I've just been interviewed about the Pacific Northwest Trail by Jörgen Johansson for Fjäderlätt.se. You can read the interview here.
Fjäderlätt is an interesting site as it's about lightweight backpacking but from a Swedish rather than an American perspective. No hot deserts or sunny Californian mountains here. That said, the last month of my PNT hike was more like hiking in Scandinavia or Scotland than any other walk I've done in North America with rain and low clouds most days.
Photo info: A rare sight in the North Cascades during my hike - a mountain almost appearing out of the clouds. Canon EOS 450D, Canon EF-S 18-55 IS@36mm, 1/250@f8, ISO 200, raw file converted to JPEG in Lightroom 3.
This year (thanks in part to some of your advice) I have become a trail shoes convert, walking about 500km, 30000m ascent in them. I was very fortunate to pick up a pair of Wenger Monch in TKMaxx for £30 but they have since been discontinued and were never properly released in the UK anyway. They probably have about 100km life left in them but I am already thinking of a suitable replacement.
ReplyDeleteMy long-winded question is: how did the Innov-8 Terrocs deal with such a varied terrain over a long walk like this?
Dougie, the Terrocs were fine. I went through two pairs, though neither was totally worn out. They were soaked for most of September too. They deals with everything except the hottest weather, when I wore sandals.
ReplyDeleteI font mean to sound peevish but the comment Chris makes about desserts and sunny mountains kind of petpepuates a myth about at least lower 58 States trekking that the climate is easy or at least not changeable. O know Chris knows better. Trek on the non-summer months in the Nirtheast or upper Mudwest to see. Granted the mountains, especially in the Midwest, are meager but the climate can kick your in the head just as surely as anywhere.
ReplyDeleteKen, I didn't mean to perpetuate that myth at all, hence my reference to California. As I said, the weather in the Pacific Northwest was like that in Scotland or Scandinavia, and this was summer!
ReplyDeleteI've been following Jörgen's blog for some time and it's definitely worth a good look. He's a very approachable fellow too - that said, I love Sweden (and Scandinavia in general). Nice to see you mentioning his great resource.
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