Pacific Crest Trail

Preparations for a thru-hike cannot be all fun. There are some necessary permits and other boring stuff that one needs to acquire before starting the hike. In this post I will go through what permits and visas I acquired before my hike. Visa As a foreign hiker the primary thing is to get permission to stay in the U.S. for the duration of the hike. As a citizen of Denmark visiting the U.S. I would normally take advantage of the Visa Waiver Program and travel to the U.S. with an approved ESTA. This method is easy and does not require a visit to an embassy. This method is also only valid for stays up to 90 days, 90 days is a bit on short side for a thru-hike of the PCT, so a proper Visa is required. ...

One of the things I have focused a lot on in my preparations for my thru-hike of the PCT in 2018 is the gear I will bring along. In truth gear is probably the thing that I have spent the most time (and money) on for my thru-hike, I wager that might be the case for most thru-hikers. This is not entirely without reason as the gear should hopefully help keep me safe and dry. ...

When reading about thru-hikes a lot of the hikers talk about hiking in-to-shape and how the first few weeks are very rough. The same hikers hint that the reason for the rough beginning might be lacking physical shape. In order to attempt to avoid a rough physical beginning to the hike I plan to be in a decent physical shape as I start my thru-hike. The reason for this plan comes from reading about other hikers experience and in particular from one of my favourite sources for information about the PCT, which is Halfway Anywhere and in particular the annual thru-hiker survey, of which the latest is The Annual Pacific Crest Trail Thru-Hiker Survey (2017). One section deals with what thru-hikers would have done differently before or during their hike. This section is brilliant as it allows me to learn from other hikers experiences and hopefully avoid some regrets after or during the hike. One thing mentioned in both the 2016 and 2017 survey is: “trained more before starting the PCT”. ...