Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 24, 2017 4:52:11 GMT -8
Today is PCT permit day.
Good luck on getting your requested start day.
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Westy
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Diagnosed w/Post-Trail Transition Syndrome
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Post by Westy on Jan 24, 2017 7:28:53 GMT -8
I didn't know you needed a permit to start hiking the PCT. I thought the JMT required a permit and you could avoid the JMT with an alternative route.
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sarbar
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After being here since 2001...I couldn't say goodbye yet!
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Post by sarbar on Jan 24, 2017 7:54:09 GMT -8
It probably is permit day if you use the PCTA to line up all your permits on the whole hike.
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toejam
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Post by toejam on Jan 24, 2017 8:33:43 GMT -8
you could avoid the JMT with an alternative route PCT hikers report this being one of the best parts of the trail, so you wouldn't want to do that. Recently some hikers got PCT permits to avoid the JMT permit fiasco. Some rules have changed this year and I don't know what the viable scams are. Heck, I should chuck it all and go be a trail bum. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 24, 2017 8:37:47 GMT -8
Sine the movie Wild, the number of people starting the PCT per day has been limited to 50.
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Post by absarokanaut on Jan 24, 2017 16:32:41 GMT -8
Thank Gawd for the CDT.
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whistlepunk
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I was an award winning honor student once. I have no idea what happened...
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Today PCT
Jan 24, 2017 19:53:36 GMT -8
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Post by whistlepunk on Jan 24, 2017 19:53:36 GMT -8
Or just hike it without a permit.
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null
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Post by null on Jan 25, 2017 6:10:31 GMT -8
Or just hike it without a permit.  |
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whistlepunk
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Jan 25, 2017 7:51:30 GMT -8
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Post by whistlepunk on Jan 25, 2017 7:51:30 GMT -8
It passes near my home. I hike sections of it every year. No permit needed.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 25, 2017 8:02:28 GMT -8
I've read permits are going fast and the early start date has been pushed up to 11 April, though those will go quickly.
I used to hike sections of the PCT, no permit needed. Hiking the whole trail a permit is a must have, includes fire permit. This year the PCT permit also includes the Whitney hike.
For the last several years PCT permits have been checked around the Belden area; no permit results in fines.
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markskor
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Mammoth Lakes & Tuolumne Meadows...living the dream
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Post by markskor on Jan 25, 2017 8:49:28 GMT -8
Don't know what part of the trail you live close to...probably easy to section-hike locally along many trails, and no permit then would be required...nice!
However, once Sierra (Kennedy Meadows?) rangers do check. In Tuolumne last summer (mile 942), I asked PCT hikers whether they had seen / been checked by anyone...about 40% said they had...whatever.
A PCT permit (a single piece of paper - free - that allows you to start at a chosen TH, and hike anywhere, in one general direction, on the trail from Mexico up to Canada - trip length must be over 500 miles to qualify) comes with added advantages over regular permits...including the ability to start/skip parts of the JMT. PCT hikers (for whatever reason) can leave the trail for extended periods of time (hitch hike from Bishop to Denver for sister's wedding) and then re-join it again a week later, (a hundred miles up the road at Sonora Pass), and still be legal. This year over 5,000 will try.
In years past, before Strayed's "Wild" mania...(BTW, she skipped the best part - Sierra), there was a pre-starting event - AZDPCTKO...annual zero day pacific crest trail kick off...gear vendors, speakers, trail angels, food, a community camp thing. Now, in an attempt to space things out, this year they only allow a 50/day start from Ranch del Campo. Others often start out same time a few miles north. (BTW, the first 300 miles can really suck through the desert.)
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RumiDude
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Post by RumiDude on Jan 25, 2017 10:30:07 GMT -8
I've read permits are going fast and the early start date has been pushed up to 11 April, though those will go quickly. Part of the issue recently has been the volume of NoBo starts in April. This permiting hopefully alleviates some of the crowding and thus the impact on the trail itself. As others have indicated, the different agencies the PCt passes through are stepping up permit checks due to the volume. With a few notable exceptions, this one permit is all you need for the entire trail. It is free, so if yo are going to hike more than 500 miles of the PCT, this permit is what you need. If you are hiking less than 500 miles, then you should just get permits where required. This first permit submission date is for those starting at the border. February 13 is the submission date for all other PCT permits. Rumi |
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almostthere
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putting on my hiking shoes....
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Post by almostthere on Jan 25, 2017 12:23:44 GMT -8
It's funny, how people criticize instituting a permit when demand is on the upswing. I'd rather have permits than an unending stream of people from one end of the trail to the other.
Definitely not going to be drinking the water untreated now....
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 25, 2017 13:12:10 GMT -8
Start day for the PCT, permits, are at April 7th 2017. +5000 permit requests have been submitted from what I've read.
Ice Axe and shoe traction devices are recomended North of KM.
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toejam
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Post by toejam on Jan 25, 2017 17:27:12 GMT -8
Poking the hive here, but when have crowds of PCT hikers ever been a problem? There just haven't ever been that many of them all together causing some kind of damage that I know of. It's easy to sit back and say all those other bad people need the government to control them. I think overcrowding on the PCT might exist in some people's minds but not in reality. People are freaking out over numbers on a computer screen.
I also think the John Muir Trail overcrowding issue is more about numbers on a computer screen than on the trail. All the heavily-impacted places on the JMT get more traffic from people not thru-hiking than from those going from one end to the other.
There are a lot of popular, heavily-used trails in Colorado that don't require permits and I haven't been one one that I thought needed more government control.
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