Danger and Difficulty Notice

 This post is difficult for me to write, not because of what I want to say, but how I want to say it. First off, let me say that this post is not intended to scare anyone from thinking or doing a through hike. If my journey has inspired you to do a through hike ( or even a section hike ) Go for it !! 

A couple if weeks ago I  was in a conversation with some other hikers, when one of them said that the PCT videos are misleading.  Now let me be clear, neither he or I are accusing or implying that the makers of those videos are deliberately misleading the public. He saud that the problem is when you search YouTube for PCT videos, you get  many different videos of people cruising along the trail, doing 20 and 30 mile days like it's a walk in the park. This might give the average person ( like you or I ) the impression that the PCT isn't that difficult. To the best of my knowledge there is only one video of a through hike attempt that failed (search for " Miles to go PCT " on YouTube ). If you see 30 videos of successful through hikes and only one of a failure, you might get the impression that most through hikes are successful,  when in reality only about 25% of all through hikes are . 

I often say the PCT is HDL ( Harder, more Difficult and takes Longer than I think it will ). This covers everything from getting water, getting to town for resupply, hiking up the next pass. You name it, chances are it will get difficult at some point.

I will confess, I have been remiss in talking about some of the dangers I have encountered or heard about. Not out of a misguided attempt to keep you from worrying, but simply because once the danger is past,  I tend to forget about it. So how dangerous is the PCT ? Well it depends on how you access risk. So far this year I know of at least 7 people who had to be rescued, dozens of people who left the trail, either temporarily or for the year, due to injury and 2 people have died. 

There are many risks one must consider while hiking the PCT. In the desert the main risk is heat injury (which can happen anytime, anywhere if you aren't careful), Scorpions, Spiders and Rattlesnakes.  To be honest, the creatures will probably leave you alone if you leave them alone. Just watch where you sit or put your gear. There is also the possibility of contaminated water ( it seems to be a recurring, yearly issue between Tehachapi and Walker Pass), so careful filtering and treatment of water is advised. In the the Sierra mountains the one thing that can hit you by surprise is Altitude Sickness. Not one video that I have seen about the PCT mentions Altitude Sickness,  but I know a woman who had to be airlifted off Forester Pass due to Altitude Sickness and it was possibly cause of at least one fatality.  Another possible danger are rockslides,  of which I have heard two so far. Rocks shifting underfoot can cause ankle injuries or falls ( and trust me there are a lot of rock skree areas in some of the passes ). For wildlife, you trade the snakes and insects for Black Bears and Mountain Lions. Granted, they will usually leave you alone, but just today I saw a backpack with a tear caused by the swipe of a bearpaw. Under slightly different circumstances, it could have been a human body. The final danger is in the Cascade Mountains of Washington. SNOW. They measure it by the foot in the Cascades. Mt Baker receives more snow than any other place in the lower 48 states and is located just 50 miles west of the PCT. You really don't want to be in the Cascades when it starts to snow, unfortunately the snow in the Cascades can be hard to forecast.

So there you have it, a brief ( hopefully not too scary ) list of the dangers I might encounter on the PCT.  So far, I  have had close calls with the heat ( twice ), cold and snow, two Rattlesnakes,  one Scorpion that had crawled under my tent (YIKES !!) , and a horse that nearly knocked me down the side of Kearsarge Pass ( not the horse's fault, I was standing in the wrong place). I have had more stumbles and slips on loose rocks or tree roots that were trying to trip me (Tree roots are very evil. Trust me, they are trying to kill us), than I can remember. Am I afraid ? No. I respect the difficulties and challenges that the trail will throw my way and prepare for them as best I can.