The Pacific Crest Trail. Brian Johnson

Castella to Interstate 5 (Ashland)

       Oregon

       8 Ashland to McKenzie Pass

       9 McKenzie Pass to Cascade Locks

       Washington

       10 Cascade Locks to Snoqualmie Pass

       11 Snoqualmie Pass to Manning Park

       Appendix A Local information and conversions

       Appendix B Useful addresses

       Appendix C Other publications

       Appendix D Schedules for 110 to 180-day thru’-hikes

       Appendix E Summaries of Ancient Brit’s schedules

       Appendix F Ancient Brit’s 2002 (160-day) schedule

       Appendix G Schedule for a 180-day thru’-hike

       Appendix H Schedule for a super-slow start

      Charger and his wife (Section 19)

      Pockets above Carson Pass (Section 41)

      Notorious BOB, a north-to-south thru’-hiker, in the Oregon Desert (Section 69)

      Willie (Section 74)

      A thru’-hiker descends from Kearsarge Pass (Section 31A)

      Nicola and Huckleberry – don’t forget your teddy bear (Section 100)

      PREFACE

      Potest quia posse videntur – He can because he thinks he can.

      When you reach Manning Park at the end of the Pacific Crest Trail you will be tired and dirty – but you will feel great. You will have had the experience of a lifetime and be a changed person. You will have an intense feeling of personal satisfaction. You will be ready for other big ventures in life. You will have learnt not to give up and you will continue to feel great.

      The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) is the world’s longest continuous footpath, running from the Mexican border to the Canadian border through California, Oregon and Washington. It is estimated that about 500 hikers, known as thru’-hikers, attempt a continuous hike of the entire PCT each year; of those perhaps forty per cent succeed. A much larger number, who hike short or long sections of the PCT, are known as section-hikers. This comprehensive but concise guide is intended to provide all the information and maps thru’-hikers or section-hikers will need to hike the PCT.

      Hiking 2650 miles isn’t something that just anyone can do, is it? Over the years I have become more and more astonished by the extraordinary things that people who regard themselves as ‘ordinary’ can do when they set their mind to it.

       In 2000 I met Dennis at 12,000ft, on snow-covered Muir Pass. He had had a heart and lung transplant in 1999.

       In 2002 I hiked with 63 year-old George ‘Billy Goat’ Woodard. After starting his thru’-hike he was hospitalised for two weeks with heart pains but that didn’t prevent him reaching Canada. To date he has hiked more than 20,000 miles on the PCT.

       In 2004, Mary ‘Scrambler’ Chambers, a 10-year-old girl thru’-hiked the PCT with her parents, Gary Chambers and Barbara Egbert.

       Scott, in 2006, had one objective: to lose 120lb. He’d weighed 310lb when he set off but when I met him he was already down to 230lb, after just six weeks on the trail.

       In 2006, 22-year-old Ashley ‘Ladybird’ Ravenstein was bitten on the foot by a brown recluse spider and was off-trail for a month with an injury described as resembling a gunshot wound. Nevertheless she returned to the PCT and arrived in Canada in late October.

      If these people can hike the PCT, so can you.

      Brian Johnson

      Early morning view of Mount Thielsen from Crater Lake Rim (Section 70)

      INTRODUCTION

      The 2650-mile PCT starts in California at the Mexican border, about 50 miles east of San Diego, and passes through California, Oregon and Washington to reach the Canadian border about 100 miles east of Vancouver, British Columbia.

      It is a well-engineered and, for the most part, well-maintained trail. The trail itself is easy to hike: it is well-graded and never steep, as it is designed for horseriders as well as hikers. The PCT is for the exclusive use of hikers and riders and only a few miles, on paved or dirt roads, are shared with other users.

      Europeans, accustomed to long distance paths designed to pass through towns and mountain villages with easy access to shops, hotels and commercial campsites, should realise that there is a completely different philosophy to such trails in the US. The PCT is very much a wilderness trail that only occasionally touches civilisation. Wilderness camping is an integral part of hiking the PCT.

      Camp on descent from Forester Pass (Section 30)

      The PCT is very varied. You will hike through deserts, forests, over snow-covered passes and along alpine ridges. The trail starts in the arid hills and mountains of Southern California, and cuts across a corner of the Mojave Desert before heading into the Sierra Nevada, with its majestic mountains in a lake-studded landscape. The granite of the Sierra Nevada gives way to the volcanic rocks of the Cascade Mountains, with a succession of volcanoes that tower above the forests of Northern California, Oregon and Washington.

A Geologist’s delight

      The PCT is a delight for the geologist. Continental drift and plate tectonics are the driving forces behind the geology of the Pacific West Coast. The