[pct-l] Starting Slow

[Diane at Santa Barbara Hikes dot com]

Starting slow is much better than pushing yourself out the gate. Ease  
into it. There's plenty of time to get into trail condition.

However, easing into it is hard to do on the PCT because of water.  
It's usually about 20 miles apart. So you end up going about 20 miles  
a day pretty early on.

Still, you can spend the first few days easing into it. My first few  
days were thus:
Day 1: 9 miles (camped well before Hauser Canyon.)
Day 2: 10 miles
Day 3: 13 miles
Then I think I did about 15 miles or so per day to Warner Springs.

Most people waste time not on easing into the hike but on zero days.

Diane

On Feb 4, 2010, at 5:44 PM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:

> The "fit for a thru-hike thread" made me wonder what the opinion  
> was on
> starting with lower mileages.  I am starting after Kick-Off and my  
> plan is
> just to carry a lot of water and go at my own pace.  It seemed like  
> from
> previous threads that other hikers feel like they need to hike 20s  
> right out
> of the gate.    I started off really slow when I did the AT (3  
> miles, 5
> miles, 7 miles, 10 miles), and I found it helpful mentally and  
> physically.
> It not that I  *can't *hike a 20 the first day I just don't really  
> *want*to.