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| 2 months and 2660 miles worth of snacks! Ate 12 snacks a day! |
For a normal 4-5 month thru-hike, logistics may seem quite overwhelming. At face value it is overwhelming, however, one must remember that life on trail is much, much simpler than a normal day at home. When you're on trail, the primal things of life take the forefront - food, water, shelter and how far you'll go. Most folks use the resupply strategy of shopping in stores along the trail and supplementing resupply towns that have minimal facilities with pre-mailed food boxes aka 'mail drops'. Water is where you find it. In dry southern California it takes a little bit of planning from source to source, but once one hits the Sierras, water is a minor concern. Shelter...you should have this with you at all times! Distance - you'll go as far as you feel like or need to so you don't run out of food. Don't stress it too much as it will increase as you hike more. For the most part, if something goes wrong one has the leeway of time to spend however long it is necessary to fix the problem. Maybe you're fed-up with the trail and want to stop...take a day or two and then see how you feel. Sometimes the right thing to do is to take a break and let the emotions of the day become the past. Remember, you're goal should be to enjoy the time on trail, whatever may happen. A positive outlook really helps!
My favorite PCT Planning Resources:
(links are also on the right-side panel)
(I am not being payed to promote these websites, they are simply very helpful and worthy of praise.)
I first found this while planning for my first PCT thruhike in 2009 and have used it ever since! It has been updated and improved over the years to and is very useful for getting a rough schedule of your entire hike mapped out. It is also very helpful in resupply planning as you can simply calculate the days and distance between each resupply point. A key to making the schedule more accurate is to figure out what your normal hiking speed is so it can calculate the hiking times better. So, take a hike of a known length, record your time and calculate your pace! Typically the beginning of ones hike will be close to the schedule, but it will start to differ as more miles are hiked per day and zero days are taken etc. You can save different schedules and they are very easy to modify and update.
Halfmile Maps: https://www.pctmap.net/
A free set of maps covering the entire trail with great notations about water, campsites, landmarks etc. There is also a free app for smartphones and special reduced size PDF's of the maps to be put onto smartphones. He also offers GPS data, so you can load the track of the trail as well as waypoints for water, campsites, landmarks etc. There is also a list compiling where cellular service is/is not for different cell phone carriers based on hikers experiences along the trail. His maps are a labor of love and a wonderful aid to hiking the trail. There are plenty of 'mapbooks' out there, but I use his. You can download all the maps and print them yourself, or Yogi's Books has a GREAT deal on printing them (most likely cheaper than you could do it yourself, see the link below).
Yogi's Books: http://www.yogisbooks.com/pacific-crest-trail/
Had I know about Yogi's PCT book in 2009 when I was planning my first thruhike, reading it would have saved me a lot of time and effort and really helped me plan. It does a good job at explaining the many different aspects of thruhiking the PCT while giving opinions from other hikers who have hiked it. There are maps of resupply towns, suggestions about gear and most anything else you need to know about for the thruhike. If you're interested in hiking the PCT and want to learn more or just starting your planning, this book should be able to help you a lot. She also has a great deal on printing the Halfmile PCT Maps.
PCT Water Report: http://pctwater.com/
Here you will find reports on water sources along the trail. The updates come from hikers who send in their reports to Halfmile where it is compiled into the list. The water reports are very useful in Southern California where it is hot and dry and where water sources are typically many miles apart. It is always nice to know that you don't have to carry 1,000 gallons to make it to the next water source because you are worried it may be dry. Recently they have began to add water sources from Northern California to Washington.
This is my go-to map when I want to see the PCT outlined on a large scale map. Being an interactive overlay on Google Maps, it is very easy to pan and zoom to get a sense of where the trail is in relations to other places, like towns and roads etc. You can even enable "Show Distances" (a small text link below the center drop down menus) and then hover over the trail to get a rough idea where different mileages are. The miles aren't the same as Halfmile's mileages, but should get you close. Postholer also has 25 other trail map traces available via the "Trail" drop down menu.
Postholer PCT Snow Report:
http://www.postholer.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1956
This is my go-to website to see information about the snow levels on the PCT. The link is a forum post which consolidates snow information from around the web. The webpage I like the most is the graph showing snow depths at weather stations along the PCT. You have to make an account/sign in to view this page however. It is the first link below the images on the post. Once you've signed in, go to: http://postholer.com/postholer You must be signed in for that link to work correctly.
Facebook Group - PCT Class of 2016:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/374292632688141/
For new and old thruhikers alike, Facebook and it's ability to connect you to many other people, hikers in this case, is a great tool. You do have to have a Facebook account to join the group, which does take approval by a current member, however, it is usually very fast. Once you have joined, you can get a plethora of answers, opinions and comments about questions you may have in a very short time. It is a great place to see what others are doing for gear and planning as well as getting near immediate responses to questions. This link will be more or less obsolete once 2017 come around, so in the future, just search for "PCT Class of XXXX", replacing the XXXX with the current or next year. Example - if it was October 2016, I would search for "PCT Class of 2017", as the hiking season for 2016 is pretty much over.
PCT-L Mailing List:
http://mailman.backcountry.net/mailman/listinfo/pct-l
Pacific Crest Trail Association: http://www.pcta.org/
The PCTA is the organization that oversees the PCT. They organize the trail work, lobby the government for funds and so much more. Their website is where you have to go to get your long distance hiking permit and can find the forms so you can enter Canada at the end of the hike. They also provide updates on trail occurrences, such as fires, trail closures and washouts etc. There is also other good information related to the trail on their website, so check them out and become a member!
Wilderness Press PCT Data Book - 5th Edition:
Postholer PCT Snow Report:
http://www.postholer.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1956
This is my go-to website to see information about the snow levels on the PCT. The link is a forum post which consolidates snow information from around the web. The webpage I like the most is the graph showing snow depths at weather stations along the PCT. You have to make an account/sign in to view this page however. It is the first link below the images on the post. Once you've signed in, go to: http://postholer.com/postholer You must be signed in for that link to work correctly.
Facebook Group - PCT Class of 2016:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/374292632688141/
For new and old thruhikers alike, Facebook and it's ability to connect you to many other people, hikers in this case, is a great tool. You do have to have a Facebook account to join the group, which does take approval by a current member, however, it is usually very fast. Once you have joined, you can get a plethora of answers, opinions and comments about questions you may have in a very short time. It is a great place to see what others are doing for gear and planning as well as getting near immediate responses to questions. This link will be more or less obsolete once 2017 come around, so in the future, just search for "PCT Class of XXXX", replacing the XXXX with the current or next year. Example - if it was October 2016, I would search for "PCT Class of 2017", as the hiking season for 2016 is pretty much over.
PCT-L Mailing List:
http://mailman.backcountry.net/mailman/listinfo/pct-l
This is the "old-school" forum-like precursor to Facebook. You send an email question out to the server list and then get replies via email. You must make an account and be approved to begin emailing, however it is very easy. Typically older hikers with experience are signed up for this still. There are extensive archives from previous years which can be browsed if you just want to learn more. The archives can be accessed by anyone and are found at: http://mailman.backcountry.net/pipermail/pct-l/
Pacific Crest Trail Association: http://www.pcta.org/
The PCTA is the organization that oversees the PCT. They organize the trail work, lobby the government for funds and so much more. Their website is where you have to go to get your long distance hiking permit and can find the forms so you can enter Canada at the end of the hike. They also provide updates on trail occurrences, such as fires, trail closures and washouts etc. There is also other good information related to the trail on their website, so check them out and become a member!
Wilderness Press PCT Data Book - 5th Edition:
This book was a great addition to my maps during my 2009 and 2012 hikes, as it was a very simple way to gauge distances based on landmarks the trail crosses. It has notations about where the next is, so you can do simple math to figure out how much further. It is a small book that can easily be torn into sections so you can put it into the appropriate resupply boxes. However, with smartphones and the ability to upload Halfmile maps directly to your phone, this resource is becoming a little obsolete. If you like to have information on paper in your hand, this is another helpful tool. It is sold at many places, like the PCTA website, Amazon, and REI. I have not used the other "PCT Data Books" and don't know how they compare to this one.
This "best of" list is nowhere near complete, but for me, with the above websites and books/maps, I can pretty much plan my entire hike with ease. I'm sure there are other resources out there that I have never heard of but are equally as helpful.
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| A few miles south of Rae Lakes in the evening. HDR. |
