[pct-l] Mom and 10 year old son section hiking

[Mary Coucoules]

Excellent points! Where would be a more reasonable stating point given a
mid-June start for a section hike? I assumed it might be to late to start at
the boarder given the water situation.

Mary

From:  CHUCK CHELIN <steeleye at wildblue.net>
Date:  Sunday, September 2, 2012 10:41 AM
To:  Mary Coucoules <coucoules at comcast.net>
Cc:  <pct-l at backcountry.net>
Subject:  Re: [pct-l] Mom and 10 year old son section hiking


Good morning, Mary,

There are a few difficulties ­ maybe more like peculiarities ­ associated
with a Kennedy Meadows (KM) start:

Transportation: KM is a tiny place that is difficult to get to by any normal
transportation except a personal vehicle.

Snow: Mid-June is a good time for northbound thru-hikers to continue from
KM, but in a normal year there will still be considerable snow to deal with
­ miles and miles of it.  Thru-hikers will have already crossed the Jan
Jacinto, the San Bernardino, and the San Gabriel Mountains and will have
gained the patience and experience necessary for travel over snowpack.
http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=264464
http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=264576
<http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=264576>

Altitude: Beginning at KM, which is about 6,100 ft. elevation, the trail
fairly quickly ascends to the 8,000-10,000 ft. level where it stays for
many, many days.  A hiker not experienced with such hiking, and having
little or no time to acclimate, could experience some form of altitude
sickness.

Conditioning: In addition to the stress of climbing with a
heavier-than-average pack load, and having to deal with being slowed down by
snowpack, the air at those altitudes is thin -- having only about 2/3 as
much oxygen as one would expect at sea level.

Hiking Speed: Given the conditions, the best plan may be to slow down and
deal with it, but that also has problems.  Slower pace means more days at
about 2.0 lb. of food per day.  That means a heavier initial load, or the
need for more frequent exits for resupply. Check the trails to resupply
points, but most ­ particularly in the south ­ are a fair ways off the PCT.

Gear:  Thru-hikers have had the previous 700 trail-miles to hone their gear
load, and make adjustments along the way.  From KM north for about 200 miles
there is minimum opportunity to find different gear.  KM is also the typical
point for hikers to receive extra gear that may be necessary, such as the
bear Œcan; or advisable, such as ice axe, traction aids, etc. so viewing a
typical hiker¹s start-of-the hike gear list may be misleading.

Stream Crossings:  Fording is pretty much a fact-of-life through the Sierra.
Any advance experience you can get in fording fast, cold water will be
valuable.   http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=265511

Enjoy your hike,

Steel-Eye 

-Hiking the Pct since before it was the PCT ­ 1965

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

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


On Sat, Sep 1, 2012 at 2:16 PM, Mary Coucoules <coucoules at comcast.net>
wrote:
> My son and I (both avid backpacker) will be section hiking a 900 mile
> section of the PCT 2013 summer. Since we won't be able to start until June
> 12th I thought Kennedy Meadows might be a good starting point. Any thoughts
> on that? Would there be a better place to start? I figured any place further
> south might be to hot. We have 2 1/2 months to complete.
> 
> Also I am interested in hearing from other who have hike the PCT with the
> similar age especially regarding food options palatable for a 10 year old,
> number of hours per day of hiking and how you handled getting to the
> resupply locations. How often you had a zero day etc.
> 
> Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> Mary
> 
> 
> 
> 
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