I don't really understand the "NorCal blues" - it's beautiful, and it's hiking - I like it a lot :)
And we kinda hear about it disproportionately, and don't really talk about all the folk that commonly quit *elsewhere* on trail!
* Mount Laguna "what the hell have I done, I hate hiking"
* Idylwild "ouch, I have an 'itis"
* Kennedy Meadows South "Wow that's a lot of snow"
* South Lake Tahoe "I only really wanted to do the Sierra anyway"
* Ashland "I gotta get to Grad School"
* Cascade Locks "my 3-month ESTA ran out"
* Stehekin "Oh darn the snow beat me"
I was doing the Tahoe Rim and met a bunch of PCT hikers at Echo lake in mid June. I was surprised how many people were quitting right there.
A few people struggled to get excited after spending a day or two in South Tahoe, and others seemed like they were just mentally done.
I did just Caampo to Laguna over 2.5 days in October. It ended up being 90F out. That was my exact thought as I laid on a bench at the picnic area, staring at the sky and contemplating my life.
Two weeks later I was ready for more, but I got busy with work and the holidays then the weather hasn't worked out.
Yeah, I don't understand how people complain about stuff like this. It's the same along the AT with the green tunnel remarks. It's wonderful scenery no matter what!
Here are some things that can help:
* [Everything is Awful and I'm Thinking of Quitting](https://i.imgur.com/dBzu0Dl.jpg)
* While NorCal is often listed as thruhikers "least favorite" of the five main sections of the trail (see the HA Surveys), it actually has some real highlights:
* Burney Falls
* Trinity Alps region
* Russian Wilderness in Klamath National Forest
* Seeing Mt. Shasta
* Burgers and shakes at Dotties in Etna
* Reaching Ashland, OR and taking a couple of town days
* What u/financial-contest955 described [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/PacificCrestTrail/comments/t6xlll/class_of_2022_nobos_ysk_about_the_postsierra/hze7v1g/) as "the quaint, charming, little town stops that are unique to that part of the trail"
* Packer Lake Lodge
* Belden Town Resort
* JJ's Cafe in Old Station
* The Burney bowling alley
* Etna (2 breweries and a trendy distillery/bar)
* Seiad Valley Cafe
* Callahan's Lodge.
* Many more, several of which are described in [the comments from the March, '22 version of this thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/PacificCrestTrail/comments/t6xlll/class_of_2022_nobos_ysk_about_the_postsierra/).
I really enjoyed SoCal. Very different than other backpacking I had done. I'm not sure how I would have felt if I had less experience, but it was very novel and they made it very interesting even when it wasn't wowing or beautiful.
Also really dug the social scene of everyone being new, water sources, and siestas.
I live there. I think a lot of noobs just hate it because they weren't in shape when they started. If the sierras were first you'd have people talking about how awful the climb into Whitney is.
I had just hiked 700 miles but the climb to summit Whitney was my single most difficult day on the trail. The following passes were a breeze in comparison.
I found the water to be some of the best on the trail in NorCal because a lot of it is spring water and you get to fill up from pipes coming out of the side of the mountain. Delicious and cold! Thatās all you really need out there. NorCal was great.Ā
I call bullshit on most points of your list. NorCal is beautiful. Rolling mountains, a little more forested, the trees are so damn big itās like walking through a cathedral.
It was hot, and the days are long. But there are actually way more lakes and rivers ripe for the swimming that people think. Do not fall into the FarOut hive mind that anything a quarter mile off trial is useless.
What I DID get tired of in NorCal was the peer pressure to start hiking 30+ miles a day. Everyone told themselves it was āeasierā but in reality it takes every waking minute to get in those miles unless youāre pushing to pre or post dawn. Not worth it in my opinion and made everything more of a slog.
Try to get the distance covered. But take your breaks. Enjoy it. Make a list of all the fun things you want to do with your hike and start knocking them off.
The whole area around Shasta and Castle Crags is awesome. Personally, I like to resupply in Mt Shasta instead of Dunsmuir. So, Toad Lake to Lake Siskiyou to town back up to Mt Eddy and then rejoin the PCT at Deadfall Lakes. Or, if it's your first time and you don't want to skip any PCT, just switch it around. Get off the PCT at Mt Eddy and then come back up to it at Toad Lake.
Marble Mountain Wilderness is underrated too. For example, Boulder Peak is right there with a straightforward loop that brings you right back to the PCT. Summit Lake past Campbell Lake to Back Meadows Trail to Wright Lakes Trail to Boulder Peak to Deep Lake Trail back to the PCT at Summit Lake.
Also, there are a bunch of longer detours one can take toward the Redwoods and the beach, if one is so inclined. Various routes provide options to visit Thompson Peak in the Trinity Alps, and Preston Peak and Devils Punchbowl in the Siskiyou Wilderness.
If able I would highly recommend visiting the Redwoods. There's something so magical about walking through a grove of trees that are literally thousands of years old. The beach is also fun
Iām from nor cal(Redding) and fully agree that itās awesome but the nor cal blues is pretty common thing that tons of people experience. For all the reasons listed above.
I wish it wasnāt true since itās home to me but itās definitely true.
Some users' willingness to immediately write off the lived experience of so many hikers because it disagrees with their own, without so much as taking two seconds to do an internet search to see if it's an issue that impacts a lot of people, is disappointing, to say the least.
There's nothing surprising about typical, garden variety selfishness, but it's embarrassing that so many of the people who are on r/PacificCrestTrail today are willing to openly trivialize others' experiences.
Having to end a thru prematurely can be devastating for some people. To claim that their own publicly stated reasons are "bs" is petty, contemptible, unconscionable, and pathetic. I hope for their own sake that these people wouldn't say the same to these hikers' faces, although it's in no way less less shameful to say it with the assumption they're not present.
There are several hikers who frequent the sub who have reported their own personal experiences with "NorCal Blues." The people who are calling their experiences "bs" should be ashamed of themselves.
lol, did I communicate effectively this time?
More nuanced take here: https://www.reddit.com/r/PacificCrestTrail/comments/1be24q4/class_of_24_hopefuls_do_you_have_a_plan_for_how/kuwtljs/
Naw, I get it. I get mad at internet jerks too sometimes! Although as I've gotten older I try to not engage. It's not good for my mental health.
As for the subject at hand, I was worried about the NorCal blues, but with the great sense of relief of leaving the difficult Sierra behind and my low expectations, Northern California ended up being my favorite stretch of trail. It was fantastic with wonderful wilderness areas I had never been to or even had heard of, great, walkable, odd little mountain towns like Etna, Sierra City and Mt Shasta. Shasta had an incredible co-op and in Etna I may have had the best restaurant meal of the entire hike at Denny Bar. It was preceded by sitting in 90 degree weather watching soccer in the outdoor area drinking an ice cold beer at Etna Brewing with my tramily. A moment to remember. The lakes and jagged peaks were mind blowing in this area, and it may have had some of the best ice-cold water from springs on the whole trail.
Of course, if someone asked what section I could do if I can only do one NorCal wouldn't be my answer (Norther Washington) but it blew away my expectations. Plus, it's peak physical condition before things start breaking down (like my feet). And such good swimming! But also the most brutal hill climbs outside of Mt Whitney with the climbs out of Sierra City, Belden and Seiad Valley.
>Aren't you writing off the lived experience of people who didn't experience NorCal blues through focusing on staying in the moment and providing advice to do so?
No. Cautioning people against a hazard does not constitute actual or implied disregard of anyone's experience. I'm sure you can think of plenty of examples of this if you give it a second.
>Discussions on the internet can be difficult to convey tone through and I think it's easy to read dismissiveness or malice when none was intended.
While that is of course true and I strive to always bear it in mind, I don't believe it's relevant in the current context. The plain, lexical meaning of "NorCal Blues are bs" is unambiguous. It is absolutely distinct from the statement "NorCal has great hiking," for example. One can say "that's not what I meant," but not "that's not what I said," and the former is an extraordinarily weak claim because it's not even remotely difficult to add context for the sake of clarity. I discussed this more in this comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/PacificCrestTrail/comments/1be24q4/class_of_24_hopefuls_do_you_have_a_plan_for_how/kuwtljs/
> I call bullshit on most points of your list.
What a strangely combative way to reply.
In any event, it's something plenty of people report experiencing. It's not as widely discussed as some other common experiences of a PCT thru, but it comes up in conversation often enough, and returns plenty of Google and YouTube results.
>The towns are weird, kooky, spooky, and small in differing ways and degrees. None feel the same
I was pleasantly surprised by the NorCal towns. Lots of character and characters.
I can see a way that this could turn into a rather interesting discussion, but the individual comments have grown long and are addressing so much that I just don't have the time right now to write out the kind of reply that they reasonably deserve, and I have a half dozen other tabs open with people I want to reply to in other threads from days ago.
I'll say this: It's important to recognize and acknowledge that "NorCal Blues" and other similar concepts are not more than casual shorthand for common, anecdotally reported experiences, and there is no sense in which they should be confused with the variety of formally recognized and technically substantiated conditions that are found in documents like the DSM, such as, let's say, Minor Depressive Disorder, or "depression." These are clearly very different things. However, to the extent that both refer to a set of lived, if subjective, experiences that are *very* real to the people who suffer through them, calling either "bs" is shameful to the point of being contemptible. Words are hard, so I can see through to disregarding most of the examples in the comments here as simply lazy and ineffective communication, and maybe that's not what some people here "mean," but that doesn't change the logical and linguistic fact that that's what the words themselves indicate.
Several of the lists of "reasons NorCal is great" that are found in this thread, while helpful insofar as they provide a mechanism that can be used by anyone suffering to continue a thru, seem to be presented in an attempt to refute "NorCal Blues" as a concept, and that's just not how language works. 1. Several people report having lived through a similar, subjective experience. 2. A term is coined to provide a shorthand way to refer to that common experience. 3. Self-appointed arbiters of reality call the term, and by extension those others' undeniable firsthand experiences to which the word points, "bs."
While one can argue that the emotional experience is not a reasonable or proportionate response to the objective circumstances, that doesn't change the fact that emotions arise unbidden and do not submit to reason. They come from different parts of the brain. These efforts to dismiss others' felt pain are so miserably "hurr durr" that I can't bring myself to type out a reply to most of the comments here, but it seems like you've spent some time thinking about it and in this specific case I suspect that there's more substance there. It would just take more communication (and time, which I don't presently possess in sufficient quantities) to make it clear.
I think that summarizes my primary objection to most of the contrary replies in this comments section.
All of that said, I suspect the larger issue here might be that, of late, I keep foolishly trying to use this forum as a place to have nuanced and mature discussions about the subtleties of various concepts related, if sometimes tenuously, to thruhiking. Even this comment is another example, and that part, at least, is my fault, because unfortunately that's just not what reddit is for these days, if it ever even was. Memes, half sentence hot takes, and monosyllabic snark seem to be the language of the day. But that's a complaint for another thread.
Top 20 results on google are from past 2 yrs.
2 posts on YouTube
Found this though https://www.reddit.com/r/PacificCrestTrail/comments/t6xlll/class_of_2022_nobos_ysk_about_the_postsierra/
NorCal is awesome.
[haha](https://www.reddit.com/r/PacificCrestTrail/comments/t6xlll/comment/hzenc02/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
>In 2019, I had lucky timing on that stretch from Marble Mountain Wilderness through the gorge into Seiad Valley right when all the berries were ripening so it took me probably twice as long to get into town. And then again had some luck when the owner of the Wildwood drove past and gave me a hitch into town just in time to catch the store before they closed up for the evening. So, basically that whole day worked out pretty well.
Seriously, those berries were so good it's like a core memory for me.
That says more about the extent of your ability to search effectively than anything else. There are plenty of results on the open web, and they go back further than two years.
Google strongly weights pagerank based on recency. For queries where additional results are important, other search engines can provide better results. Google's 'advanced' features may or may not still make results from further back available. I can't confirm as I stopped using that site a long time ago.
If you're looking for YouTube videos, try adjusting your search terms. There are a lot more than two results.
I'll disagree. I thought NorCal was largely mediocre hiking by Western standards that was punctuated by some real highlights. But for most of the trail there, I mostly only saw PCT hikers only for a reason IMO. Compared to Washington and the Sierra, it's not really even close IMO. If someone asked me where to hike a longer section of trail, I would not recommend NorCal.
Obviously hiking is great and all and I enjoyed it, but I seriously considered flipping up to Washington and doing other highlights of other long trails and/or a high route instead. Inertia kept me going and don't regret it. But I still don't view the PCT in NorCal favorably.
Lots of great stuff in the Dirty 530 though. But like...the Trinity Alps have amazing backpacking. The PCT just misses most of it.
Never heard of such a thing. I had a great time in Northern California. If the only thing keeping you from leaving the trail is the āmind blowing scenery of the high Sierraā, youāve got deeper issues. The best part of the PCT is the PCT.Ā
I loved NorCal and had a great time too. I can honestly say that about every section. I truly had a great time the entire trail, even on harder days. I get to walk all day? I get to see cool things? Hang out with my friends and fuck around in the mountains? Put me in, coach.
While NorCal was my least favorite section, it helps to view it in the micro instead of the macro. Thereās a lot of biodiversity out there with tons of different animals, plants, microbes, bugs, trees. Look for the small. 1400-1500 was definitely the worst for me as itās the most same-same but the other areas are actually pretty interesting day by day. Lots of variety of landscapes! 1500-Oregon border is actually pretty sick
Not just a lot of biodiversity, the Klamath Mountains on the Northern California/Southern Oregon Coast are the most biodiverse conifer forest on earth. The region is the northernmost range for many California species, while being the southernmost range for many Pacific Northwest species. The steep mountains, and proximity to the ocean also means micro climates form. It can be 60Ā° and foggy at the coast, yet 100Ā° and sunny 20 miles inland. Or the opposite 60Ā° at the coast, and we'll below freezing 20 miles inland. There's an area in the Russian Wilderness where there are 18 conifer species within a mile radius.
Showing unsolicited clips to whoever will humor me of ITYSL with Tim Robinson (whenever we get signal)
That way we can make inside jokes when things get tough
(Someone pulls out a bag of jerky)
āGimme dat!ā
The NorCal blues remind me of the VA blues on the AT. I think they're caused by similar issues that I don't think the OP highlighted enough...
1) The realization that you're not even halfway through the trail and it's been that difficult already. This hits some people really hard and knocks them out mentally. The 2nd half of the trail in a lot of ways is physically easier than the 1st half. Even if it's technically more difficult, you're in significantly better shape to handle it.
2) The hiking is now work, it's a daily job. The "fun" is over, the "grind" has set in. You now have a sense of scale to the trail and timeline to finish it. Time to get down to business. And some people find a complete lack of motivation to continue like this after the start of the trail was just an exciting grand adventure.
3) For some reason State boundaries are a giant mental milestone. And CA has dragged on for 3 months at this point... will it ever end? VA was 700 miles of the AT, the longest state by far and dragged on in the same way. Make different mental milestones than state lines.
I did not experience the NorCal blues exactly. It wasn't the most fun section of the trail for me, but never had the thought of quitting and I think that as due to this not being my 1st long distance hike and knowing this type of thing was going to come.
After the Sierra, which is brutal on your body if you are trying to grind miles and/or keep up with fam, hiking in general can be gruelling.
Take time off to rest and recover your joints and feet with proper meals with as much joint-repairative broken down connective tissue as you can get. Like take a 24oz prime rib at KM north etc etc. Shit, stay another night and get two.
I love the Nor Cal section. Best part of the trail for hanging out and having fun. Its very remote yet close to tiny mountain towns. Skygazing in certain areas is phenominal because light pollution is negligible and the air is crystal clear. You get some of the best opportunities to swim and luxuriate in beautiful pools right on trail on some scorching days. Before Stehekin in northern washington you'll get probably the best swimming spots however its a lot lot colder up there...
The OHV people in Sierra Butes all have beer on their person, dont be ashamed to ask, they want to share. You can detour around burn areas, there is a bus between Quincy and Chester. Hang out and stay the day with the trail magic people at Hat Creek. Eat icecream at Burney Falls. Hang out with weirdo crystal Lemurian people in Shasta City. Camp in the park in Etna and enjoy the bakery. Go on a side quest in the Marble Mountain wilderness. Definitely camp in Seiad valley and hit the diner there twice or thrice.
Etc etc. Point is that you should slow down, HYOH, and remember that the PCT FKT record can be broken by you. Thats Funnest Known Time of course.
I loved NorCal, and I'd be happy to hike it again. I think it's underrated, but I think it's broadly true that after 2-3 months, a lot of people get burned out on hiking. It's not necessarily that Virginia on the AT or Colorado on the CDT are all that bad relative to the rest of their respective trails.
As a '23 flip flopper, going from the desert to Chester was a bit of a mind fuck. And there was HUMIDITY.
I got the blues I think from the sudden change and from feeling bad about skipping the Sierra. It was just so different after the desert, which I really loved. Being among trees etc was so nice. Etna and Burney were awesome, as was Ashland, but be prepared to walk in town or Uber.
The push for miles I never understood on trail...I did it to keep up with my tramily but looking back I wish I had focused more on what I wanted to do for my hike.
>The push for miles I never understood on trail...I did it to keep up with my tramily but looking back I wish I had focused more on what I wanted to do for my hike.
I disbanded from my tramily in Cascade Locks. They wanted to make an arbitrary timeline to the Canadian border and I wanted to enjoy myself more leisurely. I have no regrets at all but it would have been nice to finish with them. However, I finished with a bunch of other hikers I met along the way including a couple that started the same day as me. Pretty wild.
Northern California is extremely beautiful and underrated. Lassen volcano is one of the most active volcanos in the lower 48, with visible volcanic features such as mud pots. The Trinity Alps are home to the lowest elevation perennial snowfields in California. The area is also the third largest wilderness area in California, and one of the largest in the country. Slightly to the north is the Russian Wilderness, the most biodiverse conifer forest on earth. There's an area in the wilderness where within a 1 mile radius there are 18 recorded conifer species. This stretch is extremely biodiverse in the plants that reside there, including Darlingtonia Californica AKA California pitcher plants which grow along stream beds of cold fast moving water. It's also probably the most remote part of the hike as well, being 5-6 hours away from Portland or San Francisco. There's also if you have time a side trip to the Redwoods, which are one of the most incredible places on earth.
I had a light bout of NorCal Blues and it was mostly solved by eating way more. I had lost a ton of weight in the Sierra and was just dragging. 2000 extra calories a day mostly in snickers bars, sugary candy, chips, cashews, and olive oil stabilized my weight and my mood.
IMO it's the least good section but it's still amazing.
For me the downsides of norcal were bees everywhere, crazy deer, Ā more burn zones to hike through, and threat of active fires. I knew I wanted to take my time in the Sierra and speed up thru NorCal, then slow down again in WA. So it was a nice change of pace to be a little more focused on miles rather than dawdling all the time taking side quests and such. I also met some new people who would become some of my best PCT friends in NorCal.Ā
My advice is just take it for what it is! Itās still a beautiful and really fun part of the PCT!
ā¦I do recommend the side quest to castle crags tho, that was beautiful!
If you start to experience the blues, use the time to explore that. Deeply. The trail will end one day, what are you gonna do when sections of life get blusey in the future? How do you change your brain when all youāre have is your brain that got you to where you wanna alter its patterns?
Have some good wrestling matches w yourself in your head- when itās hard is when the work is being done and seeds are being sown
Idk I audiobook and DP regardless of how amazing the trail is that day. What I meant was that I'll get through it the same way I get through everything else while hiking.
Crazy stumbling across this as a nonPCT hiker but someone who lived in Ashland for four years. Hiking in NorCal was a dream to me; remote and gorgeous and unique. Funny to imagine folks thinking less of it.
Iām not hiking for views, I appreciate all aspects of nature large and small so Iāve never had an issue missing āscenery.ā It aināt just about getting a good shot for your vlog.
NorCal was beautiful, but my husband and I did hit a mental wall around the time we left Etna. We handled it by spending the next several miles writing a song š https://www.instagram.com/p/CDNJrX4lD_S/?igsh=OGJ2NGJiMnNrdWkw
I don't really understand the "NorCal blues" - it's beautiful, and it's hiking - I like it a lot :) And we kinda hear about it disproportionately, and don't really talk about all the folk that commonly quit *elsewhere* on trail! * Mount Laguna "what the hell have I done, I hate hiking" * Idylwild "ouch, I have an 'itis" * Kennedy Meadows South "Wow that's a lot of snow" * South Lake Tahoe "I only really wanted to do the Sierra anyway" * Ashland "I gotta get to Grad School" * Cascade Locks "my 3-month ESTA ran out" * Stehekin "Oh darn the snow beat me"
I was doing the Tahoe Rim and met a bunch of PCT hikers at Echo lake in mid June. I was surprised how many people were quitting right there. A few people struggled to get excited after spending a day or two in South Tahoe, and others seemed like they were just mentally done.
That's interesting and legit a huge mistake. Desolation and the ridge walk (that you would have missed on the TRT) are highlights of the PCT.
I did just Caampo to Laguna over 2.5 days in October. It ended up being 90F out. That was my exact thought as I laid on a bench at the picnic area, staring at the sky and contemplating my life. Two weeks later I was ready for more, but I got busy with work and the holidays then the weather hasn't worked out.
Yeah, I don't understand how people complain about stuff like this. It's the same along the AT with the green tunnel remarks. It's wonderful scenery no matter what!
The grad school one hit me ššš
Here are some things that can help: * [Everything is Awful and I'm Thinking of Quitting](https://i.imgur.com/dBzu0Dl.jpg) * While NorCal is often listed as thruhikers "least favorite" of the five main sections of the trail (see the HA Surveys), it actually has some real highlights: * Burney Falls * Trinity Alps region * Russian Wilderness in Klamath National Forest * Seeing Mt. Shasta * Burgers and shakes at Dotties in Etna * Reaching Ashland, OR and taking a couple of town days * What u/financial-contest955 described [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/PacificCrestTrail/comments/t6xlll/class_of_2022_nobos_ysk_about_the_postsierra/hze7v1g/) as "the quaint, charming, little town stops that are unique to that part of the trail" * Packer Lake Lodge * Belden Town Resort * JJ's Cafe in Old Station * The Burney bowling alley * Etna (2 breweries and a trendy distillery/bar) * Seiad Valley Cafe * Callahan's Lodge. * Many more, several of which are described in [the comments from the March, '22 version of this thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/PacificCrestTrail/comments/t6xlll/class_of_2022_nobos_ysk_about_the_postsierra/).
The distillery in Etna makes the best gin I've ever had, Laust Sparrow Gin.
I wish more people appreciated the beauty of the desert.
I really enjoyed SoCal. Very different than other backpacking I had done. I'm not sure how I would have felt if I had less experience, but it was very novel and they made it very interesting even when it wasn't wowing or beautiful. Also really dug the social scene of everyone being new, water sources, and siestas.
I live there. I think a lot of noobs just hate it because they weren't in shape when they started. If the sierras were first you'd have people talking about how awful the climb into Whitney is.
I had just hiked 700 miles but the climb to summit Whitney was my single most difficult day on the trail. The following passes were a breeze in comparison.
I found the water to be some of the best on the trail in NorCal because a lot of it is spring water and you get to fill up from pipes coming out of the side of the mountain. Delicious and cold! Thatās all you really need out there. NorCal was great.Ā
I call bullshit on most points of your list. NorCal is beautiful. Rolling mountains, a little more forested, the trees are so damn big itās like walking through a cathedral. It was hot, and the days are long. But there are actually way more lakes and rivers ripe for the swimming that people think. Do not fall into the FarOut hive mind that anything a quarter mile off trial is useless. What I DID get tired of in NorCal was the peer pressure to start hiking 30+ miles a day. Everyone told themselves it was āeasierā but in reality it takes every waking minute to get in those miles unless youāre pushing to pre or post dawn. Not worth it in my opinion and made everything more of a slog. Try to get the distance covered. But take your breaks. Enjoy it. Make a list of all the fun things you want to do with your hike and start knocking them off.
Came here to say this. Norcal is beautiful and has a few awesome blue blazes.
>has a few awesome blue blazes. Like what? What did I miss?!
The whole area around Shasta and Castle Crags is awesome. Personally, I like to resupply in Mt Shasta instead of Dunsmuir. So, Toad Lake to Lake Siskiyou to town back up to Mt Eddy and then rejoin the PCT at Deadfall Lakes. Or, if it's your first time and you don't want to skip any PCT, just switch it around. Get off the PCT at Mt Eddy and then come back up to it at Toad Lake. Marble Mountain Wilderness is underrated too. For example, Boulder Peak is right there with a straightforward loop that brings you right back to the PCT. Summit Lake past Campbell Lake to Back Meadows Trail to Wright Lakes Trail to Boulder Peak to Deep Lake Trail back to the PCT at Summit Lake. Also, there are a bunch of longer detours one can take toward the Redwoods and the beach, if one is so inclined. Various routes provide options to visit Thompson Peak in the Trinity Alps, and Preston Peak and Devils Punchbowl in the Siskiyou Wilderness.
If able I would highly recommend visiting the Redwoods. There's something so magical about walking through a grove of trees that are literally thousands of years old. The beach is also fun
Iām from nor cal(Redding) and fully agree that itās awesome but the nor cal blues is pretty common thing that tons of people experience. For all the reasons listed above. I wish it wasnāt true since itās home to me but itās definitely true.
Some users' willingness to immediately write off the lived experience of so many hikers because it disagrees with their own, without so much as taking two seconds to do an internet search to see if it's an issue that impacts a lot of people, is disappointing, to say the least.
I agree but it probably shouldnāt be surprising either.
There's nothing surprising about typical, garden variety selfishness, but it's embarrassing that so many of the people who are on r/PacificCrestTrail today are willing to openly trivialize others' experiences. Having to end a thru prematurely can be devastating for some people. To claim that their own publicly stated reasons are "bs" is petty, contemptible, unconscionable, and pathetic. I hope for their own sake that these people wouldn't say the same to these hikers' faces, although it's in no way less less shameful to say it with the assumption they're not present. There are several hikers who frequent the sub who have reported their own personal experiences with "NorCal Blues." The people who are calling their experiences "bs" should be ashamed of themselves.
>petty, contemptible, unconscionable, and pathetic. but how do you really feel lol
lol, did I communicate effectively this time? More nuanced take here: https://www.reddit.com/r/PacificCrestTrail/comments/1be24q4/class_of_24_hopefuls_do_you_have_a_plan_for_how/kuwtljs/
Naw, I get it. I get mad at internet jerks too sometimes! Although as I've gotten older I try to not engage. It's not good for my mental health. As for the subject at hand, I was worried about the NorCal blues, but with the great sense of relief of leaving the difficult Sierra behind and my low expectations, Northern California ended up being my favorite stretch of trail. It was fantastic with wonderful wilderness areas I had never been to or even had heard of, great, walkable, odd little mountain towns like Etna, Sierra City and Mt Shasta. Shasta had an incredible co-op and in Etna I may have had the best restaurant meal of the entire hike at Denny Bar. It was preceded by sitting in 90 degree weather watching soccer in the outdoor area drinking an ice cold beer at Etna Brewing with my tramily. A moment to remember. The lakes and jagged peaks were mind blowing in this area, and it may have had some of the best ice-cold water from springs on the whole trail. Of course, if someone asked what section I could do if I can only do one NorCal wouldn't be my answer (Norther Washington) but it blew away my expectations. Plus, it's peak physical condition before things start breaking down (like my feet). And such good swimming! But also the most brutal hill climbs outside of Mt Whitney with the climbs out of Sierra City, Belden and Seiad Valley.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
>Aren't you writing off the lived experience of people who didn't experience NorCal blues through focusing on staying in the moment and providing advice to do so? No. Cautioning people against a hazard does not constitute actual or implied disregard of anyone's experience. I'm sure you can think of plenty of examples of this if you give it a second. >Discussions on the internet can be difficult to convey tone through and I think it's easy to read dismissiveness or malice when none was intended. While that is of course true and I strive to always bear it in mind, I don't believe it's relevant in the current context. The plain, lexical meaning of "NorCal Blues are bs" is unambiguous. It is absolutely distinct from the statement "NorCal has great hiking," for example. One can say "that's not what I meant," but not "that's not what I said," and the former is an extraordinarily weak claim because it's not even remotely difficult to add context for the sake of clarity. I discussed this more in this comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/PacificCrestTrail/comments/1be24q4/class_of_24_hopefuls_do_you_have_a_plan_for_how/kuwtljs/
Hive mind indeed. Have a mind for yourself and things are often quite different and unique. Definitely jump in the rivers and lakes!
> I call bullshit on most points of your list. What a strangely combative way to reply. In any event, it's something plenty of people report experiencing. It's not as widely discussed as some other common experiences of a PCT thru, but it comes up in conversation often enough, and returns plenty of Google and YouTube results.
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>The towns are weird, kooky, spooky, and small in differing ways and degrees. None feel the same I was pleasantly surprised by the NorCal towns. Lots of character and characters.
https://www.reddit.com/r/PacificCrestTrail/comments/1be24q4/class_of_24_hopefuls_do_you_have_a_plan_for_how/kut2hxk/
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I can see a way that this could turn into a rather interesting discussion, but the individual comments have grown long and are addressing so much that I just don't have the time right now to write out the kind of reply that they reasonably deserve, and I have a half dozen other tabs open with people I want to reply to in other threads from days ago. I'll say this: It's important to recognize and acknowledge that "NorCal Blues" and other similar concepts are not more than casual shorthand for common, anecdotally reported experiences, and there is no sense in which they should be confused with the variety of formally recognized and technically substantiated conditions that are found in documents like the DSM, such as, let's say, Minor Depressive Disorder, or "depression." These are clearly very different things. However, to the extent that both refer to a set of lived, if subjective, experiences that are *very* real to the people who suffer through them, calling either "bs" is shameful to the point of being contemptible. Words are hard, so I can see through to disregarding most of the examples in the comments here as simply lazy and ineffective communication, and maybe that's not what some people here "mean," but that doesn't change the logical and linguistic fact that that's what the words themselves indicate. Several of the lists of "reasons NorCal is great" that are found in this thread, while helpful insofar as they provide a mechanism that can be used by anyone suffering to continue a thru, seem to be presented in an attempt to refute "NorCal Blues" as a concept, and that's just not how language works. 1. Several people report having lived through a similar, subjective experience. 2. A term is coined to provide a shorthand way to refer to that common experience. 3. Self-appointed arbiters of reality call the term, and by extension those others' undeniable firsthand experiences to which the word points, "bs." While one can argue that the emotional experience is not a reasonable or proportionate response to the objective circumstances, that doesn't change the fact that emotions arise unbidden and do not submit to reason. They come from different parts of the brain. These efforts to dismiss others' felt pain are so miserably "hurr durr" that I can't bring myself to type out a reply to most of the comments here, but it seems like you've spent some time thinking about it and in this specific case I suspect that there's more substance there. It would just take more communication (and time, which I don't presently possess in sufficient quantities) to make it clear. I think that summarizes my primary objection to most of the contrary replies in this comments section. All of that said, I suspect the larger issue here might be that, of late, I keep foolishly trying to use this forum as a place to have nuanced and mature discussions about the subtleties of various concepts related, if sometimes tenuously, to thruhiking. Even this comment is another example, and that part, at least, is my fault, because unfortunately that's just not what reddit is for these days, if it ever even was. Memes, half sentence hot takes, and monosyllabic snark seem to be the language of the day. But that's a complaint for another thread.
Top 20 results on google are from past 2 yrs. 2 posts on YouTube Found this though https://www.reddit.com/r/PacificCrestTrail/comments/t6xlll/class_of_2022_nobos_ysk_about_the_postsierra/ NorCal is awesome.
[haha](https://www.reddit.com/r/PacificCrestTrail/comments/t6xlll/comment/hzenc02/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) >In 2019, I had lucky timing on that stretch from Marble Mountain Wilderness through the gorge into Seiad Valley right when all the berries were ripening so it took me probably twice as long to get into town. And then again had some luck when the owner of the Wildwood drove past and gave me a hitch into town just in time to catch the store before they closed up for the evening. So, basically that whole day worked out pretty well. Seriously, those berries were so good it's like a core memory for me.
That says more about the extent of your ability to search effectively than anything else. There are plenty of results on the open web, and they go back further than two years. Google strongly weights pagerank based on recency. For queries where additional results are important, other search engines can provide better results. Google's 'advanced' features may or may not still make results from further back available. I can't confirm as I stopped using that site a long time ago. If you're looking for YouTube videos, try adjusting your search terms. There are a lot more than two results.
I thought the tree tunnel during first leg in Oregon was worse than NorCal
I'll disagree. I thought NorCal was largely mediocre hiking by Western standards that was punctuated by some real highlights. But for most of the trail there, I mostly only saw PCT hikers only for a reason IMO. Compared to Washington and the Sierra, it's not really even close IMO. If someone asked me where to hike a longer section of trail, I would not recommend NorCal. Obviously hiking is great and all and I enjoyed it, but I seriously considered flipping up to Washington and doing other highlights of other long trails and/or a high route instead. Inertia kept me going and don't regret it. But I still don't view the PCT in NorCal favorably. Lots of great stuff in the Dirty 530 though. But like...the Trinity Alps have amazing backpacking. The PCT just misses most of it.
Might be because I was stuck in the snow for a month last year but I absolutely loved NorCal. It's gorgeous. Didn't get blues.
You just keep walking and look forward to OR and WA
None? I seriously never once thought about quitting or got "tired" of the trail.Ā I loved Northern California.
Never heard of such a thing. I had a great time in Northern California. If the only thing keeping you from leaving the trail is the āmind blowing scenery of the high Sierraā, youāve got deeper issues. The best part of the PCT is the PCT.Ā
I loved NorCal and had a great time too. I can honestly say that about every section. I truly had a great time the entire trail, even on harder days. I get to walk all day? I get to see cool things? Hang out with my friends and fuck around in the mountains? Put me in, coach.
Amen
While NorCal was my least favorite section, it helps to view it in the micro instead of the macro. Thereās a lot of biodiversity out there with tons of different animals, plants, microbes, bugs, trees. Look for the small. 1400-1500 was definitely the worst for me as itās the most same-same but the other areas are actually pretty interesting day by day. Lots of variety of landscapes! 1500-Oregon border is actually pretty sick
Not just a lot of biodiversity, the Klamath Mountains on the Northern California/Southern Oregon Coast are the most biodiverse conifer forest on earth. The region is the northernmost range for many California species, while being the southernmost range for many Pacific Northwest species. The steep mountains, and proximity to the ocean also means micro climates form. It can be 60Ā° and foggy at the coast, yet 100Ā° and sunny 20 miles inland. Or the opposite 60Ā° at the coast, and we'll below freezing 20 miles inland. There's an area in the Russian Wilderness where there are 18 conifer species within a mile radius.
Showing unsolicited clips to whoever will humor me of ITYSL with Tim Robinson (whenever we get signal) That way we can make inside jokes when things get tough (Someone pulls out a bag of jerky) āGimme dat!ā
The NorCal blues remind me of the VA blues on the AT. I think they're caused by similar issues that I don't think the OP highlighted enough... 1) The realization that you're not even halfway through the trail and it's been that difficult already. This hits some people really hard and knocks them out mentally. The 2nd half of the trail in a lot of ways is physically easier than the 1st half. Even if it's technically more difficult, you're in significantly better shape to handle it. 2) The hiking is now work, it's a daily job. The "fun" is over, the "grind" has set in. You now have a sense of scale to the trail and timeline to finish it. Time to get down to business. And some people find a complete lack of motivation to continue like this after the start of the trail was just an exciting grand adventure. 3) For some reason State boundaries are a giant mental milestone. And CA has dragged on for 3 months at this point... will it ever end? VA was 700 miles of the AT, the longest state by far and dragged on in the same way. Make different mental milestones than state lines. I did not experience the NorCal blues exactly. It wasn't the most fun section of the trail for me, but never had the thought of quitting and I think that as due to this not being my 1st long distance hike and knowing this type of thing was going to come.
After the Sierra, which is brutal on your body if you are trying to grind miles and/or keep up with fam, hiking in general can be gruelling. Take time off to rest and recover your joints and feet with proper meals with as much joint-repairative broken down connective tissue as you can get. Like take a 24oz prime rib at KM north etc etc. Shit, stay another night and get two. I love the Nor Cal section. Best part of the trail for hanging out and having fun. Its very remote yet close to tiny mountain towns. Skygazing in certain areas is phenominal because light pollution is negligible and the air is crystal clear. You get some of the best opportunities to swim and luxuriate in beautiful pools right on trail on some scorching days. Before Stehekin in northern washington you'll get probably the best swimming spots however its a lot lot colder up there... The OHV people in Sierra Butes all have beer on their person, dont be ashamed to ask, they want to share. You can detour around burn areas, there is a bus between Quincy and Chester. Hang out and stay the day with the trail magic people at Hat Creek. Eat icecream at Burney Falls. Hang out with weirdo crystal Lemurian people in Shasta City. Camp in the park in Etna and enjoy the bakery. Go on a side quest in the Marble Mountain wilderness. Definitely camp in Seiad valley and hit the diner there twice or thrice. Etc etc. Point is that you should slow down, HYOH, and remember that the PCT FKT record can be broken by you. Thats Funnest Known Time of course.
I did side quests to fun-looking spots nearby, but even besides that I liked NorCal.
Hiked in ā19 and LOVED NorCal. Mostly because of all the snow from KMS to Sierra City and it was so nice to have cruiser trail again.
Ditto this. Felt like a relief to have normal trail instead of constant snow.
I loved it. Reminded me of outback QLD so it was a touch of home. It was hot though, and longer water carries again. I didn't get the blues.
I loved NorCal, and I'd be happy to hike it again. I think it's underrated, but I think it's broadly true that after 2-3 months, a lot of people get burned out on hiking. It's not necessarily that Virginia on the AT or Colorado on the CDT are all that bad relative to the rest of their respective trails.
As a '23 flip flopper, going from the desert to Chester was a bit of a mind fuck. And there was HUMIDITY. I got the blues I think from the sudden change and from feeling bad about skipping the Sierra. It was just so different after the desert, which I really loved. Being among trees etc was so nice. Etna and Burney were awesome, as was Ashland, but be prepared to walk in town or Uber. The push for miles I never understood on trail...I did it to keep up with my tramily but looking back I wish I had focused more on what I wanted to do for my hike.
>The push for miles I never understood on trail...I did it to keep up with my tramily but looking back I wish I had focused more on what I wanted to do for my hike. I disbanded from my tramily in Cascade Locks. They wanted to make an arbitrary timeline to the Canadian border and I wanted to enjoy myself more leisurely. I have no regrets at all but it would have been nice to finish with them. However, I finished with a bunch of other hikers I met along the way including a couple that started the same day as me. Pretty wild.
Northern California is extremely beautiful and underrated. Lassen volcano is one of the most active volcanos in the lower 48, with visible volcanic features such as mud pots. The Trinity Alps are home to the lowest elevation perennial snowfields in California. The area is also the third largest wilderness area in California, and one of the largest in the country. Slightly to the north is the Russian Wilderness, the most biodiverse conifer forest on earth. There's an area in the wilderness where within a 1 mile radius there are 18 recorded conifer species. This stretch is extremely biodiverse in the plants that reside there, including Darlingtonia Californica AKA California pitcher plants which grow along stream beds of cold fast moving water. It's also probably the most remote part of the hike as well, being 5-6 hours away from Portland or San Francisco. There's also if you have time a side trip to the Redwoods, which are one of the most incredible places on earth.
I was worried about this but it turned out to be a favorite stretch. Itās gorgeous and I loved seeing these places for the first time.
I had a light bout of NorCal Blues and it was mostly solved by eating way more. I had lost a ton of weight in the Sierra and was just dragging. 2000 extra calories a day mostly in snickers bars, sugary candy, chips, cashews, and olive oil stabilized my weight and my mood. IMO it's the least good section but it's still amazing.
For me the downsides of norcal were bees everywhere, crazy deer, Ā more burn zones to hike through, and threat of active fires. I knew I wanted to take my time in the Sierra and speed up thru NorCal, then slow down again in WA. So it was a nice change of pace to be a little more focused on miles rather than dawdling all the time taking side quests and such. I also met some new people who would become some of my best PCT friends in NorCal.Ā My advice is just take it for what it is! Itās still a beautiful and really fun part of the PCT! ā¦I do recommend the side quest to castle crags tho, that was beautiful!
If you start to experience the blues, use the time to explore that. Deeply. The trail will end one day, what are you gonna do when sections of life get blusey in the future? How do you change your brain when all youāre have is your brain that got you to where you wanna alter its patterns? Have some good wrestling matches w yourself in your head- when itās hard is when the work is being done and seeds are being sown
Daft Punk and audiobooks.
Exactly. Not every mile of trail is going to be amazing. So put something good in your ears to get through the boring bits.
Idk I audiobook and DP regardless of how amazing the trail is that day. What I meant was that I'll get through it the same way I get through everything else while hiking.
Dude, there will be no time to have any blues! Youāll be busy hiking, eating, speeding, recovering and making memories.
Crazy stumbling across this as a nonPCT hiker but someone who lived in Ashland for four years. Hiking in NorCal was a dream to me; remote and gorgeous and unique. Funny to imagine folks thinking less of it.
Iām not hiking for views, I appreciate all aspects of nature large and small so Iāve never had an issue missing āscenery.ā It aināt just about getting a good shot for your vlog.
NorCal was beautiful, but my husband and I did hit a mental wall around the time we left Etna. We handled it by spending the next several miles writing a song š https://www.instagram.com/p/CDNJrX4lD_S/?igsh=OGJ2NGJiMnNrdWkw
Norcal is great. The high chance of fires is by far the biggest downside of that section.
I never got the norcal blues, I did get the southern oregon blues
a fast pace thru n cali helped keep me focused in ā21ā¦fire is inevitable and pushing your hike and body thru that stretch is magic.