[pct-l] Re: PCT mileages in the guide

[radney@ix.netcom.com]

Joanne, in response to your question about mileages:

>Does anybody have any idea how accurate the mileages are in the Vol  I 
>(California) of the PCT Trail guide.  I an figuring out all these 
>schedules, and have some idea on my speed  from my training walks, but I 
>suddenly realized that the mileages could easily be just estimates. So I am
>wondering what kind of fudge factor I need in my schedules.

They are pretty accurate -- EXCEPT -- your trips to water sources are NOT 
included!  If you want a better estimate for your "Fudge Factor," I would 
suggest you take all the HIGHEST distances you will have to go to refill 
your water containers, per round trip, and add them to the exhisting miles 
the Guide books give you in this section -- or any for that matter.  It is 
also best to ADD all the extra miles for getting INTO and OUTOF towns for 
resupply.   Walt and I adopted the "esay in -- easy out" method.  If we 
could hitch or take a road walk into or out of towns, we would!  These miles 
are NOT calculated -- it is trail head to trail head!  Sometimes water and 
town miles can add up to a total day -- ten miles to town and ten miles back 
to trail head and will really mess up a schedule!   

I would also suggest that you don't resupply at Onyx.  It is a long 
thankless hot 9+ miles down and an even more thankless hike back UP to 
Walker Pass.  Walt and I saw very little traffic on the road when we rented 
a car and picked up our box in order to avoid this resupply stop.  There is 
a PO, gas station with store and very little else. The gas station might 
offer more rides back up, but most cars were connecting from other roads 
and were heading to Elizabeth Lake further down.  In '97 Walker Pass had no 
water -- the spikett hadn't been turned on, and there were NO trash 
recepticles.  The rest room and some of the area had been trashed earlier -- 
PCT hikers had been blamed for it.  Later they found out that some youngster 
had a party that got a little out of hand!!!

We had a 15 mile waterless hike to here because some of the sources were 
dried up.  We will NEVER -- EVER come into a water source waterless again -
- unless we can't help it!!  There was another water source off the trail at 
Walker Pass as described in the book Thank GOD!   


See you on the PCT  SOON!

Happy Trails Couple    

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