Pacific Crest Trail: Northern California. Jeffrey P. Schaffer

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СКАЧАТЬ the PCT for the most part follows miles of roads along the west side of desert-like Antelope Valley before ascending to the edge of ranch property in the north part of the range. The trail is described in Pacific Crest Trail: Southern California, this book’s companion volume

      Finally, there is another stretch in northern California, (Section Q and the start of Section R), where a trail will not replace existing roads. Private property was part of the problem, but also building a horse bridge across the Klamath River proved economically unfeasible. One still treads 7.3 miles along roads, which is a blessing in disguise, for if the trail and bridge had been built, you would have bypassed Seiad Valley, a very important resupply point.

      “Golden Spike” Dedication

      The Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail officially was dedicated on Nationals Trails Day, June 5, 1993, a lengthy 25 years after Congress passed the National Trails System Act that had mandated it. The dedication was touted as the “Golden Spike” Completion Ceremony, in which a “golden” spike was driven into the trail, a reenactment of the 1869 ceremony at Promontory Point, near Ogden, Utah, where the converging Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroad companies joined to complete the transcontinental railroad. For the PCT, there were no competing trail crews, and the completion site should have been in the Tehachapi Mountains. However, the public was (and is) not welcome on the Tejon Ranch, and since that area is out of the way, a PCT site closer to metropolitan southern California was chosen: a flat at the mouth of a small valley on the north side of Soledad Canyon (Map D13 Pacific Crest Trail: Southern California). Protected under a canopy to shelter them from the unseasonably cold, windy, drizzly weather, Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt and others spoke to an unsheltered audience of about 300 hearty souls (and a dozen or so others protesting various unrelated environmental issues). The trail was proclaimed to be 2638 miles long officially, though the accuracy of this mileage may be questionable, since this number existed as early as 1990, before the completion of several stretches in southern California and in the southern Sierra Nevada, and before the major relocation of the Hat Creek Rim stretch north of Lassen Volcanic National Park. Future relocations are likely, and so the authors of the Pacific Crest Trail books, for better or for worse, have used mileages that they have measured either directly along the trail or indirectly along the route they accurately drew on topographic maps.

      Some Who Walked and Rode

      No doubt hikers did parts of the Pacific Crest Trail in the 19th Century—though that name for it didn’t exist. It may be that someone walked along the crest from Mexico to Canada or vice versa many years ago. But the first person to claim he did the whole route in one continuous journey—in 1970—was Eric Ryback, in The High Adventure of Eric Ryback. Actually, he accepted rides for some of the approximately 2500-mile route, and so his claim was not quite true. Nevertheless, he hiked most of the route, which was quite an accomplishment for a 130-pound 18-year-old, hiking solo in the more difficult north-to-south direction sans guidebook or detailed maps. His 1971 book focused attention on the PCT, and other people began to plan end-to-end treks. Actually, the first documented hiker to complete the entire three-state trek was Martin Papendick (1922-2000), who did so way back in 1952 when a tri-state trail was still a dream.

      As mentioned earlier, in June 1972 the Forest Service maps of the PCT route became available to the public, and the race was on. The first person to hike this entire route, as it then existed, was Richard Watson, who finished it on September 1, 1972. No one knew of Papendick, so for years Watson was considered the first through-hiker, as backpackers who did the trail in one continuous, multi-month effort would come to be called. Barely behind him, finishing four days later, were Wayne Martin, Dave Odell, Toby Heaton, Bill Goddard and Butch Ferrand. Very soon after them, Henry Wilds went from Mexico to Canada solo. In 1972 Jeff Smukler did the PCT with Mary Carstens, who became the first woman to make it. The next year, Gregg Eames and Ben Schifrin set out to follow the official route as closely as possible, no matter whether trail or cross country. Schifrin had to drop out with a broken foot at Odell Lake, Oregon (he finished the route the next year), but Eames got to Canada, and is probably the first person to have walked the official route almost without deviation.

      Road 38N10 forces the PCT onto a narrow rim, Section O

      In 1975, at least 27 people completed the PCT, according to Chuck Long, who was one of them and who put together a book of various trekkers’ experiences. Perhaps as many as 200–300 hikers started the trail that year, intending to do it all. In 1976, one who made it all the way was Teddy Boston, the first woman to solo the trail, so far as we know. Teddy, then a 49-year-old mother of four, like Eric, made the trek the hard way, north to south.

      Fascination with the trail steadily dropped, so that by the late 1980s perhaps only a dozen or so through-hikers completed the entire trail in a given year. However, as completion of the trail approached, interest in it waxed, and some notable hikes were done. Perhaps some day a trekker’s PCT anthology will be written, and in it many can be given due credit for their accomplishments. However, in a trail guide, space is limited, so we will mention only a (subjectively) select few who set “higher” goals. In the past we recommended that the through-hiker allow 5–6 months for the entire PCT. No more, thanks to ultralight backpacking espoused by Ray and Jenny Jardine. In 1991 this couple completed the entire trail (their second through-hike) in only three months and three weeks, and Ray subsequently wrote a how-to book (see the next chapter) based on this accomplishment. This was comparable to the length of time taken by Bob Holtel (in his mid-50s), who over the summers of 1985, ’86, and ’87 ran the PCT at the pace of a marathon a day, and he also wrote a book about it (see the next chapter).

      A few through-hikers not only did the PCT, but also did the two other major north–south national scenic trails, the CDT (Continental Divide Trail) and the AT (Appalachian Trail). The first person to have accomplished this task may have been Jim Podlesay, hiking the AT in 1973, the PCT in 1975, and the CDT in 1979. Back in 1975 many new stretches of the PCT had yet to be built, and in 1979 the CDT’s route was still largely a matter of whatever you chose it to be. By 1980 the PCT was essentially complete, except for gaps between the Mexican border and the southern Sierra and the initial southern Washington stretch, which would become an annoying, out-of-the-way ascent and descent to the level, direct, temporary route. And with the PCT mostly complete, the first person who hiked it plus the AT and CDT may have been Lawrence Budd, who did all three in the late 1980s. Starting earlier but finishing later was Steve Queen, who hiked the PCT in 1981, the AT in 1983, and the CDT in 1991. The first woman may have been Alice Gmuer, who hiked the PCT in 1987 and ’88, the AT in 1990, and the CDT in 1993. Close behind was Brice Hammack, who over eight summers completed the last of the three trails in 1994—at a very respectable age of 74.

      While there have been hundreds of successful through-hikers on the PCT, very few equestrians have matched this feat. Perhaps the first equestrians to do the trail were Barry Murray and his family, who rode it in two summers in the early 1970s. Much later, in 1988, Jim McCrea became the first “through-equestrian,” completing the entire trail in just under five months. Very few through-hikers actually do every foot of the trail, and for through-equestrians this feat so far has proved to be unfeasible, due to icy snowfields impassable to stock.

      Chapter 2

      Planning Your PCT Hike

Trekking Days or Weeks versus Trekking Months

      On the basis of our limited research we have concluded that approximately 90 percent (or more) of those who buy this book will do parts of the trail as a series of short excursions, each lasting about two weeks or less. For those people, little planning is necessary; you СКАЧАТЬ