Rattlesnakes and Bald Eagles

by Chris Townsend

  My hopes for a final spectacular day were dimmed when I woke to a cloudy sky. The sun did almost break through soon after dawn, turning the peaks across the valley a dark sombre red, but soon after I set off rain began to fall and a chill wind swept the mountains. I walked fast, not just with keenness to reach Canada, but also to keep warm. There were glimpses of rugged Three Fools Peak and down to pretty Hopkins Lake but mostly I saw nothing but dripping trees. I didn’t feel disappointed though. How could I after what had gone before? At 12.45p.m. the trail, now in forest, opened out at a little clearing in which stood a stone obelisk, Monument 78. I had reached Canada. I had completed the PCT. The rain was torrential and the cloud was drifting through the trees. It was as unlike the beginning in the hot desert under a blue sky as was possible, which I felt was appropriate. I took some photos of my wet pack leaning against the monument. The pillar opened up and inside I found messages from other PCT hikers. I added a few comments of my own. Today there is a PCT monument here as well.

  As the border is in the wilderness I still had 7 miles and 1000 feet of ascent to walk through the wet forest to Manning Provincial Park and the road that would take me away from the PCT. Here I camped for the last time, on a wet campground noisy with the sound of traffic. I was no longer in the wilderness. At Monument 78 I’d felt elated and relieved. I’d made it! By Manning Park I felt numb and very sad. A highlight of my life was over. I was aware that the fact that I wouldn’t hike the next day, that I had finished the PCT, hadn’t really registered yet though and that it probably wouldn’t until I was in Vancouver or even on the plane back to Britain. What I didn’t know was that it never would register. In one sense I would never leave the PCT. It would always be with me and many times in the years to come I would recall events, landscapes, camps and more and suddenly be back there on that wonderful trail. I couldn’t ask for more. But now it was time to go home.

  THE PACIFIC CREST TRAIL PRESENT AND FUTURE

  Since 1982 the PCT in itself hasn’t actually changed much. Only in the Mohave Desert and Tehachapi Mountains region is the route substantially different to the one I hiked. The terrain is much the same though. The day-to-day hiking experience hasn’t changed either. You still have to carry everything you need. You still camp in the wilds far from roads and towns. You still move on every day. You still get dirty and sweaty. Your feet will hurt at times. So might your back. You will still have to deal with rain, snow, wind, sunshine. You will still have the immense joy of living in the wilderness week after week. You will still relish the comforts of trail towns, especially food.

  In other ways the experience of hiking the PCT has changed enormously though, due in the main, I think, to two factors – popularity and the Internet – that are intertwined. The PCT was slowly growing in popularity in 1982 with some 120 thru-hiker permits issued and I did at times have a sense of a community on the move. But it was only a small community and mostly I was not aware of it at all. Now with 1000+ thru-hikers setting off every spring there really is a big PCT community on the move every year. You can hike the trail with others the whole way even if you set off solo if you’re heading north. Southbounders, who are quite rare, are more likely to have an independent hike – most of the PCT hikers they meet will be heading in the other direction. For the northbound masses there’s even an annual send-off party with the rather long-winded name of the Annual Zero Day Pacific Crest Trail Kick Off. This is held in late April every year at Lake Morena not far from the southern start of the trail. Here thru-hikers can find all the information they need, meet other hikers and enjoy films and gear stalls, presentations and seminars. Hikers can find up-to-date information on water sources in the desert and snow conditions in the mountains. They can get rides to the border too or to wherever they left the trail to attend the Kick Off. Of course all this is optional and hikers can skip the Kick Off and set off at a different time so they don’t encounter many others if that’s what they want. Or start at the Canadian Border. Most thru-hikers do go to the Kick Off even if they’ve already begun the trail. For many hikers meeting others and sharing the trail is a major part of the experience. Reading some recent accounts and talking to some recent thru-hikers can make the PCT sound like a moving party with an emphasis on people, beer, towns, rides and food rather than on the landscape or the wildlife. I’m pleased so many people enjoy the PCT now but in many ways I’m glad I did the trail when it was quieter.

  The early pioneers of the trail – Martin Papendick, Eric Ryback, Teddi Boston – weren’t concerned about how long the hike took. They were just intent on completing a thru-hike, a massive challenge in itself. The same applied to me and other hikers in the 1980s. Five and a half to six months was accepted as the time required. That began to change in 1991 when Ray and Jenny Jardine hiked the PCT in 3 months and 3 days. How they did this is explained in Ray’s The Pacific Crest Trail Hiker’s Handbook, which also included itineraries for thru-hikes of different lengths, the first ever published. This led to interest in how fast the trail could be hiked and setting a record time became a challenge for some hikers. The current records for supported (with a backup crew) and unsupported (traditional thru-hiker style) hikes were set in 2013 and 2014. Heather ‘Anish’ Anderson’s 2013 unsupported hike took 60 days, 17 hours and 12 minutes. She averaged nearly 44 miles a day. A year later Joe McConaughy completed a supported hike in 53 days, 6 hours and 37 minutes, an average of 50 miles a day. These are astonishing achievements. By comparison my hike took 174 days and I averaged about 15 miles a day. I wasn’t setting out to do a fast hike of course. Nor would I want to even try but I do have great admiration for those who do.

  Others set out to do two thru-hikes back-to-back, known as a yo-yo hike, by simply turning round at the Canadian border and heading back to Mexico. The first to achieve this was Scott Williamson in 2004. The double PCT hike took him 197 days and he averaged 27 miles a day. Two years later he repeated the feat in 191 days. Williamson also held the record for the fastest PCT hike for many years and has thru-hiked the PCT thirteen times.

  In the future others will set out to break the speed record and the yo-yo record. Someone may even attempt a triple PCT hike. Most hikers though will still take around 4-5 months. And many won’t finish. The PCTA estimates maybe 50% don’t complete the trail. That’s lower than in the past, undoubtedly due to better information and equipment (lighter weight in particular) being available.

  The popularity of the trail had its first big surge back in the 1970s with the publication of Eric Ryback’s book The High Adventure of Eric Ryback, which attracted much media attention. In 2012 another book led to increased interest in the trail - Cheryl Strayed’s Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, which has sold over a million copies. Wild was picked for Oprah’s Book Club and had masses of coverage in the media worldwide – it was broadcast as Book of the Week on BBC Radio 4 in 2013. Strayed didn’t hike the whole trail but she did hike enough of it – some 1100 miles - to convey much of what it’s like to be a thru-hiker. The book tells the story of how she found herself and recovered from a very bad personal situation by hiking the trail, a story that has inspired many non-hikers to try the trail or parts of it themselves. A year after the book was published over 1000 applications for through-hike permits were made for the first time.

  Wild is now being made into a Hollywood movie starring Reese Witherspoon with a screenplay by Nick Hornby. It’s due to be released in late 2014. This will give the PCT massively more coverage than it has ever had before and is likely to lead to a huge increase in would-be thru-hikers from 2015 onwards. Many, I suspect, will be hoping the trail will have the same life-changing effect it had on Cheryl Strayed. If so, I hope it does.

  Is this increased popularity good or bad for the trail? Some hikers certainly feel a quieter trail would be preferable and also worry that increased popularity will mean more novices setting out who aren’t really experienced enough for the trail. I don’t agree. Simply by setting off at a different tim
e to most hikers or hiking southbound it is still possible to have a fairly solitary hike. Novices will either learn quickly or abandon the trail. I was a complete novice at desert hiking at the start, as shown by mistakes with footwear and how much water to carry. I was a novice at long-distance hiking through snowbound mountains too and had never used snowshoes before. I learnt much on the trail. I also think there is one big reason to welcome the growing popularity of the PCT and that is that it leads to a greater constituency of people who want to protect the trail and the landscape it passes through. The more people who love the trail, the more people there are who feel a connection with the PCT, with the Mohave Desert, the High Sierra and the Cascades; the more people there are to stand up and shout when these landscapes are threatened. I’m also in favour of encouraging people to venture into wild places and take up hiking and backpacking for reasons of health and well-being. Hiking is good for you! You don’t need to be in the dismal position Cheryl Strayed was in to gain much from hiking the PCT.

  More people is good for the places along the trail too. Many had never heard of the PCT in 1982 and the smaller ones often had few facilities or supplies suitable for hikers. Now with many hundreds of people passing through each year places set out to welcome hikers and have everything they need. This is of mutual benefit to businesses and hikers alike. Camp sites and hiker accommodation, trail food and gear, shuttles to and from trailheads, hiker boxes for unwanted gear are all available in various places.

  The network of trail angels was just beginning to develop back when I hiked the PCT. Now with the growing popularity of the PCT there are trail angels all along the trail who help hikers with lifts, accommodation, supplies, meals and more. Some put out water caches in dry areas. Some wait at road crossings to give hikers lifts to towns. Many hikers find their trips easier because of unselfish help from trail angels. There are other volunteers who work on maintaining the trail and keeping it in good condition. They are less seen by hikers than those who provide assistance along the way but they are just as valuable. I think they are trail angels too.

  Another feature of PCT hiking that has arrived with its growing popularity is trail names. Most hikers now have a trail name, bestowed on them by other hikers. These can be descriptive, humorous or frankly bizarre. A selection from the 2013 hikers list on the PCTA website includes Reason, Miracle Zen, Kindergarten Cop, Oatmeal, Old Goat, Fun Size, Treekiller, The Viking and Sharkbite. I’ve never had a trail name as I’ve never done a trail popular enough at the time for these to have been used. One day maybe!

  With popularity has come more information, making planning a thru-hike much easier than it was in 1982. The Internet has made accessing and disseminating this information fast and simple. Indeed, the problem today is likely to be too much information rather than too little. The key organisation here is the Pacific Crest Trail Association whose website has a wealth of information about every aspect of the PCT from thru-hiking to trail maintenance to conservation. Up-to-date information is available on everything from facilities in towns to conditions on the trail. And if the information you require isn’t there you can ask online. Often replies will come in very quickly.

  Whilst the PCTA provides important information for hikers there are other sources, particularly the American Long Distance Hiking Association – West. ALDHA-West is not just about the PCT but the trail is central to it. Every autumn ALDHA-West holds a Gathering with talks, discussions and videos by long distance hikers, many of them that year’s PCT completers. I’ve attended a couple of these Gatherings and they are very energising and inspiring.

  The Internet can also provide route descriptions and data that can be downloaded to a smartphone or GPS unit. You can hike the PCT with all the information you need on a tiny electronic device (though I would advise combining it with paper maps and guides too). Traditional publishing hasn’t disappeared though. Updated versions of the Wilderness Press guidebooks I used are still available and still used by most hikers (and still torn into sections and posted ahead), backed up by books such as Yogi’s Pacific Crest Trail Handbook that contain all the information needed for planning and logistics. There are excellent maps, Such as Halfmile’s, showing the whole of the trail and with much more detail than the strip maps from the Pacific Crest Club I used. Many accounts of hiking the trail have now been published too so it’s easier to get a feel for the experience without setting foot on the PCT. I’ve listed a few that I’ve read and enjoyed in the bibliography. I could have planned my PCT hike in a tenth of the time with all this material and had far more details about the trail as well. Whilst I’m happy to have hiked the trail before planning was so easy it does open up the trail to more people. And however much information you have walking the PCT hasn’t changed. The desert is still hot. The mountains are still steep. The mosquitoes still bite. The rain still falls. Hiking the PCT is never going to be easy. But the rewards will always be great.

  The Internet, GPS and digital technology have also changed the ways in which hikers can share their experience and stay in touch with friends and family. For much of my hike no-one knew where I was. By the time the postcards I sent home or the reports I sent to Warren Rogers arrived I was many days further along the trail. Today hikers can send daily satellite signals giving their position or even, if they have enough battery power, transmit the route of their hike as they go along. The same devices can be used to call for help in case of an emergency. In the High Sierra Scott, Dave, Larry and I were usually several days away from any help and we would have had to hike out to find it. Today help could arrive in hours. This makes the trail safer but does have risks. Technology may not always work. Sometimes a signal may not get through. Sometimes you may not be in a position to send one. Having the skills to deal with the wilderness and always taking care are still essential. You can’t rely on gadgets to get you out of trouble.

  I shared my PCT experience with a couple of reports in the Pacific Crest Club Quarterly during my hike and then an article in a British hiking magazine afterwards. Only a small number of people will have seen these. Today many hikers upload their journals and photos to the Internet during their hike. The PCTA keeps a list of these journals with links on its website and you can also find them on the Trail Journals website. As well as following current hikers these sites host journals from the past, a fascinating archive.

  Uploading photos to social media sites, blogs and trail journals was beyond imagination in 1982. Digital photography did not exist. Everything was film. I used transparency film as this is what editors liked for publication and which I could use for illustrated talks and slide shows (a name still often used for digital presentations). The film was Kodachrome 64, the figure indicating the ISO speed. One roll of 36 shots weighed an ounce so I didn’t carry dozens of rolls and had to ration shots. There are many photos I would have taken with a digital camera that I didn’t because of this. I really wish I’d carried more film now but I wouldn’t have wanted the extra weight at the time. Of course I couldn’t see the results until after the walk and I often worried about films being lost in the post. I sent them for development in small bundles with the hope that most would get through. In fact none disappeared. For recording a thru-hike I think digital photography has been a major breakthrough. Now you can photograph everything of interest. Digital cameras are small and lightweight and with the quality of phone cameras rising all the time it may soon be unnecessary to carry a standalone camera at all. And whenever you have an Internet connection you can upload an image, sometimes from seemingly remote places (though of course along much of the PCT there won’t be an Internet connection).

  Also significant has been the so-called ‘lightweight revolution’ in outdoor gear, sparked in part by Ray and Jenny Jardine’s PCT experiences, resulting in The Pacific Crest Trail Hiker’s Handbook (the ideas of which are continued in Ray Jardine’s current book Trail Life), and also by the development of lighter, stronger materials for backpacking equipment. Hikers can now carry much
lighter gear than I did and have the same comfort and security. What constituted ‘lightweight’ in 1982 is very different from today. Many now standard modern materials – titanium, silnylon, fleece, microfibers, cuben fibre - just didn’t exist back then. If I did the PCT now my pack would be much lighter. Everything from ice axe to tent to the pack itself would weigh less. I’d still have carried a big load through the High Sierra – food isn’t any lighter – but it wouldn’t have been so ridiculously horrendous.

  Beyond all these changes in communications and equipment, beyond books and films and journals, beyond the mass of information the Pacific Crest Trail lies waiting. The reasons for going – the beauty and challenge of the wilderness – have not changed. The desert is still the same, still as hot, as dry, as strange. The mountains are still the same too. The passes of the High Sierra are still steep, rocky and rough. The landscape is still glorious. The forests are still magnificent. Bald eagles still soar over the mountains. Bears still prowl the woods. The PCT is magnificent. It’s worth going to have a look.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  Books

  Arno, Stephen Northwest Trees: Identifying and Understanding the Region’s Native Trees, The Mountaineers, 2007

  Beckey, Fred The Challenge of the North Cascades, The Mountaineers, 1996

  Berger, Karen and Smith, Daniel R, The Pacific Crest Trail: A Hiker’s Companion, Countryman Press, 2014

  Bull, John and Farrand, John (Editors), The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds: Western Region, Random House, 1988