[pct-l] October/November hiking

[matt at mattmaxon.com (Matt Maxon)]

Jeff
I have worked this part of the trail for close to 6 years now, and hiked 
these mountains for the last 25. You can expect the 4 seasons..... depending 
on your elevation and location, one thing you might not be thinking of is 
hunters. Be careful, make yourself visable I have been shot at 3-4 times 
over the years, these guys scare the hell out of me.

 Hunters in Wyoming might be more responsible or maybe they are just fewer 
in number and more dispispersed but around here there are lots of them and 
some drink their breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

I worked with the PCTA trail crew south of 589.3 Back Cyn Rd in October of 
last year. It was quite hot during the day and cold at night, it was nice to 
have a fire to keep warm. It would be less of a problem for hikers, but 
there where lots of flies too my head net came out when we stopped for 
breaks and lunch.

I day hiked parts of the trail <> 598.0 and 611.8 the year before, very cold 
at night in the teen's and twenties at my car camp off Piute Mtn Rd, the 
days were warmer, with hunters driving up and down the roads looking for 
something to shoot at.

One good resource for data is

http://cdec.water.ca.gov/

http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/htmlfiles/ca/ca.avg.html
http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/htmlfiles/ca/ca.max.html
http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/htmlfiles/ca/ca.min.html
http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/htmlfiles/ca/ca.tmp.ext.html

Another potental problem is wind, sometimes very high winds can hit these 
areas mainly in the fall these winds can have gusts exceeding 75 mph +, be 
very careful with fire of any sort under these conditions as literaly 1 
spark can start a major blaze. While we are on this subject, the Forest 
Service has the last 2 years closed the forest to entry due to high fire 
danger, while I don't expect that to happen this year you might want to keep 
it in mind Generally prior to closing the forest there has been a period of 
no fires of any sort, no stoves, no smoking no..., no..., no.... These 
closures have 2 purposes IMHO, 1 to reduce the chances someone could spark a 
blaze and 2 with the extreme fire behavior seen in other fires recently you 
could become trapped and/or over run by a fire.

That said, layers will do the trick polypropline longies, fleece jacket, 
windbreaker, wool/poly cap, gloves etc... warm sleeping bag, some kind of 
shelter from wind too. I use a Walrus Heat Wave car camping, lot's of 
ventilation and an easy to install fly for windy & cold conditions, I also 
have a Black Diamond biviy similar to the Bilber Winter Bivy which I grown 
quite fond of.

.Well enough of my rantings
Happy Trails
Matt "Trail90" Maxon


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jeffrey J. Olson" <jjolson@uwyo.edu>
To: "PCT List" <pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net>
Sent: Saturday, April 30, 2005 12:21 PM
Subject: [pct-l] October/November hiking


> As I begin to plan my SOBO hike, I wonder, in general what kinds of 
> temperatures to expect in October and the first two weeks of November from 
> Kennedy Meadows south.  I know the water sources will be few and far in 
> between - that's fine.  How about temperatures?  What kinds of things 
> should I expect that aren't normally discussed by those heading north?
> Thanks in advance for any advice, stories or insight you might have...
>
> Jeff Olson
> Laramie WY
> _______________________________________________
> pct-l mailing list
> pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net
> unsubscribe or change options:
> http://mailman.hack.net/mailman/listinfo/pct-l
>
>