[pct-l] 2006 Hike

[spiritbear2k at hotmail.com (Ginny & Jim Owen)]

Hey Bear - if you are stopping work in mid-July, how about hiking the 
Colorado Trail or John Muir Trail soon after?  When you are thruhiking, you 
are likely to see both covered, at least partly, in snow.  Both look very 
very different in mid-summer.  Then if there is a problem in the year you 
hike, you will have already hiked that part of the trail.  i.e. We hiked 
thru Glacier and the San Juans in the two years prior to our CDT thruhike.  
Glacier was closed by bear activity when we went through, and we got snow in 
teh San Juans which encouraged us to take the Creede cut-off.  For us it 
didn't matter since we had already hiked the best parts of the CDT there - 
when both were green and covered with flowers.  We also had a pretty good 
idea of what we were getting into before we started the CDT, in terms of 
trail marking (or lack thereof), elevation, towns, etc.  It helped. You can 
tailor the distance to your available time/weather.  i.e. hike the JMT and 
the TYT if you want to stretch it farther than just 200 miles, or hike half 
the Colorado Trail or CDT in Colorado.  Or you could go hike the Great 
Divide Trail - though I think because it is so poorly marked/maintained, 
that one might be better to do after the CDT.  But anywhere you go will be 
good.
Ginny



-----------------------------------------------------------
http://www.spiriteaglehome.com/