[pct-l] Thruhiking 2017

[Ben Friedman]

Good morning, PCT-ers!

My partner Lauren and I have a start date on April 26 in Campo and have
been beside ourselves with excitement.

But I want to be straightforward- we are beginning to doubt the prospect of
a true NoBo thru-hike, starting in Mexico and hiking to Canada without
flipflopping or multi-week waiting in KM. The snowfall is clearly
prodigious this year, a year to remember. The number of emails on this
listserv discussing entering KM significantly later than usual, the immense
snowpack, etc is concerning. If the snow is a challenge well into the
summer, won't that mean thru hikers will be entering the
volatile/unpredictable North Cascades too late?

Not trying to be a debbie-downer. This hike has been a dream for us for
most of our lives and we want to make this work so so bad-- we're just
trying to figure out how to maximize our PCT time. As a plan B, should we
bag the PCT start date and notion of a thru-hike, and simply decide to
start at Kennedy Meadows in the summer and just see how far our legs take
us thru Labor Day?

Thanks to you all, for this great community and advice!

Ben