High Sierra Topix

Did anyone see this LA Times article? I searched the forum posts, but didn't see anything. Please delete if a duplicate.

12/30/2014
By any measure, the Pacific Crest Trail is a beastly thing, an angry anaconda that slithers up the entire length of California and all the way to Canada, some 2,650 rugged miles. That's approximately 6 million steps — some of them glorious, many of them merciless.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/great-rea ... tml#page=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

As an aside, it looks like I've conned JimR into hiking section A (110 miles) with me in April. It was originally proposed as a "practice hike" to get ready for the summer + Mav's meet-up, but it might count on its own merits if we can pull it off in 4 days.

Thanks for posting this....great article. hooray for Trail Angels!

Whose pack will be heavier

I've got some extra UL gear he's going to be using. We're both shooting for 5lbs base, 5lbs of food, and 10 lbs water.

Is section A from the border north? Make sure you have plenty of water for the Hauser Canyon section, I've read it's a tough part of the trail and no water to count on.

John

Oh, now it's 4 days? Dude, you scare me! Guess I'll have to up the mileage on my weekly beach hikes.

John, I think we are carrying 5L for that stretch.

John, yes Section A is Campo to Warner springs. The longest stretch without water is almost 20 miles. At 2-2.5 mph, that's 8-10 hours of hiking. Using the standard 'pint per hour' gives us a total 4-5L water carry, or around 10lbs per day between water sources.

Jim, I thought we were shooting for 4 days to give us a target for our real 5-6 days. LOL

General: If anyone else wants to join in the fun, feel free to contact Jim or myself. I think the more the merrier. We're going to meet & leave each of our own cars @ WS, and then get a joint ride down to Campo. That way, no one is dependent on the other; while we're aiming to hike together, this will free us up solo if something comes up. Right now, our timing is to get a day or 2 ahead of the herd @ the annual kick-off.

Regarding training, we're both egging each other on with respect to our general training. I'm shooting for running 10k 5 days/week + 1/2 mar each weekend, while Jim is sticking to 10+ mile beach walks with pack. I don't now where Jim is right now, but I'm getting up to 4m every other day, with no longer runs so far.

As I mentioned above, this came up originally due to Mav's meet-up. We're going the long way from HM down through Golden trout wilderness, and then up the Kern from the Soda springs bridge to Kaweah and then out Shepherd. Even if we crash & burn on the PCT in April, our training should have us in shape for the July hike.

Because a big part of the hike is to fish for both genetically pure Goldens, as well as monster Kern river rainbows, we need to be able to hike pretty hard to get to our researched fishing spots, then boggie some more to make the miles we need to get to the meet-up on Thurs/Fri.

I'm hiking the sand for 10 miles pretty much every Sunday with a 10lb dumbell and a 2L bottle of water for weight plus snacks and my quart of drinking water. Looks like tomorrow may be a rain day, so I kicked all of my student's arses in Hapkido this evening. They'll either be physically strong for their next belt test or quit. I guess I'll find out as time goes by.

I am thinking of doing Campo to Lake Morena at some point over the Presidents Holiday to test drive the PCT. Looking for trail advise regarding water and camping between those 2 points since I would like to break that distance into 2 normal days rather than 1 very long day. Currently, I am planning on carrying 2 days of water for hydration and cooking rather than relying on local sources unless someone out there thinks there might be enough flowing water that can be filtered between those 2 points.
Thanks!

freestone wrote:I am thinking of doing Campo to Lake Morena at some point over the Presidents Holiday to test drive the PCT. Looking for trail advise regarding water and camping between those 2 points since I would like to break that distance into 2 normal days rather than 1 very long day. Currently, I am planning on carrying 2 days of water for hydration and cooking rather than relying on local sources unless someone out there thinks there might be enough flowing water that can be filtered between those 2 points.
Thanks!

I think the entire section A (Campo to Warner springs) is a really great hike. Jim might have an opinion as well, but the only real place to camp between Campo & lake Morena is Hauser creek. Since Hauser is 15 miles from Campo, you'd only have 5 more to go to get to lake Morena, so you might consider just knocking it out in one day. If you have a second day, you could (day) hike the next 6 miles to Boulder Oaks, have lunch and then hike back. The hike to BO is really nice - grassy meadows along a flowing creek that enters lake Morena.

Here's a link to the PCT water report:

http://pctwater.com/

Hauser might be flowing if you do decide to spend the night there; otherwise, maybe 4-5L could suffice. Unless we get a radical Santa Ana event, you shouldn't be losing a lot from perspiration and dehydration in January, so I imagine the requirements will be less than the regular hike in late April/early May.

I don't know if you saw this TR from last year, but I had a blast hiking section A. I'm thinking of doing section B (Warner springs to Cabazon via Mt San Jacinto) in May.

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