How to Thru-hike the PCT Without Winning the Lottery

Is it possible to hike the PCT without a PCTA long-distance permit?  My terminus photos echo a resounding yes. However, it would have been a challenge to do it all by the book, so I did cheat just a little bit… If you want to skip the narrative, here is the spreadsheet I created to help plan for which permits I needed, when and how to obtain them, etc. Feel free to use it at your own risk, just keep in mind that rules do change, and as much as I claim to be a perfect person, there may be errors in my research.  Why did I decide to hike the PCT on local permits? Well, I didn’t, of course. I’m only the normal, thru-hiker level of masochist, not completely devoid of my faculties. I told the full story in my first blog post, but here’s the CliffsNotes version: I did not get a permit in the initial lottery, but I was able to snag one in December when someone either cancelled or changed permits. It was for a fairly undesirable day – March 14th. Due to travel and subsequent illness, it was March 15th when I was finally able to get out of bed begin to prepare for the journey ahead. I logged onto the PCTA permit portal and clicked “print permit”, but instead of the standard preview and device selection, I got a notification that my permit could no longer be viewed… Confused, I called the PCTA and they explained that because I failed to download the permit before my start date, it was lost forever and might as well have never existed at all. I had been busy with 11 hours of class per day in my yoga teacher training while also trying to explore India in my “free time”, so I hadn’t even thought about opening or downloading my permit. I guess that’s a drawback to living in the moment… So basically, I didn’t have a permit, then I got one, then I lost it, and then I had lots of permits.  Why did I use all local permits instead of just getting a permit from Sonora Pass to the Northern Terminus?  This is a common workaround for hikers who do not “win the lottery”, and info on that method makes up the bulk of the tiny iota of local permit resources found online. Often, hikers will use local permits until Sonora Pass, and then get a long-distance permit from there to Canada. In my case, the PCTA let me know that because the permit was issued, but not printed, I was unable to apply for any more PCTA permits in 2024. That’s right, I had completely missed my chance at any long-distance permit by a mere 13 hours. How did I plan? After a quick meltdown, my spreadsheet-wiz father and I spent a couple weeks researching and calling national forests, and bada-bing-bada boom! I chose my ideal start date, April 15th, and we built it out from there.  We relied heavily on Triple Crown Outfitters and the PCTA website for information, visited the websites of the specific national forests when we got stuck, and even called ranger stations when something was unclear. The trail pals & I outside of Triple Crown Outfitters in KMS Using those resources, we determined each section, down to the specific miles, that: 1). Did not require any permit, 2). Required a permit that could be self-issued at the trailhead, 3). Required a permit only for overnight camping, and 4). Required a permit for entry/day use. I researched when and where I would be able to apply for each permit, how difficult each one was to get, and whether each one was issued on an unlimited basis or had a quota (a limited amount available for the day/season).  With that information, I set calendar reminders for myself so that as I approached the date I needed to apply for a given permit, I was notified and able to apply in the next town. My pace was not exactly as planned, but the notifications still reminded me to check how many miles until the next permitted section and when I should attempt to obtain the permit.  The nitty gritty…what permits did I need? Need is a strong word. Funny enough, my permit was only checked once on the entire trail, and it was in a section that technically did not require a permit. Therefore, I suppose I didn’t need any permits at all. However, by the end of the trail, I ended up with 7 permits that I had reserved, including my Canada entry permit, totaling $50 in permit fees. Here are the sections requiring some type of permitting and what I did for each: Cleveland National Forest requires a permit for dispersed camping, so before got on trail, I paid $6 and easily reserved it on recreation.gov. I ended up hiking through those sections and not using it.  San Jacinto Wilderness requires a free day use and $5 camping permit. I walked to the ranger station in Idyllwild and they helped me reserve it in less than 10 minutes. A snowy San Jacinto summit the day before my birthday To enter and camp in Inyo National Forest, you must have a physical wilderness permit on you. Technically, you are required to reserve a completely new permit each time you leave the National Forest (e.g. each resupply). I reserved a permit with Kennedy Meadows South as the entry point and Sonora Pass as the exit point, and crossed my fingers nobody asked. This was by far the most annoying section for local permits, but I was never stopped by a ranger.  I did summit Mt. Whitney, so when I reserved my $21 Inyo National Forest permit, I chose “exiting Whitney Portal” because that is what my research online indicated I should do in order to be allowed to climb it at all. However, the portal exit goes down a different side of the mountain than the one PCT hikers use, so just in case, I also applied for one not exiting Mt. Whitney for $11 in attempt to follow regulations in either case. I it hard to discern what the actual rules are, but I went along with all the other PCT hikers, and luckily was never stopped or questioned by a ranger. Stanislaus National Forest sections require a wilderness permit for camping, which I had planned to avoid by hiking through them. I called the ranger station from Kennedy Meadows North to try to obtain a permit just in case, but could not get ahold of anyone, and there was no way to reserve a permit online, so rather than spending an extra day trying to find a hitch alone to the ranger station in hopes that someone might be there to help me, I proceeded without one. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make the miles necessary the first day because I wasn’t feeling well. I regret to say, I ended up camping this section without the required permit. I would have been happy to pay for the permit, to hike to a ranger station and wait in a line, to reserve it on their website, etc., but I was covered in mosquito bites, had terrible wifi and cell service, and did not have the energy to try to decode the enigma Stanislaus NF calls a permit system when I fully expected to be able to hike through anyway.  I issued myself a day use permit at the trailhead for Desolation Wilderness. Online it said it would be $11, but there was no fee posted at the kiosk. I planned to hike all the way through to avoid a camping permit, but after a day of stomach pain and lots of hole-digging (probably due to this bag-salsa boiling in the sun all day… not sure why I thought that was a good idea…), I emergency-camped about 5 miles short of the boundary at around 9pm. Boil-in-a-bag salsa A.K.A. breakfast, lunch, and dinner I successfully hiked through Lassen Volcanic National Park and Trinity Alps to avoid the camping permits.  Mount Thielson Wilderness and Diamond Peak Wilderness both require simple self-register entry permits at the trailhead. However, these sections were closed due to wildfire, so I road-walked around the permit areas anyway. Smoke from wildfires turning the afternoon sun into a fuchsia fireball over Chestnut on our road-walk Deschutes National Forest requires a permit for entry, so I self-registered for a free permit at the trailhead at Willamette Pass.  I reserved the required permit for entry and wilderness camping for Central Cascades (Three Sisters Wilderness) ahead of time on recreation.gov. As I was approaching a sliver of trail, I realized that an additional permit was also required to hike through the 1.8 miles of Obsidian Limited Entry Area. Luckily, I had cell service and reserved that permit on recreation.gov. Together, those permits cost $7 and were easy to obtain.   Mount Hood Wilderness, Mark O Hatfield Wilderness, and Indian Heaven Wilderness were all simple and free self-issue at trailhead.  Mount Adams Wilderness permits would have been a simple and free self-issue at trailhead, however I road-walked around this area due to fires. The Knife’s Edge on a cloudy day in Goat Rocks Wilderness Goat Rocks Wilderness and William O Douglas wilderness were simple and free self-issue at trailhead. I easily hiked through the short section of Mount Rainier Wilderness to avoid the camping permit. HARDSTART enjoying some epic trail magic in Mount Rainier Wilderness – eggs benedict, hot cocoa, a recliner, and shelter from the rain! Okanagan-Wenatchee National Forest was a simple and free self-issue at trailhead. I hiked through the North Cascades National Park section to avoid a camping permit. Technically, I tried to get a permit just in case, but the volunteer ranger on duty, Stan the man, said I “had his blessing”. The trail here was technically closed due to replacement of a bridge, however Stan said the river was safe to ford and the old bridge may even still be up, so he gave us permission to proceed at our own risk. Like I said, Stan’s the man. The bridge still up and fully functional in a section of “closed” trail as crews work to replace it in North Cascades NP Finally, the Canada Entry Permit! I applied at the library in Mammoth Lakes on 6/20/24. We had to download a specific software to fill out the form, but it was free and the library was happy to do it when we asked. I received my approval on 7/5/24. Some of my fellow hikers didn’t receive their permits in time, so I recommend applying no later than the Sierras.  Final thoughts Using the local permit system to thru-hike the PCT can be daunting (I mean, 20+ permitted sections…? Really?), but is far from impossible, and truly wasn’t that hard. Although most permit requirements were simple and easily found online, there were a couple sections that I found challenging, namely Inyo National Forest and Stanislaus National Forest. I personally found that the information online is confusing and conflicting, the rangers often do not know how to help you over the phone, and permits are difficult or impossible to reserve online. The local permitting system is definitely not geared toward thru-hikers, which makes the PCTA long-distance permit system such an incredible benefit to our community.  Filling out one of the many trailhead permits in Washington, surrounded by larch trees bathing in the evening sun after another day of chilly rain Although I was lucky enough not to be checked, most hikers I knew, including my trail family, had their permits checked by rangers at least twice. My goal was, of course, to hike the PCT, but also to follow all established local permitting guidelines for doing so. I ran out of time at home and thought I would figure out the difficult permits on trail, but in practice, I realized that would have required more days in town trying to research, losing more hiking buddies, spending more money on lodging and wifi, taking potentially dangerous hitches alone, etc. I was able to follow almost all regulations, but when the chips were down and I was worn out, stressed, sick, and faced with the choice to break a rule with ease, or spend time and effort trying to follow rules that park rangers didn’t even understand on the off-chance my permit was checked, I chose the easy route. The one that didn’t involve me hiking in the dark, shitting my pants after a day of sun-cooked bag-salsa. The one that didn’t include me spending hundreds of dollars hiring a team of pack mules to haul in my Sierra resupplies.   That being said, I think it is possible to get all the information you need beforehand, making it entirely reasonable to complete a thru-hike of the PCT using exclusively local permits while following all regulations.