 |
| If I'm delusional, why does this tee exist? |
Ever since setting the record, I have been bombarded with emails from hikers asking for all sorts of information and advice concerning hiking the Widths of the Trails, also known as Side To Side Hikes (or S2S). And while that previous sentence is absolutely untrue, I think we have to ask ourselves if it’s an outright intentional lie, or if I’m living in some weird fantasy world where hikers not only want to hike Trail Widths, but also one in which people actually read this blog.
Hard to say. But either way, I’ve decided to offer help via a review of the guidebooks that may or may not be available for hiking the Trail Widths, because frankly I am far too busy customizing my Hiking Eating Helmet to keep answering all of these emails that may or may not be coming in. So let’s start with the PCT.
Pacific Crest Trail
There’s really only one choice here. Yogi’s Pacific Crest Trail Width Handbook has all of the information you need to successfully hike the Width of the PCT. The first part of the book has advice from a number of previous Width Hikers, which is incredibly helpful when in the planning stages of your hike. The second part is an on-trail guide with all sorts of useful information, including trailhead locations, good places to nap, water sources close to roads, hotels to stay in before your hike and bars to celebrate in afterwards. Highly recommended!
Continental Divide Trail
As with the PCT, the recommended guide book is put out by Yogi. Her Continental Divide Trail Handbook Width Edition has the same basic format as the PCT book, so if you’ve used that it will seem familiar. Admittedly, you can probably get by without a guide book for the PCT Width, but a guide for the CDT Width is a must. Sometimes there’s no footbed for the Width, sometimes you can be on it and not realize it, and sometimes you think you’re walking the Width of the CDT and you’re really on a game trail. It also includes such vital information as the best place to buy a velvet John Wayne painting while on trail, where you can ride an enormous stuffed Jackalope, and which restaurants have burgers so large that in order to eat them you have to unhinge your jaw like a snake.
I haven’t used them, but I’ve heard from other Width hikers that the recently completed Jerry Brown Width Map Books are excellent. Nobody thinks they’re going to get lost while hiking 2-4 feet of trail, but it happens all the time. Particularly if, like me, you’re easily confused.
Appalachian Trail
Hiking the Width of the Appalachian Trail is the most popular of the Width hikes out of the three trails, due mainly to its close proximity to large population centers full of lazy people. Consequently, there are more options. All of them have their pluses and minuses.
AT Guide
David Miller’s AT Width Guide has information on the distance from one side of the trail to the other for the entire AT, which would seem like overkill if this were an actual book. It includes the slope of the width as well, integrated into each page using an overlaid slope map. The nice thing about this guide is that it is available in both Eastbound and Westbound versions. It also comes inside a heavy duty zip-lock bag, which is perfect for people who live underwater and hikers in the Smokies in April (which is pretty much the same thing).
ASDHA Width-Hikers Companion
The Width-Hikers Companion is compiled every year by Appalachian Short Distance Hikers Association volunteer field editors and is available from that organization as well as the ATC. It has excellent information on trailhead locations, which is ideal for driving to the trail and walking three feet. There is a pdf version available as well as a companion phone app, but the 288-page book is the recommended version for starting fires and swatting at mosquitoes.
Width Data Book
All of the information in the ATC-published Data Book is available in both the AT Guide and the Companion, but it is the smallest, lightest option and is recommended for UL Width Hikers which, honestly, really should be just about everybody.
There are, of course, other options out there, including not bothering with a guidebook at all. But whether you’re a planner or a winging-it kind of hiker, keep in mind that with Width Hiking, “The Very Short Journey Is The Almost Immediately Reached Destination.”
Note: For reasons that boggle the mind, some people want to hike the lengths of these things instead of the widths. Not sure what that's all about. But if you are one of those lunatics, the same guidebooks are available for lengths!
With thanks to Matt Bowler and Bill Garlinghouse for help with terminology!
