[pct-l] SOBO vs. Flip-Flop

[Johannes Wolf]

Hey guys, here are Julia &
Johannes from Austria,



We are in search for some
advice...



We are going to hike the
PCT this summer, both we are super exited and can hardly wait to
(finally) get our feet down on the trail... 

We did plenty of research
but there is still a lot of planning and decision making ahead of us
and many questions left.



It became clear to us that
we don't wanna go with the northbound 'herd', for many reasons

	although we enjoy
	good company, we are more in search for wide and open country and
	some solitude, something which is really hard to find here in
	Europe. Going with a big group of people doesn't seem to be the
	right choice for us. Solitude > socializing! But only in this
	case ;)
	the discussion here
	over the last months about some troublemakers only helped out in
	this regard...
	big groups of people
	are so much more stress for the environment. “Leave no trace” -
	is much easier to do if there are less people at a time.




Back at the beginning of
December Jeffrey Olson wrote the odds are that a southbound hike will
be very doable this year, which got our attention. A start date as
soon as early June could be possible, which would be awesome but it
is not easy for us from a planning standpoint. Here is the dilemma:
we have to assume that it is possible to start so early. If the
assumption is wrong, you guys just stay at your homes for one or two
weeks longer, but we would be 'stranded' somewhere in Washington and
probably would have to spent a lot of money for just waiting around. 




Another possible option we
came up with: we could do a flip flop. We start somewhere in the
middle, for example in Ashland (Border California/Oregon, mile 1726),
around the 25th of May, heading north... Hiking in Oregon
at the end of may should be totally fine (right?) and when we arrive
at the major snow area  in Washington (mile 2400ish), most of the
snow should already be melted (right?). Then we somehow go back to
Ashland and start our quest for the mexican border. 




Right now we tend to do
the flip flop, but we are really undecided...  

Maybe you guys can help us
out... We are open to suggestions and any kind of help is greatly
appreciated!!



Greetings from
Vienna/Austria



j&J