As The Crow Flies

The Pacific Crest Trail is a nearly 2700 mile (4300Km) wilderness trail that runs from the Mexican border at Campo, California into Canada at Manning Park, BC. Most people making the pilgrimage start in late April or early May at Campo and end up at Mannning Park sometime in September. Anyone can do it, but saying that I also say don’t underestimate what it’s going to take to do it. It’s a hike that will change your life and make you look at the world differently. Once you make it on the trail, don’t quit. It’s hard and a lot of the time it might not feel like fun but don’t quit. Like anything else in life, it’s mostly mental. Keep yourself happy, well fed, and hydrated and you will be fine. The time on the trail that I came closest to quiting was resolved by hitching to a store, buying a bunch more food, hitching back to the trail, setting up camp in a beautiful spot with a great view and just taking the day off to eat, sleep and enjoy the view.

The most important thing, in my opinion, is to have a fervent desire to hike the trail. The next most important thing to have is a light load. Ray Jardine’s book, Beyond Backpacking: Ray Jardines Guide to Lightweight Hiking, is a great primer on long distance, light weight backpacking. He made most of his own light weight gear for very little money.

PCT hiker alumni, “Yogi”, put together a PCT Hiking Handbook on hiking the trail full of all sorts of essential advice, tips and trail information.

The three guide books for the trail are: The Pacific Crest Trail: Southern California , Northern California, Oregon And Washington. I tore up the books and mailed myself the sections to where I needed them.

There is a Pacific Crest Trail Data Book that is particularly useful and combined with a compass/alimeter watch makes figuring out where you are on the trail and how long to the next water source much easier.

I also brought the AAA map of what ever state i was hiking through. The trail is shown on the map and gave me a big picture view of where I was.

The only permits you will need are a thru-hikers permit that you can get for 5 dollars from http://www.pcta.org and permission to enter Canada through the PCT permit which is free.

While I was biding my time waiting for the day that I would be out there. I watched Lynn Welden’s “How to hike the PCT video“ And read books about peoples experiences on the PCT.

Related Post: How to get to Campo– the southern end of the Pacific Crest Trail