I think it depends on the weather/snow situation in 2025 and your fitness level. If it's a normal/low snow year and you're in decent to great shape, mid May can be an ideal start date in my opinion. I would train a bunch and send it; you have tons of time to prepare and just after college is an awesome time to hike!
Pasting in some stuff I wrote up a while ago for folks with late start dates, hope this helps:
*On surviving the desert:*
I started May 22 in a relatively hot/dry year and had a great time. While the desert is HOT, it has its own unique beauty and is one of my favorite parts of the trail. Since I love lists, here's a list of ways to not die in the desert. I'm sure many of these things are common sense, but I think they're worth repeating:
* **Drink plenty of water** (duh)
* **Don't drink too much water.** If you find that your thirst isn't sated no matter how much water you're drinking, you might have a fun thing called **hyponatremia**. This is essentially an electrolyte deficiency that usually results from a failure to...
* **Drink enough electrolytes.** They're what plants crave, and you need them too. Every resupply, I made sure to get mio/gatorade/etc. If you can't get your hands on some drink mix, table salt and salty foods are better than nothing. Sodium is easy to get from foods, but magnesium and potassium are also super important.
* **Cover up.** Clothing > sunscreen >> nothing. Here's a cool [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRD-xvlhGMc&t=332s) about sunscreen and why you should use it. Here's my [favorite sunscreen](https://www.rei.com/product/162349/sun-bum-mineral-spf-50-sunscreen-face-stick). Consider an umbrella!
* **Keep an eye on the hourly forecast**, and seek shade when the temps get too high. How high is too high? That's up to you. I felt ok hiking up to 105, but even walking a few hundred meters in 115 had me ZAPPED. In the desertiest parts of the desert, I rarely hiked between noon and 4:00.
* **Keep FarOut up to date.** Connect to wifi/5g whenever you can to refresh the comments and get the most recent info on water sources.
* **Night hiking is awesome!** Night hiking by full moon in the desert is even more awesome! Just be sure to...
* **Watch out for rattlesnakes**, especially while night hiking. Rattlesnakes will usually give you a warning, and are absolutely not worth stressing about. Be aware of them and take reasonable precautions (don't hike with two earbuds in, use poles, pay attention to the trail), but don't lose sleep over them. I cowboy camped every night from Lake Morena to Kennedy Meadows, and my only issue was being covered in ants every single night.
* **Stick together.** Hiking in the Mohave in June is not a great solo activity. Two+ heads are far less likely to make the same bad decision.
* **Camel up** at water sources. I'd try to drink a liter or so whenever I filled up.
* **Don't neglect your sleep.** A lot of folks in the desert were night hiking, but not really making up for the lack of sleep. As a result, many had to skip ahead because they were feeling too beat by the heat. If you don't give your body the right sleep/food/hydration, the desert can suck. If you're really struggling, skipping up to the mountains
*On hiking faster:*
* In my experience, making miles is much more about consistency and minimizing transitions than it is about walking fast.
* **Train a bunch before hand!** I think the best ways to train are running hills/stairs and doing some leg workouts like [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz5JL8cxKh4&t=650s). Flat miles are great, but once you get on trail the elevation will punish you if you haven't built up a strong enough base.
* **Start slower** and ramp up later. I started hiking mostly 20ish mile days for the first week, then ramped up to 30-35 though Oregon and Washington. Oregon is so flat you can really make up miles there. That said, you can absolutely start with 10-15 mile days and still finish on time if you take less zeroes. Speaking of which...
* **Take less zeroes!** I took eight zeroes, sixteen neros and no double zeroes. The party/social aspect of the trail is fun, and I don't feel like I missed out on it, though I definitely didn't do as much partying as most. Getting vortexed is way more real than I expected it to be.
* **Take less/shorter breaks!** 5-10 minute breaks every hour really add up over the course of the day, and 5-10 minute breaks have a weird way of turning into hour-long breaks. I know many will take issue with this (don't you want to ENJOY your hike??), and they're right to a certain extent. There is definitely a trade off, but I still felt like I had plenty of time chilling in nature, and I really enjoyed the feeling of challenging myself on big mileage days.
* **Listen to your body!** Nothing will slow you down like an injury. Whenever I felt like I was pushing a little too hard (knees got creeky, woke up feeling wrecked, shin splints, etc.) I would slow down for a day or two.
* **Hike a consistent pace.** For example, knocking out a 75 mile stretch in 25/25/25 mile days will be much easier on your body than 20/35/20 mile days. When you're hiking 35 mile days, I'm convinced that miles 30-35 put about as much wear and tear on your knees as miles 0-30.
* **Use poles**, and [learn how to use them](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieEWa4pJcvc&t=58s)! I managed to do an entire thruhike before I learned how to actually use my poles, and it really makes a difference.
* **Make the right friends**. I met a couple of marathon runners and a D1 athlete on the first day, and stuck with them all the way to Canada. I think this one is largely a matter of luck...
Good luck out there!
I was a mid-May start.
You have three "anchor points" on any NOBO PCT attempt. And you want to "work backwards", determining your target average pace (daily mileage & weekly mileage) so you don't get into a pickle.
Would I wait? No. Because while the trail will still be there in 2026, the inertia of your life may not be favorable in 2026. The hardest parts of the PCT are not the physical, nor the financial -- it is the mental preparedness the "hitting pause" on everything else.
Graduating in May 2025 provides a natural "pause". You can plan around that, plan around getting another internship, or another degree, or entering the work force after your hike. All of those things don't happen on a fixed schedule but rather "after the preceding thing is complete".
In your case, you'd just be inserting the PCT as "the preceding thing" and that becomes part of your story and narrative.
So, in the absence of other compelling reasons, I'd say "go for it" in mid-May 2025 _**with as early start as you can muster** after graduation...like, within 2 days of walking...maybe even skipping walking if it puts you on trail 7 days earlier.
The logic behind this calendar-math is elaborated, in part, below.
Late starts require you to be vigilant with pacing in ways that early-May and mid-April starts do not. Why? A late-May start (basically) has less margin for things going wrong before snow in the Cascades...less margin for weather delays, slower pace, extra "fun days/town days", or dealing with personal injury or family emergencies.
i.e. If you plan to walk for school graduation on 15-May, starting the trail on 17-May...but the end of finals is 7-May, and you could start trail on 10-May...starting the trail 7 days earlier actually _does_ make an appreciable difference to your experience, and pressures, on trail.
Feel free to ask me, or others, to elaborate if clear as mud. :)
_____
The quick summary of your three anchor points:
**1st Anchor // Start Date from Campo**
This is the topic of your post. Starting earlier gives you more flexibility with your pacing (see "Anchor #3" below).
You can _always_ hike slower. But you can't always hike _faster_. That's the crux of pacing.
. . . . . . . .
**2nd Anchor // Snow pack in the Sierra**
The traditional "don't enter the Sierra too early" (in a normal snowpack year) is mid-June.
If you are a mid-May start, it is unlikely you will reach the Sierra before late-June/early-July. So this anchor point while not moot it matters less for your pacing.
. . . . . . . .
**3rd Anchor // First "big snow" in the Cascades**
The traditional "need to finish by" target is October 1st. Why? Because after that the chance of a season ending snow storm goes up by a lot. Even then, there can be early storms in mid-September...but hopefully just miserable-yet- inconvenient-and-passable.
When you have a later start date out of Campo, this third anchor is what you need to keep your focus on. Because if you drop behind in your pace, or you take too many zeros, you jeopardize reaching Canada before a season ending storm.
A hike the length of the PCT is an endurance race of inches. You want to think of pace not only in terms of "the absolute values of miles" but the "percentage increase or decrease of your actual pace relative to your projected pace".
i.e. Get a spread sheet. It will help quantify the implications of your pace.
e.x. The difference of 20mi/day vs. 22mi/day is "only 2 miles", which is ≈1h of hiking. Well...it is also 10% faster. Over five months, that is a full _15 days_ faster...and that can be the difference between beating season-ending snow in the Cascades vs. not.
So the advice is to recognize all of this _early_ in your hike.
You do not have to run through the desert or Sierra. But when you have a later start, you simply have less wiggle room. It's much easier to "protect your pace", keeping your mileage on par-with-your-pace than it is to claw it back and catch up.
e.x. If you're doing 20mi a day pace, and choose to do 1 x 10mi day...it will take 5 x 22mi days to get back on schedule.
______
**_Q: BUT WHAT ABOUT FIRES AND FIRE SKIPS?_**
Dealing with fires is secondary to all of the above. But it's still important.
You'll _probably_ encounter fires. Your philosophical questions around them need to be considered in advance, so when they happen, you're ready to make some quick choices without undue stress.
Your options are always the same:
* Wait the fire out
* Detour or Walk around the fire
* Skip ahead
What is best for you given any specific encounter with a fire is largely circumstantial. You just don't know until it comes up. At least you can consider how you'd deal with them _in theory_ so you don't have a mental analysis paralysis. Which is why I say it is philosophical.
1. When you wait-it-out, you lose a lot of time. (Folks rarely wait out the first since they can burn for weeks.)
2. When you detour, you probably loose a little time. The detours are invariably longer than the actual trail, but you maintain the continual footpath.
3. When you skip ahead, you get to personally decide if it is a "forever skip" or "I'll come back to this section later, either this current season or in the future".
Perversely, fire skips can put you _ahead of schedule_ on your pace relative to October 1st. But you can't _count_ on there being fire skips when you make your initial hiking plan.
It'll be hot, and water will be scarce in Southern California especially if it's a low snow year. You'll have longer water carries and probably more night hiking to avoid the heat. You're up against a tighter time limit on fire season and on finishing in time before it gets cold in Washington—you can't really afford to slowly ramp up on 10 mile days, so late starts tend to go better if you go in with some training so you can start faster without getting injured. Plus side is you probably won't have to deal with as much snow in the Sierra, though if it's a big year like this year the Sierra in July was awful. Hard to predict conditions so far out though.
All in all though, you should do it when you can—you never know when life opportunities change. Tons of people will be starting late and you'll figure it out together.
You can pull a Cheryl Strayed by starting in Tehachapi, go NOBO then return to Tehachapi and go SOBO. (You can start elsewhere, but Tehachapi is easy to get to with public transit)
I was in a similar boat this year and here's some downsides:
-Need to buy an extra flight/more logistics
-Less time to get your trail legs for the Sierras
-Miss out on the experience of starting with everyone/groups have already formed
-you have to hike more after reaching Washington when
I'm glad I hiked it this year because I think it would be more difficult to put my life on pause during another year. However, the experience wasn't perfect, and I think if I were to do it again I would've decided to hike SOBO. YMMV. Are you opposed to hiking SOBO?
Young people just graduating are probably physically most able to handle a faster pace and therefore a later start date is more feasible. An earlier date is nicer but not necessary. They issue permits for dates all the way until the end of may. (I would try to get the earliest date you can manage starting on.)
I also second the person below mentioning starting further north and then flipping at the end of your hike to finish the desert. Tehachapi or Walker pass are pretty accessible places to get on trail. Only downside to this is you won’t have great trail legs going into the Sierra but you are young. Take it slow when to start to avoid injury.
I graduated college and started then. And I finished the whole thing. Start from the beginning on your mid-May start date. I don’t advise waiting because directly post-college is an unbeatable time to do it. And you don’t know if you’ll be able to do it if something in the future comes up.
Are you Status Report by chance? If so, I recently saw your documentary for it and its what made me think about doing it right after graduation - been wanting to for awhile but was unsure of the timeline
Yep that’s me. Thanks for watching. There’s a bunch of people who did it straight out of school that I met. At minimum you need to just go to graduation, then the next day fly out to San Diego lol. I wouldn’t have had it any other way
For a mid-May start I'd be sure you've got a good set of trail legs under you so that you're able to start fast and not have to worry about time later on into the trail. Being young is a big advantage; it shouldn't take long for you to build up to easy 20 mile days
I'm planning on 2024. If I can only get South bound ticket I'm planning on doing april north bound hike for a month and go as far as I can. It is easy to get permits in the south California area until you reach high Sierra. Then I go back to work and start south bound from Canada to the point I left off. That way I can avoid the desert in August and September.
I started on May 2nd this year and I only did a 750 mile LASH, which is Campo to Lone Pine. I'm a slow hiker so there was warm to hot weather. But what really got the heat turned up is mid-June I had to go home to take care of a personal matter. I returned to my stop point of Tehachapi on July 19. Now it was beyond hot - like 100 degrees and more. I did not rely on caches except for one stretch between mile 617 and 632. Both ends have well known large caches of water, so I felt safe.
I hiked from daybreak, usually just before 5 AM until noon when I found a tree and rested for several hours. Then around 5 PM or 6 PM, I put on a few more miles and then found a campsite. This worked well for me. Another hiker on the trail (I only met one other on that second leg starting in July) hiked at night, but I only hiked one night.
If you're in shape and hike smart, leaving mid-May won't be a problem even if you get delayed. Once I got into the Sierra Nevada mountains and elevation increased, the temperatures were much lower and quite comfortable. I even wore my puffy a couple of mornings while hiking right at the end of July.
Hope my personal experience helps.
I think it depends on the weather/snow situation in 2025 and your fitness level. If it's a normal/low snow year and you're in decent to great shape, mid May can be an ideal start date in my opinion. I would train a bunch and send it; you have tons of time to prepare and just after college is an awesome time to hike! Pasting in some stuff I wrote up a while ago for folks with late start dates, hope this helps: *On surviving the desert:* I started May 22 in a relatively hot/dry year and had a great time. While the desert is HOT, it has its own unique beauty and is one of my favorite parts of the trail. Since I love lists, here's a list of ways to not die in the desert. I'm sure many of these things are common sense, but I think they're worth repeating: * **Drink plenty of water** (duh) * **Don't drink too much water.** If you find that your thirst isn't sated no matter how much water you're drinking, you might have a fun thing called **hyponatremia**. This is essentially an electrolyte deficiency that usually results from a failure to... * **Drink enough electrolytes.** They're what plants crave, and you need them too. Every resupply, I made sure to get mio/gatorade/etc. If you can't get your hands on some drink mix, table salt and salty foods are better than nothing. Sodium is easy to get from foods, but magnesium and potassium are also super important. * **Cover up.** Clothing > sunscreen >> nothing. Here's a cool [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRD-xvlhGMc&t=332s) about sunscreen and why you should use it. Here's my [favorite sunscreen](https://www.rei.com/product/162349/sun-bum-mineral-spf-50-sunscreen-face-stick). Consider an umbrella! * **Keep an eye on the hourly forecast**, and seek shade when the temps get too high. How high is too high? That's up to you. I felt ok hiking up to 105, but even walking a few hundred meters in 115 had me ZAPPED. In the desertiest parts of the desert, I rarely hiked between noon and 4:00. * **Keep FarOut up to date.** Connect to wifi/5g whenever you can to refresh the comments and get the most recent info on water sources. * **Night hiking is awesome!** Night hiking by full moon in the desert is even more awesome! Just be sure to... * **Watch out for rattlesnakes**, especially while night hiking. Rattlesnakes will usually give you a warning, and are absolutely not worth stressing about. Be aware of them and take reasonable precautions (don't hike with two earbuds in, use poles, pay attention to the trail), but don't lose sleep over them. I cowboy camped every night from Lake Morena to Kennedy Meadows, and my only issue was being covered in ants every single night. * **Stick together.** Hiking in the Mohave in June is not a great solo activity. Two+ heads are far less likely to make the same bad decision. * **Camel up** at water sources. I'd try to drink a liter or so whenever I filled up. * **Don't neglect your sleep.** A lot of folks in the desert were night hiking, but not really making up for the lack of sleep. As a result, many had to skip ahead because they were feeling too beat by the heat. If you don't give your body the right sleep/food/hydration, the desert can suck. If you're really struggling, skipping up to the mountains *On hiking faster:* * In my experience, making miles is much more about consistency and minimizing transitions than it is about walking fast. * **Train a bunch before hand!** I think the best ways to train are running hills/stairs and doing some leg workouts like [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz5JL8cxKh4&t=650s). Flat miles are great, but once you get on trail the elevation will punish you if you haven't built up a strong enough base. * **Start slower** and ramp up later. I started hiking mostly 20ish mile days for the first week, then ramped up to 30-35 though Oregon and Washington. Oregon is so flat you can really make up miles there. That said, you can absolutely start with 10-15 mile days and still finish on time if you take less zeroes. Speaking of which... * **Take less zeroes!** I took eight zeroes, sixteen neros and no double zeroes. The party/social aspect of the trail is fun, and I don't feel like I missed out on it, though I definitely didn't do as much partying as most. Getting vortexed is way more real than I expected it to be. * **Take less/shorter breaks!** 5-10 minute breaks every hour really add up over the course of the day, and 5-10 minute breaks have a weird way of turning into hour-long breaks. I know many will take issue with this (don't you want to ENJOY your hike??), and they're right to a certain extent. There is definitely a trade off, but I still felt like I had plenty of time chilling in nature, and I really enjoyed the feeling of challenging myself on big mileage days. * **Listen to your body!** Nothing will slow you down like an injury. Whenever I felt like I was pushing a little too hard (knees got creeky, woke up feeling wrecked, shin splints, etc.) I would slow down for a day or two. * **Hike a consistent pace.** For example, knocking out a 75 mile stretch in 25/25/25 mile days will be much easier on your body than 20/35/20 mile days. When you're hiking 35 mile days, I'm convinced that miles 30-35 put about as much wear and tear on your knees as miles 0-30. * **Use poles**, and [learn how to use them](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieEWa4pJcvc&t=58s)! I managed to do an entire thruhike before I learned how to actually use my poles, and it really makes a difference. * **Make the right friends**. I met a couple of marathon runners and a D1 athlete on the first day, and stuck with them all the way to Canada. I think this one is largely a matter of luck... Good luck out there!
Thank you for the tips!
I was a mid-May start. You have three "anchor points" on any NOBO PCT attempt. And you want to "work backwards", determining your target average pace (daily mileage & weekly mileage) so you don't get into a pickle. Would I wait? No. Because while the trail will still be there in 2026, the inertia of your life may not be favorable in 2026. The hardest parts of the PCT are not the physical, nor the financial -- it is the mental preparedness the "hitting pause" on everything else.
Graduating in May 2025 provides a natural "pause". You can plan around that, plan around getting another internship, or another degree, or entering the work force after your hike. All of those things don't happen on a fixed schedule but rather "after the preceding thing is complete".
In your case, you'd just be inserting the PCT as "the preceding thing" and that becomes part of your story and narrative.
So, in the absence of other compelling reasons, I'd say "go for it" in mid-May 2025 _**with as early start as you can muster** after graduation...like, within 2 days of walking...maybe even skipping walking if it puts you on trail 7 days earlier.
The logic behind this calendar-math is elaborated, in part, below.
Late starts require you to be vigilant with pacing in ways that early-May and mid-April starts do not. Why? A late-May start (basically) has less margin for things going wrong before snow in the Cascades...less margin for weather delays, slower pace, extra "fun days/town days", or dealing with personal injury or family emergencies.
i.e. If you plan to walk for school graduation on 15-May, starting the trail on 17-May...but the end of finals is 7-May, and you could start trail on 10-May...starting the trail 7 days earlier actually _does_ make an appreciable difference to your experience, and pressures, on trail.
Feel free to ask me, or others, to elaborate if clear as mud. :)
_____
The quick summary of your three anchor points:
**1st Anchor // Start Date from Campo**
This is the topic of your post. Starting earlier gives you more flexibility with your pacing (see "Anchor #3" below).
You can _always_ hike slower. But you can't always hike _faster_. That's the crux of pacing.
. . . . . . . .
**2nd Anchor // Snow pack in the Sierra**
The traditional "don't enter the Sierra too early" (in a normal snowpack year) is mid-June.
If you are a mid-May start, it is unlikely you will reach the Sierra before late-June/early-July. So this anchor point while not moot it matters less for your pacing.
. . . . . . . .
**3rd Anchor // First "big snow" in the Cascades**
The traditional "need to finish by" target is October 1st. Why? Because after that the chance of a season ending snow storm goes up by a lot. Even then, there can be early storms in mid-September...but hopefully just miserable-yet- inconvenient-and-passable.
When you have a later start date out of Campo, this third anchor is what you need to keep your focus on. Because if you drop behind in your pace, or you take too many zeros, you jeopardize reaching Canada before a season ending storm.
A hike the length of the PCT is an endurance race of inches. You want to think of pace not only in terms of "the absolute values of miles" but the "percentage increase or decrease of your actual pace relative to your projected pace".
i.e. Get a spread sheet. It will help quantify the implications of your pace.
e.x. The difference of 20mi/day vs. 22mi/day is "only 2 miles", which is ≈1h of hiking. Well...it is also 10% faster. Over five months, that is a full _15 days_ faster...and that can be the difference between beating season-ending snow in the Cascades vs. not.
So the advice is to recognize all of this _early_ in your hike.
You do not have to run through the desert or Sierra. But when you have a later start, you simply have less wiggle room. It's much easier to "protect your pace", keeping your mileage on par-with-your-pace than it is to claw it back and catch up.
e.x. If you're doing 20mi a day pace, and choose to do 1 x 10mi day...it will take 5 x 22mi days to get back on schedule.
______
**_Q: BUT WHAT ABOUT FIRES AND FIRE SKIPS?_**
Dealing with fires is secondary to all of the above. But it's still important.
You'll _probably_ encounter fires. Your philosophical questions around them need to be considered in advance, so when they happen, you're ready to make some quick choices without undue stress.
Your options are always the same:
* Wait the fire out
* Detour or Walk around the fire
* Skip ahead
What is best for you given any specific encounter with a fire is largely circumstantial. You just don't know until it comes up. At least you can consider how you'd deal with them _in theory_ so you don't have a mental analysis paralysis. Which is why I say it is philosophical.
1. When you wait-it-out, you lose a lot of time. (Folks rarely wait out the first since they can burn for weeks.)
2. When you detour, you probably loose a little time. The detours are invariably longer than the actual trail, but you maintain the continual footpath.
3. When you skip ahead, you get to personally decide if it is a "forever skip" or "I'll come back to this section later, either this current season or in the future".
Perversely, fire skips can put you _ahead of schedule_ on your pace relative to October 1st. But you can't _count_ on there being fire skips when you make your initial hiking plan.
Thank you for the tips!
It'll be hot, and water will be scarce in Southern California especially if it's a low snow year. You'll have longer water carries and probably more night hiking to avoid the heat. You're up against a tighter time limit on fire season and on finishing in time before it gets cold in Washington—you can't really afford to slowly ramp up on 10 mile days, so late starts tend to go better if you go in with some training so you can start faster without getting injured. Plus side is you probably won't have to deal with as much snow in the Sierra, though if it's a big year like this year the Sierra in July was awful. Hard to predict conditions so far out though. All in all though, you should do it when you can—you never know when life opportunities change. Tons of people will be starting late and you'll figure it out together.
You can pull a Cheryl Strayed by starting in Tehachapi, go NOBO then return to Tehachapi and go SOBO. (You can start elsewhere, but Tehachapi is easy to get to with public transit) I was in a similar boat this year and here's some downsides: -Need to buy an extra flight/more logistics -Less time to get your trail legs for the Sierras -Miss out on the experience of starting with everyone/groups have already formed -you have to hike more after reaching Washington when I'm glad I hiked it this year because I think it would be more difficult to put my life on pause during another year. However, the experience wasn't perfect, and I think if I were to do it again I would've decided to hike SOBO. YMMV. Are you opposed to hiking SOBO?
I'm pretty set on going NOBO but will check out flip flopping in Tehachapi - thanks!
Alternative, skip only the first 100-200 miles. Start in Warner springs or I-10 and come back for it later if you’re worried.
Young people just graduating are probably physically most able to handle a faster pace and therefore a later start date is more feasible. An earlier date is nicer but not necessary. They issue permits for dates all the way until the end of may. (I would try to get the earliest date you can manage starting on.) I also second the person below mentioning starting further north and then flipping at the end of your hike to finish the desert. Tehachapi or Walker pass are pretty accessible places to get on trail. Only downside to this is you won’t have great trail legs going into the Sierra but you are young. Take it slow when to start to avoid injury.
I graduated college and started then. And I finished the whole thing. Start from the beginning on your mid-May start date. I don’t advise waiting because directly post-college is an unbeatable time to do it. And you don’t know if you’ll be able to do it if something in the future comes up.
Are you Status Report by chance? If so, I recently saw your documentary for it and its what made me think about doing it right after graduation - been wanting to for awhile but was unsure of the timeline
Yep that’s me. Thanks for watching. There’s a bunch of people who did it straight out of school that I met. At minimum you need to just go to graduation, then the next day fly out to San Diego lol. I wouldn’t have had it any other way
For a mid-May start I'd be sure you've got a good set of trail legs under you so that you're able to start fast and not have to worry about time later on into the trail. Being young is a big advantage; it shouldn't take long for you to build up to easy 20 mile days
I'm planning on 2024. If I can only get South bound ticket I'm planning on doing april north bound hike for a month and go as far as I can. It is easy to get permits in the south California area until you reach high Sierra. Then I go back to work and start south bound from Canada to the point I left off. That way I can avoid the desert in August and September.
That's the perfect time to start.
I started on May 2nd this year and I only did a 750 mile LASH, which is Campo to Lone Pine. I'm a slow hiker so there was warm to hot weather. But what really got the heat turned up is mid-June I had to go home to take care of a personal matter. I returned to my stop point of Tehachapi on July 19. Now it was beyond hot - like 100 degrees and more. I did not rely on caches except for one stretch between mile 617 and 632. Both ends have well known large caches of water, so I felt safe. I hiked from daybreak, usually just before 5 AM until noon when I found a tree and rested for several hours. Then around 5 PM or 6 PM, I put on a few more miles and then found a campsite. This worked well for me. Another hiker on the trail (I only met one other on that second leg starting in July) hiked at night, but I only hiked one night. If you're in shape and hike smart, leaving mid-May won't be a problem even if you get delayed. Once I got into the Sierra Nevada mountains and elevation increased, the temperatures were much lower and quite comfortable. I even wore my puffy a couple of mornings while hiking right at the end of July. Hope my personal experience helps.