The average thru-hiker will take about five months to walk the entire trail, averaging 20-plus miles a day after factoring in rest days. Fewer than half of them finish each year. Between 500 and 800 individuals attempt the journey. The Rae Lakes, in Kings Canyon National Park, lie among some of the highest peaks and passes along the Pacific Crest Trail.Ībout 1,000 people apply for thru-permits each year. In places, a plastic bear canister is required-and hikers would be wise to carry one of these bear-proof food containers throughout their journey. Bears, Haskel warns, can be especially problematic near the Rae Lakes in Kings Canyon National Park and in Yosemite National Park’s Lyell Canyon. Such deliciously laden hikers are gold mines of goodies for black bears, which don’t pose much of a physical threat to people but may easily rob hikers of their supplies if they leave them unguarded-even for just a few moments, whether day or night. North of Kennedy Meadows, hikers cross not a single road for about 200 miles and, unless they trek off-trail to a town, may need to carry with them some 60,000 calories of food a person. Once hikers reach the Sierra Nevada, a simple water filtering pump can be used at any of hundreds of lakes and streams along the way-but rations now become the biggest priority. In places along the Pacific Crest Trail, such canisters are required.
Haskel says there are, in particular, two waterless distances of about 30 miles in the Southern California desert where hikers must tote gallons at a time.įood canisters like these save backpackers the trouble of hanging their food from a tree, while guaranteeing its protection from bears. Logistically speaking, now comes the fun stuff-bears, food supplies, dangerous terrain and running out of water. This document is free, takes two to three weeks to process and paves the way for a hiker to walk every inch of the PCT. The PCT Association will grant a PCT Long Distance Permit to anyone planning to walk at least 500 miles of the trail. Hikers must handle some paperwork before they begin-but, happily, bureaucratic obstacles are quite minimal. “It’s been a low-snow year, which makes it a decent year to get an early start,” he said.
Jack Haskel, a staff member with the Pacific Crest Trail Association, told Off the Road that several thru-hikers are already a few hundred miles into their walk.
The April-May start time also works out especially nicely by putting northbounders at the south end of the Sierra Nevada just as the high country snowpack really begins to melt, and if they stay on schedule they should pass through the Pacific Northwest before the first autumn snows. This allows them to begin when the desert temperatures are still mild and progress northward rather in sync with the warming weather. Most people who hike the PCT walk south to north, and for them, the adventure is about to start. It crosses one of North America’s largest rivers, and traverses a wide range of climates and landscapes, from low-lying to deserts to craggy high country to well-watered, mossy forests. The PCT passes among the world’s largest trees, some of the most fantastic rock formations and one of the driest deserts. The PCT is one of America’s three great long-distance north-south hiking trails, along with the Continental Divide and the Appalachian trails. They must also undertake some serious planning as they begin what will likely be the greatest outdoors adventure of their lives. Hikers intending to do so must be fit, brave, ambitious and-at least for a while-unemployed. Many thousands of people walk some portion of the trail each year, whether in California, Oregon or Washington, while several hundred attempt to go the full distance. Manning Provincial Park, in British Columbia. Usually called the PCT, this epic foot trail meanders 2,650 miles through three states, from Campo, California, to E.C. That, in a sentence, describes the experience of walking the Pacific Crest Trail. The concept is alluringly simple: Leave your home, your television, your laptop, your job, put on a backpack and walk from Mexico to Canada.
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