Batman - Pacific Northwest Trail Journal - 2017

mapping out the trail

I started my day off at work, well I should say I started my day off at the location of where I work. Bloody Mary's and breakfast at the Garage Bar and Grill. Up to this point I have spent many hours, day's, weeks, and a few months mapping out the trail of the PNT. I have yet to decide what locations I will resupply in nor have I figured out how much food I will carry between resupply points. I hope to get started on that in January. Until then I am mapping out the CDT so that when I am done the PNT, I can make a hard right and head south on the CDT. If I am able to complete both of these trails, I will be very impressed with myself.

Being able to complete both of these trails seems to be feasible to me in my mind. The reality of completing both or even just the PNT will only be decided and known when I actually complete it. I hope to get started in Mid March. There will still be plenty of snow in the Olympics and I will have to decide if I will carry snow shoes, cramp-ons, or just chains for the boots. There will be some or many slopes facing the North West that will still be covered in snow and on some very steep slopes. I don't believe I will encounter any areas where an avalanche will be of any issue.

Dec 25th, 2016:
I thought about hiking the PNT and CDT back to back, but have thought about that and realized that hitting the trail from the coast, and crossing into the Olympics would present some dangerous elements with the current snow fall. I know that the snow melt wont even begin to happen until March or April. And crossing the Cascades will still present the same problem a month into hiking if I started in March. So....my new thoughts are to one; start at Cape Alava in April, hike until I hit snow that I am not comfortable with, head back home and start again when the elements are better. Or...two; Start at Cape Alava in late May and just make it happen. But wait, once I get to the end of the PNT, I hope to be able to turn around and hike back to Seattle by using all of the alternate routes, thus giving me the opportunity to fully document the entire trail.
Since my first entry, I think I have completed all the major mapping of the trail. The resources I have used; Postholer.com, PNT.org, All Trails.com (pro edition), and Basecamp from Garmin. Garmins Basecamp is where I have stored all of the data I have collected. I have documented the trail (tracks) as it is describe by PNT.org (10 sections). I also mapped out all the alternate routes and added a few alternate routes that I know would be good routes in the Olympics. I have hiked a good majority of the Olympics, so I figured why not add it to the list of routes. I located all the primary resupply locations, documented what information I could about each POI (point of interest), for example; address, phone number, what amenities they provide. I will in the future be calling each of these POI's to get further info from them, for example; hotels/hostels, how much for a night, any special rates for Hiker Trash, do they provide laundry, internet or WiFi, etc.

Next objective, is to work out a contract with the creator of Hikerbot app (available on Android, play store). I have already mapped and logged all the POI's for the Wonderland trail that circumvents Mt. Rainier in Washington in Oct 2016 (available now on the app, as well as the PCT). If all goes well, the PNT will be available for the hiking season of 2018.

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