and all the rest is
secondary and subject to change and modification all along a trail.  I went
through 3 packs on my first thru hike on the PCT and didn't settle on one I
really loved till Oregon.  But that pack has gone all the way on the CDT,
AT, Camino and other long walks.  I thought I had it right when I started
only to find better and better stuff all along the way.  But what you can't
trade out or modify is your feet and knees and ankles and just being
comfortable walking long miles, day after day.  So I train 3 or 4 and more
days per week, as much as I can, and that may only be 45 minutes for some
of them, and all day for others, including some 20 and 25 milers, but then
I back way off to only 10 to 12 miles per day the first week of my hike, 15
to 17 the second and only hit 20 by the third week.  A plan for 18 miles
per day over a month is a lot of miles if you're new to hiking.  Over the
course of my PCT thru hike, the folks I was traveling with became so strong
by mid hike they were all knocking out 30 to 35 miles per day by Oregon.
Over time, the miles and the ability to do them comfortably will come on
all of itself.  But for me, I can't force it too soon.  Over the course of
a month, you may not have the break in time a full thru hiker has.  But
while you're at home at this point, walk somewhere as often as you can, and
add in every hill you can find.  For training, the hills are your friends.
They really give you the fitness.  Start with a light pack and work up to a
full carry as your training continues.  If you're already strong as an ox,
do what you think is best, but for me, every mile I get before hand is less
pain and more fun when I'm actually on trail.

Several friends I've trained with this past winter are on the PCT right now
and suffering from pressure blisters.  These are not caused from the
rubbing of ill fitting shoes or other mechanical issues, but simply from
too many miles too soon.  Check out different people's blogs on
Trailjournals and Postholer or Wordpress.com and see how some of the folks
are doing early on.  From what I'm hearing from these friends, lots of
people are suffering from blisters and overuse issues.  Folks are excited
and hiking too far, too soon.

When I began the PCT, my first long hike, I followed the formula as
outlined above, forcing myself to hike low miles at first, stopping early
and enjoying the first days.  I had no serious pain and no blisters at all
on that hike, but friends on trail who started at 20s and continued for a
week or more, all ended up off trail with overuse issues and blister
complications for several weeks before they could come back and start
slow.  Several years later, I started the CDT with a plan for 12 miles the
first day, but the trail angel's truck broke down on the way to the Mexican
border and we had to do a 20 mile first day to get to water.  By the next
day I had a pressure blister, simply from the miles.  It's the only blister
I've had in 15,000 miles or long trails.  On the AT, I adhered to my slow
start and had no physical problems due to foot or ligament issues.  Noro
virus in the Shenandoah, yes.  That trail is infected!  But no foot issues.

A very important quality for a long distance hiker is flexibility, so
although we all start out with some "plan" in mind or drawn out quite
concretely on paper, it is really important to be able to flex out of that
plan due to weather, blisters, exhaustion and other unforeseen exigencies.
If you can remain flexible, whatever you do, and that might be hiking over
the Bridge of the Gods and knocking out some of WA before you're done, will
make for a wonderful experience for you.

So my advice at this point is do all the prepping you can, Yogi's guide and
Halfmiles maps are great places to start, but mainly walk every chance you
get, start the trail slower than you're planning at present and stay
flexible so that you have a great time.  Then, have the summer of your life!

Good luck and wonderful adventures!

Shroomer

On Mon, Apr 18, 2016 at 4:28 PM, Kaercher, Alexandra <akaercher at liberty.edu>
wrote:

> I think that people who are avid backpackers get a little frustrated when
> newbies get excited (in my experience thus far) and don't know what they're
> doing but jump right in.
>
> So please don't get upset with me, but I am a newbie, but I'm trying to
> prepare as best as I can before embarking on the journey I hope to take
> this summer.
>
> My hope is to hike for a month (35 days allotted since I don't have
> experience with this) from June 5 to July 10, last stop being Portland (I
> know I'd have to hitchhike to get there) where I'll meet up with friends
> who are there. I live in Lynchburg, VA. I've never done this, I hope to
> cover 560 miles in the time that I'm on the PCT (eventually averaging 18
> miles a day).
> I'm in the beginning planning stages so I'm researching gear, comparing
> reviews and costs as best as I can in my blank slate of hiking knowledge
> other than a handful of hikes I've done for sunrises and whatnot. I think
> I'll need a long distance permit, since I hope to go more than 500 miles. I
> can't quite determine where I should start yet (presumably 560 miles south
> from the last stop I'd make before getting a ride to Portland), but I don't
> know where that is.
>
> Basically, I'm trying to do this in an educated manner as best as I can so
> as not to frustrate people who know about doing section thru-hikes and also
> to be wise, but I'm a little uninformed about a lot. So if anyone is
> willing to help me in a way I can understand, I would be very grateful.
> I've got about a month and a half to plan this. I know, that's not a lot of
> time. But hey, that's okay.
>
> Anyway I have reached out to people I know directly, I just thought people
> actually doing the PCT would be a good place to seek out as well for advice
> and guidance.
>
>
> Thanks homies!
>
>
> Alexandra
> _______________________________________________
> Pct-L mailing list
> Pct-L at backcountry.net
> To unsubscribe, or change options visit:
> http://mailman.backcountry.net/mailman/listinfo/pct-l
>
> List Archives:
> http://mailman.backcountry.net/pipermail/pct-l/
> All content is copyrighted by the respective authors.
> Reproduction is prohibited without express permission.
>