Resupplyingīe prepared to carry more than a week’s worth of food on the PNT. On many nights, our camp was just right along the trail.
We found camping to be no problem by using our maps and planning where we’d end each day.
Pacific northwest trail free#
Forests tend to have free dispersed camping following Leave No Trace practices. Private property has no camping unless the hiker contacts the owner directly. The parks require permits and fees, and camping only in reserved spots. Since the trail traverses state and national forests, national parks and private property, hikers need to know where they are and what camping is allowed. There are very few trail signs, but work is being done to get more in place. For this reason, good maps and navigation skills are crucial. Or, opt for a more challenging route that is less used over the recommended route. There are alternate routes, shortcuts and bypasses that hikers can take. It’s possible to trade in a high ridge hike for a lower, easier logging road. The PNT is more similar to the CDT rather than the AT in its pathway. We were the only thru-hikers that had a continuous path of footsteps.
Pacific northwest trail full#
The PNT offers lots of path styles - some bushwhacking, some trails, some old logging roads, some paved, busy roads. A full 300 miles are on motorized routes, which means gravel or paved roads that are in use. On our hike, every other hiker we met got a ride over at least some of those miles. We convinced a friend to pick us up, but I’ve heard there is a new shuttle service being started in the area in 2019. Unfortunately, there is little traffic way out on the Olympic Peninsula and getting back to civilization can be a challenge. On the west end, the trail terminus is at Cape Alava, which is the westernmost point in the lower 48 - a fitting place to end an east-west trail, I think. This was just logistically much, much easier than starting on the east side of the park and gave us just as many miles. Reaching the official trailhead at Chief Mountain is a gamble of time and cost. We chose to start from Apgar Campground, take a free park shuttle up Going To The Sun highway and start our hike from there. Reaching Glacier National Park is easy by Amtrak. Their office is in Sedro-Wooley, Wash., near the PNT. The Pacific Northwest Trail Association () runs the show and puts out good resources, including maps, apps, guidebook, town guide and planning documents. It isn’t the same tree after tree after tree for weeks on end. This gives hikers plenty of elevation change, but also provides a very nice variety of environments, including glaciated peaks, desert, conifer forest, rain forest and ocean beach. Unlike the north-south long trails that roughly follow a mountain range, the PNT goes up and over range after range. The route crosses three national parks, seven national forests, six designated wilderness areas and seven mountain ranges. The trail is broken into five general geographic areas: Rocky Mountains, Okanogan Highlands, North Cascades, Puget Sound and Olympic Peninsula. For much of its length, it hugs the Canadian border and there are a couple spots where more adventurous hikers can skip over the line into Canada and back. Quick Trail HistoryĪt about 1,200 miles long, the PNT runs from the Continental Divide in Glacier National Park of Montana west to the Pacific Ocean on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington. Snowshoe asked me to share some tips about hiking it while she’s off on her grand Arizona Trail adventure. The Pacific Northwest Trail (PNT) is a newer National Scenic Trail, having received its designation in 2009. My son and I thru-hiked it east to west in the summer of 2017. Check out his information-laden hiking site,, for lots of great trekking info. Today’s blog is courtesy of Paul Kautz, aka Hiking Dude, who thru-hiked the Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail in 2017.
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