I Am Not Special
As I have been informing my family, friends, and coworkers about my decision to go on a long-ass thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail, I have received a variety of responses – most are supportive of my next adventure but I’ve also seen a number of people flabbergasted or concerned by the sheer magnitude of the journey. One common trend that has emerged from conversations about my trip is that this is a really unique opportunity and something that most people would not be able to do. A few people have even suggested that I am bold or brave for “taking the plunge”, as the saying goes, into the unknown.
While I truly appreciate the kindness that everyone in my life has shown me and their immense support of my ambitions, I want to make one thing abundantly clear (as much for my own sake as for anyone following my progress): what I am about to do, hiking the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada, is not unique, and I am in no way “special” for attempting it. I am following a path tread by thousands of people before me. There will certainly be experiences along the way that will be novel to me, but I would be wrong to assume that I am the first to experience them. Most importantly, I do not deserve special treatment just because I happen to be hiking a long distance trail for 4 months.
You hear that, future Connor? Don’t get all uppity and full of yourself in 2 months’ time just because you decided to basically go on a very extended vacation. No one owes you anything. Don’t expect kindness from others without humility and graciousness. If you get in trouble, it’s your responsibility to get yourself out.
Learning from Others’ Experiences
Whew, now that all that self-referential stuff is over with, let’s turn to how the non-uniqueness of my hike played an important part in my planning and preparations. Past thru-hikers’ experiences on the PCT have been immensely helpful with the decisions that I made throughout my planning for my trek. Indeed, the fact that the PCT is quite popular nowadays and that many hikers document their hikes in a variety of formats, from books, to Youtube videos and vlogs, to podcasts, to social media, to blogs like this one, gives potential hikers like me nearly infinite resources on gear, food, resupply, water availability, weather conditions, and just about anything else that could be considered useful to planning a 4 month hike. I’d like to highlight the utility of all of this information from past hikers in two critical decisions to my hike.
NOBO or SOBO?
Let’s start with the first decision that any prospective PCT hiker needs to contend with: Which direction will I hike? Since the PCT spans the entire United States north-to-south, hikers have two ways to complete the entire trail – NOBO (northbound) or SOBO (southbound). Over the past 4 years, I have read countless blogs and saw the perspective of numerous hikers travelling the trail in both directions. I also found articles dedicated to assessing the pros and cons of either direction.
To break down the important points:
NOBO
- NOBO hikers will start in the small town of Campo, CA along the US-Mexico border and hike north to the Canadian border. Campo is easy to access by driving or public transit.
- NOBO hikers start their journey in the desert of southern California between March and May. The desert can be hot during this time, but the terrain is fairly easy compared to other sections of the trail, and water is most abundant in the desert during the spring months. This makes the desert the most forgiving section for new thru-hikers. On the downside, the desert is often considered one of the less scenic sections of the trail (though we’re talking about some pretty fantastic high-desert mountain ranges, so it is still plenty interesting).
- NOBO is significantly more popular than SOBO, with something like 95% of hikers each year choosing to hike NOBO. The greater number of people hiking the same direction ensures that hikers won’t be completely alone for very long, which improves the social aspect of the trail and helps keep everyone a bit safer.
- NOBO hikers have a longer window to complete the trail. Hikers can start as early as March if conditions are right, and don’t usually need to worry about winter conditions in Washington until October. That’s a 7-month window. However, since my start date is in May, I will effectively have a 5-month window to beat the weather.
SOBO
- SOBO hikers will start at the Canadian border, in the middle of nowhere about 20 miles from the closest road. For this reason, the northern terminus is much harder to reach than the southern terminus.
- SOBO hikers start their journey in the rugged Cascade mountains of Washington between June and July. While the Cascades have abundant water sources and are generally considered one of the most beautiful sections of the trail, they are also quite difficult to begin a hike in as they have a lot of ascents and descents between valleys and ridges.
- SOBO is much less popular than NOBO. Thus, hiking SOBO is a much more isolated experience, emphasizing the quiet wilderness aspect of hiking and camping with a reduced social aspect.
- SOBO hikers have a narrower window to complete the trail. Hikers typically have to wait until late June or July for the snow in the Cascade mountains to melt enough for safe travels. At the same time, SOBO hikers need to make it through the Sierra Nevada in central California before late October to avoid early winter conditions there. This means SOBO hikers have to complete 70% of the trail within 4 months – certainly doable, but stricter than NOBO.
My Decision: Ultimately, based on the information above that I found in my research, I determined that NOBO suited my interests better, due to easier terrain at the start, easier access to the start location, and more people to meet and get to know along the way, which I suspect will be a major high-point of the trail for me. However, without the online resources and books that carefully laid out the differences between the two directions, I don’t think I would have been as confident in making this very first of many critical decisions.
Resupply Strategy
Much to the dismay of all the bears and other snack thieves out there (squirrels, mice, raccoons, etc.), PCT thru-hikers do not carry the entirety of their food for multiple months from the start of their hike. Rather, hikers carry 4-7 days of food at a time, and re-stock when they reach towns along the trail.
When a hiker does reach a town, there are two generally accepted methods for re-stocking their calorie cache. Option 1 is to pick up a pre-arranged package from the local post office that was prepared ahead of time and mailed there days or weeks before the hiker’s arrival, either by the hiker themselves or someone they know at home. This is possible because post offices will hold packages sent to them via general delivery for up to 30 days, meaning the hiker has some flexibility in picking up the package. Option 2 is to buy food supplies from local supermarkets or other convenience stores.
When I was just starting my preparation for my hike back in November, I was convinced that Option 1 was the best and most convenient choice for resupply. I mean, if you are sending yourself food ahead of time, you can guarantee that all the food you send is stuff you like and can more easily buy food in bulk to save money. However, as with the decision of NOBO or SOBO hiking direction, there are pros and cons to both methods that are not immediately obvious to someone that has not done such a long-term hike before, and once again the internet came to my aid:
Option 1: Mail yourself all your food that you prepared ahead of time
Pros
- Convenience of having all your food purchased and distributed ahead of time.
- The cost can be less when buying in bulk from stores like Costco.
- Less time spent in town if you can avoid going to the supermarket.
- More potential variety of food and nutrition since not every food item will be available in every town.
Cons
- Post offices, especially in small towns, are often only open on weekdays for a few hours. Getting into town on a weekend or when the post office is unexpectedly closed can delay your trip while you wait around for your package.
- You don’t know what you will want to eat in 3-4 months’ time. You could end up sending a bunch of food that you got sick of earlier on or no longer fits your idea of a good trail meal.
- If you happen to end your hike prematurely for any number of reasons, you then have a bunch of packages of high-calorie hiking food that you probably don’t want to eat in your non-hiking life.
Option 2: Buy all your food from local stores and supermarkets along the way
Pros
- You have the flexibility to not stop in town if you have enough food to continue to the next resupply point. No need to wait for the post office schedule.
- You have the flexibility to change up your menu to anything that sounds good to you at the time – though not all stores will have everything you might want.
- By buying from local businesses, you are supporting the local community that has been generous to you.
Cons
- Not all towns have good resupply options. Many towns only have a small convenience store or gas station as resupply points, and a couple towns don’t have any traditional stores at all.
- The price of food in some towns can be insanely high compared to normal supermarkets, especially if there are only one or two locations to get food.
- Assuming the post office is actually open, it takes more time and forethought to find where to get food locally rather than just picking up a package from the post office.
Even with these additional considerations, it didn’t seem to me that one strategy was clearly better than the other for every scenario – it seemed like Option 1 would be good in some cases where local resupply options were limited, and Option 2 would be better in towns with dedicated supermarkets. Luckily, the efforts of the thru-hiking community have again produced an infinitely helpful resource – the Pacific Crest Trail survey, an annual survey distributed by HalfwayAnywhere.com to thru-hikers that asks various questions about those hikers’ experiences that year, one part of which is about resupply.
Looking at the data from the 2021 PCT Survey shows that the vast majority of hikers decided to use a resupply strategy that combines mailing boxes and resupplying locally in town. In fact, only 2.7% of hikers mailed boxes for every single one of their resupplies, while only 8.4% of hikers mailed no resupply boxes and bought all their food in town.
Another key insight from the survey was that it is quite possible to buy extra food from a supermarket in one of the larger trail towns and send food from that town to the next town that may have less options available. In essence, this is sending oneself a resupply box without requiring the contents to have been figured out months in advance of actually eating the food. Turns out that not all resupply boxes have to be prepared ahead of time!
My Decision: Based on the considerations of both primary resupply options and the insight from the PCT Survey, I am planning on sending only 1 resupply box ahead of time to the California town of Kennedy Meadows. Kennedy Meadows represents the transition from the Southern California desert section of the PCT to the high mountains of the Sierra Nevada and is also where most people start carrying a bear cannister to protect bears from getting their food. I will be sending myself my bear cannister with my microspike crampons, food, and other stuff I think might be useful for the mountains. Other than that, I plan to resupply the rest of the journey from local stores, sending boxes a few weeks forward to smaller towns as necessary. I think this plan will result in less pre-hike stress and give me more flexibility on where I stop along the way and what food I eat. Still, I have been testing out various dehydrated food in the past weeks to see what types of meal combinations work best for me – and since I’ve tried out quite a lot of meal ideas, I will plan on making another post about food prep before I start my hike!