[pct-l] Worst parts of the trail and ways to get though them

[Diane Soini of Santa Barbara Hikes]

I suggest you look up as many pictures and videos as you can of the  
so-called desert. After looking at it all, you won't be able to say  
it's all desert or that it's the worst part of the trail. In fact, in  
many ways, it's the best part of the trail because 99% of the hikers  
still have the fire in their eyes.

Here are some pictures to get you started.
http://www.purebound.com/PCT/pacific_crest_trail_photos.htm
http://www.pbase.com/aarondoss/pct_best&page=all

What I found hard was hiking with other people, including the love of  
my life (sorry Trailhacker, you were not in the same shape as me and  
it was hard to push you so hard even while trying to hold myself  
back.) Most others love hiking with other people. I got sick of most  
people after about 3 days.

No seriously, what I found hard:
- Believing the hype and having it psych me out. The Hype was  
regarding the treacherous Apache Peak snow, Fuller Ridge, Crossing  
the Mojave, the big bad waterless desert and the scary creek  
crossings in the Sierra. Some of these things actually scared me so  
much I skipped them. I had to go back and do them again later. None  
of the things I did do during the thru-hiking season turned out to be  
nearly as bad as the Hype lead me to believe. Ignore all the Hype.  
Prepare for a whole winter of it. People are going to make you feel  
you are going to be wallowing in snow, camping in snow and you're  
going to die if you don't have mountains of equipment and technology  
to see you through.
- Blisters that took 700 miles to go away
- Mosquitoes that took over a month to go away
- A month of rain and wet plants encroaching on the trail and  
slapping me in the face so there was no way to stay dry
- That dang log over the Suiattle river (there's a bridge now)
- Losing my morale and having it be hard to get it back

By the way, the desert is far from waterless. The distances are far  
from difficult to deal with. The longest resupplies are totally  
doable. I walked upright over that log. And the best thing I did was  
not give up. There's a saying that you never quit the trail on a bad  
day. Wait until a good day and then quit.

On Oct 31, 2012, at 10:00 AM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:

> From: Taylor Matheson <tmatheson33 at yahoo.com>
> Subject: [pct-l] Worst parts of the trail and ways to get though them
>
> I'm planning to hike the pct in 2014 with the love of my life and  
> want to make the hard parts, such as the desert and long parts  
> without resupply, as easy as possible for her and I. Please share  
> with me what you found to be hard and how you got over these  
> obstacles of the trail or what you may have done different. Even  
> some suggestions on the parts you found hard in planning and any  
> suggestions about those would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in  
> advance.