Travel Book for October 2010
The Pacific Crest Trail From Mexico To Canada On Foot ‐ A Cicerone Guide by Brian Johnson
Introduction
The 2650‐mile PCT starts in California at the Mexican border, about 50 miles east of San Diego, and passes through California, Oregon and Washington to reach the Canadian border about 100 miles east of Vancouver, British Columbia.
It is a well‐engineered and, for the most part, well‐maintained trail. The trail itself is easy to hike: it is well‐graded and never steep, as it is designed for horseriders as well as hikers. The PCT is for the exclusive use of hikers and riders and only a few miles, on paved or dirt roads, are shared with other users.
Europeans, accustomed to long distance paths designed to pass through towns and mountain villages with easy access to shops, hotels and commercial campsites, should realise that there is a completely different philosophy to such trails in the US. The PCT is very much a wilderness trail that only occasionally touches civilisation. Wilderness camping is an integral part of hiking the PCT.
The PCT is very varied. You will hike through deserts, forests, over snow‐covered passes and along alpine ridges. The trail starts in the arid hills and mountains of Southern California, and cuts across a corner of the Mojave Desert before heading into the Sierra Nevada, with its majestic mountains in a lake‐studded landscape. The granite of the Sierra Nevada gives way to the volcanic rocks of the Cascade Mountains, with a succession of volcanoes that tower above the forests of Northern California, Oregon and Washington.
The Early Days of The PCT
The first documented hiker to complete the PCT was Martin Papendick in 1952, long before the trail was officially recognised. The impetus for the creation of the trail as we know it today was the passing of the National Trails Systems Act by the US Congress in 1968, which granted the PCT the status of National Scenic Trail. The PCT was the main feature of the June 1971 edition of National Geographic Magazine and this, together with the publication by Wilderness Press of guidebooks to the trail, led to a spate of hikers attempting to thru’‐hike it. For the pioneers in the 1970s, there was little knowledge about how to tackle such a long wilderness route.
Very little lightweight equipment was available and little was known about finding water or locating supplies. The PCT was simply regarded as a longer example of the backpacking trips to which hikers were then accustomed. Hikers had to carry extremely heavy packs, often with more than ten days’ food, and averaged about 15 miles a day, completing the trail in about six months. Then, in 1992, Ray Jardine wrote a best‐selling handbook about how to hike the PCT. He advocated an ultra‐lightweight hiking style that made distances of 20‐30 miles a day achievable and his methods soon became the norm. They have been taken to the extreme by some: in 2009, for example, Scott Williamson completed a thru’‐hike in 67 days, averaging 40 miles a day. The methods publicised by Ray Jardine are outside the capabilities and inclinations of most hikers and the introduction to this book is designed to redress the balance by combining the advantages of the lightweight revolution with the traditional methods of the pioneers. The guide’s map sections should be useful to all hikers, whatever their hiking style.
The Pacific Crest Trail From Mexico To Canada On Foot ‐ A Cicerone Guide by Brian Johnson is published by Cicerone (paperback; £16.99). It is also available through amazon.com and all good booksellers.
