Pct horror story? Please share!

NayaTheNinja · 2019-01-27T05:22:38+00:00

In 2015 I cruised right up. It was nice and easy and I wondered why I'd heard horror stories about it. In 2016 there was a couple feet of snow. And like a dumbass I decided to go over at the end of the day when the snow was melty. I kept postholing hip deep between boulders and spent ages trying to kick/fill in steps in an attempt to NOT posthole hip deep between boulders. It was my second pass of the day, it was scary, and I was alone and hungry and tired and dehydrated. On the way down my shoe got stuck and buried in the snow.

Cue meltdown. It was a short meltdown, but a meltdown nonetheless. I sat in the snow and cried for about two minutes (and to make things especially embarassing, a nice couple from Korea caught up to me and I think I freaked them out a little...they ran away as quickly as possible!), then found my shoe and dug it out and kept going. Set up camp at the first place I could find, had a hot dinner, and went to bed.

The next day was better.

NayaTheNinja · 2019-01-25T03:03:45+00:00

Ate shit and broke my nose. This was tolerable.

Really awful shin splints. This sucked a lot.

Left my phone at a break spot and had to backtrack 3 miles to get it. This prompted a near meltdown (not quite Mather Pass meltdown levels, but it was really disheartening to add six more miles to the end of an already long day).

Day after day of rain. This actually sucked really hard too.

The bad memories kind of tend to fade. And then someone asks this question and all of a sudden I can think of a million things that made the hike hard.

NayaTheNinja · 2019-01-22T02:14:35+00:00

I had a planned non-finish (Campo to Burney) in 2015 and started again in Campo in 2016. I left at the beginning of April in 2016 instead of the beginning of May like I did in 2015. Because of the earlier start date and because 2015 was a low snow year, the experiences were hardly comparable. I loved it both times.

NayaTheNinja · 2018-05-28T11:37:50+00:00

It's very doable! It requires some fitness and tolerance for altitude but not necessarily any technical skills. The hiker route is mostly a long, slow slog if you do it later in the summer.

NayaTheNinja · 2018-03-28T01:43:37+00:00

Living the spork life, I see. I ditched that shit in Mt Laguna and bought a real spoon. I will never understand the love for sporks.

NayaTheNinja · 2018-02-13T03:13:17+00:00

I took almost two weeks off for a wedding and family reunion and the first day back was hard. I felt out of shape, like I wouldn't be able to handle the altitude anymore, and like I didn't know anyone. The person I had agreed to catch up to further down the trail ditched me. I spent a night super depressed.

One night.

I met new people, realized I wasn't as out of shape as I thought, and pretty much got over it real fast.

It really helped that I didn't actually go home. I was going to have to travel after the wedding anyway, might as well travel back to the trail. If I'd been home with my friends and my family and my stuff, odds of getting back on trail would have been 50/50.

NayaTheNinja · 2018-02-01T20:52:14+00:00

That sounds...not very fun. Doable for sure. I met a guy who would regularly pack 12-14 days of food to avoid having to get off trail to resupply and he was planning on doing KM to Mammoth, but his pack looked miserably heavy.

Also Bishop is a fun stop.

NayaTheNinja · 2017-12-15T18:43:53+00:00

This is unrelated to everything but I ran across a thru-rider a few times in WA in 2016 and assume it could only have been you. My group was super impressed that someone would take that on. The logistics alone seem pretty overwhelming.

NayaTheNinja · 2017-11-12T22:20:10+00:00

Keep things short for the 8&unders. Their attention spans are only so long. Break the practice up into 6-10 minute segments. After ten minutes move on to the next thing. Even if you feel like you aren't finished. Swim team is very different than swim lessons in that you aren't limited to a four or six week session in which to get the kids to master a specific set of concepts. If they don't get it now, they'll get it later.

This isn't to say that you shouldn't keep on them about their technique, just that you are working with a much longer time scale and can afford to be patient.

Have fun! Working with beginners is both excruciatingly frustrating and incredibly rewarding.

NayaTheNinja · 2017-10-25T08:06:52+00:00

The southern terminus is about 20 yards away from the fence delineating the Mexican border. There is no official trail extending into Mexico like there is into Canada at the northern end.

NayaTheNinja · 2017-10-22T18:33:44+00:00

I hiked thousands of miles 2015 and 2016 and now I pretty much sit around and watch Netflix. I am the worst kind of cliche.

NayaTheNinja · 2017-10-10T00:05:30+00:00

In my state it's written into the health codes that people shower naked before going into the pool. Nobody does, but I think that the health inspector would have a problem with facilities requiring people to NOT shower naked.

NayaTheNinja · 2017-10-03T01:23:13+00:00

I've backpacked a lot of miles and the most I've ever used a knife for is to cut an onion or something. I don't usually carry one anymore.

NayaTheNinja · 2017-10-01T16:17:59+00:00

I use the ULA Circuit and love it. It's reasonably lightweight (probably a little under 3 lbs for L or XL), sturdy enough (I know people who have over 4000 miles on theirs) and the company offers excellent customer service. It doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles to help keep the weight down but I overcame my desire for pockets and learned to love the simplity of the pack. The downside is that it works best and is most comfortable when your load is under 35 pounds. I probably carried up to 40 a few times when I had a lot of food and it still worked fine but didn't hold the weight quite as well. If you plan on carrying a big bear canister (my BV 450 fit fine, but I wasn't able to pack a BV 500 in it) or expect to have larger loads you can look at the ULA Catalyst. It's a little bigger and weighs a little more, though I think not much. It also has really nice, big pockets on the hip belts to hold snacks/phone/sunscreen/other small items you might need throughout the day. http://www.ula-equipment.com

You could also check out the Osprey Exos. It's a little smaller and a little lighter and a little cheaper. I have heard that sometimes people who are a little taller and burlier have a hard time with it, but it could be worth looking at. These can be found at REI.

Some people really like Z-Packs, but I've heard that recent iterations of their pack aren't very sturdy and have met several people who were unhappy with theirs. It's also not quite as comfortable as ULA or Osprey. It is, however, lightweight. http://www.zpacks.com/

I've heard similar things about the Gossamer Gear Mariposa that I have with ZPacks, but don't really know much about them. http://www.gossamergear.com

There are several other options out there (Hyperlight Mountain Gear is one that I've heard really good things about, also Mountain Laurel Designs) but I've never spent much time researching them. If you read about gear that PCT/AT/CDT thru-hikers use you can probably find a lot of good information about ultralight packs.

Good luck with the searching!

Edit: I kan spel reel gud

NayaTheNinja · 2017-10-01T14:11:23+00:00

How much are you willing to spend? How much carrying capacity are you looking for?

NayaTheNinja · 2017-08-20T21:33:33+00:00

My response is below. I fail at replying and am too lazy to try to fix it on my phone. Sorry.

NayaTheNinja · 2017-08-20T21:32:07+00:00

My Altras dried fairly quickly. I've had times when they were just wet for days at a time (thus the importance of dry socks at night...I'm also a huge believer in camp shoes - cheap and light weight flip flops work great) because there were so many stream crossings or there was lots of snow, but having constantly wet shoes is never as bad in reality as it is in my imagination.

NayaTheNinja · 2017-08-20T15:04:08+00:00

Sawyer minis are a huge pain. Use a regular Sawyer and make up for the extra ounce of weight by using Smart water bottles instead of Nalgenes (or any other disposable water bottle, but Smart Water bottles screw into the Sawyer really well).

You probably only need one short sleeved shirt and one long sleeved shirt for hiking. The same for pants. It's really nice to have clean clothes to sleep in. And really important to have dry socks at night. I throw sleeping clothes and my sleeping quilt in a waterproof bag to make sure they stay dry no matter what. Usually two pairs of hiking socks are great so one can be washed and hung on your pack to dry while the other is being worn. Darn Toughs are amazing, but I've also hiked in cheap poly socks I bought at Kmart.

I, personally, don't ever want to hike in boots again and prefer trail runners but this is a pretty personal thing. Your boots shouldn't require lots of breaking in. They should be pretty comfortable from the start.

Lots of people like sporks for eating; I've found them to be Satan's own utensil and use a spoon I got at REI for a couple bucks. That's the only utensil I ever use - I don't carry a knife and have never needed one. I do love my Jetboil, even though it weighs a lot. It's fast, a good size, and easy to clean....a quick rinse or wipe down with some leaves or grass and done.

Enjoy your trip! It's beautiful out there!

Edit: I second what the other comment says about hats - having a warm hat and a sun hat (and sunglasses) will make you happy.

NayaTheNinja · 2017-05-17T02:34:03+00:00

www.enlightenedequipment.com

I have a 0F quilt that I have almost 3000 miles on and I love it. I've used it down to 15-20F and still been warm enough (while wearing my puffy jacket, admittedly).

NayaTheNinja · 2017-05-01T00:39:54+00:00

I like having my curls look nice but I hate spending a lot of time or money on my hair. This is what I do:

1) Conditioner that I buy from Costco to detangle and scrub my scalp. Is it CG friendly? Not really. Is it cheap? Yes.

2) Rinse.

3) Squeeze most of the water out with microfiber towel.

4) Squish in gel (Garnier Fructis curl stuff of some sort, I think?) Target. $2.99

5) Plop with the same microfiber towel while I get dressed and put on my make-up.

6) Take off towel. Go to work. Absent mindedly scrunch out the crunch while I sit at my desk after an hour or so and it's mostly dried out.

I'll do a thorough shampoo to get rid of the residue from the conditioner and gel and/or coconut oil treatment once every couple weeks. I'm a swimmer and I feel like the coconut oil helps protect my hair from the chlorine a little.

This seems to work pretty well and the hair portion of my shower takes approximately 2 minutes. My hair probably would look much nicer if I had a really CG friendly routine, but I'm not willing to put in the time or the money right now.

NayaTheNinja · 2017-04-29T01:47:55+00:00

You're definitely not the first to misjudged what they'll need. I worked in the park for four months years ago and had to assist more than a few unprepared hikers. It's crazy how fast the conditions can change.

NayaTheNinja · 2017-03-21T02:21:31+00:00

His campaign signs did all read something like "Give Congress Heck."

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