[pct-l] Re: Start date for '05 thru hike..

[aandg at telusplanet.net (Alistair & Gail Des Moulins)]

In 2003 Gail and I started from Campo on April 11, left KM on May 29 and
were passed by 'fairly moderate pace' Suge just after Echo Lake Resort on
June 29. We made it to Manning Park by September 30.
We had a lot of solitude in the first 2 months. Scott Williamson passed us
on his 2003 Yoyo attempt on April 20.
We had chosen to take 6 months on the hike and so left earlier than the
kick-off. Certainly most of the hikers that passed us had been to the
kick-off and had clearly enjoyed it and we enjoyed their company before they
moved ahead.
Leaving 2 weeks before the kick-off meant that we encountered more snow and
deeper river crossings in the Sierras but it meant that we did not need to
hike 25 miles a day to finish. We in fact slowed our pace down thru
Washington.
It all comes down to Hike Your Own Hike and whatever you do you'll meet a
lot of great people and have a memorable experience.
As for info on trail conditions, these can change overnight - a fire starts
or a storm comes or there is an unusually dry or wet spell so info given at
the kick-off may not be current by the time you get further up the trail.
The Sierra snowpack was about 75% of normal on April 11th 2003 but was more
than 100% of normal when we got to Kennedy Meadows. The Sisters fires that
year started when we were less than a day south of Sisters. This involved a
diversion round the affected area. We returned from Manning Park to Sisters
to complete the missed section. So one has to be prepared to deal with
anything once you've started hiking.

Alistair

----- Original Message ----- >
> Message: 28
> Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2004 06:46:08 -0800
> From: "Chris Willett" <CWillett@pierce.ctc.edu>
> Subject: RE: [pct-l] Start date for '05 thru hike...
> To: <pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net>, "SD Ghost" <sd_ghost@cox.net>
> Message-ID:
> <62C689C9C0C6A141AED8F6B8121FB893065511CF@mail.pierce.ctc.edu>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> I started on May 9 in 2003 and got to KM on June 9 at what I thought was a
fairly moderate pace.  Starting 2 weeks behind the main pack meant that I
had quite a bit of solitude and space and it is something that I would
probably do again.  There were a few other thruhikers around me at the
time,but not until reaching I-15 did I really start to meet larger numbers.
>
> Suge
>
> ---------------------------
> Christopher Willett
> cwillett@pierce.ctc.edu
> www.pierce.ctc.edu/faculty/cwillett
> Pierce College
> 9401 Farwest Drive SW.
> Lakewood, WA. 98498-1999
>
> > ----------
> > From: pct-l-bounces@mailman.backcountry.net on behalf of SD Ghost
> > Sent: Sunday, November 14, 2004 6:35 PM
> > To: pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net
> > Subject: [pct-l] Start date for '05 thru hike...
> >
> > This is my first posting to this board and I have a few questions
> > concerning my start date for a thru hike of the PCT in '05. I had
> > originally planned a start date of May 1, with the idea to hit KM in
> > the middle of June. After reading about the ADZPCTKO, I was thinking of
> > hiking into it on Friday night, and staying Saturday, and continuing on
> > to the Laguna's on Sunday morning. However, I have read that it may be
> > best to avoid "the wave" of hikers leaving the ADZPCTKO at the same
> > time. I was even considering leaving the Tuesday before the ADZPCTKO
> > reach the Laguna's on Friday, and go to the ADZPCTKO on Saturday, and
> > then getting a ride back to the Laguna's and continuing from there on
> > Sunday to avoid the mass exodus from the ADZPCTKO. Since I live in San
> > Diego, it will not be a problem for me to arrange a pick up and return
> > ride. Does anybody have any thoughts on this? I thought the ADZPCTKO
> > would be fun to attend, meet other hikers, get the latest information
> > on trail conditions, and get pumped up about the next 5 months. Since I
> > am finalizing my schedule for my 2005 thru hike, any advice you could
> > give me would be most appreciated.
> >
> > regards,
> >
> > Terry Thompson
> >
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