[pct-l] Newby...

[landauer@got.net (Doug Landauer)]

>My name is Cat and I'm hoping to do some section hiking in 2005, slowly working up to the American Discovery Trail, and then maybe the AT trail.

Weird, you want to try a ~3500 mile trail first, and then maybe
a 2100 mile trail?  Seems like an odd order to be considering.
Why not start with the Trans-Canada Trail (10,000+ miles) ??  :-)
[ http://www.tctrail.ca/ ]


>  I was wondering if there is a point where the PCT and the ADT meet,

See these parts of the ADT's site:
  http://www.discoverytrail.org/states/california/
  http://www.discoverytrail.org/states/california/ca_points2.html

That second page describes (east-to-west):

  California
  Highway 89 to Lewis Campground at French Meadows Reservoir

  The ADT follows the Western States Trail most of the way through
  Squaw Valley (a major ski resort area) and passes the Watson
  Monument Immigrant Pass marker on the ridge at an elevation of
  8,700 feet.  Less than a mile downgrade from the marker, the ADT
  leaves the Western States Trail onto the Pacific Crest Trail
  (PCT).  A few miles SE on the PCT the ADT leaves the PCT and
  passes through the Whiskey Creek primitive campground and
  Picayune Valley, passes by the Talbot and Ahart Campgrounds and
  ends this segment at Lewis Campground at French Meadows
  Reservoir.  (The ADT enters the Granite Chief Wilderness Area
  near where it turns onto the Pacific Crest Trail and leaves
  that Wilderness about a mile from the Talbot Campground.)

Or, in PCT-speak, section K, maps K7 (near the bottom) and K6
(near Five Lakes).


>and also a few good basic books n the PCT.

Check out http://isbn.nu, just go there and search for Pacific
Crest Trail;  I have #10, #12, #13, and #14:

 - The Pacific Crest Trail (Schaffer/Schifrin/Winnett/Jenkins)
    (California)

 - The Pacific Crest Trail (Schaffer/Schifrin/Winnett/Jenkins)
    (Oregon)

 - The Pacific Crest Trail - A Hiker's Companion (Berger/Smith)

 - The Pacific Crest Trail Hiker's Handbook (Jardine)

Some other ones that I have don't show up with that simple isbn.nu search:

 - Journey on the Crest (Ross)

 - The High Adventures of Eric Ryback (1971, hard to find
      and harder to believe, some say)

Overall, I'd recommend Berger's and Ross' books (and, of course,
reading all of the archives of this email list and all of the
hiker journals that one can find on the web) in order to get a bit
of a hint of an idea what it can be like for some people who do
not happen to be you.

   HYOH,
   :-D