I know, I know. I have been putting off writing the whole "how-does-it-end" post.... but I thought before I dive into that, I'd like to share my STATS post with you all. Many of you 2014'ers are getting ready for your hike AND MIGHT LIKE TO SEE MY PCT TRIP IN SUMMARY - maybe helpful? maybe not.
Either way, here it is!
Definitely interesting...
We took a lot of zeros.............
I can conclude a few things by forcing myself to do research for this summary.
1. WE JUST LOVED OUR ZEROS.
I know there are people who took more - you win PRT :) - but 34 zeros is a lot of zeros. That is over 1 month of days sitting around with our feet up! If I were to do the trail again, I'd nero more and zero less.
2. WE HAD A SHIT TON OF RAIN.
Is this normal? I feel like I had to don my raincoat almost constantly once we hit Oregon. There were very few days, after California, where we didn't at least put our rain gear on in anticipation of rain. This is not to say that California didn't have rain - we had mist/rain/hail/some sort of precipitation (to some degree) in the San Jacinto, THE MOJAVE, San Bernardinos, in the Sierras (3 days), Sonora Pass, Marble Mountains/Russian Wilderness - SO MUCH RAIN.
I must admit, it was pretty cool to enter the Mojave in a rainstorm. We were lucky to NOT have extreme temps through that section.
3. WE COULD HAVE BEEN FAST.
We weren't slow hikers, we just loved our down time. I'm conflicted on how I feel about this because on the one hand, I felt I needed the zeros and wouldn't trade them for anything, but we could have been smarter about them (like not taking 5 days off in a row, two different times).
4. ONE OUTFIT
I wore basically the same clothing the entire time (switched shirts in Mammoth when I found a rad thrift store) and only went through a few pairs of injinjis. It is not necessary to buy a bunch of back up clothes (like we did) and waste your money. Once you get out there, if you're anything like us (laid back), replacement clothing will find you, whether it's from a hiker box, a thrift store, a free bin, etc.
5. HIKER BOXES ARE AWESOME
YOU WILL BE PROVIDED EVERYTHING YOU EVER NEED EVER. I got new hats, socks, shirts, first aid equipment, and other toiletries. We did not take advantage of them as much as we should/could have, but I am a strong supporter of hiker boxes and the magic within them.
6. GOLDEN NUMBER 30
Never went over 30 miles in one day. This was my personal maximum. Just funny to look back and realize this fact, because a lot of hikers exceed this (by a LOT)...
7. CAMPING
Ben and I slept in our tent with no other hikers within miles, for the FIRST TIME ever when we were on our way to Belden. It was a strange realization, and we noticed immediately. We had always camped with other hikers. This is how social/populated the trail is. Also, interesting to note that we spent MOST of Oregon alone. By this point everyone is pretty staggered and in respective groups. Ben and I were loosely hiking with Smiles and Slosh at this point but camping at different locations, or just a few miles apart every day. Oregon, for us, was a very solitary experience.
8. HAIL & LIGHTNING
All I can say is this: I did not expect as much hail and lightning as we had.
And I am not a fan of either of those conditions.
Ran from *significant* lightning in the following places:
along a ridge near San Jacinto
in the riverbed on the way to Whitewater Preserve
in Yosemite NP
on top of Sonora Pass
while at Northern Kennedy Meadows
on a ridge in the Mt. Shasta area
the most dangerous time: 8 hours of lightning while hiking through the exposed section in the Russian Wilderness, as we approached Etna Summit.
as we approached Crater Lake (the worst storm we endured)
in Mt. Thielsen Wilderness (never saw Mt. Thielsen)
leaving Timberline Lodge (!!!!)
all day on our way down to Cascade Locks
That's a lot of lightning.
OKAY. More to come.
More reviews: especially the much awaited GEAR REVIEW coming this weekend
Oh, and feel free to email me with questions at: schwas_73@hotmail.com I LOVE TALKIN' TRAIL TALK!
Or you can comment below.