Alright, this is my very first blog so bear with me, I am still figuring all this out. So I am planning on attempting to thru-hike the Pacific Crest trail starting in mid May of 2017. For those of you who do not know what this means, it basically means I will be walking a lot. For months on end. Through the wilderness. And I could not be more excited!
The Pacific Crest Trail is a nice little 2,650 mile stroll through California, Oregon, and Washington. It starts at the U.S./Mexico border at a little town called Campo, which is about 61 miles east of San Diego, and it ends a couple miles past the Canadian border in Manning Provincial Park, British Columbia. So maybe it is less of a stroll and more of a jaunt.
This trail has so much to offer, from the desert in southern California, the high sierras, Crater Lake in Oregon, and the northern Cascades in Washington, and that is just the tip of the iceberg!
So why am I taking this little adventure you may ask? Because why the hell not! I have always been an outdoorsy type of guy. I grew up hiking and camping all over the U.S., from the Grand Canyon to Mt. Katahdin in Maine. I will be graduating college this May and I figured that if there was any time to take 4-5 months off of my life then that would be the time! I've got 6 months until my student loans kick in and no other real responsibilities, so good bye real world! Hello great outdoors!
Gear
One thing that I am learning as I prepare for the PCT is that the gear I need is expensive! So I am just buying one thing at a time, as much as my college budget will allow me. So here is my list:
Big Three
- Backpack - Osprey Aether 70L
- Tent - REI Passage 2 tent
- Sleeping Bag - REI Radiant down sleeping bag
Clothes
- Baseball hat
- Bandanna/Buff
- Columbia Silver Ridge long sleeve shirt
- Columbia Silver Ridge convertible pants
- Darn Tough Socks
- Merrell Grassbow shoes
- Columbia rain jacket
- Mountain Hardware Ghost Whisperer Down Jecked
- Sunglasses
- Bug head net
- North Face Beanie
- Gloves
- Patagonia Long Underwear
- Nike running shorts
- REI Tshirt
Water
- Smartwater bottles
- Sawyer Squeeze water filter
- 1L and 2L Platy soft bottles
- 3L Platypus Big Zip
Cookware
- MSR Titan 0.8L titanium pot
- MSR Pocket Rocket stove
- Fuel
- Lighter/matches
- Long handle spoon
- Bear vault (for High Sierras)
Personal
- First aid kit
- Wet wipes
- Toilet paper
- Trowel
- Hand sanitizer
- Toothpaste/brush
Other
- Phone
- Portable charger
- Tent footprint
- Compass
- Multi tool
- Pack Cover
- Maps/guidebook
- Trekking Poles
This is not a complete list because I have not bought everything yet, but I will update the list as I acquire more gear.
Resupply Strategy
How will I be getting food? I will be using a hybrid resupply strategy. So what the hell does that mean? It means I will be doing a combination of mail drops and resupplying along the way. Basically I will be mailing myself big boxes of food at several points on the trail, and in between those points I will be restocking my food supply at local stores along the trail.
Snow
This year is shaping up to be a big year for snow! California is getting absolutely hammered with snow, especially in the Sierras. I will have to add some microspikes and possibly an ice ax to my gear list to compensate. Luckily for me I am getting a little later start, so hopefully the snow will have melted a bit by the time I make it to the Sierras.
I applied for my PCT long distance permit with a starting date of May 15th! Only a couple more months to go!
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