Sunday, January 21, 2018

Pacific Crest Trail Section J

I've spent some time looking at my course, using Google Maps for a virtual tour and examining Trail Run Project for elevation gain. The good news is that the run will be only (only!) 72 miles, not 78. I haven't found anything yet about running Section J of the PCT, as it is called, just many posts about backpacking it in five or more days. I have found little in the way of an actual trail description. I plan to spend some time chatting with the aforementioned friend who has done all of the PCT in Washington and will have good insight to water and campsites. I am hoping he can recommend a good trail book as well.

The elevation profile looks challenging. In all, I will ascend over 15,000 feet and descend over 16,000 feet. As far as relating it to my prior experience goes, that translates to a fairly challenging 50K two days in a row with an extra 11 miles tacked on for good measure.


The blue dot is where I'd like to camp. My goal is to cover 50 miles the first day and the remaining 22 miles the second day. I'll be camping somewhere near Deep Lake, which looks to be a popular camping area for backpackers. It looks like I'll have two hard climbs the first day, and only one the second day. I have run the first 13 miles before, and the last six as well, so I at least know what parts of it look like: sometimes rocky, sometimes packed dirt, sometimes scree or talus slopes. 

I found some detailed information about streams and campsites with mileage and elevation from PCTmaps.net: https://www.pctmap.net/wp-content/uploads/pct/wa_section_j_map_mobile.pdf. I'll need to study this in greater detail to plan out water refills. I noticed that while this source says that the distance is 71 miles, it also says the elevation gain is 18,000+ feet and the loss is 19,000+ feet.The WTA (Washington Trails Association) has been my source thus far for overall description.

I will need strong ankles, strong quads, and strong hamstrings. The endurance will be the easy part.

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