{"id":2186,"date":"2018-02-08T07:00:50","date_gmt":"2018-02-08T13:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/minorcoursecorrection.com\/?p=2186"},"modified":"2026-05-20T14:21:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T14:21:06","slug":"a-look-at-the-weather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jphikes.com\/index.php\/2018\/02\/08\/a-look-at-the-weather\/","title":{"rendered":"A Look at the Weather"},"content":{"rendered":"

This hike is a race.\u00a0 I have to finish it before October 1st when snow conditions in Washington will be too dangerous to continue.\u00a0 So, why didn’t I choose to leave March 15th to give myself enough time?\u00a0 Because I have the Sierra Mountains to cross and the rule of thumb is that you cannot enter the them until June 15th.\u00a0 That was especially true in 2017 when there was record snow there.\u00a0 In fact, most hikers of the Class of 2017 skipped that section, hiked to the Northern Terminus.\u00a0 Some went back and finished what they missed, but many chose to end their hike there.<\/p>\n

My start date is April 6th.\u00a0 In general, it takes about 40 days to get to Kennedy Meadows.\u00a0 With an April 6th start, I would expect to get to Kennedy Meadows about May 20th or so.\u00a0 I left a bit early because it is not possible for me to train going up and down mountains in Wisconsin.\u00a0 That and I’m not 20 years-old any more.<\/p>\n

What would I do if I cannot enter the Sierra Mountains for nearly a month?\u00a0 Visit friends!\u00a0 I lived in California for ten years.\u00a0 I might even go home for a bit.\u00a0 It is no big deal.<\/p>\n

It is February 8th.\u00a0 How is it shaping up?\u00a0 Some pictures will help.\u00a0 Here are the current snow depths in the mountains.<\/p>\n

\"Sierra2018\"<\/p>\n

Now we need two examples.\u00a0 The first is last year, a high snow year.<\/p>\n

\"Sierra2017\"<\/p>\n

Clearly there is a big difference there.\u00a0 What is the first year that looks the same?\u00a0 That would be 2015.<\/p>\n

\"Sierra2015\"<\/p>\n

2015 was a big drought year. That year it was pretty much safe to enter the Sierra Mountains right away. That is good news for me. That path is being made clear.<\/p>\n

That being said, there is a side affect to all of this. Less snow also means less water on the trail. I will have to carry more and water is very heavy. My base weight of 15 pounds is equal to six liters of water. I might need to carry six liters regularly if conditions are similar to 2015. So, the good news is that the path through the Sierra Mountains looks safe. The bad news is that it is going to be hot and water will be scarce. I wanted an adventure. I’m going to get one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This hike is a race.\u00a0 I have to finish it before October 1st when snow conditions in Washington will be too dangerous to continue.\u00a0 So, why didn’t I choose to leave March 15th to give myself enough time?\u00a0 Because I have the Sierra Mountains to cross and the rule of thumb is that you cannot … Continue reading A Look at the Weather<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pct2018"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jphikes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jphikes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jphikes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jphikes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jphikes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2186"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jphikes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2708,"href":"https:\/\/jphikes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2186\/revisions\/2708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jphikes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jphikes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jphikes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}