Catching Up
New trail on a new coast, new states to conquer, new gear to break in, but same general plan; wake up and walk. With longer stretches between resupplies and less abundance of water your pack will, at times, be heavier on the Pacific Crest Trail than on the Appalachian Trail so I wasted no time in cutting weight. On my way home from Maine, we stopped at Hyperlite Mountain Gear's HQ in Biddeford, ME so I could get a new pack, 1.5lbs shaved off right there! (More on my PCT pack weight below)
I slowly assimilated back to real life; spent a week in Acadia National Park and traveling down the coast of Maine, then two weeks visiting friends and bumming around before going back to my cubicle job. I spent a month sub-letting a friends unfinished basement, then a four month stretch in a house near work, and have been spending my last month in town at my house in Federal Hill. Time flew by and now I have one week left until I embark on Thru-Hike #2!
Lastly, I'm excited to announce that since being back in home I managed to pick up a girlfriend, Nhandi, who is just crazy enough to join me on a hike from Mexico to Canada! We've been planning food drops, researching gear, and went on a couple of test hikes (check out photos and recaps from the Dolly Sods and an AT section)
Game Plan
We fly out to San Diego on May 3rd, have a few days to explore the city, and then hit the trail on May 7th. The PCT is more remote and requires more food drops unless you want to live off of gas station sandwiches and candy bars, you need to mail yourself food. Since our mothers (AKA Remote Sherpas) will be thousands of miles away, we plan to mail our own food drops ahead to towns where it is recommended. This way we can adapt to our food preferences and amounts as our appetites change and grow rather than taking a gamble on packing up food boxes months in advance. On the AT I packed a few resupplies with four days of food but by the time I reached Massachusetts and Vermont, that became three days of food.
The PCT is longer than the AT but it is graded for pack animals and has less total elevation change. This allows hikers to cover marathon distances as an average Miles Per Day and I don't plan on taking vacations from the trail so we hope to finish in five months. Our tentative pace and notes are listed on Craig's PCT Planner.
There was a low snow pack this year and we are starting on the late side so I don't think ice axes and crampons will be needed to plow over the Sierras. However, Kennedy Meadows is the place to change out your desert gear for mountaineering gear if required so we will have 700 miles to figure things out. Also, trees are scarce in the desert so I won't be able to hammock :-O but there are tons of opportunities to cowboy camp under the stars and we will split Nhandi's tent when necessary.