Sunday, October 6, 2013

I joined the PCT Association

This weekend I joined the Pacific Crest Trail Association. It is one way of paying it forward for my wilderness home on the trail for 5 months next year. The trail is maintained by this amazing organization who also put out a wealth of information about the trail and how to survive on it.

From their website I found the following information:

Fun Facts about things I have to look forward to:
California section:1,698.8 miles/ 2734km
Oregon section: 456.8miles/ 735.15km
Washington section: 499.8 miles/ 804.35km...
Total elevation gain: 314,711 ft/ 95924 m
Climbs: 60 major mountain passes
Descends into: 19 major canyons
Passes: 1000 lakes and tarns, 3 national monuments, 7 national parks,24 national forests and 33 federally mandated wildernesses
Travelling at a pace of 20miles/32km per day will take me 134 days of hiking to complete the entire trail.


I've almost purchased all my gear and I'm doing a lot of research regarding food and resupply along the trail. I've pretty much decided to only have 10 resupply boxes mailed to post offices en route and the rest of the time I'm going to buy supplies in towns that I can hike down to. This supports the local economy and allows more freedom in terms of movement (the boxes are only held for 2 weeks and I might be hiking faster or slower than anticipated) and I might also not even want the food i pack into them beforehand. According to the information out there this is definitely  a reasonable plan to follow.
More updates coming on what I'm packing into my resupply boxes and what my gear consists of the closer I get to actually leaving. Stay tuned!