Friday, April 30, 2010

PCT update and vocab

The PCT gals has made it to Warner Springs (Milepoint 110.6), which is West of the Anza Borrego Desert, East of Hellhole Canyon and Lake Henshaw, in the Cleveland National Forest.
After re-supplying, they will continue North, crossing Highway 74 at 4,900 ft and then climbing the backbone of the San Jacinto Mountains.
The next town will be Idyllwild (PCT Milepoint 178.6), which they will reach next week, approximately May 4th.

As I'm following their progress on daughter's blog, I'm starting to learn the PCT lingo:

PCT = Pacific Crest Trail. Nobody cool ever spells this out!
Thru-hiking= Hiking the entire trail from end to end (CA-Mexico border to Canada, 2650 miles)
Resupply points= towns or post offices where hikers replenish food (from stores or packages shipped to General Delivery)
Bounce-box = Box mailed ahead to next re-supply point, such as chargers for camera, shampoo, etc.
Zero Day = A day spend not hiking: rest day
Slack-packing = not carrying your full load, such as when somebody gives your gear a lift to the next campsite, which must feel heavenly!
Ultra-light = Equipment pared down to lightest weight possible
Trail name = Nickname used while hiking the PCT
Trail magic = when people do nice things for hikers, which apparently happens alot!

And a little fun fact from the PCT website:
It was recently pointed out that fewer people have thru-hiked the PCT than have climbed Mt. Everest! Could it be that a thru-hike is tougher than climbing the tallest mountain on Earth?

1 comment:

Waldo said...

She is a very good writer! I am enjoying her commentary on hiking the PCT.