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THE EARLY DAYS OF THE PCT

The first documented hiker to complete the PCT was Martin Papendick in 1952, long before the trail was officially recognised. The impetus for the creation of the trail as we know it today was the passing of the National Trails Systems Act by the US Congress in 1968, which granted the PCT the status of National Scenic Trail.

The PCT was the main feature of the June 1971 edition of National Geographic Magazine and this, together with the publication by Wilderness Press of guidebooks to the trail, led to a spate of hikers attempting to thru’-hike it.

For the pioneers in the 1970s, there was little knowledge about how to tackle such a long wilderness route. Very little lightweight equipment was available and little was known about finding water or locating supplies. The PCT was simply regarded as a longer example of the backpacking trips to which hikers were then accustomed.

Hikers had to carry extremely heavy packs, often with more than ten days’ food, and averaged about 15 miles a day, completing the trail in about six months. Then, in 1992, Ray Jardine wrote a best-selling handbook about how to hike the PCT. He advocated an ultra-lightweight hiking style that made distances of 20–30 miles a day achievable and his methods soon became the norm. They have been taken to the extreme by some: in 2009, for example, Scott Williamson completed a thru’-hike in 67 days, averaging 40 miles a day.