
Hiking the 2,650-Mile Pacific Crest Trail - ryan_j_naughton
http://priceonomics.com/hiking-the-2650-mile-pacific-crest-trail/
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pjungwir
Wow, this was a pleasure to read.

Things sure have changed! In high school I did a ton of hiking in the
California mountains in the early 90s, including several week-long Sierra
trips ending with Mt. Whitney. I would love to hike the PCT someday. I had no
idea it required 20-25 miles a day. With elevation change that's a tough day
hike, let alone a sustained average with a full overnight pack. OTOH, when I
was hiking more, a week-long pack was more like 50 pounds, and now 25 is
heavy?

~~~
Implicated
You would be pretty surprised what you can carry for under 18 lbs or so. (not
counting food/water)

Doing so comfortably is a different story. ($)

There's a huge cottage industry of lightweight gear manufacturers [1] (I
curate a list) that you won't find in the big retail stores. Lots of focus on
smart feature engineering, lightweight hardware and materials, consistent
feedback from customers driving their revisions. It's been pretty neat to
watch.

1\. [https://lwhiker.com/brands](https://lwhiker.com/brands)

~~~
nedwin
The number of brands on that list is incredible. How big do you think the
businesses behind them are?

~~~
sliverstorm
I can't speak in dollars or volume, but I visited Katabatic Gear a few years
ago. To my memory, the owner had a small office & warehouse in the industrial
part of town - comparable to a small auto shop - and one assistant.

Plenty of these operations literally run out of a garage though, and Katabatic
Gear used to be one of those. I believe Cold Cold World packs are all still
made by the owner.

I have been immensely pleased with my "cottage gear".

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jmspring
Hiking the PCT is certainly an amazing accomplishment.

As someone who spends a lot of time outdoors hiking and biking, the PCT has
some interesting politics. The PCT expands or gets rerouted and the land that
is taken over goes from being open to mountain bikes to closed. The forest
service took a short term moratorium on biking and has basically made it
permanent; yet in parts of the Sierras (especially around tahoe) mountain bike
groups take it upon themselves to maintain parts of the PCT.

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snowwrestler
Ray Jardine was an amazing guy--an engineer who was incredibly innovative in
solving problems in outdoor adventure. For example, he invented the spring-
loading camming device, which is a revolutionary and essential piece of rock
climbing protection. Creating this device (he called the first product the
"Friend"), allowed Jardine to protect a very smooth and steep crack climb,
which was the first in the world rated 5.13.

Many innovations in ultralight backpacking can be traced back to Jardine: the
tiny backpack without a hip belt, wearing running shoes instead of hiking
boots, carrying an umbrella, using a one-layer quilt instead of sleeping bag,
using an alchohol stove, etc. It's all laid out in the _Pacific Crest Trail
Hiker 's Handbook,_ which blew minds when it was published. Jardine had to
hand-make most of his own gear to make it small and light enough; now you can
go into REI and buy versions of most of it.

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nosuchthing

      “The birth of the Internet in the late 1990s 
      revolutionized information flow, and exposed more people 
      to the trail. You could sit on your PC at home, research 
      about a subject to your heart’s content, then discuss it 
      and ask questions in online forums. These discussion 
      sites have a way of stoking passion, and I think that 
      passion started translating into more people taking 
      action, and tackling the trail.”
    

I relate to this happening in Southern California. There's definitely a
healthy cultural atmosphere that's sprouted from the internet's ability to let
people know about niche hole in the wall shops or obscure happenings hidden
amongst the vast seemingly desolate sprawl that someone who would never have
otherwise left their house can now discover from their bedroom.

~~~
Implicated
I agree completely.

The internet has really empowered me to get out and maximise my time on the
trail.

It's also allowed me to maximise my dollar...

I built a tool [1] to help people find cheap used (lightweight) gear purely
out of my passion for the trail and the people.

1\. [https://lwhiker.com](https://lwhiker.com)

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morgante
Probably the happiest time in my life was the month I spent hiking the Long
Trail in Vermont. The rhythm of waking up every day and exhausting myself
physically (but having plenty of mental energy for thinking) helped me to gain
a much better perspective on life. It was also a great opportunity to connect
on a deeper level with my father before I went off to college.

I plan to attempt the PCT or AT some day, but their considerable length makes
it a much bigger commitment than hiking the short 270-mile Long Trail.
Unfortunately it's hard to justify taking 6 months off from education or
employment—many people see it as a "hippy" thing to do.

At present, my plan is to hike the AT when/if I sell a startup. People seem to
be more understanding of you taking out in nature when you're wealthy.

~~~
curun1r
If you don't have the time available to do the entire PCT, you can do one of
the most scenic portions of it called The John Muir Trail
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Muir_Trail](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Muir_Trail))
which is actually a bit shorter than the trail you mentioned, but makes up for
it in climbs. It's still an endeavor, but one that can be done with PTO rather
than needing a leave of absence or quitting your job.

~~~
morgante
The JMT is actually on my list. Every summer I try to do a hike of a 1-4
weeks. Hoping to get to it soon, though it's tough to take a month off at a
startup.

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brendandahl
For those that are interested in doing the PCT and want to learn more I highly
recommend the trail journal of Carrot Quinn on her 2013[1] hike. She gives an
entertaining and real view of the trail.

I hiked the trail in 2014 and found it to be one of the hardest and most
rewarding things I've ever done.

1\. [http://carrotquinn.com/pct-2013/](http://carrotquinn.com/pct-2013/)

~~~
pyre
A bit older, but this was the blog that an ex-coworker made while hiking the
PCT for a second time:
[http://teamcolour.blogspot.ca/](http://teamcolour.blogspot.ca/)

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andrewguenther
This is so awesome to read about, but I just can't imagine dropping everything
for 150 days...

~~~
brc
Then that is why you need to go!

I haven't done a 150 day hike, but I have done 100 - 150 day travel before.

Things like that are a great way of creating chapters in your life. Everything
in the old chapter closes before you go. You stop working, get rid of 'stuff',
move out of your living space and simplify down to essentials.

When you're done, a new chapter starts. In the new chapter, you'll do things
differently because you get a new chance to start, and because a long break
generally gives your brain a chance to bubble up what it think the long term
priorities are.

Call it a life reboot with a disk reformat and OS update. Sometimes you need
to take the server offline for a while to bring it up to spec.

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chrisBob
I only hiked the JMT which is 220 miles of the pacific crest trail. That was
plenty but it was also easier than expected in some ways. There are lots of
hills but the footing is easy because they made it accessible to pack animals.
I found it much easier than the parts of the AT that I have seen.

One of the biggest things I learned was that through hikers are all a little
strange. Have you ever had a grown man introduce himself as Hello Kitty while
keeping a straight face?

~~~
baddox
FYI, that's just a trail name. It's a common thing for hikers to choose (or be
given) a silly trail name. It isn't a specific personality quirk.

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jroseattle
I would really love to do this sometime, but I don't have 6 months of my life
to contribute to such an endeavor. House/kids/job/wife/etc.

I can't describe the jealousy toward others who can simply take off and do
this. If you're young and reading this, and are thinking about it -- just do
it.

~~~
quickpost
Echoing this! Young-uns (or not so young-uns) - go fucking do it!

Kids are awesome, but once you have them, achieving an extended adventure like
this becomes seemingly impossible. At least until they're grown up.

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GigabyteCoin
>and those who do must maintain a 20-25 mile per day pace to beat the early
snowfall in Northern Washington.

Why not hike north to south, starting in Washington in early spring?

~~~
bjwbell
You won't get very far in spring. The PCT in Washington goes through the north
cascades, which has one of the deepest snowpacks in north america.

~~~
GigabyteCoin
Alright, leave in Summertime then. I don't think the winters in southern cali
are too tough..

~~~
rconti
You might find the Forester Pass in the Sierra Nevada (13,153ft) difficult to
deal with in the snow.

In fact, the many 10k+ft sections of the PCT in California are likely the
reason not to start EARLIER than April.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forester_Pass](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forester_Pass)

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bane
Anybody who's hiked the Appalachian Trail and the PCT able to compare?

~~~
gwright
I've completed both the AT and PCT on thru-hikes.

The PCT is logistically more difficult than the AT. The AT is physically more
difficult than the PCT. Both are long distance hikes where, once initial
physical issue have been conquered, become more of a mental challenge than
physical challenge.

The PCT seems to be more hostile to feet than the AT. Lots of hikers have a
difficult time figuring out the right combination of miles, shoes, socks, and
so on during the Southern California part of the PCT. Blisters are very
common. The AT's ups and downs can be more hazardous to ankles and knees.
Hiking poles are common and useful on both.

Resupply options on the PCT are less frequent than the AT leading to longer
sections between resupply than on the AT. There are only three or four
shelters on the PCT so camping locations must be thought out in advance (i.e.
consulting maps to identify level ground) or discovered en-route. You have to
be prepared to dry-camp as stopping for the day at the last water source will
cut into your daily miles too much.

Weather can be challenging on either trail but the 'season' for hiking is much
longer on the AT than the PCT. PCT hikers can't spent lots of time in town if
they want to finish before the snow arrives in Washington.

I'm happy to answer any more specific questions.

~~~
beatboxrevival
Can you recommend any resources for someone that wants to hike the PCT? I'd
like to do it in the next couple years, but the logistics have intimidated me.
I've hiked the JMT twice, and doing it again this year. I'm not really even
sure where to start with doing something like the PCT.

~~~
gwright
Best resource I can recommend is Yogi's PCT Handbook. She also has a guide to
the CDT (Continental Divide Trail) and the Colorado Trail.

Yogi's books are really two-in-one, a planning guide and an on-trail guide.

[http://www.yogisbooks.com](http://www.yogisbooks.com)

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cossatot
195 oz for all his things...

Pretty impressive for a 2500 mi trek! I think my bag weighs something like
that biking to work most days.

~~~
adminprof
Does anyone know whether someone packing today could carry the same
functionality in a lot less weight? I imagine a lot of the electronics items
and compass and maps could be replaced by a top-of-the-line phone.

~~~
brc
If you read the article it lists the things he took. Maps etc didn't appear to
be a part of it. I would say his phone did the majority of the navigation.

~~~
mordechai9000
Maps and compass are in fact on the list under miscellaneous.

Halfmile Maps [http://www.pctmap.net/](http://www.pctmap.net/).

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smegel
> less than 50% who set out to reach Canada make it there

That seems like a pretty damn good rate to me, for such a tough trek.

