PCT by San Diego 1 week in Mid-June???

[Eugene Hollingsworth]

I’m helping family get to San Diego around June 6 and be trail-ready by June 9 this year and need to quickly find just enough info to plan how much time I should spend around the PCT.

NEED HELP :-) to figure out if this is a good idea to be around the PCT about an hour or so from town in early/mid-June.

My initial questions are:  Are the trails around the PCT going to be crowded with families and day hikers crowding the trails?  When I hike in Minnesota I stay away from regular campgrounds and the entrance areas of parks ’cause it’s nothing but non-hikers.

Does the weather tend to be over 90 deg or will I be able to get to areas that aren’t going to be dangerously hot? Remember- MN – I’m acclimated to cooler temps. Mostly I want to take time and see the views, trail milage will be the means to get there, probably 10-ish miles a day.

Side note: I don’t mind being around like-minded hikers, it’s those small areas packed with tourists I would like to minimize. Otherwise, I’ll just do the tourist stuff myself. ;-)

[HkNewman]

It’s already hot requiring 6L at the start, and you’ll likely need to keep hydrated with a lot of water/sport drink mix at that point.  Hauser canyon is rough and there’s a phone line to call the nearby county rangers.  I’d go up out the canyon only in the cooler evening or early morning with this drought.  However developed campsites at Lake Morena, Boulder Oak, and even Cibbetts can help.     There’s also the “malt” shop deli/grill at mile 20 (+) @ Lk Morena and general store at mile 40.  @ Mt Laguna plus a restaurant now owned by a French couple for breakfast/lunch (they had to import a burger chef reportedly) last I checked.. someone posted their burger on Fb a day ago.  If you miss the close, it might be canned chili at the general store (backpack food but mostly car/cabin camping type vittles in cans).

There’s also a swimming hole near interstate 8 but not sure what shape that would be in.

[Eugene Hollingsworth]

I’ll check up around those campsites. Looks though like I should schedule a different trip in winter so I don’t bake and dry out. I’m pretty acclimated to 25 deg at night and 70’s during the day and needing to carry 6 L of water is a pretty good indication I might be out of my league for this trip.

[Miner]

If I was to hike the southern California part of the PCT in that time frame, I’d stick to doing the higher elevation sections, say Hwy 15 to Aqua Dulce in the Angeles Forest, knowing that you’ll have some hot temperatures when you are in the lower elevations for the 1st day and the last 1 to 1.5 days, where you’d likely want to hike in the dark for part of the day.

Or the San Bernardino NF section from somewhere before Big Bear from a trailhead off Hwy 38 when the elevation starts to get higher to say Hwy 15. Though with the same comment about hiking in the dark when you get into hotter weather in lower elevations.

Otherwise, I’d be heading north to the higher elevations of the Sierra Nevada for that long of a trip.

[Eugene Hollingsworth]

Thank you, Miner, for the guidance.

[Author]

Posts