Overnight from San Francisco using Public Transit

This looks like a great hike. Thanks Amy and Jim for posting.

We were in the Bay Area a few weeks ago and I wondered about overnight hikes in that area.

I've read a few accounts of people arranging hikes using public transportation. The costs of getting to a traihead can add up and some don't have a car, and leaving a car at a lonely trailhead can be worrisome.

We were in Munich, Germany one Frebruary and one night we saw large numbes of people walking through town late one evening carrying downhill skis. We realized they had taken a train into the Alps for a day of skiing. That made me think of how cool it would be to have a train that looped through the Cascades from Seatle for winter skiing and then trail access in the summer. Something like that could spawn all kinds of new businesses and bring income to a lot of small mountain towns. A loop train around the Olympic Peninsula would be fantastic, as well as one to the borders of Rainier National Park.

Exit wish mode, return to general programming.

Nice report – nice you can do that

It's very difficult to get public transit from Portland to any trailhead. Buses go on I-84 past Cascade Locks, but they don't stop there. I think the same for going over Mt Hood. You have to drive your car to get about anywhere, and then the vandals will break-in.

This would make a good premis for a web site. If there is a place to stop safely, it might take a little lobbying with the local transit organization.
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Years ago there was a newspaper article where a reporter hooked up several rural bus line to get from Seattle to the Pacific coast at Grays Harbor. I was able to put together a simple combination of buses and ferries to get from Seattle to the Olympic Peninsula.

As with the OP some trips require some walking from more urban areas to the unpaved trail, but there's no reason that can't be part of the adventure.

The obvious link from Seattle to the forest is via I-90. It is possible to take one bus from Seattle to the town of North Bend wich is the last outpost of suburbia. You can walk 5.7 miles to the start of the Iron Horse Trail, a rail-trail based park and trail system. It looks like there are some summer weekend shuttles to help hikers get around closed tunnels. The trail itself goes by a number of trailheads from the I-90 corridor. The PCT crosses I-90 at Snoqualmie Pass. I'm putting this trip on my todo list.

I love backpacking via public transportation. It's great not having to worry about getting back to a car via shuttling or hitchhiking.
Also, trailheads tend to attract vehicle breakins.

I live in NYC. Most people don't own cars here and use public transportation to get to and from their hiking destinations. There are a lot of commuter buses and trains to choose from all branching out a hundred miles and more from the city.

So I leave the car at home most of the time.