It's been a couple months since we've gotten off the trail. We have had time to reflect a bit on the experience as a whole. To try and summarize the Pacific Crest trail is a difficult thing to do, but what we can do with much greater ease is show you some numbers and answer some questions that help put our hike in perspective.
Favorite section
Pedi: Depends on how I look at it. In terms of beauty, the Sierra Nevada is the clear winner. The things I saw up there were beyond the realm of things I knew existed. When it comes to all around good times and adventure, though, it's hard to beat Oregon. It was such a fortuitous time on the PCT. Everything fell into place and new avenues opened up that blew our minds.
Soapbox: Hiking in the Sierra Nevada was also my favorite. I dreamed of that section, seeing Half Dome, experiencing the challenges, and no part of it was disappointing. Many other PCT hikers will echo Pedi and myself. If I had to offer each section an award:
- Oregon - most fun, least strain
- Washington - most challenging, diverse, and wet
- SoCal (desert) - most dry, possibly heaviest average pack weight (long water carries)
- Sierra - most iconic, best town stops, best tasting water, highest altitude, bear canister award
- NorCal - most weird
Least favorite section
Pedi: I can't say I really have a least favorite section. Even through the hard times I was thankful to be on trail. If I had to pick something though, it would be split based on how the sections affected me. Southern California was the most physically challenging. I was in near constant pain from blistered feet. Not only did this make hiking difficult, it also meant that I was practically immobile once we were done hiking for the day. This was incredibly inconvenient. Mentally, I think NorCal was the most challenging. It's long, hot and I found myself getting more grouchy during this section.
Soapbox: Not really applicable for me. Even my sick days didn't keep me from enjoying Washington.
Favorite town stop
Pedi: Portland was a magical place. It was one of only two times I went to a town that was far off trail. It was my first time, and I got a grand tour that packed as much delicious food and culture into two days as possible. We were given a car to drive and town clothes to wear. We were practically normal people! Boy did that make life convenient. All of that being said, most town stops were a delight in their own way.
Soapbox: We had a chance to experience so many places for such brief moments and in such unique ways. With that in mind, I loved our first town stop and zero day(s) spent in Idyllwild. We learned who our hiker family was (kind of). We succumbed to a hiker vortex for the first time there. Two days! As we hiked out we got a hitch from two really interesting dudes.
Least favorite town stop
Pedi: Sierra City. Many, if not most town stops are very circumstantial. It totally depends on who you meet, when you're there and, especially, how long you are there. Sierra City was a tiny thing that would have been fine for a quick afternoon, but the two and a half days I spent there was way more than I would have preferred.
Soapbox: Chester, California. The day I reached the PCT halfway marker I hiked 22 miles with Midway. He and I were both experiencing some kind of stomach bug And we could not get a ride into Chester - the only time that hitching completely failed me. The next day I spent in Chester I mostly slept under a flight of stairs at a hotel.
Number of shoes used
Pedi: 6 (This is an unusually high number. I used three pair in the SoCal alone because of rapid feet swelling and size problems. The second pair I traded for)
SoapBox: 3 pairs... trained in my first pair + 700 miles. 1300 miles in the second. Still wear my third pair sometimes.
If I did the PCT again, what would I do differently?
Pedi: Two things specifically. First, I would start with bigger shoes. Avoiding the blisters and foot pain of the desert would dramatically change my experience during that section. The shoes I started with were only one size larger than normal and were not wide enough. The sweat, heat and friction caused them to become "meat grinder feat" as Soapbox so aptly call them. Once I got shoes that were a full one and a half sizes larger than normal I was good to go. Second, I would add more variety to the food in the resupply boxes we mailed ourselves. I thought they were diverse when I made them. Little did I know how wrong I would be by the end of the trail. I could barely look at a bag of that same trail mix, Pop Tarts and peanut butter crackers.
Soapbox: There are sections where I wish I had hitched off-trail to experience side adventures, days I could have hiked more miles, and to trust that "the trail provides" earlier would be useful at the beginning. More explicitly, I would learn more about the areas we hiked beforehand. We did so much research to prep for the trip itself that I wish I would have obsessed over gear a little less and researched some history, flora and fauna. I found myself often wanting to know more about the places we passed through. That said, I gained so much info about the PCT and logistics, I'm not upset.
DATA SETS
| PEDI | DESERT | SIERRAS | NORCAL | OR | WA | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DAYS | 40 | 29 | 34 | 20 | 24 | 147 |
| MILES | 702 | 400 | 595 | 457 | 508 | 2662 |
| RESUPPLY STOPS | 9 | 4 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 33 |
| ZERO DAYS | 7 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 20 |
| NEAR-O DAYS | 3 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 17 |
| MILES/DAY | 20.4 | 17.3 | 21.4 | 26.9 | 23.3 | 21.3 |
| MILES/DAY (+ ZERO DAYS) | 16.8 | 15.5 | 18.3 | 21.5 | 22.3 | 18.4 |
| LONGEST DAY | 35 | 30 | 54 | 52 | 32 | 54 |
| SOAPBOX | DESERT | SIERRAS | NORCAL | OR | WA | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DAYS | 40 | 29 | 34 | 20 | 24 | 147 |
| MILES | 702 | 400 | 595 | 457 | 508 | 2662 |
| RESUPPLY STOPS | 9 | 4 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 33 |
| ZERO DAYS | 6 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 17 |
| NEAR-O DAYS | 3 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 19 |
| MILES/DAY | 19.8 | 18.2 | 19.7 | 27.3 | 23.1 | 21.3 |
| MILES/DAY (+ ZERO DAYS) | 16.8 | 15.5 | 18.3 | 21.5 | 22.3 | 18.4 |
| LONGEST DAY | 27 | 31 | 40 | 36 | 32 | 40 |
We hiked the same PCT, but some days Soapbox hung back, Pedi sped up or one of us wasn't feeling well so we would do our own thing. Let us know if you have questions!
Cheers,
Dan and Jonathan