Every trip report needs a Summary, a short but cogent conclusion that tidies things up neatly. I’m not sure that I can write a simple one for a trip of this magnitude, but I’ll try to keep it concise.
My Intro Page started with the Whys and Wherefores, and ended with Gear, so this page should begin with Gear, and deal with the Why Nots later on.
Gear-wise, it’s important to point out what worked and what didn’t, and what I never used at all.
Didn’t use: Most of my Ten Essentials. This is a good thing, I guess. It means that nothing much went wrong. I never used my sunscreen (wide hat and full clothing did the job), hand cream, bug spray, map, compass, whistle, lighter, razor, pen, locking knife, and mylar emergency blanket. Some electronics: AC adapter (went home for zero days), GoPro spare batteries and charger, and custom ultralight AC power cord. Clothing: Outdoor Research Goose Down Beanie (elastic on edges was unpleasant to sleep in), smartwool beanie (too wimpy), Mosquito-proof Head Net. I also lucked out and found clean water sources so never used my Sawyer Water Filter.
Worked well: Smartwool socks and base layers stayed non-stinky, Western Mountaineering Flash Jacket and Pants were light and warm in the night and mornings. The Osprey Exos 58 backpack held up and was comfortable all day even with heavy additions of water and food weight. The Nitecore UL-25 headlamp was excellent. The Garmin InReach Explorer worked perfectly (but the newer Mini would have saved a couple ounces at a very high cost per pound). The Jetboil Flash cooking system was totally worth the money. The MSR folding spoon and sawed-off toothbrush fit perfectly in the leakproof Ziplock Container which served as a cup/bowl. I also found that the cheapo $25 Goose Down Booties were one of the best purchases I made; there is nothing quite like sleeping with warm and happy feet!
Didn’t work or So-So: My Goretex pants and jacket hard shell were useful but maybe I could have used the Frogg Togg rainsuit instead to save weight. Goretex is durable but I’ve found that they don’t really keep me dry in the rain after I’ve used them for a season or more. The Froggs are inexpensive, they tear easily if you aren’t careful, and I thrashed the bottom edge of the pants on trailside brush when hiking on a soggy morning in the desert, but they are cheap enough to replace and duct tape can repair them in a pinch. And they actually repel water! A big plus. Using two phones (one for navigation and one for photos) was certainly overkill and a waste of a half pound in Base Weight. I foolishly reused my Merrell MOAB hiking boots from last season and had them fail within the first week of the trek, which sent me home to buy a new pair of the same exact boots, but a half size larger. The MOAB’s are excellent shoes otherwise.
Changed Items mid-hike: I added an extra 10k mAH battery pack after a week-long section when the Pixel 3 phone (my main camera) sucked the first bank dry near the end. I swapped out my Western Mountaineering Summerlite sleeping bag (32 degrees F) for my much warmer Western Mountaineering Ultralite sleeping bag (with extra down added, so probably warmer that the official 20 degree F rating), which added an extra ten ounces to my Base Weight, but was worth it as the weather was cold the entire time. I swapped back and forth from my new Tarptent Aeon Li dyneema tent to my Big Agnes Copper Spur UL1 tent, which added an extra 1.5 pounds (Ouch!) to my Base Weight. The Aeon Li had condensation issues and wasn’t free standing, making freezing and/or windy nights a major issue, whereas the Copper Spur was a rock solid storm-tested alternative which punished me for its excessive weight. In the end, I opted to carry the extra weight for the added security. Still, I might have changed back to the Tarptent if I had moved up to twenty mile days. All told, these changes brought my Base Weight up from 19 to 21 pounds! Sad but true. But I have to admit that I carried it willingly!
The Big Question: Why did I end my thru hike early? There were a number of reasons, of course.
The main one was the onset of Plantar Fasciitis in my feet, which is quite painful and takes months to heal. Yes, I could have continued hiking, pushing through the pain, popping aspirin all day long, and generally being the badass hombre that I think I am, but I also knew that I was 65 years old, an age when healing might take years rather than months. Therefore, irrevocable foot damage was entirely possible. I fully intended that the PCT would not be my final hike. And, let’s face it, hiking in pain is not a pleasurable experience. I didn’t sign up for a major sufferfest, just a good tough hike.
Secondly, the Winter of 2023, a force in itself. It put a roadblock in the way of even the SoCal mountains for early-season thru hikers like myself. Full stop, unless I wanted to be a mountaineer with crampons, snowshoes, and ice axe. Vicki rightly insisted that I was too old for such dangerous nonsense. I was fit enough, I knew, but I also had little experience on snow and ice, and none with self-arrest. So I had to flip past them, then return when the snow melted enough. Also, the Sierra Nevada snowpack was at 300% of normal, thus forming a gigantic roadblock to a proper NOBO thru hike. It didn’t matter that I’ve already hiked all of the High Sierra (in sections, over many years). This didn’t mean that I didn’t want to hike the Sierra again. I love the Sierra, and I really wanted to hike it all the way through in one shot this year. No such luck.
Thirdly, I will freely admit that doing this trek as a solo hiker took its toll on me. When you’ve been sleeping (and backpacking) with the same partner for forty years, being all alone isn’t easy. I’ve gone on plenty of weeklong solo hikes, so I knew how to stay busy, but it always felt good to be back home afterward. Living in San Diego, I was able to do the entire Desert Section in sub-sections, so I had the luxury of heading home regularly. If I had chosen to continue onward I would have had to flip far to the north where hiking solo would be my lonely fate for months. Spending the 2023 Summer Season camping and hiking with Vicki was my original plan, before this crazy idea of a PCT thru hike took hold of me like a fever dream. I woke up from it, called off the solo trek, and happily reverted to the previous plan in the end. But I have to admit that the Dream of the Thru Hike still calls to me, and probably always will.
Do I regret even trying? Of course I don’t. Hiking the Pacific Crest trail out of Campo was both an awesome and a humbling experience. I met plenty of great people on the trail, and thoroughly enjoyed their company while it lasted. The wildflower superbloom alone was worth the effort. I had a ton of fun.
Even now, I have every intention of returning to do the four other long sections of the trail, like the Sierra Nevada, NorCal, Oregon, and Washington. It might take me four more years to do it, but that was fine by me. Let’s be honest: I love the PCT!
For a topographic map of the hike see my CalTopo Page
For LOTS more photos of the trek see my Flickr Page
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