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Hello Austin,<br>
<br>
Welcome to the group. Congrats on your plan to thru-hike the PCT this
year!<br>
<br>
This year is shaping up to be a normal to heavy snow year for
Washington State. It's likely that the high country will not melt out
until mid-to-late July. However, the first section of trail that you
encounter heading south from Manning is in the widest part of the range
and even though the trail is on the crest, it has characteristics that
are more like the east slopes of the North Cascades, due to the
significant amount of mountain mass to the west. So along the crest
from the Canadian Border to Rainy Pass, it's more like east slopes,
which means weather that's slightly better, especially in summer, and
snowpack that's not quite as deep as further west. Some years this
section is hikeable by 4th of July. This year it could be mid-July.
Further south, around Glacier Peak, from there to Stevens Pass, and
from Stevens to Snoqualmie, the crest is the crest where the snows pile
up as deep as anywhere else in the range. Typically those areas are
not mostly snow-free until late July.<br>
<br>
I'd say July 5th - 10th would be the earliest start date for a south
bound hike this year. However, we won't know for sure until we see how
much more snow the winter has left in it and how warm or cool our
spring turns out to be. You may need to watch the conditions thru June
and be flexible with your start date. You might be able to start as
early as July 1, or may have to wait till July 15. My guess is that
being able to start before July 1 seems pretty unlikely this year. And
we'd have to get a lot more snow and have a really cold spring to
warrant a start date later than mid-July.<br>
<br>
Good luck!<br>
<br>
Greg<br>
<br>
Austin Williams wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid:8dc324d80802151350v69c27902t122fe597a1d9327d@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">Hello, my name is Austin. I'm from the Oregon Coast and
I'll be doing my first thru this year! I'm sooooo stoked! Because of
"real life" constraints, I can't start my trip until very late June!
Yikes! So, that obviously rules out hiking North! Even though I'm an
ultralighter (8-8.5lbs base pack weight), and am convinced I can thru
hike this trail in about 3 1/2 months, if I hiked north that would
still put me in northern Washington in the middle of October.... not
going to happen!<br>
<br>
So... I've been having to read all the guidebooks backwards. :)<br>
<br>
I'm hiking solo, and have three questions for the forum:<br>
<br>
1.) How is the water situation in Southern California in late
September, early October? Is it scarce? Should my Aqua Mira suffice?
Or should bring a real water filter down there?<br>
<br>
2.) I imagine that the recent severe storms in the north have caused a
massive amount of blown-down all over the trail along sections in
Oregon and Washington. Does anyone know the current trail conditions
there?<br>
<br>
3.) And last but not least: I will be leaving my mate behind for this
hike. She'll be sending my resupply's and is being very supportive.
Naturally, I want to remain in communication as often as possible. How
(in)frequent is the cellphone coverage along the trail? Will it be
worth bringing along my cellphone (and my nifty home-made lithium
battery cellphone recharger)? Or is the cellphone coverage so limited
that I'd be better off leaving it at home? I'll only be using 22
resupply box's.... so if even if they were all evenly spaced out, that
comes out to only being able to call home to mi amor once every 5 days
(if I don't bring a cell). Any opinions?<br>
<br>
Thanks for your feedback! And I look forward to seeing you all on the
trail this summer!<br>
<br>
-Austin<br>
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