Tips for planning your PCT Thru-hike

The PCT is a very well established trail attracting thousands of hikers every season so there is no shortage of information out there. Rather than reinvent the wheel and create yet another source of PCT info, we’ve put together some tips which we would have found helpful whilst planning to hike the trail.

If you have an specific queries feel free to get in touch.

How fit do I need to be?

It is natural when planning to take on the PCT you might be asking yourself the question, “can I actually do this?” Then you start researching and the self doubt is only heightened by all of the Youtube videos and Instagram posts where you see people busting out 40 mile days seemingly without too much effort. Let me assure you that most people who hike the trail do not start out with that level of hiking fitness. Adam and I are very ‘normal’ people, desk dwelling accountants with an average level of fitness and we hiked the PCT. You do not need to be an ultra marathon runner to enjoyably hike the trail. If you need convincing of this check out Second Chance Hiker for a bit of perspective and inspo.

I would however suggest establishing an average baseline level of fitness before starting out. The level of fitness where you can be confident to hike say 8 or 10 miles per day without injury. From there you can start out on the trail hiking shorter days and as your trail legs develop, building up to longer mileage days. This is the approach I took to my training, getting my knees and ankles stable to a level I felt comfortable and getting my feet used to walking for long periods of time on different surfaces.

It is very common for people to go too hard too soon and develop overuse injuries. Adam and I walked nearly 8,000km each over the course of a year whilst hiking the PCT and TA and had no major injuries to speak of. On the PCT we were frequently overtaken by ‘fast’ hikers who we would meet a few weeks or even months down the trail who had to take time off due to injury. That old turtle and hare analogy really comes into it’s own in reference to long distance hiking. Be kind to your body, listen to it and it will reward you.

U.S. Visa’s

If you are like us are a foreigner looking to hike the trail, your U.S Visa is one of the first things you will need to sort out. It can be a stressful and time consuming process so to avoid stressing yourself out I would recommend applying at leaset 6 months before you intend to head over to the states. to give yourself the best chance of finishing the trail you will want a 6 month visa. This is the B1/ B2 visa.

Broadly the process goes like this:

Jump online and fill out the online non-immigrant visa application form DS-160.
Upload your photo to your application, being sure it meets all of the specific requirements.
Schedule an appointment with your closest US embassy. Be mindful that it can take over a month to get an appointment. For us this threw a massive spanner in the works after a friend told me it would only take 10 days to get an interview. We ended up having to schedule and attend an interview in Auckland whilst we were hiking the TA rather than in our home town of Sydney.
Get all of your documents in order.
Attend your interview and fingers crossed you will be approved!
Wait for your passport to be returned in the mail.

Hot tips:

The U.S. government wants to be sure that you are not at risk of settling there. They want to see a tie to your home country and plenty of money in your bank account. For this purpose it helps to have property, close family or a job to come home to. Come prepared to show evidence documenting this. You may not need it but it’s better to be safe than sorry.
The interviewer you get on your appointment day has the discretion to approve or reject your application. We were lucky. The embassy employee who interviewed us had hiked part of the Appalachian Trail, was excited to learn about our plans and approved us after a brief chat.
Give yourself plenty of time on the interview day. Even though you book an appointment time slot there will be about 30 other people booked in that time slot as well so allow for delays and waiting in line. We booked for the first available appointment of the day to avoid being stuck at the embassy all day. It worked well for us and we were in and out quickly.
You will not be permitted to enter the cue before you allotted time slot, we witnessed people being yelled at by a security guard for trying this on.
Your interview will likely be fast and on your feet, held through a small window akin to a bank teller. I was expecting to be led into a room with a desk and an agent. It wasn’t at all what I imagined.
To be brutally honest, it became apparent to us through this process that race plays a major factor in the process. I have no doubt that the process was smooth for us because we were applying from a western country and are both Caucasian. This is terrible but it is true and result of the current leadership at the time of writing.
Give yourself plenty of time. Apply well in advance, allow up to 6 weeks for an interview date and a couple of months to receive your visa.
The process for getting the B1/ B2 visa is an arduous one one but it is a serious visa. Once approved you can sped 6 month of each year for the next 5 years living (not working) in the U.S. if you want to. It’s a big step up from 3 month ESTA visa waver.

Nobo v Sobo and the hiker bubble

I knew my experience on the PCT would be different to my experience on the TA. I was aware of how busy the PCT could get and as a person who relishes being alone and dislikes large groups of humans I was a little worried about the ‘hiker bubble’ and getting ‘stuck’ hiking with a large group. I was particularly concerned about this after joining the 2019 PCT Facebook group and witnessing harsh commentary and down right nasty trolling.

When I arrived at Scout and Frodo’s and eventually got out on the trail it was a completely different scenario than what I feared. Sure you meet the odd group or individual who you won’t gel with but without fail will find your tribe. I wasn’t even looking for a tribe, determined to hike solo until Adam joined me for the Sierra’s, but before I even set foot on the trail I found my tribe at Scout and Frodo’s. These people will become your friends, family and support network on trail. You will begin to rely on them and they will rely on you. It is incredibly comforting knowing there are people out there on the trail who have your back and will be looking out for you if you don’t make it into camp or town when expected. There is always room for you to find space on your own if you need it. Don’t be worried about the bubble. Pick a start date and direction which works for you and let the rest sort it’s self out.

Nobo v Sobo is a personal decision and I would recommend it be made taking into account the date you can start, the amount of time you have to hike the trail and your personal abilities. I wouldn’t let the fear of a ‘hiker bubble’ influence your decision. I have found the universe to work in mysterious ways and without doubt if you plan your hike with the intent of avoiding something you will end up running into it at some point.

Permits

You need to obtain a long distance hiking permit if you are planning to hiker 500 or more consecutive miles of the PCT. The permit system changed slightly for 2020 so this rule of thumb now applies regardless of whether you hike Nobo or Sobo.

Don’t be like us and miss the first permit release date and go through a complete panic trying to get your permits in the second round release.

All the information you need to know about permits is located here on the PCTA website.

Getting to the border

If you are a foreign hiker you firstly need to get yourself down to San Diego. You can either fly directly into San Diego or fly into LAX and get the Amtrak down to San Diego. I took the later option because it was cheaper. The train was also a lovely way to see some of the Californian coastline.

I was very lucky and got a place at Scout and Frodo’s before heading out on the hike. If you haven’t heard of them they are legendary trail angels who host up to 40 hikers per night in their San Diego home. They will pick you up from the train station or airport, feed you, let you sleep in their backyard and then drive you to the trail head in Campo with a full belly, a full head of knowledge and hug. 2020 is their last year as trail angels but they have some great info on their website, including comprehensive advice on how to get yourself to the trail head. There are other trail angels in the area who help shuttle people down to the trail head from downtown San Diego so keep an eye out on the PCT Facebook page.

Navigation

We used Guthooks (now FarOut) to navigate, not only does it make nav idiot proof, most people on the trail use it and contribute information about water sources, river crossings, trail magic, where to stay (and not to stay) in towns etc etc. This means that when you get into town and refresh your app you are getting first hand information on trail conditions.

It operates using the GPS on your phone so once you have downloaded the maps onto your phone you can use the app with your phone in flight mode so it doesn’t use much battery.

Despite Guthooks being great you should carry a back up nav method in case you loose your phone or run out of battery. I carried paper maps and a compass until we’d cleared the Sierra’s. After that we ditched them, given Adam and I always hiked together and both had Guthooks installed we felt the risk was fairly low once we’d cleared the Sierras.

Resupply Strategy

Don’t overthink or stress about your resupply strategy. When you begin planning for the trail resupply can seem like a massive piece of the puzzle that you need to sort from the outset. It’s easy to envisage yourself in the middle of the wilderness without access to food. As international hikers we didn’t really have any choice but to take a flexible approach to our resupply strategy. Unless you have a solid friend or family member residing in the states who can store and mail resupply boxes, you will likely adopt the flexible combo approach that we did.

Most of our resupply was done in town along the trail. We sent a couple of boxes the whole trail to those towns we thought would be difficult to resupply from. In reality you can hike the whole trail without needing to send yourself a single package but sometimes it is nice to receive a parcel of goodies that aren’t available from smaller towns.

There are numerous reviews of trail town resupply options. We found Dixie (homemade wanderlust) the most useful. You can read and watch her post here. Generally all of Dixies posts are great. She is real and down to earth and cuts through the bullshit you can sometimes encounter from PCT bloggers.

As previously mentioned, I started the trail solo, Adam met me in Lone Pine and we entered the Sierras together. Before starting the trail I sent myself a box to Warner Springs. I really appreciated that box. You hit the 100 mile mark just before Warner Springs and whilst the resource centre is great, the resupply options are limited. At 100 miles your hunger hiker and hiker trash mode won’t have fully kicked in so you are going to be more choosy about food than you will be a further into the trail.

From there on in I roughly planned a few weeks ahead to check whether I would need to send myself a box or whether I could re-supply on the go. Given 2019 was a high snow year we did a fairly comprehensive plan prior to entering the Sierras and then again in Oregon prior to entering Washington. Oregon has some AMAZING supermarkets for healthy resupply options.

Bounce Boxes

Whilst we were loose on our resupply strategy we did use bounce boxes to send gear further down the trail including additional warm layers we packed from our kit at home and further down the trail, micro-spikes which we need on and off at different points on the trail.

Bounce boxes are great but can get annoying to manage and become a mental burden, planning where to send it and then making sure you are in town when the post office is open. In the small towns you will be passing through on the PCT most post offices are closed on the weekends and some are only open reduced house during the week.

A good way to get around this is simply to order any gear you need online while you are on the trail and have it delivered to the town you need it in rather than buying it all before you leave home and then sending it forward. If you are from overseas like us this works well for gear that is either not available outside of the states or is super expensive.

Gear

You can see our gear list here. Our approach to our gear set up was:
– Keep our existing gear which we used on the TA.
– Update our footwear. You can read about our shoe choices here.
– Add in the equipment we needed for the snow when we needed it.
– Buy a bear can along the trail for when we needed it – on sell it when we were done.

A little more about snow gear and bear cans from a couple of Australian’s who had never walked on snow before setting foot on the PCT.

Snow gear
As our PCT start date approached we became more and more nervous about the prospect of tackling the PCT in a high snow year. I had only been to the snow once in my life prior to the PCT, Adam had a similar level of experience. The prospect of traversing icy mountain slopes unprepared terrified me. I wanted to do a training course prior to starting the trail but having finished the TA only 6 week before I didn’t have time. I was going to have to learn as I went. Rocking up to Scout & Frodo’s I felt like an absolute fraud. Despite having managed to walk the length of New Zealand on the TA , dealing with some pretty gnarly terrain along the way, I doubted my capabilities. I had a distorted assumption that everyone else around me must know what they are doing. The fear that I had let manifest in my head was completely unfounded. In reality, most people I started out with from Scout & Frodo’s had equal or less experience than I did. At the end of the day you have to be comfortable with the situations you place yourself in and feel capable to handle yourself. But don’t let fear get in the way of you learning a new skill and accomplishing something incredible.

That said, given we weren’t sure exactly what gear we’d need coupled with the fact that mountaineering gear is insanely expensive in Australia we decided to buy our snow gear along the trail.

Ice Axe
I bought my ice axe in Kennedy Meadows from the 2 Foot Adventures van. In reality I could have waited and bought it in Lone Pine but they convinced me it would be a good idea to buy it early so I could practice en-route to Lone Pine. In reality there was no snow to practice on but I got experience carrying it. The prices you pay either in town or from 2 Foot adventures are pretty much the same as what you would pay online so I really won’t recommend rushing out and buying an axe before you start your hike. There is no need. You might not even need one by the time you hit the Sierras so don’t waste your money. You will also save on postage.

Adam bought his Ice Axe from REI in Reno before he got the bus down to Lone Pine to meet me.

Foot traction
I purchased micro-spikes early on in the trail, for Mt Baden Powell. When I reached Wrightwood in late May the mountain was still covered in Snow and further snow storms and adverse weather conditions were forecast. Prior to heading up the mountain I sought out sound advice from the knowledgeable folks at Wrightwood hardware Store. It isn’t your average hardware store. It doubles as hiker hang out, re-charge and resupply station as well as resupply package collection point. Wrightood as a whole was an incredible little town whose people embrace hikers. The supermarket there does a great job in catering for hikers needs, even hiring more staff during the season so support them and do your re-supply there.

After Mt. Baden Powell my spikes spent time on and off between my bounce box and in my pack.

In terms of deciding upon the type of traction device you want to use, there were a couple of hectic passes (Glen and Mather) where I would have liked more than the spikes, say crampons but they sufficed and were a good overall compromise between weight and function.

Bear can
You don’t technically need a bear can before Lone Pine. If you are thinking of stopping in there to resupply you can easily buy a can in town. When we arrived the outfitter was sold out of new cans so we were able to get discounted ex-rentals. It was perfect.

On leaving the Sierras I sold my bear can to Sonora Pass Resupply. In 2019 they offered $20 for any bear can. It’s not a huge amount but if you buy your can second hand like we did it brings the net cost of your can right down. Sonora Pass Resupply have their truck in the parking lot of Sonora Pass for most of the season to drop off resupply packages. If they don’t have any packages to drop off they might not be at the pass so be aware of this.

PCT v TA

We get asked this question a lot, “how does the PCT compare the TA?” and many other iterations to that effect. So we have written a separate post about it. Check it out here.

Crossing the Canadian border and getting back into the U.S

If you are hiking NOBO on the PCT and intend to cross into the Canadian border on foot you need to apply for a specific Canadian entry permit 6 weeks before the intended start of your hike. The PCTA gives you all the advice you need to apply for the permit. The only thing we felt unsure about when completing the permit was what dates to use given you have to estimate your Canada entry date. Don’t stress about this, just use a rough estimate. We crossed the border a month after the date we noted on our permits and it was fine.

We didn’t have any issues apply for or receiving our permits but we met a few people who were denied theirs due to historic infringements. If you can’t get a permit or you choose not to you can still hike to the border (and get your photo taken at the monument) however you can not continue into Canada. You will need to return to Harts Pass, this means back tracking 30 miles and hitching out from the trail head there.

Even though we had permits we considered this option when we were on the trail. In the end we decided to cross the border because the snow was high and the weather was closing in. But in a normal season if you have enough time, back tracking to Harts Pass is a lovely option. You get a couple of extra days on the trail and don’t have the stress of hitching back into the USA.

We crossed the border on foot and walking into Manning Park. There we showered, did our laundry, ate some celebratory Poutine and then got on Mountain Man Mikes shuttle en-route to Vancouver. Our timing coincided with the one weekly trip he makes. Most people chose to hitch into Vancouver. We heard people experiencing varying degrees of success with this option.

We didn’t go all the way into Vancouver on Mikes shuttle, we jumped off at Abbotsford airport and then got a taxi down to the Sumas-Huntingdon border crossing. You could also try to hitch this but we did want to wait. Annoyingly Mike couldn’t stop for us along the way, if he was able to stop on the highway there would be no need for a taxi or hitch back to Huntingdon and the whole process would be quicker and easier. Out of the taxi we went through the bazaar experience of walking back over the border. The Canadians were not at all fussed and didn’t want to look at any of our documents. The U.S. border agents took our Canada entry permits.

We then walked down to The Sumas Mountain Lodge where we spent the night. Normally there is a bus which runs from Sumas to Cordata Station however it was a Sunday so the bus wasn’t running. We ended up forking out for a private taxi to make it to Cordata Station on time for our early morning Bolt Bus to Seattle.

We thought our border crossing strategy would be quicker, easier and cheaper than going all the way in to Vancouver but after paying for the taxis it probably work out the same price with added stress. I think it would work well if you got a hitch from Manning Park to the Sumas-Huntingdon crossing. That way you could time your crossing early enough to get down to Cordata Station in one day.