PCT Start Dates

Whether or not it is too late depends on your speed. About how many miles per day do you expect to cover? Maybe X per day in the desert, Y per day in the Sierra Nevada, and Z per day in Oregon-Washington.

A friend of mine was doing the PCT, and he was going far too late. He was getting snowed on every day for one week toward the end, so he just bailed out about 40 miles before the Canadian border.

–B.G.–

The 2014 Annual Day Zero Pacific Crest Trail Kickoff will be held April 25-26th, 2014 at Lake Morena campground. Doesn't sound like you will be leaving too late. Of course, as Bob said, it all depends on how far and fast you hike each day and how many zero days you take. Good luck out there and enjoy your hike.

Thanks folks. I'm running the Boston Marathon on April 21st, so that's my main time obligation. I plan on minimizing 0 days (though who can really plan that, I suppose they will happen as needed). Either way, with marathon training hopefully my hiker legs won't take too long to adjust.

How many days are you going to allow for marathon recovery before you start?

–B.G.–

Essentially 3 days. It sounds crazy, but I'm typically back to 85% after that amount of time. This will be my 14th marathon, so I'm comfortable of what to expect in the days following (the foam roller and post race massage works WONDERS to get lactic acid out of the legs). The *plan* is the 24th, but can play it by ear, especially since the kickoff is that weekend.

Last year's big Sept 28th storm was actually a few weeks early for large PNW fall storms. Having grown up in the Seattle area, i'd usually predict the rain to start around Oct 7th but the the large fall storms are very rare in the first 10 days of October.

Be done by Oct 10th if you don't want want to face a large storm