[pct-l] Washington in Late June

[CHUCK CHELIN]

Good morning, Toby,

The advisability of departing NoBo in Washington before July depends upon
your motivation, experience, and appetite for route-finding over snowpack.  In
an average snow year in the Cascades mid-June is hikeable, but progress is
slowed due to:  1) The extra effort necessary for walking, 2) The extra
time necessary to puzzle-through the route-finding challenges  over
residual snowpack – remember there will be many fewer hiker tracks, and
lots of the tracks you do see will from local people who aren’t staying on
the PCT, and 3) Then there’s the lonesome factor:  Not every hiker is
willing to deal with being substantially alone in big country for maybe
days at a time.

Based upon what I see around my area of N. Oregon, the graphic at
http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/ftpref/support/water/westwide/snowpack/wy2012/snow1204.gifis
a fair representation.
All that “blue” means the hiker will see lots of “white” on the trail
through July and well into August.

If my calendar wasn’t critical I would wait to depart mid to late July,
then I would allow for probable slow progress when planning food and when
projecting a completion date.

Enjoy your planning,

Steel-Eye

-Hiking the Pct since before it was the PCT – 1965

http://www.trailjournals.com/steel-eye

http://www.trailjournals.com/SteelEye09/


On Mon, Apr 9, 2012 at 6:46 AM, Toby Maxwell <toby.m.maxwell at gmail.com>wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> I am taking a little over 3 weeks to do some hiking this summer and was
> planning on hiking in Washington starting at trout lake and moving north
> (mile 2232 and on).  Does late June to mid July seem early for this? Does
> anyone have an idea about what the snowpack might be like that time of
> year?  Thanks!
>
> -Toby
> _______________________________________________
> Pct-L mailing list
> Pct-L at backcountry.net
> To unsubcribe, or change options visit:
> http://mailman.backcountry.net/mailman/listinfo/pct-l
>
> List Archives:
> http://mailman.backcountry.net/pipermail/pct-l/
> All content is copyrighted by the respective authors.
> Reproduction is prohibited without express permission.
>