How the heck do we decide what to carry for 5 months?
We made some efforts to lighten up our packs for this length of a trip. On the John Muir Trail, I carried two Alite Monarch chairs totaling over two extra pounds. While it seemed worth it at that time, our mileage on the PCT needs to be quite a bit higher and I don’t think we’ll be sitting around as much anyway. We’re not really in the category of ultralight hikers, more just lightweight. At some point in the future I will post updates on which gear lasted and what needed replacing on the trail (hopefully not much).
For now, here are our tentative gear lists. These lists will be a work-in-progress until we actually hit the trail… and possibly afterwards as well:
We’re lucky that we can share some of the weight. Typically, I carry the tent and Christa carries the cooking stuff. That way we both need each other and can’t split up for the night (joking).
Hi Rob and Christa,
I found you blog while looking for info about the Ohlone Wilderness Trail and I saw that you are planning a PCT thru-hike! Congratulations! I thru-hiked the PCT in 2012 so I thought I would just say “hi.” Feel free to reach out if you have any questions about the hike, I’d love to help.
Happy trails,
Histo 2012
karlpeterschmidt@gmail.com
Will you be posting your PCT journey on here as you go? Depending on your schedule, I may be able to provide you with a ride to town from Castella, or if you are real early birds, I will be in the South Lake Tahoe area to do some relaxed backpacking before doing the 100 mile America’s Most Beautiful Bike Ride on June 5.
Awesome! Yes we will be posting along the way. Hopefully we’ll be up there in late June, and we plan to stop in Castella. We may be at highway 50 a few days after you. But at this point it’s hard to know with any certainty.
I’ll let you know how you can contact me as you get closer to Castella. I hiked from Burney Falls to Castella last year as a shakedown for hiking the JMT – my first backpacking trip of more than a few days – and met some cool PCTers. I thought I would try to provide some trail magic this year. I’ll try to schedule it for when you are in the area.
Great! Appreciate your generosity, as others will as well. I sure hope we make it that far! I’ll send you a note when we get close. You can email me as rob at norcalhiker.com