[pct-l] Washington Floods and the Big Blow Down.

[goforth at cio.net (Joanne Lennox)]

the nice thing about a thruhike is that you usually start in CALIFORNIA. 
there is something to be said for the usual dry and sunny clime.  I think
that on average most hikers do not reach real rain until they are in
Washington.  And by then it is often September and they are in good shape
for that bust around Glacier Peak.  It feels like a continuous summer.

I love Washington; I live here and have climbed here for 35 years.  In my
thruhike of 99, it was cloudy and there was some rain, and snow on some
areas.  Not so bad.  But it was sunny this year when I went through and
what a difference that made.  I got to really see the landcsape; it looked
a lot different in the sunshine.

Should you skip WA this year and do Oregon instead.  I probably would, but
I think it is more a matter of the weather and the snow melt then it is of
the trail conditions.  It is just tooo early to tell.  Be that as it may, I
still would not start too much before August unless I went to CA.

My sense is that it is going to take way more than a year to get things
back in much order on the trails here in WA, especially with the poor
funding and the condition of many trailhead roads.

Joanne