As I write this post we are 65 days away from starting our thru hike of the pacific crest trail. We have majority of our kit with a few items to be purchased when we arrive in the US.
We will be carrying all of our kit including food and water, therefore we need to take into account when and where we need to get resupplies.
We have watched many YouTube videos from past PCT hikers and read a number of books and each hikers approach is different.
Some hikers mail boxes to themselves along the trail, ideal for those living in the US who have friends and family to support, however who knows what you will want to eat in 8 weeks time, you could end up with a box full of food you are sick of eating, no thanks!
Other hikers choose to do a mix of resupply boxes and buying from local towns. This is the approach which we will be taking. We will mainly buy from town however there are a few locations that have limited or no resupply options which is where a resupply box comes into place.
Having heard many good reviews we took the plunge and purchased 'Yogi's PCT Handbook', which was quite expensive taking into account delivery fees to the UK. BUT it is an absolute gem, stuffed full of valuable information.
The book has lots of information about each town, where it is in relation to the trail, and what shops and services there are in each town. The book also contains advice from a number of past PCT hikers which is really useful.
As soon as we secured our PCT permits in October the first thing we did was purchase a wall map of the trail and started to add sticky notes ... as you do!
I also opened an excel document and started to plan. I love a good spreadsheet!
BUT I quickly realised that yes we can plan the first few weeks however we will need to take each day and week as it comes. We do not know how we will feel, how quickly we will walk, and how many miles we will cover each day.
Each week we have provisioned for 1 nights accomodation in a hotel/ B&B/ hostel/ This is merely a guide as we may choose to stay longer in certain towns and less in others. A town stay will allow us to refresh, resupply, do our laundry and chill out, something I am sure we will both look forward to.
Yes we need to know the basic details but we cannot plan every detail. Plus it would take the fun out of it, after all what else will we be doing!!
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