the chance to chat to other hikers. You’ve earned that swim or soak in the hot springs. You can read that book you’ve never had time for at home, or even write your own book. You won’t have time for long breaks if you plan to hike 20 or 30 miles every day. You should instead follow the example of the gentleman from Seattle who ‘wanted time to smell the roses’.
Hiking schedules
It is possible to hike the PCT without a plan. People do so successfully but more of them will give up at some stage. You are more likely to succeed if you have a strategy to complete the hike and a detailed plan to fall back on in times of difficulty. Obviously circumstances might force you to adjust your plans as you go along.
The main reasons for a detailed schedule are to help you organise your food supplies and to ensure you neither reach the High Sierra too soon nor Washington too late. If travellers from outside the US have confidence in their schedule they can book a return flight at the same time as their outbound flight, and save themselves a lot of money.
In 2006, a record snow year, most hikers started far too early and, despite all sorts of delaying tactics, reached Kennedy Meadows when there was almost continuous snowpack in the High Sierra. Of the early starters only a small minority, who were experienced winter mountaineers, got through the High Sierra.
Sun cups (Section 32)
There is a lot to be said for having a schedule that you can achieve fairly easily: you will feel good when you get ahead and it will give you flexibility in case of problems or injuries. If your schedule is too demanding you will become demoralised when you fall behind, or injured if you try to keep up.
You will find all the information you need to produce a schedule in the appendices. Appendices D1 and D2 give hiking hours between recommended resupply points and outline schedules for 110, 120, 130, 140, 150, 160, 170 and 180 day thru’-hikes. All of these leave Kennedy Meadows on June 15, which would be an appropriate date in an average snow year. Appendix E gives a breakdown of the figures for miles, hiking hours and miles/hour between the five main regions of the PCT. Appendix F gives the precise daily schedule completed by Ancient Brit in 2002. Appendix G gives a detailed sample schedule for a 180-day though-hike. This is the type of schedule you should produce for yourself. Appendix H gives a schedule for a very slow start for those who are extremely unfit. Those hiking 160– 180-day schedules might prefer to start a little earlier, if snow conditions allow, so that they finish a little earlier in October.
Zero days
‘Zero day’ is the term used on the trail for a rest day. Simply, you cover zero trail miles that day. Avoiding too many zero days is key to a low daily mileage hike. In 2006 EricD had taken 30 zero days by the time he reached Donner Pass and, despite hiking between 25 and 35 miles every day, still took longer to reach that point than the author, whose longest day was about 20 miles. The thru’-hiker who completed the PCT in 1979 averaging 15 miles a day, with no zero days, had it much better worked out.
Why do you need zero days? Hikers in 2006 gave many reasons. Some said their body needed a break after covering too many miles in successive days. Others had blisters, repetitive strain injuries, were ill or simply needed to recover from the night before! Some had started their thru’-hikes too early and needed to wait for the Sierra snows to melt, while others waited in town for rain and snowstorms to pass through.
Resupplying was another reason for taking zero days. Some hikers had reached town on a Saturday to find the post office to which they had sent their resupply parcel didn’t open until Monday. Even those who reached town mid-week sometimes needed time to organise supplies. Others spent a day with a husband or girlfriend, waited for another hiker to catch up or took time out to attend a family occasion including weddings and funerals, or to visit attractions such as Las Vegas or the Quincy Music Festival.
Other reasons to take a zero day might include the fact that you’re reached a lovely place in the wilderness that you can’t bear to leave in a hurry. Perhaps the comforts of town – hotel beds, showers and laundry – are too tempting. Or perhaps you want to take a zero day for no other reason than everyone else is doing the same.
There are plenty of reasons to avoid zero days. They can be very expensive: someone calculated that the average hiker spent $100 at Vermillion Valley Resort in the Sierra Nevada. Most people who quit the trail do so after a zero day, particularly at Warner Springs in Southern California, just 110 miles from the start. But the most important consideration is that every unscheduled zero day you take means that you have to hike an extra hour or more each day for the next week to make up the lost time.
Before you set off think carefully about your zero day policy. It is best to produce a schedule with very few zero days but one that is fairly easy to achieve. You can then earn your zero days by getting ahead of schedule and enjoy them with a clear conscience.
Annual Day Zero Pacific Crest Trail Kick-Off
A kick-off party is held every year, on the last or penultimate weekend in April, at Lake Morena campground, 20 trail miles from the Mexican border. The whole campground is booked for the weekend and the party is attended by past and future PCT hikers, as well as that year’s aspirants. A large number of trail angels will also be present. The kick-off – known as ADZPCTKO – is a good chance to meet fellow hikers and pick up information about conditions and things such as water caches on the trail. There will also be organised talks for your education or entertainment.
There are good reasons for attending the kick-off if it fits into your schedule. However, there are also dangers in attending. The timing of the kick-off is about right for those doing a relatively slow thru’-hike and for section-hikers. Faster thru’-hikers will, however, find that they reach the High Sierra much too early.
Ladybug and Ancient Brit at the PCT’s southern terminal, Campo (Section 1)
At Lake Morena, around kick-off time, it will be relatively easy to find someone willing to give you a lift to the Mexican border, tempting you to slack-pack the first 20 miles to the campground, either before or after the kick-off party. Covering that mileage on the first day, however, is a recipe for disaster even if you don’t have to carry your pack. It’s a great way to get blisters and there is the danger, if you are slack-packing, that you won’t carry enough water. After the kick-off, when you leave Lake Morena, you will be with a large group of hikers. Do you have the discipline to go slow? Or will you find yourself dragged along at the excessive early speeds of others? If you are at the back of the pack, you might find that hikers just ahead of you have emptied the water caches.
Some hikers leave Campo well-before the kick-off and get a lift back from Warner Springs or even further up the trail, while others leave from Campo on Wednesday or Thursday and arrive at the kick-off party after a gentle start. Both strategies could upset your hiking routine too early in the journey.
If you intend to be at the kickoff, the best thing would be to get a lift to Campo after the party, to start your hike properly. That works best if the dates fit in with your schedule. For details of the kick-off, see www.adzpctko.org.
Start date
Ideally you would decide your start date as late as
