--- title: "7 tips to get more out of a PCT section hike" description: "The best honeymoon imaginable is to hike at least part of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). That's exactly what my husband and I did this summer." canonical_url: "https://gramino.com/blog/7-tips-for-a-pct-section-hike" last_updated: "2019-10-21" --- # 7 tips to get more out of a PCT section hike Authors: David Czempka Date: 2019-10-21 The best honeymoon imaginable is to hike at least part of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). That's exactly what my husband and I did this summer. The best honeymoon you could imagine is hiking at least part of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). That's exactly what my brand-new husband Vojta and I did this summer, setting off in July from northern Oregon down into California. You'll find plenty of articles about the PCT out there, so I decided to focus mainly on sleeping, since it's possibly the most important part of the whole hike. Here are a few tips to help you get better prepared for sleeping. I'll say upfront that we didn't go through any heavy snowstorms, but if you're only planning a section hike, or just want to know more about what it's like in Oregon or California in summer, these tips could still come in handy. ## Don't skimp on your sleeping bag Although we both already had decent sleeping bags we'd traveled with plenty of times before, we decided to get something more serious. I get cold easily, and since sleep is so important for recovery, we didn't want to compromise. At the same time, we needed our sleeping bags to be as light as possible, because the last thing you want on the PCT is extra weight on your back. In the end, we bought [Cumulus Lite Line 400](/p/cumulus-lite-line-400) sleeping bags, and I have to say I never regretted it for a single night. Even though we sometimes slept in temperatures around freezing, I never woke up cold at night, which usually happens to me a lot. One great thing about these sleeping bags is that you can zip them together, which boosts the warmth even further. They don't have an inner collar around the chest, but that never felt like a problem to me, since the outer one is thick enough to keep my neck warm at all times. ## Don't underestimate your sleeping pad Unfortunately, we chose a Robens Vapour sleeping pad because we wanted to save money. It was inflatable and comfortable, but too thin to keep us warm. Sometimes the cold crept up from the ground, which we dealt with using an emergency aluminum blanket. If I had to buy a sleeping pad again, I'd rather spend a bit more and get something solid from [Sea To Summit](/b/sea-to-summit) that would keep me insulated even at temperatures around freezing. ## You can go without a pillow, but it's much better with one I used to sleep with my midlayer under my head, figuring why carry extra weight just for a pillow. This time, though, we decided to buy [Ultralight Aeros Pillow](/p/sea-to-summit-ultralight-aeros-pillow) pillows from Sea To Summit, and it turned out to be a great choice. Packed down, they're genuinely tiny, and the comfort they add clearly outweighs their minimal weight. They don't rustle and stay perfectly in place under your head inside the Cumulus sleeping bags. You don't always need to inflate them fully, and thanks to a special valve, you can easily let air out to adjust them even if you wake up in the middle of the night. Now that we're back from the trail, I also appreciate that they're easy to hand-wash at home. - [Sea To Summit Ultralight Aeros Pillow](/p/sea-to-summit-ultralight-aeros-pillow.md) - [Cumulus Lite Line 400](/p/cumulus-lite-line-400.md) - [Big Agnes Tiger Wall UL3](/p/big-agnes-tiger-wall-ul3.md) - [NEMO Tensor All-Season](/p/nemo-tensor-all-season.md) - [Sea To Summit Premium Aeros Pillow](/p/sea-to-summit-premium-aeros-pillow.md) - [Hyperlite Mountain Gear Stuff Sack Pillow](/p/hyperlite-mountain-gear-stuff-sack-pillow.md) - [Tyvek 75x230 cm (for 1 person)](/p/tyvek-groundsheet-230-x-75-cm.md) - [Sea To Summit Frontier UL Pot 2 L](/p/sea-to-summit-frontier-ul-pot-2l.md) - [Cumulus Panyam 450](/p/cumulus-panyam-450.md) - [Big Agnes Copper Spur UL1](/p/big-agnes-copper-spur-ul1.md) - [Liteway Illusion Duo Tent (2024)](/p/liteway-illusion-duo-tent-2024.md) ## Choosing your campsite matters On the PCT, people usually camp at spots that are marked out in some way. You'll usually recognize them by the cleared rocks next to the trail where a tent can be pitched. There's often a fire ring nearby too. I'd definitely recommend downloading the [Guthook](https://atlasguides.com/guthook-guides/) app – it costs a bit of money, but besides photos, reviews, and other info like current water sources, it always shows your GPS position. Of course, we sometimes found campsites that weren't on the map, but especially early on, I'd recommend relying on the map instead. I'd also pay extra attention to dead trees – you don't want to wake up at three in the morning to a cracking sound and spend two agonizing seconds wondering if it's falling on you or ten meters away, like it did to us. ## Hygiene on the trail It might not seem like it, but hygiene is an important part of the trail. By going to sleep clean, we kept our sleeping bags from getting too dirty, which helped them last longer. And that's not even mentioning how much better I sleep when my whole body isn't sticky. The good news: it's doable. We managed to wash up almost every evening, and falling asleep was much more pleasant. The simplest method is to use an ordinary plastic bottle, fill it with water from a mountain stream, and give yourself a makeshift mountain "shower" from the bottle. Clean water alone is enough to rinse off sweat and odor. Sometimes, when I wanted to wash my hair, I used [Wilderness Wash from Sea To Summit](/p/sea-to-summit-wilderness-wash-100-ml), which degreased it nicely. It's biodegradable, but needs to be used away from the water source. If you scoop water into a bottle, though, it's very easy to rinse soapy hair without being directly in the water. We never ended up looking like the hiker we met in Shelter Cove. [Sea To Summit Wilderness Wash 100 ml](/p/sea-to-summit-wilderness-wash-100-ml.md) ## Water is great, but filtered water is even better The one thing we absolutely swore by the whole time was our [Sawyer Squeeze](/p/sawyer-squeeze-sp129) water filter. We also brought LifeStraw filters (a gift from a construction project), but since the Sawyer screws onto pretty much any plastic bottle, we barely used anything else. Even though mountain water might look like the cleanest thing around, you never know if some animal has left a "trace" in it. That's exactly why it's worth filtering the water just to be safe. One Sawyer Squeeze was enough for the two of us, and we were glad we'd gone straight for the bigger version, since filtering through a [Sawyer Mini](/p/sawyer-mini-sp128-blue) took some hikers a really long time. Vojta kept saying the inventor of the Sawyer deserved a Nobel Prize, since the filter doesn't just clear out all impurities and bacteria – it's also rated for up to two million liters of water. It's definitely an investment that pays off, not just for a big trip to the US, but for a shorter trip closer to home too. [Sawyer Squeeze SP129](/p/sawyer-squeeze-sp129.md) ## What to worry about at night Although we heard plenty of stories about bears breaking into hikers' tents at night, the vast majority of people actually sleep with their food in the tent or its vestibule. That's what we did the whole time too, except in Yosemite and the Sierra. Vojta did admit that once we got a bear canister, he slept a little more soundly. Statistically, a far bigger threat comes from adorable but incredibly spoiled rodents, which can even chew through a tent to get at your food. The biggest source of terror for us wasn't thunderstorms and lightning, but something much smaller – Oregon's mosquitoes. Whatever horror stories you've heard about them, they're true: they're there, there are a lot of them, and they're waiting for you. Sleeping without a mosquito net is basically suicide. With a net, you'll only be teetering on the edge of madness. But I have to say, in the end, I hadn't slept that well or that soundly in a long time before the PCT. [Sea To Summit Nano Mosquito Double](/p/sea-to-summit-nano-mosquito-double.md) [Sea To Summit Head Net](/p/sea-to-summit-head-net.md) Article and photos by: Marie Barešová and Vojtěch Dvořák - [Sawyer Mini SP128 Orange](/p/sawyer-mini-sp128-orange.md) - [CNOC Hydriam 500 ml 28 mm](/p/cnoc-hydriam-500-ml-28-mm.md) - [Gear Aid Tenacious Tape GORE-TEX Fabric Patches](/p/gear-aid-tenacious-tape-gore-tex-fabric-patches.md) - [Hyperlite Mountain Gear Versa](/p/hyperlite-mountain-gear-versa.md) - [HydroBlu Versa Flow Water Filter Package](/p/hydroblu-versa-flow-water-filter-package.md) - [Therm-a-Rest NeoAir XTherm NXT](/p/therm-a-rest-neoair-xtherm-nxt.md) - [Tyvek 75x230 cm (for 1 person)](/p/tyvek-groundsheet-230-x-75-cm.md) - [Sea To Summit Escapist 15D Tarp Large](/p/sea-to-summit-escapist-15d-tarp-large.md) - [Hyperlite Mountain Gear Stuff Sack Pillow](/p/hyperlite-mountain-gear-stuff-sack-pillow.md) - [Gramino Ultralight Sit Pad](/p/gramino-ultralight-sit-pad.md) - [Gramino SagiFlow](/p/gramino-sagiflow-ultralight-bidet.md) This post is also available as [HTML](/blog/7-tips-for-a-pct-section-hike). ## Sitemap See the full [sitemap](/sitemap.md) for all pages.