PCT: Pre-Trip Planning

Since we decided to attempt to thru-hike the PCT in October and subsequently applied for a permit in November, it has been a whirlwind of planning, upgrading our gear, and dreaming. We were successful in obtaining a permit and secured a start date of March 16, 2023. We will be starting at the southern terminus trail monument near the farming community of Campo, California adjacent to the border wall at the Mexican border. The start of the Sierra Nevada mountains is about 700 miles to the north, and then it’s off to Northern California, Oregon, Washington and finally the northern terminus at the Canadian border. If all goes well, we expect to be on the trail about five and a half months!

There is a lot of planning that goes into a big adventure such as a long distance thru-hike. There are a ton of details to figure out. But as is said in the thru-hiking world, all that planning will go out the window within the first few weeks on the trail. One has to be very flexible and be able to adapt to the conditions that present itself on the trail. However, planning is half the fun and is all part of the journey.

Anyone that knows us, knows that we are both spreadsheet nerds. We have spreadsheets for backpacking gear, canoe tripping gear, mileage for canoe trips, budget, etc. We like to stay organized. So of course, Ellen created a PCT specific spreadsheet. This spreadsheet has about 10 tabs: Ellen gear, Jeff gear, other PCT info, resupply, sierra resupply, on-trail expenses, daily meals, to-do in CA, recipes-cost, and calories. We’ll talk about gear under the gear section.

We added our thoughts to the spreadsheet as we kept thinking about different items related to this hike. Items such as What to do with the house? What to investigate still? Where to send our paper maps and when, postage costs, etc.

Another part of the pre-planning is the training and using our gear. We did an overnight trip in the Superstition Mountains in Arizona over New Year’s Eve to test out our new tent. We also have been going to the gym more frequent to get stronger and up our cardio. However, we do plan to “take it easy” the first couple of weeks and not hike too much each day. We need acclimate our bodies to walking every day.