BACKPACKER LONG TRAILS

What is the importance of route planning? Why bother in the first place? On my first thru-hike, which was the 165-mile-long Tahoe Rim Trail, I decided to “wing it” and did pretty minimal preparation and no itinerary planning. I figured I could just hop on the trail, walk however far I wanted each day, and—eventually—I’d finish the loop hike back at my car.

Several times on that trip, however, I ran out of water and had to beg some off others because I didn’t know where the water sources were. I didn’t know where I could find flat places to camp, so I had some of the worst campsites imaginable, which led to some of the worst sleep imaginable. There were days when I was ready to stop hiking, but I couldn’t because there were no campsites, so I kept going, and when I finally found something not even decent, my feet were ready to rebel. They were in so much pain that it made getting up and walking the next day even harder. I didn’t know where resupply opportunities were or how often I’d come upon them, so I ran low on food.

If nothing else, I learned from that trip that good route planning ahead of time saves a lot of grief on the trail. Most advanced thru-hikers invest the time to set approximate plans for each day and make ballpark estimates of their mileage. This information becomes the basis of all your trip planning—like deciding how much food to carry or when loved ones can join you.

Here we’ll explore the resources you need to start thinking about for your hike on the micro level. Itinerary planning looks like a daunting task, but we’ll walk through the same process I’ve used to make itineraries for nineteen of my twenty hikes.

Some trails don’t require permits. But for many long hikes in the United States and around the world, you will need to have a permit to legally hike your hike. If your planned hike does require permits that are in high demand, once you have an idea of the dates you want to be hiking, securing your permit should be the first concrete step you take in your route planning. Some trails have a maximum number of permits that can be issued, so getting a permit early helps reserve your spot. Permit systems and reservation methods differ from trail to trail. Be prepared to call, fax, or email in your permit and to have backup starting dates and trailheads. You may have to try for a permit multiple times.

Many land management agencies have special permit systems for long-distance hikers. For example, the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) issues one permit that is good for all eight national parks the PCT goes through. A John Muir Trail (JMT) permit is good for Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon National Parks and US Forest Service land. These permits often have special restrictions, such as limiting you to camping along the corridor of your long-distance trail.

For some long trails, like the CT/CDT and FT, permits may only be required before you enter certain wilderness areas. These walk-up permits don’t require advance planning and can be collected 24-7 at kiosks right outside the wilderness areas. For other long trails, like the AT or CDT, permits may only be required before entering national parks. You may need to call the Park Service a few weeks ahead of time or print out/apply for a permit online before you enter the park. The Park Service is generally knowledgeable about how unpredictable thru-hiker itineraries can be, and are usually flexible in working with your schedule.

Some permits may require you to know where you will camp every night and tell the land management agency this information. You may need to plan an approximate route before you get your permit. The Wonderland Trail permit is like this, for example. The Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks permits for the CDT also require knowing your camps ahead of time. To know dates or which campsites you will stay at, you will need to know a lot about your itinerary in advance. Plan your schedule first and then apply for these kinds of permits or plan your entire schedule around your permit.

Picking a start date is the next step in planning your route. As a general rule, start as early as reasonable for your trail, depending on your personal commitments and the snow year. But there’s a twist: For many long hikes, such as the AT, PCT, and CDT, your start date will be different depending on which direction you’re heading. Here are some factors to consider when picking a start date and hiking direction.

First, figure out what your own personal time restrictions or obligations may be. Is your schedule dictated by school? Did you promise an employer you will stay until busy season is over? Do you need to wait to start until after a loved one’s wedding or a family reunion? Ask your family or friends if they need you in town on certain dates. These “real world” issues are the first layer that dictates your start timing.

Next, consider weather and seasonal factors. Ideal starting times differ from trail to trail and from year to year based on weather conditions. If you start too early, you may hit snow in high-elevation areas. Walking in snow is much more difficult and dangerous than walking on dry trail; “too much snow” is a common reason why hikers quit. Conversely, if you start too late, you may finish your trip in the snow, or not be able to finish at all. If you start too late on a trail like the PCT or CDT, you may find yourself walking through extreme heat in the desert sections at the beginning of a northbound trek.

Standard Weather Windows for Common Trails

Depending on your skill level and comfort walking in snow or in the desert, you may be able to start your trail earlier or later than the “ideal” starting time listed here. If you can't start during the ideal window, remember that you can always hike in a different direction or hike as far as you can until you are stopped by snow. Figuring out how these seasonal windows interact with your personal timing is a big part of deciding which direction to hike. While dates depend on that year's weather patterns and your skill level and experience, here is a helpful weather table showing ideal windows for first time hikers on the Triple Crown trails.

Trail AT Northbound PCT Northbound CDT Northbound AT Southbound PCT Southbound CDT Southbound Ideal Start Window March 1-May 1st April 15-May 10 April 15-May 5 June 15-July 15 June 20-July 10 June 15-July 1 Ideal Finish Window Before October 15 Before October 1 Before October 1 Anytime, though before Thanksgiving Out of the Sierra by October 5 Out of the San Juans by October 1

Most hikers on the Big Three trails go northbound. But that’s not to say you cannot hike southbound. For everyone, it’s a personal preference combined with weather knowledge and practicalities. One of my southbounder (SOBO) friends hiking the AT wanted to get the hard part done first. Another doing the PCT couldn’t get a permit for the start date he wanted. Crowds also play a factor. Some northbound hikes can be crowded, and people may choose to go southbound to avoid the traffic on the trail.

For some hikes, one starting point may be better suited to easing into the rigors of thru-hiking. For example, the CDT in New Mexico is a lot flatter than in Montana. CDT hikers who start at the Canadian border often walk through snow for days, which can be a rough way to start a 3,000-mile hike. If you’re coming from sea level and don’t have much time to acclimate, you’re probably better off choosing a starting point that is at a lower elevation to give your body time to adjust. For example, if you are hiking the John Muir Trail, it’s easier to acclimate if you start in Yosemite Valley (around 4000 feet) than if you start on top of Mt. Whitney (more than 14,000 feet).

Logistics also should be factored in, even details as simple as hitching a ride to the terminus. Some trails, like the CDT, have easy-to-schedule shuttles for northbound hikers. Figuring out logistics of getting to the Waterton Lakes northern terminus can be trickier—requiring trains, shuttles, or hitchhiking to get across an international border. If you live near a terminus, starting at the trailhead near your home can be a logistically easier starting point. But be warned: The temptation to go home when times get rough can be great. That’s one reason I decided to walk the Colorado Trail from Durango to Denver—even though I live in Denver. I wanted to walk home and not have an easy bailout during those first few days of the hike where transitioning into backpacking from “normal life” can be difficult.

Planning your end date can be tricky. After all, it is hard to know your pace before you head out on the trail. Even if you’re an experienced hiker and think you know your pace, you may surprise yourself. Maybe you’ll become fitter than you expected. Or maybe you’ll befriend someone who is slower than you and you’ll choose to stick with them. What is important is that you know what your must-stop date is and do everything you can to finish before that.

Section Hiking

Don’t forget when choosing your trail that you don’t have to do the whole trail at once. Section hiking (tackling pieces of a trail over many years to connect a whole trail) is one popular option. And hiking a section of a big trail can be smart even if you never plan to hike the whole thing. Here are some of my favorite portions of long trails that make great section hikes:

Pacific Crest Trail: Oregon (about 460 miles)

Tunnel through dense fir forests, peer into the jeweled depths of Crater Lake, and spy a volcano-studded skyline that includes the craggy heights of 11,239-foot Mount Hood. This relatively flat section (compared to the rest of the PCT) starts near Siskiyou Summit on the California border and continues north to the Bridge of the Gods (of Wild fame).

Appalachian Trail: White Mountains Traverse, New Hampshire (54–75 miles)

Tackle some of the most epic and difficult terrain on the AT—the exposed granite backbone of the White Mountains. By day you’ll bag endless views and life-list summits (including the East’s tallest peak, 6,288-foot Mount Washington); by night you’ll cozy up in the eight historic AMC huts dotting the route.

Appalachian Trail: Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee and North Carolina (71 miles)

Have a week to spare? See the best of the nation’s most-visited national park on foot. You’ll summit 6,643-foot Clingmans Dome, sleep in trailside shelters, and score views of the park’s verdant valleys and undulating peaks.

Continental Divide Trail: Colorado Trail Collegiate Loop (about 160 miles)

This is a circuit for peakbaggers with a big chunk of bucket list to get through. Hike two 80-mile sections of the Colorado Trail and CDT to make a 160-mile loop that passes by eleven fourteeners along the way (summits are optional). The full loop takes most hikers twelve to eighteen days to complete. Beware of high altitude and afternoon thunderstorms, and get ready for some serious quad burn and 360-degree views.

Pacific Northwest Trail: Boundary Trail, Washington (about 80 miles)

Delve into the heart of the half-million-acre Pasayten Wilderness, home to gray wolves, old-growth forests, and the largest population of lynx in the Lower 48. Deep in the North Cascades just below the Canadian border, you’ll find both water and solitude in abundance.

Arizona Trail: Gabe Zimmerman to Picketpost, Arizona (185 miles)

Traverse sky islands that soar from cactus-filled desert bottoms to 8,000-foot aspenshrouded peaks on this easy-access route from Tucson to Phoenix. Enjoy the Sonoran scenes of Saguaro National Park and ideal hiking temperatures in winter and spring—off-season for most other long trails.

John Muir Trail: Bishop Pass to Mount Whitney, California (about 90 miles)

Hiking north to south, the latter half of the JMT climbs like a staircase through Sequoia and kings Canyon National Parks, its successively higher passes culminating with 14,495-foot Mount Whitney. Highlights include top-of-the-world terrain and turquoise lakes by the thousands.

Ask yourself: What do I need to be home for? Does school start September 1? Does your job start on October 15? If so, you probably want to finish at least a week before that to get your head back into the “real world” and to allow plenty of time for transit from the trail to your home.

Does your trail have end dates built in? On the AT, at the time of writing, hikers are not allowed to camp inside Baxter State Park after October 15. The AT goes through Baxter for about 30 miles, so unless you plan to pull a 30-mile day (plus 5 miles to get back to the trailhead), then you should finish your hike by October 15. Other built-in end dates may not be as explicit, but believe me—you don’t want to be finishing the PCT or CDT in December.

Now that you have a rough sense of your start and end dates, think about whether you’re setting yourself up for success or not. Starting too early or still being on the trail too late in the season are both common reasons for quitting hikes. We’ll get more in-depth on how to figure out your daily pace in chapter 7, but you can use this simple calculator to play around and get a sense of the average miles per day you’ll need to cover to finish your selected trail in the amount of time you’re imagining.

Remember that the average doesn’t mean that you will hike that many miles per day. The average takes into account zero days (days where you hike zero miles) and nearo days (when you hike near zero, such as days when you get into a trail town around noon or days when you start later in the day than usual). For example, imagine you are on a 100-mile hike averaging 10 miles per day. On your sixth day, you decide to take a rest day in town. At the end of the day, you’ve hiked a total of 50 miles. You have 50 more to go—but only four full hiking days to do it. For the rest of your hike, you need to walk 12.5 miles per day to keep up your average. How averages work may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised by how many hikers I meet who think that if they hike big miles, they can take as many zero days as they want.

Your miles per day will be a function of how many hours per day you hike multiplied by your miles per hour.

Most people hike around 2 miles per hour when backpacking, plus an extra 30 to 60 minutes for every 1,000 feet climbed. Thru-hikers in top shape can approach 3 or 4 miles per hour.

Remember, just because you’re awake for 15 hours a day doesn’t mean you’ll be hiking 15 hours a day. Calculate in plenty of time for setting up and breaking down camp and food breaks. Calculate “off-time” every time you’re in town. I usually take at minimum half a day to eat, shower, and resupply.

Now refine your estimate. Take a day hike carrying a pack similar in weight to what you’ll carry on the trail. It’s best if you can use the actual trail you’ll be thru-hiking, but finding a real trail (not a sidewalk or track) that has varied terrain or topography similar to your trail also works. Get a sense of how many miles you can hike in an hour—but don’t sprint. Remember, you’ll have to keep this pace up all day, day after day. Use this information to update your pace estimate.

Finally, measure your maximum daily mileage. On the same or a different day hike, see how far you can reasonably hike in a full day (say, 8 to 10 hours). Take that number and reduce it by half to two-thirds when you’re planning the mileages at the start of your long hike. Plan your trip by starting with small miles toward the beginning (first 2 to 3 weeks), then slowly adding more miles per day.

• Weight of your pack (which can differ depending on how much food and water you need to carry)

We’ll get into more detail about how to estimate your pace in chapter 7. For now, just do a gut check on the mileage you just estimated: Does it seem realistic to hike that far, day after day? Knowing what you know about your training and the amount of time you’ve been training, only you can answer that question. Don’t forget, you’ll want some rest days, and you’ll lose part of a day every time you go into town. Unless you have significant experience, if your estimated average is outside the range of about 9 to 15 miles per day (at least to start the trip), you might need to rethink your plan.

It’s always good to take a second look at something before making a final decision. So I suggest you explore other online mileage calculators. Even if you are not hiking the PCT, I highly advise checking out Craig’s PCT Planner (www.pctplanner.com). This free online calculator shows how your trip can change depending on your pace, how much time you lose gaining elevation, the terrain of the trail, and break times. It’s a much more sophisticated version of the simple calculations I describe above.

I’d also advise playing ATThruHike.com, a free Web-based Oregon Trail—style game. It’s very difficult to win (even for me, and I’ve hiked the AT twice), but it does give you a good idea of how pacing can impact your health, energy, money, and ability to finish the trail before it closes for the season.

Trailhead transportation is a small part of your planning process, but it’s one I get a lot of questions about. For me, like finding time and money, figuring out how to even start the darn trail was a big mental block. I’m a beginning-to-end kind of planner, so having a big hurdle right at the beginning was a mental barrier to planning the day-to-day of my hike.

Unlike a day hike or normal backpacking trip, if you plan to hike for four to six months, chances are you don’t want to leave your car at the trailhead. To make things harder, long trail starting points are often in places not serviced by public transit. Worse yet, sometimes these trailheads are so obscure you can’t even find them on Google maps. There’s often not a lot of information out there about how to get to and from the trail, and local transportation providers change almost annually. As a result, one of the biggest obstacles people face when planning their thru-hike is uncertainty about getting to and from the trail. Here are some options.

Many local outdoor gear shops and hostels will pick you up from the airport or train station and take you to your trailhead for a fee.

• Pros: Reliable, safe, lower cost, can be a way to include family and friends in your hike, can be a nice way to say good-bye

• Cons: Requires finding someone willing to spend a day or more driving you to the trail, adds temptation to call your family and friends to bail you out when the first hard thing happens

Some hikes can be accessed by public transit, including the Colorado Trail and PCT.

• Cons: Takes a long time, service can be infrequent to rural locations, may require many transfers, not available for most trails

• Cons: Very pricey, driver often unfamiliar with the area and will be unhappy about the distance, often do not go to dirt-road trailheads

Trail angels are friends of the trail who help hikers out. Some trail angels are listed in guidebooks as people who can help hikers in need of rides or a place to stay. Other trail angels may not even know what a thru-hike is, but after talking with you and hearing your story may offer to help you get to where you need to go or give you some food. Trail angels may be able to help you get to the trailhead. For example, Barney and Sandy Mann thru-hiked the PCT in 2007 and, after their hike, wanted to give back. They live in San Diego and are happy to pick up hikers at the airport or train station and take them to the PCT’s southern terminus. Trail angels ask that you let them know your travel details as soon as possible so that they can make transportation arrangements for you. Barney and Sandy’s contact information is listed in many guidebooks. If you’re hiking other trails, you may find people like Barney and Sandy who can help you get to your starting point.

• Pros: Low cost (please provide a donation and ask your driver what a reasonable amount may be), trail angels understand hikers

• Cons: Not always available or reliable, you’re operating on the trail angel’s time and good graces (so be respectful)

What about getting home? Be sure to save enough money at the end of your hike to afford to go home. If you’re hiking a shorter trail and need to be back by a certain time, book your flight home ahead of time and make sure that you have arrangements or reservations for ground transport to the airport that will get you there in plenty of time. I personally like to use airlines that allow free changes or cancellation to my itinerary. If you’re hiking a longer trail, don’t make your return flight reservations until a few weeks before you finish. You may hike the trail a lot faster than you expected. Or a lot slower. Or you may not finish at all. It’s best to book your flight when you know that you’ll finish and already have a good idea of the speed with which you’ll finish. Alternatively, you can always book a flight on an airline that allows free changes and cancellation and ballpark your finish date, updating your tickets as you get closer to finishing.

Most guidebooks for common trails list the best options to get from the finish point to an airport. Unless you have a family member picking you up, expect to take many buses, trains, and taxis to get to the airport. It may take you all day to get there, but by the time you finish your hike, any transit that happens on wheels will seem fast.

Now that you understand the fundamentals involved in route planning, let’s go through the steps required to truly sketch out your route. Making a day-to-day itinerary of your trip is a lot of work. But route planning is actually the number one way to help you become familiar with the trail before you go and to keep yourself safe. I know there are many unpredictable moments on a long hike, and to be honest, whatever itinerary you make at home probably won’t be exactly what you walk. The longer you’re out there, the less likely you are to stick to the timeline you make for yourself now. But believe me, by familiarizing yourself with the day-to-day, week-to-week level of what your route looks like, you will walk that trail feeling like you know what’s coming. An itinerary is a great way to establish good practices, like being well hydrated, getting good sleep, and having plenty of food. And remember, you don’t have to figure it all out at once. Just take it one day, one week, one chunk at a time—just like you will on the trail. Think about your thru-hike as many back-to-back shorter trips. Before you know it, you’ll have your whole route sketched out.

You won’t carry all your food with you for any trek longer than about ten days at the most. Instead, you’ll resupply, either by picking up things you’ve mailed to yourself, or by buying things in town. Figuring out where to top off your supplies is the first step in roughing out your plan. For the purposes of this exercise, let’s focus on how to plan your first few days on the trail, from your starting point to the first place you will resupply.

Choose a resupply that is a reasonable distance from your starting point or last resupply. My ideal resupplies are three to four days apart. On many trails you don’t get a choice, and there may be no resupplies for seven days. The best resupplies are right on the trail. This does not happen often (Damascus, Virginia; Cascade Locks, OR; and Lordsburg, NM are among the few). Occasionally you can hike a sidetrail to town. Otherwise, most resupply towns are accessed when your trail crosses a road used by cars. From there, you leave your trail and take the road to town.

You can walk to town, catch a ride in a car, or (rarely) take public transit into town. Most hikers do not walk into town unless it is less than 2 miles away. Walking on a hard, paved road can be painful after days on softer dirt, and there are often better options to get to town. Some hostels, outfitters, taxis, or trail angels are willing to run shuttles to and from the road/trail junction. Most hikers access town by hitchhiking (more on hitchhiking safety in chapter 8). If you have to hitchhike to town, choose towns that are easier to hitchhike to (your guidebook will often give you an idea of how frequent traffic into a town may be).

The ideal trail town has groceries, restaurants, laundry, a library (for computer access), a gear store, hostels, outfitters, and a post office. A hiker can easily get from the hostel to the grocery store to the post office by walking, taking public transit, or biking (some hostels or trail angels have bikes available). Some towns’ services are very spread out and are not set up as well for a hiker on foot. When picking resupply towns, think about what makes the most sense for your needs.

Start with an idea of how far you’ll go each day, even though that will certainly evolve over the course of your hike. Use the tools and variables discussed earlier in this chapter to estimate what that mileage will be, at least for the first part of your trip.

It’s not enough just to know you can hike 12 miles per day and decide to do that every day no matter what. You also need to plan around where you can and cannot camp for the night (and what’s going to be most comfortable). If your permit requires you to camp somewhere specific, then that’s where you have to stay, even if it means pushing a big day or ending your day early.

It’s easy to plan where to camp each night if your trail has shelters. At shelters, you can find a roof out of the rain, guaranteed flat tent sites, guaranteed water, a fire pit, a privy, and other hikers (so you won’t have to camp alone). Shelters can also attract things that may prevent you from a good night’s rest: snorers, mice, and partiers. You may plan your camping itinerary to purposely avoid these shelters, too.

Water sources play a major factor in planning out your campsites. Especially in the desert, there may not be many water sources. Camping near the water (at minimum, 200 feet away) means you’ll have the water you need to cook your meal, clean up, and rehydrate both at night and in the morning.

Although your permit (or lack thereof) may say you can camp anywhere, you will often find trails are routed through steep, rocky, or thickly vegetated areas where setting up a tent is basically impossible. When you find a good flat spot toward the end of the day, it may be worth calling it a day. You may not find another good spot for a while. If it’s getting dark but nothing flat is around, keep pushing on until you find something. If you hammock instead of camp (more in chapter 6), this is less of a problem.

Although you may be able to find a tent site in an area above treeline, these camp spots tend to be exposed. That means your tent may rattle or bow in the wind, and you may get more condensation in your tent in the morning. I prefer to camp below treeline to avoid these conditions. Since most hammock set-ups require trees, hammockers usually plan around camping below treeline, too.

Most trails have short sections that are routed on paved roads—usually because there is no public land nearby. These roads are usually lined with private property on either side, which means you can’t camp there. Even if you’re tired, pass through the road section and get back on public land to camp. Even if you’re not ready to call it a night, if you won’t be able to get past the whole road section, it’s best to find a nice camp spot at least a mile from where the road section starts, where those traveling by car will be less likely to spot your camp and try to mess with you.

Based on your mileage and where water sources can be found, figure out all your campsites between your starting point and your first resupply. Ideally, the campsites should be evenly distributed.

Pick your next resupply, figure out the campsites along the way, and plug it in again. And again. And again. I know this step is time-consuming. I also know it’s worth it.

Take a Nearo Day

If you’re on a tight budget, here’s a money-saving trick: Plan to camp just outside of town and spend a “nearo” (near zero) in town. You’ll get almost all the benefits of a rest day at a fraction of the cost. By definition, a nearo day is one in which you hike significantly fewer miles than you typically do. It is used as a day of partial rest from hiking. In hiker lingo: “I walked 2 miles into town, hung out there all day, and walked 2 miles out of town after getting dinner. I saved so much money neroing.”

Make sure you’re accounting for neros as you plan your itinerary. I usually plan to take one about once every week or so. Why you want them:

• Your body needs time to repair.

• You need a day to replenish calories you burned on the trail.

• Your friends and family want to visit (and you don’t want to hike with them if they’re slower).

• You have a lot of “town chores” to do (get new gear, do laundry, go grocery shopping, visit the post office, use the Internet at the library, charge your electronics, etc.).

• Your favorite team is playing and you want to watch the game.

• You just feel like it.

+ ROUTE PLANNING