In April 2016 we began hiking the Pacific Crest Trail north from the Mexican border. Our goal was to hike the entire trail in one year, but after 1,828 miles we stopped at the Columbia River in Oregon. A little over 1,000 days later, we stood at the same location, ready to pick up where we left off.
As we prepare for our Trekking the U.S. West adventure this summer, we have been focused on our gear. Taking into account the lessons we learned from hiking the PCT three years ago, we have strived to review every backpacking item to lighten our load. If we aren’t going to use something extensively, it stays home.
With our goal of finishing the entire PCT in 2019, we decided to complete a missing piece of trail that we needed to detour around three years ago. It is a challenging section, climbing over 7,000 feet in elevation from the desert sand to the forest snow.
In 2016 we attempted to hike the entire 2,650-mile length of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) in one season. Over 4 1/2 months we completed 1,828 miles of the trail in California and Oregon. Although we did not reach our goal of finishing the entire trail, we still had a great experience hiking in the California desert, the Sierra Nevada Mountains and Cascade Range. Take a look.
Darren writes a companion story to the post about our Pacific Crest Trail mistakes, detailing the things that went well for us, and other factors for potential PCT hikers to consider.
Darren writes about five mistakes we made last year while hiking 1,828 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) in California and Oregon.
The Pacific Crest Trail spans three states as it travels from Mexico to Canada: California, Oregon and Washington. The Oregon portion of the trail is the shortest of the three states, covering a distance of 455 miles. After over 1,300 miles of hiking in California, we were ready to tackle a new state.
The Cascade Range of mountains extend about 700 miles from British Columbia, Canada to Northern California. The Cascades differ from the Sierra Nevada Mountains in their series of volcanic peaks dotting Northern California, Oregon and Washington. In fact, all of the volcanic eruptions over the past 200 years in the contiguous United States have taken place in the Cascades.
It had been a traumatic experience for us to leave the PCT in the High Sierras, due to the raging river crossings. As we rejoined the trail in South Lake Tahoe, we weren’t sure whether we would encounter other issues that would force us to make a similar decision. We knew that we would still face some snow, but weren’t sure to what extent it would affect our hiking progress.
The past segment of the PCT from Tehachapi, CA has had a little of everything: heat, scarce water, fire worries, treacherous trail, snow, and finally, torrential rivers and streams. It also marked the end of our desert hiking and the beginning of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Since our last post we have arrived in Tehachapi, CA, located about 35 miles southeast of Bakersfield.
We are at Cajon Junction, mile 342 on the Pacific Crest Trail, and at the end of four weeks of trekking. Already in that time we have hiked through a variety of weather, including rain, gusty winds, a snowstorm, and temperatures in the 90s.
