Choice of section, distance, direction, starting altitude

Each year when I consider when and where I will hike the PCT, a number of factors come into play:

• What is my physical conditioning that year and thus how many miles per day do I think I should target. Also my physical conditioning affects whether I should attempt sections with more up-and-down elevation gain, and/or longer carries of food and water that will make my pack heavier. If I’m not in good shape, I could do shorter sections where I don’t have to carry as much, or sections with relatively modest elevation gains (at least, modest compared with the most demanding sections!)
• How many days can I be on the trail? Should I do one longer section or two or three shorter sections?
• What climate and terrain would be nice this year, desert, forest, high altitude tundra and rocks, water-blessed or dry, constant far-off views or more confined? How much am I willing to stand constant sun exposure all day every day this time, versus being in shaded forest?. (Am very sensitive to the sun and usually prefer shaded terrain. Some years have been more willing to ensure endless sun exposure, or have to plan for more early-morning and late-afternoon hiking times, also depends on time of year.)
• Which “trail indignities” am I willing to face this year?
• How easy to travel to a given section’s start and end points from where I happen to be located that year.
• What is the starting altitude at the beginning of the hike and how long will it take to acclimate from my home elevation? How willing am I this year to suffer minor or modest altitude sickness during the first days? Single-year through-hikers acclimate easily along the trail and once acclimated to high altitude don’t have to worry too much for the rest of the hike. But multi-year through hikers have to first acclimate each and every year, unless their home already happens to be “mile high.” Starting on the trail at 5,000 feet elevation coming from sea level is generally no problem, although even then altitude effects the first day or two are noticeable. But many sections of the trail start at, or quickly ascend to, elevations much higher than 5,000 feet.

[Note: the rule of thumb for acclimation I learned is to sleep the first night at no higher than 5,000 feet elevation and then sleep successive nights at no more than 2,000 feet higher than the previous night. If you don’t acclimate or acclimate too quickly, it can result in fatigue, headaches, nausea, or worse. On starting from sea level to sections that are well above 5,000 feet the first night, including starting some sections that may require sleeping up to 10,000 feet on the first night, sometimes I have purposefully planned a full rest day for my second day on the trail, just staying put and acclimating.]

Some may wish to always begin the following year where they finished the previous year. Yes, there is a certain satisfaction and continuity to starting one year exactly where you left off the previous year. I did this sometimes. However, hiking in sequence has never been that important to me. The main satisfaction for me is just hiking “every step of the way” the entire trail eventually. I have even traveled far at large expense to “fill in” just 15 or 25 miles of trail that I missed in a previous year for whatever reason, so that at the end, I will have hiked every mile of the whole trail.

Also, there is the decision whether to hike any given section south-to-north or north-to-south. Again there is the issue of transport to-from the trail. But there are other considerations too. Hiking south-to-north reduces the sun’s glare because the sun is more often behind you rather than in front of you — and for me that is a big deal. So I try to hike south-to-north whenever possible. However, if I hike north-to-south at the right time of year for a section, I can run into a constant stream of 20-40 northbound through-hikers daily, which is nice just for the nods and sometime conversations. (If hiking in the same direction as the through-hikers, I sometimes start to feel in competition with their fast pace and can end up hiking faster than I really want.).

Finally, for a few sections there is a distinct advantage to a specific direction given elevation changes at the start or end of the section coupled with the need to carry large amounts of food and/or water at the start. In-shape and unidirectional through-hikers won’t think about this, but out-of-shape multi-year hikers, especially those of advancing age, may find a significant difference. For example, California Section E if hiked south-to-north starts off with over 4000 feet of climbing and 18 miles before reaching the first water source, coupled with starting off by carrying enough food for 85 miles. Plus with the sun and desert it is actually a quite difficult section overall. So when I was not in great physical shape, hiking it north-to-south made it easier with less elevation gain and less water carries in the first few days.