[pct-l] Starting Late and Feeling Great

Fri Sep 23 15:43:55 CDT 2011

Hi hikers,

Having just finished the trail last week (woo-hoo!), I'd like to give a
little counterpoint to Ned and Diane's comments, especially in context of
this year's conditions. I started my hike on May 19, about two and a half
weeks after the pack had left Campo.

Looking back, I'm very glad I started so late. Those who began in mid-April
experienced dramatically different conditions in the southern California
mountains, either road-walking around them or slogging through lots of snow;
I had dry trail and perfect weather through that entire section. I entered
the Sierra on June 23rd, and, though it was an intense experience (which I
enjoyed!), it was much easier for me than for the early starters, who hit
the Sierra in early June and described raging rivers, cornices, and epic
snow - all of which had improved a lot by the time I went through. I noticed
that, of the many folks who skipped or flipped around the Sierra this year,
most were early starters, or scared off by early reports. The change in snow
and river levels over just a couple weeks was incredible.

My goal was to hike the trail in four months, and I did it in 123 days,
finishing on Sep 18. I encountered no significant precipitation on the
entire trip. If I'd started earlier or finished later, I would have been
caught in cold rainstorms at both ends. And, personally, forty-degree rain
is the most miserable hiking weather!

It sounds like a fast hike, but four months averaged out to 21.6 miles/day.
I'm not an ultralight hiker. Once you get going, that's a pretty relaxed
pace - as long as you're consistent. I only took three zero days on my trip,
whereas most hikers seemed to take at least 20. I guess people think that it
helps them rest, recover, and see the sights, but it seemed to me that zero
days usually involve the inside of a motel room, and not much else. Whenever
I did take a full day off, it sapped my energy, cost a lot, and made it
mentally difficult to return to the trail. As long as you don't overextend
yourself, approaching each day like you're going to do the same again
tomorrow, then you shouldn't ever get so tired you need a whole day off! My
biggest day through most of California was 27 miles, and my biggest overall
was 35.8 - almost all through-hikers peaked higher than that at some point,
but inevitably paid for the effort with shorter mileage or a zero the
following day (in fact, two of my three zeros were spent with an injured
knee caused by the aforementioned 35.8).

As for enjoying it, I had an incredibly awesome summer! Not once did I ever
think about quitting. I went into this hike with the mindset that only a
physical injury would stop me, and that decision meant that I never worried
about whether I was having a good enough time to continue. I just did it.
Though I took some side and alternate routes (Mt Whitney, Eagle Creek, etc),
I was usually happy to stick to the trail and make satisfying progress north
each day. My goal was to hike the PCT, not take every side route; you could
spend a lifetime exploring the various places along the way.

But please scrap the grit-your-teeth, head-down, miles-is-everything
through-hiker image. I had a blast this year, and, judging by the wide
variety of interesting people I met, so did many others. What an adventure!

Noah Strycker

noahstrycker.com/latest

On Fri, Sep 23, 2011 at 11:15 AM, <ned at mountaineducation.org> wrote:

> Diane brings up a point that we've believed all along: take more time to do
> a thru hike, enjoy more of what you're going through, the side trails, the
> lakes, the peaks, climb a tree, lay out in the sun, etc., because you don't
> know your future and whether or not you'll be able to come back.
>
> Why blast on up the trail every day, from before sunrise to after sunset,
> to
> get in all the miles you need to go the distance quickly because you
> started
> in May when you could have started "earlier" giving you more time to go
> slower and take in more? I know this idea of "starting early" comes up
> every
> year and many say, "we can't start April 1st because we'll run into snow."
> So. With winters like we've been having, you're going to anyway....
>
> As Diane said, "Then there are many people who hike the entire distance in
> one go, who spent the final months gritting their teeth, who never took a
> side trail to see a view or soak in a hot spring, who know deep down that a
> thru-hike is not necessarily the best way to take in this magnificent
> trail..." especially when thru hikes are short and fast as so many do them
> these days.
>
> Just for comparison, I did the trail in 5 1/2 months at 17 miles per day
> with a day off each week. I had enough time during the day to stop
> frequently, take long lunches, take lots of pictures, go swimming,
> bouldering, and peak-bagging, read about the flora and fauna and trail
> history as I went along, explore side trails, and wash myself and clothes
> without going into towns. Now, this "stay-on-the-trail" priority is not
> typical of today's thru hiker, but it gave me lots of time to enjoy the
> trail, and that's why I was there in the first place.
>
> If that is why you want to hike the Pacific Crest and do it only once,
> without feeling afterward that you may have missed so much as you flew
> through, consider taking more time and going slower. Of course, I didn't
> start either the PCT or CDT at 17 mpd. I started at 10 mpd and gradually
> increased the miles as my 17-year-old body allowed. Once I was strong, I
> was
> doing more that my needed average, because I knew that when I hit the snows
> of the higher elevations, I would be hard-pressed to accomplish more than
> 10
> mpd again.
>
> As I grew stronger (past Yosemite), I was able to increase the miles per
> day, but not by much since the snow was deep that year and lasted into
> Washington (late August was when I finally saw anyone on the trail and they
> were trail crew!). When you're really tuned up and it becomes "natural" to
> rise early, eat, pack, and start enjoying the scenery, accomplishing daily
> mileages almost twice the 17 mpd average is simple and gives you lots more
> time to explore, fish, write in a journal while watching the sun go down,
> and so forth. I have never felt like I needed to go back and do the trail
> again.... There's so much else to do in life, and of course, there's always
> another trail!
>
>
>
> "Just remember, Be Careful out there!"
>
> Ned Tibbits, Director
> Mountain Education
> South Lake Tahoe, Ca. 96150
>    P: 888-996-8333
>    F: 530-541-1456
>    C: 530-721-1551
>    http://www.mountaineducation.org
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Diane Soini of Santa Barbara Hikes" <diane at santabarbarahikes.com>
> To: "Charles Doersch" <charles.doersch at gmail.com>
> Cc: <pct-l at backcountry.net>
> Sent: Friday, September 23, 2011 6:32 AM
> Subject: Re: [pct-l] PCT-L - Most Common Causes of Thru-Dropout
>
>
> > All well and good, but I know one person who has never gone further
> > than about Lone Pine on the trail. He believes it's all or nothing
> > and has started over several times but his knees bring him to a halt
> > each time. I know someone else who beats themselves up for not having
> > completed the entire trail in one go, who starts over each time as
> > well, but feels like a failure despite having had the good fortune to
> > be able to spend so much time hiking this beautiful trail.
> >
> > Every year lots of people hike 500, 800, 1000, 2200 miles and they
> > leave the trail in tears over their failure and then flog themselves
> > emotionally over it for years. Is what they've done really a failure?
> >
> > At the same time, there are many people who decide happily that 500,
> > 800, 1000 miles is quite enough but they get lumped into a pile with
> > all the "failed thru-hikes" that others like to repeat in their
> > statistics. Is it really a failure if you go out, hike an astounding
> > distance few will ever complete, enjoy yourself and go home?
> >
> > Then there are many people who hike the entire distance in one go,
> > who spent the final months gritting their teeth, who never took a
> > side trail to see a view or soak in a hot spring, who know deep down
> > that a thru-hike is not necessarily the best way to take in this
> > magnificent trail but "success" is bestowed on what they've done.
> >
> > Finally, even if you do finish all in one go and even if you loved
> > every minute of it, you are never finished. It's likely you will
> > return to hike the trail in smaller pieces and you will know then
> > that it doesn't define success or failure either way, because the
> > most important thing is that you keep hiking.
> >
> > On Sep 22, 2011, at 7:21 PM, Charles Doersch wrote:
> >>
> >> It was a terrible thing to learn that I could be so wrong about
> >> what would make me deeply happy. Apparently I did know what would
> >> make me comfortable.
> >>
> >> Now, we stick to the difficult.
> >>
> >> Charles & the gang.
> >
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