Pacific Crest Trail Hiking Advice for 2024 (& Beyond)

Planning Advice

• As someone who has been thinking about this for decades, Do it as soon as possible. You never know what will happen in your life, or to the trail, to prevent you from having this experience. Plan and prepare, but don’t overthink it. The people on Reddit who say they want to do this X years from now…why not next year? If this is important to you, find a way to prioritize it.

• Be flexible! Having a plan is smart, but don’t hold onto it to the point you miss out on opportunities or don’t enjoy it as much.

• Be in good shape when you start! Save more money than you think, and be open to all the curveballs nature throws your way. It’s all part of the adventure.

• If you’re a diehard planner like me, learn to let go, ride the waves of chaos, and have fun.

• Don’t join the Facebook groups if you want to avoid toxic spaces. Everyone enforces their opinions and is often very rude and fearmonger-y. Instead, try using the groups to communicate with and connect with trail angels and hikers. This means getting their contact info to talk outside of Facebook or using Facebook only when necessary (don’t take Facebook advice to heart).

• Don’t worry about planning. I only planned my first days to Julian and then made it up as I went. It was super easy to resupply. Worry less, enjoy more.

• Plan like crazy before you go, but only because it’s fun and exciting. Enjoy those butterflies. Then realize those plans will be out the window within a week, and let the adventure take you where it takes you—this excitement is just as amazing.

• Don’t overthink it; one foot in front of the other. Put more time into training than worrying about gear. Cross train – run, hike, stair machines, elliptical machines – be in good shape to start. Go your own pace, don’t try to crush it or it will crush you.

• A general plan before you start your hike is good. A detailed plan is not needed until you’re one to two weeks away from that section; even then, things change constantly on the trail, so remember to be flexible!

Attitude Advice

• Do. Not. Stress. Do not worry; do what feels right for you. It is your hike and you will find your place and your people on trail when you stay true to yourself. You have so many amazing, caring, and loving people to meet.

• Remember that it is just a long holiday. Too many people get stressed out and end up not enjoying themselves. Remember why you are here and advocate for yourself; don’t get swept up in what other people want to do.

• Always see something with your own eyes before making a decision. Someone else’s experience or perception may completely deviate from your own. I would have missed out on so many great adventures had I listened to the trail fearmongering.

• Attempt the things you think you’d hate or give another go to things that you haven’t seemed to like in the past. I enjoyed cowboy camping and night hiking far more than I expected. Try to night hike on a full moon when it rises early (but still does so after sunset). I ended up on a full moon night hike for a few hours in every section I did, and this was an amazing way to see a different side of that section. Let go of the completionist mindset. Being “forced” to let it go thanks to the high snow year was a gift. Don’t get so attached to your tramily that you end up not hiking your own hike, even if it is a group you know and started with – I was sad to see groups from the AT feel forced to stay together on the PCT because they had planned it together but had no real reason to stay together.

• Be open to things you wouldn’t normally do – e.g. connecting with strangers. Some of the best times I had on the trail were hanging out with people I would never be exposed to in my “normal” life, and I was hesitant to do so before saying yes. Stay off your phone in towns; there are many things to do and people to meet.

• Try to have little to no expectations—the trail is going to surprise you, and you might not have an epiphany every day. But what you get is so, so good. And if you could predict what you would get from the hike, why would you even go on it?

• DO WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY! Your tramily not nice to you? Leave them. Do you want to skip a section or take an extra zero? Do it. Keep true to yourself, stay happy, and remember why you are out here. If you want more smiles than miles, that is awesome. While hiking the trail isn’t all smiles and rainbows, it should always serve you and your wants, not just those around you.

• Don’t set unrealistic expectations based on trail journals or social media. Your hike is a unique adventure that may not compare to someone else’s who hiked with different people in a different year.

Hiking Advice

• Expect to be sore the first few weeks, but your body will adjust. Avoid increasing mileage by more than 10% each week, or you risk injury.

• Feel free to blast through NorCal and Oregon, but save time for the northern half of Washington.

• Anyone can do this! You don’t have to be in really good shape. You have to take it slow in the beginning to get your body used to the mileage & physical challenge of it all. Also, take your time. Slowing down is ALWAYS worth it if you are struggling or in a particularly beautiful area. I saw too many hikers not enjoying themselves as much as they could have if they had slowed down occasionally.

• As a physician, I have medical advice for hikers: 1) wear long pants (avoid scratches, insect bites and UV exposure/future skin cancer), 2) change water filters more often to avoid waterborne illness and carry giardia medication, 3) eat more highly nutritious foods (avoid the PCT diet of pop tarts, tortillas w/ peanut butter, candy, Fritos, ramen and powdered mashed potatoes), 4) avoid excessive weight loss which impairs wound healing and can lead to stress fractures, 5) walk fewer miles/day to avoid overuse injuries and slow down/stop when you are in pain (we rescued a woman with a femoral neck stress fracture that required emergency surgery).

• Keep an excel file or similar to track your campsites (what mile you camped at, if you cowboy camped or slept in your tent, etc). It’s a fun way to track your daily mileage and progress, and it’s easy to trace back around what mile a photo was taken if you can’t remember. It also makes the Halfway Anywhere survey easier to fill in.

• The trail will be there to hike. Take your time, enjoy the experience, connect with others, and let yourself experience wonder. Do the side quests. Miles aren’t everything.

• From the bottom of my heart and unsarcastically: hike your own hike. Take on the challenges one at a time. Speed up when you need to and slow down when you can. Take your needs seriously. Not every day is amazing, but you’ll wish you could return once it’s over. Make it count.

• Take it slow! Enjoy it! It’s not a race to Canada. The slower you go, the more you will take in, as well on and off the trail.

• Let go of any preconceived notions of trail, any goals, and don’t go too fast. If you want, you can push 35s the whole trail, but you’ll miss some things that would otherwise be your favorites. My only regret from the trail was skipping the ostrich farm to hike big miles for no reason. Hiking fast is dumb. Slow down. Take it in. Be mindful. Be kind. Look out for each other. You never know what will happen – embrace the uncertainty. Never quit on a bad day. Do dumb shit. Don’t die.

Gear Advice

• Do multiple shakedown hikes in a variety of weather.  Get at least one shakedown in the rain.

• Some of the comments on FarOut and from some fellow hikers can be quite negative. While you should not ignore them, don’t be put off by them. Use your judgment as to what you can do, and remember, you can do far more than you think.

• I found that practicing for months carrying a 30-lb / 13 kg backpack helped prepare my body and taught me to go with whatever the PCT has for you. Each day will be different in some way, so go with the flow, and remember that not everyone can be where you are at doing what you are doing, hiking the PCT.

• Adapt your gear, and know about general gear repair and upkeep.

• Don’t stress about gear too much beforehand; it doesn’t matter as much as you think.

• Go on practice hikes to toughen your feet. It will save you blister pain. Wear liner toe socks.

• Pack out and don’t bury your toilet paper (animals dig it up), and don’t use soap in any body of water (even biodegradable).

• If you can, set up a system to charge all your devices simultaneously from one outlet— like a wall charger with multiple plugs.

• If it is a high snow year, bring the Sierra gear you need and put it in a bigger pack if it doesn’t fit in your ultralight pack. If your UL pack looks like it is about to explode because you’re carrying ten days of food, it isn’t a big enough pack!

• Have an acceptable base weight and enough money in the bank, and just start hiking. The desert is like a training camp; you will figure it out as you go, so stress is unnecessary.

• Get a job at REI. The discounts are amazing, and I would have saved so much money.

• Get your base weight down as much as possible before you start. You can always buy and send more gear on the trail if needed.

• Watch your baseweight! Don’t buy all ultralight gear only to carry too many luxury items.

For more on the Pacific Crest Trail gear, check out this year’s PCT Gear Guide.

Resupply Advice

•  Don’t be intimidated if you don’t know how to send packages at the post office or aren’t familiar with the trail towns in advance – you’ll figure it out! Just get out there and trust yourself.

• Be willing to pack out fresh food every once in a while. It weighs a bit more, but if you have some fresh food for two or three days of a five-day stretch, that’s way better than going five days with just processed crap. that way, the first couple of days are slightly heavier, but your pack feels much better during the last half of the stretch.

• Before your hike, get your gear in order, but forget about resupply planning aside from building a loose list of meals you can prepare easily on the trail from ingredients you can find at a typical grocery store.

• Visit the towns, don’t rush too much. The last one to Canada wins.

• Pack less food in the first 100 mi / 160 km than you expect to eat. I wasn’t hungry for the first two weeks!

• Pack out pizza.

• Before your hike, get your gear in order, but forget about resupply planning aside from building a loose list of meals you can prepare easily on the trail from ingredients you can find at a typical grocery store.

For more on the Pacific Crest Trail resupply, check out this year’s PCT Resupply Guide.

Training Advice

• Try a 100-mi / 160-km hike where you have to camp, take food, etc., and see how long it takes. Ask yourself, could you do that same hike another 26 times?

• Train your mind as you’re preparing to go on your thru-hike. Go for that run or hike in inclement weather, and start pushing your comfort limits before; it will prepare you well for the difficult days on the trail.

• Train with your pack and get used to it.

• If you have time, train your body harder rather than plan harder. Don’t over-plan the trail! Just plan the first week, and everything will eventually work out. I’m glad we did not overplan it. It might have been a bit scary initially, but everything turned out okay.

• Get in shape before you start.

• All the training in the world will only do so much; it’s 90% mental. Some people have the mental fortitude, and most people don’t.

• Prepare well physically, dial in your gear well, and other than that, prepare as little as possible. It will all work out!

• Research your gear a lot beforehand and go on warm-up hikes.

People Advice

• Take lots of pictures of your friends, not just posing in front of a view, but of all the everyday things we do.

• Be as present as possible. I feel silly talking into the camera, but talk to it, record big emotional moments (good and bad), and take a lot of pictures. Don’t be shy, and make a lot of friends.

• Be friendly and talk to the hikers, especially in the first week. The bonds at the beginning are important. Stay at CLEEF, Lion’s Den, or Scout and Frodo’s and talk to the hikers around you in the early days. I made friends all through, but none of the bonds were as strong as the hikers I met initially. I think having those strong bonds can be what makes a hike enjoyable and successful or not.

• Be inspired by others, but don’t let the adventure of their PCT hike set expectations or influence how you carry out your own adventure. Don’t be afraid of being alone.

• Don’t compromise what you want from your hike to keep up with your friends. You’ll see them again.

• The people you are with matter a ton, especially in a year as hard as this one. You don’t need to start hiking with the first people you see. Find people you laugh with and have a good time with but with the same goals and priorities (and resupply strategy) as you. You can’t solve a problem if you don’t have fun with it: for us, that was a critical mindset in getting through the challenging Sierra section this year and the challenge of pushing through to the end of the trail at a fast pace after taking so long in the Sierra. I spent the entire desert looking for and building my Sierra team and the rest of the trail with people I’d met or hiked around in the Sierra. These people defined my thru-hike and helped me make it through.

• Befriend as many people as possible and help each other; that’s what makes this hike so special.

Trail Culture Advice

• When you get home, within a month or so, go through your photos and maps and write down what you remember. I created printed photo books with captions for each trip, and they have tons of details about people and places I wouldn’t remember after a couple of years.

• Carry a small sheet of postcard stamps and send yourself postcards from all the weird little towns.

• Take selfies with every person who impacts you—especially trail angels, hitches, and, of course, fellow hikers. Keep writing notes daily—it’s tedious, but you will be grateful later.

• Stop being so weird and insular in your tramily. It’s okay to be friendly to other hikers.

• Slow down and enjoy the hike. Take pictures and videos for your benefit. The memories will fade, but the pictures and videos will help you retain as much of the memories. Take pictures of your camp, the food and places, and the people you meet.

• It’s easy to feel like it’s a competition (with the weather and others) to make miles – I certainly did at times. My most memorable and treasured memories were when I walked a reasonable number of miles, which enabled me to stop occasionally, swim in a lake, chat with people I passed, and enjoy the views. If it’s beginning to feel like a slog every day – take a day or three off trail to reset and do something completely different before coming back to the trail with new wonder.

• Hike your own hike – HYOH – and don’t think you’re superior if you’ve covered more miles. We are all out here to experience life. Just enjoy yourself and have fun.

• Have a good budget if you intend to do the entire thing, and be very disciplined with hiking for as long as there is light on the trail, sometimes beyond. Find a way to write down your experiences in a journal or on your phone in addition to taking plenty of pictures. You may be unable to remember all the special thoughts that went through your head months after the hike because there are so many things to remember. Your brain will empty many ‘small moments’ to remember the big moments and highlights/low points. And yes, take more pictures of people, too.

Quitting Advice

• If you’re not having fun, consider going off trail and returning later or another year. It’s not a job; there’s no reason to do it now if you’re not enjoying it.

• Circumstances and your attitude towards them can change with frightening speed. You have complete control over one of those.

• Don’t give up on a bad day.

• You’re capable of more than you think you are. Even if you sometimes want to quit, give it a few days and see how you feel. Don’t quit on a cloudy or rainy day.

• Promise yourself that if you are thinking about quitting, only do it on a mountain top on a beautiful day.

• If you ever feel like quitting, do one more section. I had multiple times where I debated getting off the trail, but then I hiked one more section, and I just kept falling in love with the trail again. Don’t give up on it; it’s well worth the struggle

• If you’re feeling burnt out and want to quit, one zero day might not be enough, but take as many days off as you want. Have fun and do what you feel like doing; come back when you’re ready, and don’t feel like you need the pressure of hiking 20+ miles (32+ km) daily if you feel better doing 15 mi / 24 km a day. Some days I would do 25 mi / 40 km and the next day I would do 10 mi / 16 km, then the day after I was ready to do 25 mi 40 km again. If you want to take two zeros every week, then do it. Keep in touch with trail angels to help with the budget!