PCT Guide books

[Casey Balza]

I was planning on a PCT thru hike for next season and am looking for a guide book that will help me plan my trip and to help me prepare for what I am up for.

So far I have the "Pacific Crest Trail Data Book" but it wasn't quite what I was expecting.

What do you guys recommend/use?

[Joseph Ainsworth]

What are you looking for? There are guide books that just go over the towns (i.e. yogis), there are ones that go over the trail and towns (i.e. eric the blacks). Halfmile has maps that are essentially guidebooks in and of themselves and free to boot.
Most people end up with some combination of the above depending on what you want to carry. Eric the black's stuff is all inclusive, but it's a hell of a lot more money (300 ish IIRC). Yogi's books + halfmiles maps are a darn good backup to that and 1/5 the price (it's also what I'll be using)

[Casey Balza]

Well I don't want to spend a few hundred bucks on some books that is for sure. I was more looking in how to get supplies and someones insight about how the PCT went for them and what they would do/ bring with them if they were to do it over again.

[Thomas Gauperaa]

"Yogi's PCT handbook – planning guide" has that info. Highly recommend it. I'm hiking the pct too next year! Maybe we'll meet on the trail.

[Scott S]

+1 on Yogi's guide. It has exactly the information you're looking for:http://pcthandbook.com/product.php?productListId=1

[Joseph Ainsworth]

Then definitely look into yogi's guide. The town info is amazing, though double check stuff to make sure it's still current if you're relying on mail drops in certain places.

[Casey Balza]

Yeah this seems to be the book I need. What about Yogi's laminated resupply list? Did anyone find these to be useful on their thru-hike?

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

The Data Book goes with the Wilderness Press guide books. The idea is that the wilderness press guide books have a lot of wordy prose and every now and then there's a sentence about some point of interest and next to that sentence is in parenthesis, the elevation and the distance from that last point of interest. The Data Book went through all those points of interest and put them into a table and calculated the mileage between those points and added other information. Makes it way easier than trying to get that information out of the guide book.

Many of those points make no sense without the more descriptive prose in the guide book, though. But lots of people have used the Data Book without the guide book combined with maps and just guessed at those points of interest. Plus the Data Book has mileage information for off-trail water and lets you know if a point of interest has water or a road or whatever. Plus there are post office addresses which is handy. So yeah, I can see why it's not what you expected, but you might be able to use it anyway.

Most people are using Halfmile's maps and Yogi's guide these days. These days being this year compared to as recently as 2008.

[Link .]

http://www.pmags.com/pacific-crest-trail-planning-info

[Casey Balza]

Awesome, thanks for the website that place is packed with resources! :D

[Paul Magnanti]

Yeah..but the guy who run's that website is a bit suspect.

;-)

[Casey Balza]

Hey nice site, I am pretty sure I will learn a few new things from it :)

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