Some Questions and Answers
If I don't answer your question in this document or in any of the others, or you can't find the answer, please feel free to email me at cwillett03@gmail.com.
- What is the Pacific Northwest Trail and where does it go? This requires a map and a longer answer. I put up a separate page to explain this one. See this page.
- How far did you hike? Its hard to tell because I didn't carry a roller with me or a GPS. But, based on a variety of sources, my estimate is somewhere in the 900-950 mile range.
- How many days did you hike? 48, counted from Waterton to La Push.
- Isn't the PNT a lot longer? Yup. I didn't hike the PNT route the entire time and frequently took detours that were more efficient distance-wise than the PNT.
- Can you describe your route? I'm planning on putting up a guide description for this when I get done with the narrative. Sometimes my choices were good and other times, upon reflection, were not so good.
- What guidebooks are there? There is only one, The Pacific Northwest Trail by Ron Strickland. By guidebook standards it is outdated and not very helpful in many places. The information it has about towns can be very spotty and irrelevant for distance hikers. Although I read the book extensively while hiking, the route choices at times were very suspect and clearly were set up with the weekend hiker in mind. That being said, I'd definitely recommend any hiker who wants to hike on the PNT to pick up a copy. My understanding is that there is a new guidebook on its way as of the summer 2008.
- What maps are there? The guidebook includes topographic maps suitable for navigating the route. However, you would be very foolish to carry only these maps with you. Bring some large scale overview maps as well. The Delorme Gazetteer series for Montana and Washington were a good idea and I'm glad I had them because they gave me a lot of flexibility in route decisions. Picking up National Forest maps in a few places may also be helpful, but I was able to buy these as I went.
How many people thruhike the PNT each year? On average, probably about 0.75. I was the only person this year and the previous year there was 1, I think. The year before there were two, maybe three.
- How hard is it to follow the route? It depends on if you try to follow the route! Many sections of "trail" are not maintained and are a pain to follow. Some sections will be lost completely in the near future. Generally speaking, if you have a choice between two trails, the PNT is inevitably the worse looking one. Some cross country sections bizarrely go through woods and other heavily forested areas for miles rather than walking around on a forest service toad. This makes no sense to me. Cross country travel above treeline is great. Below, not so good. I was only lost a few times, however.
- What is the season for hiking? Leave Glacier National Park in early-mid July to avoid lots of snow in the park and the near area. This should get you through the Olympics by early September. You can hike in many areas (depending on storms) until mid-late October if you're lucky. The coast is hike-able year round.
- What kind of permits do I need? Permits can be made simple or hard. First, in Glacier you'll need one night in the park, and that in a fairly remote, unpopular area. After that, you'll only need a permit once you get to the Pasayten Wilderness. However, there is no permit station where you enter the wilderness, so don't even worry about it. The wilderness is huge and a ranger will be much more interested in your trip than in your lack of a permit. The same is true for Ross Lake NRA and the North Cascades NP. You can't get a permit anywhere close to the PNT. Don't worry about it and just explain your story to any ranger who happens to see you. I saw none. The next place you'll need a permit is Olympic NP. In the past hikers have tried calling and pleading for a camp site permit over the phone, which would then be faxed to them somewhere. Rubbish! You can write your own permit where you enter the park, but not for certain campsites. No worries. Just hike into the national forest surrounding the park and camp for the night. The next day, haul up to Deer Park and camp way up high at the front country site. Continue along Deer Park to Hurricane Ridge, then drop down and camp at another front country site in the Elwha. There is a ranger station there that can write you a permit if you want for the High Divide area and for the Hoh or Bogachiel. The way the camps are set up in ONP, this is probably the schedule you'd have anyways. For the coast, stop in at the Forks Ranger Station and the people there will write you permit.
- What about bears? I only saw a couple of bears on my trip. However, the start of the PNT goes through grizzly country and you want to take standard precautions until you get to Eureka or so.
- What about bear canisters? You'll want it for the Pacific Coast to keep your food safe from raccoons.
- What about the fords? Don't bother trying to ford the Flathead River, which is the official PNT in the area. This is sheer lunacy and the guidebook author should take it out. Imagine trying to ford the Mississippi. It might be possible to ford it in September during a three year extreme drought, on horseback. On the coast I had some very, very dangerous fords due to a heavy, extended storm. Ordinarily they shouldn't have been a problem.
- Was it dangerous? The land is remote, but the route isn't dangerous in and of itself. Help will be a while in coming if you get into trouble. Due to the storm on the Pacific Coast, that section was especially dangerous. There is a lot of road walking involved and that can be a problem. However, most of the PNT follows low traffic roads. A bigger problem is dogs. I had a lot of dog encounters, most of which could have turned out badly. I'd actually carry a can of bear spray just for them. I was the most scared sleeping in the RV park in Oak Harbor, WA.
- Which direction do most people hike? Since so few people hike it, this is tough. But, most people probably go from east to west so that they can follow the setting sun and can end at the Pacific Coast, which is much more spectacular than the route through Glacier NP.
- How do I get to the eastern terminus? The PNT is very easy to get to. Take Amtrak's Empire Builder train to East Glacier Park, MT. It runs between Seattle/Portland and Chicago. From there, you can catch a shuttle bus from the lodge in East Glacier to either the Chief Mountain border crossing or all the way to Waterton Provincial Park. If you take the former, you'll need to hike for a ways and cross Stoney Indian Pass just to get to Goat Haunt and the start of the PNT. However, you don't need a passport for this. If you go Waterton you'll need a passport and must be either a Canadian or US citizen to clear customs at Goat Haunt. The hike from Waterton to Goat Haunt is a pleasant seven mile walk. However, Waterton townsite is the least pleasant "trail town" I've ever been to. In summer 2008 the shuttle left at 11 am from the lodge and cost $40 to get to Waterton, a couple of dollars less to go just to the border.
- How do I get back from the coast? This depends on where you end at the coast. The Olympic peninsula has a good transportation system. You could, for example, hitch from the Cape Alava ranger station to the main road and the flag down a bus to Port Angeles. If you decide to end at LaPush, you can walk into Forks and take the bus from there to Port Angeles. From PA, you can take a shuttle bus (about $35 in 2008) to various points in Seattle, including the airport.
- What are the resupply options? I've written a whole piece about this. You can find it here.
- Why didn't you hike all of the PNT? I wanted to be able to make my own choices, rather than follow someone else's. I intended to finish at Cape Alava, but the storm was too much, I was tired, and I didn't feel like being wet and miserable for another day just to end there. In respect to other hikers, I've tried to call my hike a "corridor" hike, rather than a thru hike.
- What kind of camera did you use? I used a Nikon D70 with a 3 GB total memory and a Nikon 18-70 lens. I took about 1000 pictures and never came close to running out of battery power on the trail, though I recharged a couple of times in town.
- How far did you hike on a normal day? If I wasn't coming into town or leaving town, I tended to cover about 25 miles per day. However, due to taking a lot of time off in towns my per day average was more like 18.
- Can a beginner hike the PNT? Sure. But, they probably won't enjoy it very much and will spend a lot of time being miserable and wishing they were somewhere else. New hikers should head to the Appalachian or Pacific Crest Trails. Or, for those looking for something shorter, the Colorado Trail.
- Would you recommend the PNT? Sure. But prospective hikers need to understand that it is not like the AT or PCT. I suspect it is similar to the CDT, but with more time spent in the front country. I know of several very experienced hikers who thought the PNT was their worst long trail. I really liked my time on it, though. I didn't really approach it as a backcountry, wilderness experience and wanted to get to know the people who lived along its route. The scenery on the PNT isn't stunning (with some exceptions) and you need to go there for other reasons. There is no trail culture either. The PNT is a unique experience and for hikers looking for something different it is perfect, especially if they have a willingness to make up their route as they go and spend a lot of time getting to know the whole land, the people included.
- You're pretty opinionated. Are there any other information sources out there? The guidebook for one, though it is the worst one I've ever used for a distance hike. You can try the message board at the PNTA. I got some good information there, but be warned that there are about three people who regularly look at it, and I'm one of them. Another is Sam "Mule" Haraldson, who hiked in 2007 and has a nice web page with information about the PNT. I used his updates to the guidebook extensively when planning my own route, especially in regards to overgrown or unmaintained trails. But, there isn't much practical information out there, which is one of the reasons I'm trying to be so thorough with my own web page.
- Did you use a trail name? There weren't any other hikers, and I wasn't about to introduce myself to a ranger as "Suge". But, I posted updates online under this name, which came to me on the PCT in 2003.
- What are some good shorter hikes on the PNT? The Kettle Crest NRT just east of Republic, WA is a fantastic hike and I would highly recommend it to other people. Get a map of the Pasayten Wilderness and hike anything in it. However, the Pasayten is very large and it takes some time to get in and out of it. Give yourself at least 4 days to see the good stuff. In the Olympics, you can form a loop via the Greywolf, Deer Park, and Cameron Ridge. Only part of that is on the PNT. If you want something short, hike from Obstruction Point to Deer Park, spend the night, then hike back. Everything on the coast is quality. Note, there isn't a whole lot that I'd recommend to people in Montana and Idaho. I might hike the Northwest Peak area if I happened to be in the region and had nothing better to do and didn't want to drive to Glacier to hike the good stuff there. By the way, the PNT doesn't hike the good stuff in Glacier and sticks to only "nice" terrain. With the exception of the Pasayten, North Cascades, and Olympics )plus some sections in the Puget Sound area), the PNT isn't a "jaw dropping" trail like the PCT. It has, however, its own charms that are best experienced through a long hike rather than a short one.
- Who is the girl in pigtails? I'm not telling. But she is a real person, not a figment of my imagination.
- Did everything you write about really happen? Did it happen exactly as you describe it? Pretty much. But, like any writer, I'm not about to let the truth get in the way of a good story and the details are coming direct from my memory. Since I'm a human being, that means they are filtered through my brain and so are colored by my own concepts and ideas. I didn't record any of my conversations with people, but I tried to write down the main details as soon as possible. I didn't make up any encounters with the border patrol or create random people to make some sort of point. I try not to over-write about some of the dangers that I faced, but some really were extreme. Finally, walking brings out the philosopher in me and I really do have long metaphysical, ethical, and moral thoughts while walking along in the middle of nowhere.
- What's next for you? I'm not sure. Currently I have a few standard projects in mind to take on, both domestically and internationally. I'd like to start incorporating digital video into my trips, but need to figure out how to do this logistically. It isn't just a matter of electricity. Rather, taking video footage of other hikers, locals, and scenery fundamentally changes my relationship with them, and I am not sure I want to alter it. I would have loved to have recorded my encounter in Bonners Ferry with Jason, but that would have changed it completely and it wouldn't have happened the way it did.