Lost $60 on a guidebook that was 4 years out of date for the PCT

Picked up a used PCT guidebook at a gear swap for cheap, but half the water caches and campsites listed were gone or moved. Had to rely on strangers at Kennedy Meadows to re-route me. Anyone else get burned by outdated beta?

2 comments

2 Comments

sam_rivera28d ago

Consider yourself lucky. Outdated beta is a gift. It forces you to actually pay attention to the trail instead of staring at a book. You learn more about navigation when you can't just follow a checklist. Those reroutes at Kennedy Meadows are where you meet the real people who know their stuff. The guidebook was a crutch. You're better off without it.

robin_foster128d ago

Man, I get what you're saying but is navigating the PCT really that hard? Like, it's one trail. You follow the white blazes or the cairns and you're basically good. I never carried a guidebook and I never got lost, I just used FarOut like everyone else. Those reroutes at Kennedy Meadows weren't some deep wilderness test, they were just a pain in the butt with a few extra miles of dusty road walking. Meeting people who "know their stuff" usually just means someone who hiked the trail five times and still freezes their water filter every night. I think we're romanticizing this a bit too much. Having outdated info isn't a "gift," it's just a headache that makes you spend more time second-guessing yourself when you could be enjoying the views. But hey, if staring at a map in the rain makes you feel like a real mountaineer, more power to you.