A lot of people, when we tell them we’re hiking the PCT, well…a lot of people think we’re crazy. But after they find we are reasonably sane, they conjure images of us out in the desolate wilderness for months at a time. No showers, no beds, no electricity. Foraging for wild berries and hunting squirrels to survive… This is only partly true. In reality, we’ll be coming off the trail every 5 to 6 days or so to resupply (and maybe take a shower).

The trail runs fairly close to lots of little towns, small resorts, and stores that accept hiker boxes, where we will be sending ourselves resupply packages (BIG thanks to Ashleigh’s mom, who is coordinating the supply drops). Post offices will accept packages mailed “General Delivery” and hold them for you at the post office for a few weeks to pick up. They’ll be filled with food, replacement gear, toiletries, etc. It would be too difficult to go longer without resupplying due to the sheer amount of food you have to carry. So every now and again we will have to take a break from our single-minded goal of ‘North’ and hike down side trials, or hitch-hike (a proud tradition of hikers) into these little resupply points. Our longest stretch without resupply is 8 days in the High Sierras, in a 200-mile stretch of wilderness with no roads crossing the trail.

Resupply Madness

Most PCT thru hikers are northbound – they start at the Mexican Border and hike north to Canada. This is because you have a higher chance of completing your hike if you follow the weather patterns. If you start in the south in spring, you will be walking in the Southern California desert when it is (relatively) cooler. You will pass through the High Sierras when the snow is melting in the summer. And you will be in the Washington Cascades before the snow hits in the fall. People do hike southbound, but much fewer of them and with a lower success rate.

The towns that hikers frequent on these trips are accustomed to the yearly invasion of bewildered, wide-eyed, zombie-like, smelly creatures that are long-distance hikers. Some of their local economies count on it, as hungry/dirty/tired hikers hand over wads of cash to stuff their faces with the local pizza and beer, shower, and sleep in a bed. No doubt, we will gladly overpay for a load of laundry from time to time, but we are also lucky to be passing through several areas where we have friends who have offered to receive our packages (and tolerate our stank). Peter, Patricia, Natalie, Jeff, D. Jay, Mom and Dad, Jonathan and Lindsey, Seattle peeps, et al. – THANK YOU IN ADVANCE!!!

Organized?

Our itinerary is below, along with mailing addresses for all our resupply points. This should give you a general sense of where we’ll be at any given time. The itinerary currently doesn’t necessarily account for all “Zero Days” (days with no hiking), so it will be constantly changing. We will do our best to keep it accurate.

Last updated: 09/02/13