[pct-l] New member

[Brian Watt]

Jerry,

I was an older newcomer to long distance hiking so I felt I really 
needed to prepare myself for the challenge of the PCT. I did my prep in 
my town over a period of six months. I started with 20 lbs in my pack 
and 40 miles per week. First I increased my pack weight by 10% per week 
until it was 35 lbs. Then I increased my distance by 10% per week until 
it was 80 miles. Each week consisted of hiking on local flat paths and 
roads on Monday, and Wednesday, hills on Tuesday and Thursday, off on 
Friday, a long distance hike on Saturday, and a trail hike with poles on 
Sunday. To help adjust to the weight and distance every 5th week was a 
"recovery" week where I dropped down my weight and distance 30% for just 
that week. About once a month I went to a local park and camped over the 
weekend to shakedown my other gear and to hike on different trails. My 
culmination was a multi-day hike to Big Bend National Park where I 
cached water (required by the rangers) and did the Outer Mountain Loop 
across the desert using all my gear including topo maps and GPS. By the 
time I was done I had hiked over 1600 miles and knew that I was ready 
for the PCT which I completed in 2014 in 144 days (April 16-Sept 6) with 
7 zeros. This includes all the standard caveats of YMMV and HYOH.

Bri/Tartan