I did LAX from Lake Isabella where there is a rental car office. We piled a bunch of hikers in a car and all took a week off to let the snow melt a bit.

Kennedy Meadows is doable but far more remote and if you are headed to a flight much less certain on the hitch timings.

Desolation Wilderness from Echo lake.

I needed shelter for wind in the desert many nights, and rain 4 nights, for bugs in the Sierra ~10 nights and for hail 1 night and rain 2 nights, then in Norcal for rain once, and then in Washington for rain nearly every night. The few nights it didn't rain, it was real moist and it would have been hard to know if it was going to rain or not.

I'd be concerned about a polycro tarp's ability to hold up to the wind.

You can do a tarp and bivy pretty easily, just make sure the tarp is made out of the right material.

It would be a challenge to do it safely with standard thru-hiker gear depending on the weather forecast.

In Washington when it rained for several days in a row, the first day of rain I set up camp and everything was dry, and the next day I set up camp and the rain fly was wet and and the next day I set up camp and my tent body is wet too and the next day I set up camp and the condensation has got my sleeping bag damp so if you aren't drying out by the 4th day you really need a night in town. It only takes about an hour of sunshine to dry your stuff out during lunch, but if you don't have that chance for a few days you really should stop in town to dry out your sleeping bag in a climate controlled area.

I'd also add that town food is really really great and many of the towns are great too.

Possible, yes, but a few nights in town might increase your overall happiness.

even with the same injury, just if Bossy lived with today's medicine he could have had a microdiskectomy with a good chance of being better in ~6 months. They aren't 100%, but disk surgery back then was a craps shoot compared to today.

Women are in the 75% range of stereotypical coachella wear and men in the 30% range would be my guess.

(Disclaimer, I've done 500 miles of the AT and done a Thru of the PCT, but I have a lot of friends who have done both and it is a common topic of conversation)

If you are going to do both, do the AT first. The AT is a better place for developing skills as a hospital is closer and cell signal more frequent.

The AT climbs are steeper and with worse trail tread(more rocks/roots) while the PCT is grade is much more relaxed and because it is a mostly dry trail, less eroded so easier to walk on.

If you are only going to do one, the PCT is bigger and grander and less comforting nature, the AT is more nuanced beauty, while there are some views a lot of the beauty of the AT is a foggy pond or the rivulets of a mountain stream and more about the people and places. The AT has grand sections and the PCT has some cool people and places and nuanced beauty (desert flowers, glacial streams!) but the balance is different.

Your pack can be lighter on the AT because more frequent resupply and way more frequent water sources, and shade. Never take shade for granted.

It rains on the AT, it nearly never rains for the first 2,000 miles of the PCT.

The PCT is my choice, but there isn't a wrong choice.

Generally, the AT will go up 1000 feet in a mile while the PCT will go up 500 feet in a mile. It is just way way easier mile for mile. If you averaged 12 on the AT I'd think you could average 17 on the PCT.

I'd say see how you do and if you need to take longer you can always flip up to the canadian border from NorCal and southbound the last 1,000 miles or so.

If you need to go but on a more leisurely schedule and are hiking through an area that is both above and below treeline during your day, try to poop below treeline both because it will decompose faster, has gives more privacy, and also the ground will be easier to dig in.

If you really need to go in a panic, you can always go on the surface, dig your hole adjacent, and then use a stick to move the poop into the hole.

In high mosquito areas, bug repellent is your friend.

Check Guthook for notes on where there might be a privvy. A nice toilet seat goes a long way and is better for the environment.

The biggest difference is when you are walking in a snow area, the south facing side of a pass you ascend will have less snow than the north facing side for your descent so glissading is a bit easier.

A lot of the desert depends on the weather when you do something. For most of my friends, the climb out of Cajon Pass killed them because it was hot and exposed but I had a cloudy day in the 60s and it wasn't so bad.

The hotter the day the more water you carry and so the harder the climbs are so the more water you drink to the more water you carry so the slower you go and the more water you need because now you are dry camping the night.

The section on the valley floor as you cross I 10 is endless and hot but pack weight is light and I had just filled up on water at middle of nowhere water fountain. The worst miles of trail on the whole PCT.

My answer, and where my body hurt the most is in the miles around Baden Powell. Heavier pack + big Elevation gain + not a ton of oxygen up there + not especially in good hiker shape yet.

Pay more attention to the set up. The finish is the same, but in this instance pay attention to the Carlson's insane no look pass and Wilson and Vrana screening the pass so that the Campbell is slow to get over to Ovi.

So according to Yogi, to go from KM to VVR in one shot isn't recommended on your first time going through and I agree. That section is real hard and real beautiful. Some people do what you are describing, and I can see that level of immersion in that remote a wilderness as life changing, but 12 days of food over those passes without knowing what you are getting into is hard to recommend.

I, intentionally, did a fairly immersive Sierra stopping only at KM, Independence (Box), VVR(store), Red's Meadow(store), Tuoloumne (box), and KM North prior to Tahoe. That isn't a lot of civilization over that stretch which really brought my mindset to a good place but also caused me to lose a lot of weight.

I like Carlson and he has produced like a champion this season, but I can't seriously consider him for a Norris because he doesn't get matchup against the top line of the other team. Niskanen/Orlov get that matchup nearly every game and with good reason.

It might be your dream is to finish the trail and his dream is to finish the trail with you/ be a part of your dreams, and that is OK that they are different. He might love hiking with you and not hiking alone and that is OK too.

Maybe if you get injured he waits for you but if he gets injured you keep hiking and he meets up later.

It seems like you are talking through the right things, so just continue doing that.

My advice to you is to stay flexible on hiking styles. What worked for my wife and I (being within visual distance of each other while walking ~98% of the time) would never have worked for many couples and even we evolved our style as the hike went on.

As to the injury question, I saw this handled in 3 ways, all with married couples. Thankfully my wife and I both stayed healthy but not everyone was so lucky:

1) The uninjured partner keeps hiking and the injured partner skips ahead by car to meet up after they are healed. Maybe the uninjured partner does trail magic, maybe they go home for a week, or a month. Then if you care about the purity of your hike, the injured partner can go back after reaching Canada or next season to finish the section they missed. 2) Both just sit around and wait for the injury to heal.
3) Find another adventure together. Hiking isn't the only way to spend 5 months together.

I'd say the key variables are a) how much trail is left b) how severe is the injury c) how much of a purist are you? e.g. is finishing 90% of the trail the same as finishing 0% of the trail or 100% of the trail?

As to quitting, the one couple I knew who quit decided to quit together. It was a very pained decision, but was the right one for them. Neither blames the other for the decision because it was made together.

+Heat exhaustion, hypothermia, and dehydration.

If you live at sea level, give yourself some time to acclimate to the higher elevations. It is much easier to head into the Sierra living at 5000 feet for a month than at sea level.

Also, just don't go town soft and not come back.

I used dailies and had them shipped to me 4x while on the trail. It was extra weight vs. extended wear but they worked well for me in the real world and the trail alike.

Start thinking about when you want to enter the Sierra and then decide what sort of desert experience you want. You can start in March and hike 10 miles a day or you can start in May and hike 20 miles a day and still get to the Sierra on the same day. Which hiking style do you think you will prefer?

As to when to enter the Sierra: Generally for an average snow year:

• Late April you will be walking and camping on snow all day every day. there will be a bit of avalanche risk, a pretty good chance you run into a large new snowfall and the trail will be difficult to follow as you won't have too many footsteps to follow. Resupply is a huge pain as there is a chance none of the roads/facilities have opened up to Tuoloumne, VVR, MTR and there will be less crowds for hitching from Kearsarge and Bishop. It is also cold still, especially at night. People have done this but it doesn't seem especially fun.

• Mid May you start to have higher water crossings but the valleys have melted out a bit giving you a chance to walk on dirt for a part of the day. There is also a chance that some of the roads have opened up but there will be uncertainty in your plans as you might not know whether something is open or not until a few days out.

• Early June there is still a ton of snow but you might be walking on dirt half the day and snow the other half on average. Some days will have a ton of snow which will make you fret over your food rationing. By mileage it might be more dirt than snow but snow miles are about half the speed of dirt miles. Snow is melting fast so the crossings might be a bit sketchy, but at least the resupply stops are open.

• By late June the ascents (if NOBO) are mostly snow-free and the descents might still have a decent amount of snow which is nice for Glissading.

• By July entry you should be mostly snow-free except for some random spots that don't get a lot of sun. There can still be new snowfall, but it should melt pretty fast. The problem now is the mileage to Canada to beat winter is a steep hill to climb.

Yes, but your entering Sierra date doesn't have to correlate with your start date if you don't want it to.

Daytime in Sonora. Grabbing a set of AC at ~2pm versus baking at Outdoor will have you so much fresher for the night sets.

Context: 3 straight games with 3rd period goals in the Finals.

esp after ovi 2nd goal.

If Ovechkin gets into the top 3 in goal scoring of all time he should have a trophy eventually. I feel like the Ovechkin award should be for Power Play goals.

Alternately I'd introduce decade awards to put modern era players on trophies. Make it a decade award where you win an Ovechkin for having the most goals in the decade. the Gretzky could be for most points in the decade. The Brodeur for goalie of the decade, etc