Hiking The Pacific Crest Trail

16 Mar Hiking The Pacific Crest Trail

As many of you know I love to hike. I love to hike alone, I like hiking with friends and I really like hiking with my wife Jodi. In 2016 we hiked the John Muir Trail (JMT), 233 miles, in 2018 we hiked the Tahoe Rim Trail (TRT), 178 miles. Where do you go from there? It seems like a natural but crazy transition to tackle the Pacific Crest Trails 2,650 miles going from Mexico to Canada in 2023.

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Pacific Crest Trail Overview

• 2650 miles from Mexico to Canada
• Traverses California, Oregon, Washington
• Takes on average 5 to 6 months to hike
• The highest point is Forester Pass at 13,153 feet elevation
• The lowest point is the Cascade Locks at 140 feet in elevation
• The Trail passes through 25 national forests, and 7 national parks
• The first 700-mile stretch will be in desert-like conditions
• The Sierra poses a menacing obstacle with multiple mountain passes to concur.
  • Forester Pass 13,153 feet
  • Kearsarge Pass 10,747
  • Glenn Pass 11,957
  • Pinchot Pass 12,127
  • Mather Pass 12,100
  • Selden Pass 10,913
  • Muir Pass 11,970
  • Silver Pass 10,778
  • Donohoe Pass 11,073
  • Benson Pass 10,107

Don’t let the passes scare you when wildlife can be something of concern

• Black Bears
• Mountain Lions
• Rattle Snakes
• Bobcat
• Bighorn Sheep
• Deer
• And so much more

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Food Prep for the PCT Trail

When hiking the JMT and the TRT I quickly got tired of the same old food. Those hikes were respectively 32 days and 18 days. Imagine what 6 months’ worth of food would be like and how rapidly you would get tired of the same old thing.

I did a little math and realized buying all the food for the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) was going to be around $3600.00. not counting the boring oatmeal for breakfast.

We took a plunge and bought ourselves a freeze-dryer to make our favorite foods. This brought our daily meal cost down from $20.00 a day to around $5.00 a day. We have been cooking and freeze-drying food for months in preparation.

My favorite part of the prep work is watching any and all of the Pacific Crest trail videos I could find on YouTube and Vimeo. I couldn’t even begin to calculate how many hours I’d spent watching these videos.

Over the years I’ve had all the equipment to go backpacking so I didn’t need to spend too much money on my gear to upgrade or replace my current gear.

This year is going to prove to be a challenge on the Pacific Crest Trail because the amount of snow we’ve received in 2023… is….I think of biblical proportions.

I’m looking forward to this great adventure and most importantly spending it with my beautiful wife. Not only is Jodi joining me for half of the hike, but my friend Todd will also join me for two weeks. My daughter Cassandra will join me for a short period too. What an amazing adventure this will be.