I’ll be starting a self-supported FKT attempt on the Pacific Northwest Trail beginning Monday morning 8/23/21, headed eastbound. The goal is to finish by 9/23/21.
Garmin InReach Live Tracker for Tracking Now: share.Garmin.com/nickfowler
I will submit trail notes and photos after completion.
The PNT is unique in that there’s a “congressional”, “primary” as suggested by the PNT, as well as various “alternate” routes. When initially mapping out the route I noticed differences in different maps so I called the PNTA to confirm the primary route they suggest. I will be following the “primary route” as suggested by the PNTA, as some sections of the “congressional route” were decommissioned in the 90’s (even though it was designated by congress in the 2009 - the PNTA has no clue why they signed off on decommissioned areas. Good ol tax dollars being used wisely by the super efficient government again I suppose.)
There are currently several closures (some of which have been there for years) on the PNT that the PNTA has suggested reroutes for that I’ll be following so I don’t end up dying in a mudslide, forest fire or end up getting shot by a tree farmer. Some of these reroutes are longer, a couple are shorter.
1. Undi Rd Closure near Olympic National Park (2.2 on reroute vs 1.3 on Primary Route = 0.9 longer)
2. Timber Harvest closure on Mt Josephine (3.7 on reroute vs 4.2 on Primary Route = 0.5 shorter)
3. Chopaka Rd Closure (11.1 miles on reroute vs 9.3 on Primary Route = 1.8 longer)
4. Bonaparte Mtn Fires closure: (32.4 on reroute vs 29 on Primary Route = 3.4 miles longer)
5. Wildfire closure west of Lookout Mountain. (5.2 miles on reroute vs 13.5 on Primary Route = 8.3 shorter)
6. Hay Creek Fire (43.8 miles on reroute vs 47.2 on Primary Route = 3.4 shorter)
Total mileage difference with closures = 6.1 shorter
In order to put forth an equal effort I will be starting my timer from the Lake Ozette connecting trail before the PNT begins to add 3.1 miles as well as hike around the Quillayute River instead of taking a boat ride across it to add an additional 5.1 miles (8.2 total additional miles). This will bring the mileage difference to 2.1 more miles than the Primary PNT route.
Happy Hiking!
- Nick
UPDATES:
8/23: Started ~ 9:30am
9/13: About halfway across the ID panhandle. Nick has hiked about 980 miles so far.
Ended 9/19 at 6:09pm pacific time = 27 days 13 hours 32 minutes
