Finally finished that 80 mile stretch on the Pacific Crest Trail

I started hiking the PCT section near Crater Lake back in June and kept stopping after 10 miles each time. This past weekend I pushed myself to do 15 miles in one day and actually made it through the whole segment. The difference was packing lighter and taking more water breaks instead of trying to power through. I also started using hiking poles for the first time and they saved my knees on the downhill parts. Has anyone else noticed a big change after switching to poles on longer routes?

2 comments

2 Comments

xena125d ago

Same here, cutting pack weight made the biggest difference for me too.

karen_west5925d ago

Hiking poles made a huge difference for me too... never thought they'd help that much on the downhills but my knees didn't ache for days afterward like they used to. Lighter pack is everything, once you start cutting out the extras you wonder why you ever carried all that stuff in the first place.